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AN ICMR-IIPM THINK TANK PUBLICATIONCOUNTYOURChickensBEFORE THEY HATCHA 4PS B&M QUARTERLY SUPPLEMENT ON BUSINESS LEADERSVOL-1 ISSUE-2 APR-12MARSHALL GOLDSMITHLEADERSHIP COACHCHANGEYOURBEHAVIORPHIL EASTMANAUTHOR & SPEAKERCHARACTERBASEDLEADERSHIPRONALD RIGGIOCLAREMONT INSTITUTEWHY ITWORKSAND HOW?GOVIND SHRIKHANDEManaging Director- Shoppers StopCOUNTYOURChickensNARAYANA MURTHYChairman Emeritus- InfosysM K ANANDCEO- UTV BroadcastingBEFORE THEY HATCHRAJEEV KARWALFounder & CEO- MilagrowCORPORATETRANSFORMERSTHE LEADERS WHO REDEFINED BENCHMARKS FORTHE CORPORATE WORLD THROUGH THEIR ART OFTRANSFORMATIONGANESH NATARAJANVice Chairman & CEO,Zensar TechnologiesWILFRIED AULBURManaging Partner- Roland BergerXERXES DESAIMD Emeritus - TitanJAGDISH KHATTARCMD- Carnation AutoAND THEY SAID...Jim KouzesBestselling Author, Awardwinning Speaker“I really like the latestissue of Count YourChickens Before TheyHatch on transformationalleadership. It reallypops, and the contentlooks great. Dealingwith contemporary topics,it was quite interestingto read the industrialinputs from themouth of well-knownleaders. Keep upthe good work withhigh spirit and zealand make readersknowledgeable.”“CYCBTH is quite impressivefrom the content& presentationpoint. And I am surethat middle and seniormanagers can benefit alot from reading thismagazine. Last issue ontransformational leadershipfeaturing someof the greatest rolemodels who are a realinspiration for thisgeneration, was fantastic.I wish all the bestto the whole team.”Rajendra Pratap GuptaGlobal thought leader onHealthcare & Public PolicyRoger Harrop,International Speaker,Author, Mentor, Advisor“What a great issueon transformationand change management!If only everybusiness leader ofevery business, big orsmall, were to readthese great wordsand recognise thatchange is constant,unremitting and,rather than a threat,a great opportunityto differentiate. Greatmagazine – keep upthe good work.”“Congratulations on thepublication of “CountYour Chickens BeforeThey Hatch.” It’s agreat name with greatcontent. It immediatelymade me think aboutbeing positive. Similarto the phrase “Startwith the end in mind.” Ithought all the articleswere useful for leadersin any business. I feelcertain you will be abright light in the publishingarena. I wishyou much success.”Wally Amos,Founder, Read it LOUD!Please send your feedback to: sray.agarwal@iipm.edu

CONTENTSCOVER STORY17EDITORIALBreak the board 5FLASH POINTSYahoo! hacked 6Business leader of the year 7EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW"Open market is indeed goodfor any country"Amitabh TanejaFounder and MD, Images Group 12GLOBAL INDIAN CORPORATE LEADERSSashi Reddi 20Ram Buxani 22Dinesh C. Paliwal 23Suresh K. Virmani 24Kanwal Rekhi 25Kevin S Parikh 26Priya Haji 28Rajiv Lulla 29Ashwin Navin 30Mohit Parasar 3108TRANSFORMING BREAKDOWNSINTO BREAKTHROUGHSThomas D. ZweifelConsultant, Author and Professor"Our long history has taught usto be patient"Paolo BertazzoniPresident and CEO of Bertazzoni 13"....Titles are really important"Robin SharmaAuthor, Speaker, Consultant 14FAIR FORWARD"Being a woman, I have witnessedadvantages like less rudeness" 16Vidya SrinivasanSenior Vice President, GenpactINTERNATIONAL COLUMNEssential of trusted advisorsBill Bachrach 321OIT’S THE RELATIONSHIP, STUPIDJustin CohenInternational Speaker and AuthorCover Design by Ashvin Chitroda33LEADERSHIP IS ALL ABOUT RESULTS....Brand PretoriusCEO, McCarthy Limited34TRAINEES TRAIN THE C-SUITESray AgarwalConsulting Editorcount your chickens before they hatch 4 july 2012

FLASH POINTSINTERNATIONALYahoo stated to technologyblog Tech-Crunch, that "Approximately4,00,000 Yahoo!and other company users'names and passwords"were stolenin July 11, 2012.$4.4 BILLIONLOSSThe biggest bankin the US, JPMorganChase & Cohas posted mammothcredit tradinglosses around$4.4 billion. Thecompany has citedbad debts responsibleforsuch a huge loss.BACK BURNERThe Eurozone crisis has not onlystirred the local economy but alsohas created misfortunes for manyother multinational conglomerates. Forinstance, General Motors' European businessincluding brands like Opel and Vauxhallhas booked a loss of $256 million inthe first quarter. To tackle the problem,Karl-Friedrich Stracke, the CEO of Europeanwing, General Motor, presented anew plan to rebuild the struggling brandsfew weeks back. But the CEO abruptly resignedon July 12, 2012 during this turnaround.Analysts have predicted that GM'supper management is becoming more impatientwith the slow pace of change inEurope. GM Vice-Chairman Steve Girsky,the head of Opel's Board of Directors anda company troubleshooter, will serve asacting chief of European operations.YAHOO! HACKEDHacking as a phenomenon has largely enteredthe corporate world too. The very recentinstances of Nvidia and Yahoo Mail beinghacked resurface the question of information safety.Nvidia was attacked by hackers who extracted400,000 encrypted passwords and user information.Nvidia has suspended its software developer forumafter attackers compromised an unknown numberof the login passwords used by its 400,000-stronguser community. The company described the breach“as affecting a small proportion” of the users butnevertheless recommended that individuals shouldchange their logins once the forum is online again.Similarly, around 450,000 accounts were hackedfrom Yahoo where the hackers hacked the older filefrom the Yahoo Voices (formerly Associated Content)and gained access to user information.SOCIAL MEDIA RIGIDITYWhilethe whole worldhas been blown bythe boom of socialmedia and it has been widelyaccepted that social media"provides tremendous opportunityfor business" but stillFortune 500 CEOs ignore socialmedia presence. A recent studyconducted by CEO.com has revealed that 70 per cent ofFortune 500 CEOs are not connected to any social network.Only 19 Fortune 500 CEOs have an account onTwitter. Currently LinkedIn favors many CEOs at 25.9percent, and Facebook falls in second place at a 7.6 percentpresence from CEOs. The study has also warnedthat CEOs need to step into the limelight of social mediaif they want to see their companies grow successfully.AMERICA'S HIGHEST PAID CEOs(FORBES 2012)Rank Name Company 1-Year Pay ($mil)01 John H Hammergren McKesson 131.1902 Ralph Lauren Ralph Lauren 66.6503 Michael D Fascitelli Vornado Realty 64.4104 Richard D Kinder Kinder Morgan 60.9405 David M Cote Honeywell 55.79count your chickens before they hatch 6 july 2012

NATIONALTHE HIGH PERFORMERBUSINESS LEADER OF THE YEARIndian real estate mogul and the chairman and CEOof DLF Limited, Kushal Pal Singh Teotia a.k.a K.P.Singh has been conferred the "Indian BusinessLeader of the Year" by Horasis on June 26, 2012. Horasis- The Global Visions Community is an independentinternational organization committed to enactingvisions for a sustainable future. The organisation,which hosts a global India business meeting in theBelgian city every year, honoured Singh at an eventin Antwerp for his vision and entrepreneurial skillsthat have transformed India's real estate landscapeand propelled DLF into the global arena. The awardwas conceived to recognize the achievements and excellenceof Indian business leaders who promote leadership,sustainability, value creation, innovation,growth, global reach and economic performance.Amidst alarming inflation, everincreasing scams, constant corruption,there is one good newsfor India that Indian stocks have beenemerged as the seventh best performerfor global investors since the start of2012 as per a ranking by Bank of Americaand Merill Lynch. Indian stocks havebeen able to outshine the likes of the US,UK, China and Japan. Indian stocks havegiven a year-to-date return of 12.3 percent which is only next to six other assetclasses globally.THE GLOBAL INDIAN LEADERThe excellent effort towards the US-India growthstory, Anand Mahindra, Vice Chairman and ManagingDirector of Mahindra group has beenawarded with Global Leadership Award which wasgiven to the Indian and US business leaders at the 37 thanniversary leadership summit of the US India BusinessCouncil (USIBC) comprising the top 350 US and Indiancompanies. This award was provided as MahindraGroup has continuously invested in American agriculturalsector in huge quantities. Since Mahindra Groupstarted investment in US, the company had grown 20times over and sold upto 10,000 tractors. These awardsunderlines the USIBC’s appreciation of the importancefor deepening manufacturing collaboration betweenthe world’s largest free market democracies. In thesame lines, USIBC's new Indian American chairman,Ajay Banga, MasterCard Worldwide President & CEOhas called on both nations to push for a Bilateral InvestmentTreaty.INNOVATIVESTATE-OF-THE-ART PROJECTDelhi-Mumbai IndustrialCorridor(DMIC), a megainfra-structure project,has been placed as thesecond most-innovativeproject among the 100most innovative projectsas per the Global advisoryfirm KPMG. DMIC is one ofthe most ambitiousprojects to be undertakenin India in recent years. Amassive $90 billion projectthat envisages the transformationof a large tractof land stretching acrossnearly 1,500 km and linkingthe two metros (Delhiand Mumbai) aims toboost industrial and economicdevelopment inthe country. It is plannedon the lines of the Tokyo-Osaka industrial corridor.According to a UnionCommerce Ministry officialthe corridor withinfive years of its completionwill deliver a 15%increase in employment,a 28% increase in industrialoutput and 38% increasein exports. On theother hand, approximately180 million people (14percent of the populationof the region) will be affectedby the corridor’sdevelopment.count your chickens before they hatch 7 july 2012

INTERNATIONAL COLUMNTRANSFORMING BREAKDOWNSINTO BREAKTHROUGHSIF PEOPLE HAVE THE COURAGE TO PERCEIVE A BREAKDOWNAS AN OPPORTUNITY THEN BREAKTHROUGH HAS TOHAPPEN PRECISELYTHOMAS D. ZWEIFELConsultant, Author and Professor based at SwitzerlandOne leadership skill often ignored but essentialin a crisis — is that great leaders, from Mosesto Mandela, manage to transform breakdownsinto breakthroughs. In fact, breakdowns are aleader’s most underrated allies. If we analyze and harnessthem correctly, they become raw material for breakthroughs.The book Breakthroughs! by Nayak and Ketteringhamfound that thirteen groundbreaking innovations,from Nike to Club Med, from Nautilus machines toFed-Ex, from the Walkman to the VCR, from the CATscanner to the Post-It, all arose like Phoenixes from theashes of breakdowns when originally conceived.But most of us fall into one of four traps when thegoing gets tough: Shame, Blame, Hope or Hedge. Whilethese pitfalls are only human and perfectly understandable,each is counter-productive.Pitfall #1: Shame: Because we see breakdowns asnegative, even shameful, we avoid giving bad news tosuperiors or colleagues, and keep it secret. Whether it isa failed client presentation, a faulty product, or beingbehind on a deadline, our instinct is to try fixing it beforeothers find out. But the costs of hiding breakdowns canbe huge.Pitfall #2: Blame: Breakdowns are inevitable stationson the leader’s journey, but can make you rip out yourhair, chew your nails, or yell in uncontrollable rage ateveryone around you. Though a leader’s ultimate test ishow he or she copes in a crisis, the smartest CEOs havebeen known to regress and throw temper tantrumswhen the world seemed to turn against them. JeffreySkilling was so famous for his tongue-lashings that Enronemployees were simply too afraid to tell him thetruth. Even whistle-blower Sherron Watkins expressedher concerns only anonymously — and she was one ofthe brave ones.“You could only go in with good news.” Whoever gavebad news risked being blamed or fired: the directorssimply killed the messenger.Pitfall #3: Hope: Everybody simply waits, hoping thatthe breakdown will somehow disappear “if we just let itbe.” It probably won’t. But often nothing happens, espe-cially in organizations where people pass the buck, unlesssomeone takes charge and cuts through the apathy.A survey of failed CEOs found a surprising commonalityamong them: they wait instead of facing a breakdownhead-on. “What is striking, as many CEOs told us,is that they usually know there’s a problem; their innervoice is telling them, but they suppress it. Those aroundthe CEO often recognize the problem first, but he isn’tseeking information from multiple sources.” Such attachmentto old solutions is, of course, the exact op-count your chickens before they hatch 8 july 2012

THOMAS D. ZWEIFELposite of what would transform the breakdown into abreakthrough.Pitfall #4: Hedge: Perhaps worst of all, you change(and usually lower) your goals instead of stretching tofill the gap. But far from being the problem, the commitmentis in fact the solution. Whenever you commit to avision, you are bound to face a gap between present andfuture. In fact, breakdowns cannot exist without backgroundcommitments. If you are not committed to anything,you may have problems (perhaps turn into a vegetable),but you will not have breakdowns (or accomplishments)of size.In fact breakdowns are directly correlated to breakthroughs.When Pfizer tested Sildenafil, trials of the newheart medicine showed unwelcome and huge (forgivethe pun) side effects: Male patients experienced increasedblood flow to the penis. The drug enhanced the smoothmuscle relaxant effects of nitric oxide, a chemical normallyreleased in response to sexual stimulation.If Pfizer managers had been ashamed, if they had conspiredto keep the failure a secret, if they had done nothingand waited, or if they had wavered in their commitmentto make a blockbuster drug, they would havepreserved the status quo and lost the company lots ofmoney invested on R&D. Instead they made noise, andto make a long story short, out of a breakdown — a malfunctioningheart drug — a breakthrough was born. The"THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF PEOPLE:THOSE WHO SEE DIFFICULTY IN EVERYOPPORTUNITY, AND THOSE WHO SEEOPPORTUNITY IN EVERY DIFFICULTY"new drug posted $1 billion in sales in its first year andbecame a household name: Viagra.So how do you turn adversity into assets? It’s a verysimple 3-step process:Step 1: Declare the Breakdown: The first step is tomake the breakdown public and interrupt business-asusual.Your declaration of the breakdown forces you andyour key stakeholders to confront the gap between currentand desired performance. A breakdown in this contextis not a thing; it is a speech act, a wake-up call thatputs you back in the driver’s seat.Step 2: Assert your Background Commitment: Keepin mind your underlying goal, without which therewould be no gap. By declaring the breakdown, you servepublic notice that it’s unacceptable in relation to a particularcommitment. Remember, and remind others,why everyone committed to the goal in the first place.What would be missing in your lives, organization orsociety if you stopped?Step 3: Search for Options and declare the Breakthrough:Once you have declared the breakdown andrecommitted your team to the original goal, the thirdstep is to brainstorm extraordinary actions. Don’t beafraid to rattle people so they shift focus, think newly,and see unconsidered opportunities to fill the gap betweenthe status quo and the desired result.One night many years ago, when Philip Anschutz laidthe groundwork for what was to become a multi-billiondollar fortune, he got a call. A drilling supervisor at oneof his Wyoming oil rigs gave him the bad news: the wellwas on fire. And if the fire kept burning, it would bankrupthim.Common-sense crisis management in such a case is tolimit your exposure, sell off the bad investment and getout of there quickly. Anschutz did the exact opposite.He saw the bright side: the fire meant he had finallystruck oil. He rented a plane, flew to Wyoming, and by8:00 A.M. the next morning gambled more money on hisoil venture — a lot more. He bought as much land aroundthe burning well as he could. He hired Red Adair, a legendaryoil-field firefighter, to put out the blaze, andinvited a Hollywood studio to shoot the episode for theJohn Wayne thriller “Hellfighters.” In a New York Timesinterview Anschutz said, “There’s always a point that ifyou go forward you win, sometimes you win it all, andif you go back you lose everything.”According to Churchill, “There are two types of people:those who see difficulty in every opportunity, and thosewho see opportunity in every difficulty.” What we neednow is the latter type.count your chickens before they hatch 9 july 2012

INTERNATIONAL COLUMNIT’S THE RELATIONSHIP,STUPIDLEADERSHIP IS ALL ABOUT BUILDING STRONGRELATIONSHIPS WITH THE PEOPLE WHICH HELPSTHE LEADER TO WIN OVER THE PEOPLEJUSTIN COHENInternational Speaker and AuthorIn answer to how elections are won in the USA,Bill Clinton famously answered: ‘It’s the economy,stupid’. But actually the secret to winningin politics, business and life in general is throughbuilding strong relationships. In a television show, Iinterviewed Dr John Maxwell – a leadership consultantto George Bush. Maxwell has written a best-sellingbook called the 21 Irrefutable laws of leadership.That’s a lot of laws to get through so I asked himwhich was the most important. He said with out adoubt, the law of connection. Great leaders build relationalbridges to others. You only have to look atAmerican Presidential elections to see that the leaderwho is best at the law of connection will almostalways win the election. Remember Bill Clinton? Hewas the master connector – Clinton connected a littletoo much.On the 27 th of July 2004, a largely unknown blacksenator from Illinois gave a speech at the Democraticconvention called ‘The Audacity of Hope’. The USwas on the verge of expecting to see its first blackpresident. At this point Americans were understandablynot rushing out to Christian their children Husseinor Saddam. Barack Obama wasn’t just black, hehad a Muslim father from Kenya.What I didn’t clarify back then is that somethingtranscends prejudice; it’s called emotional connection.Listen to him speak and you feel as if Barack istalking directly to you, empathizing, reaching out,coming over to your side. He seems to really care andto coin that old American proverb, ‘People don’t carehow much you know until they know how much youcare.’ You demonstrate that care through your wordsbut even more through your emotions. We all knowwords can lie emotions are more difficult to fake. Andso you don’t just talk about policies and processes,you talk about others and their pain and you talkabout it as if it’s your pain. And when you paint a visionof tomorrow you don’t just lay out tactics andstrategies, you paint them into that picture as youlight up with excitement. Emotion is contagious.count your chickens before they hatch 10 july 2012

JUSTIN COHENThat’s why you can hear a speech of fine words but ifit conveys no emotion it leaves you cold. If one is notconvinced you genuinely care about him, why wouldhe trust you with his future? Notice the word ‘genuine’your emotions have to be authentic, it can’t bepretense. People see through that.When asked from the audiences, who in South Africais the master connecter they always answer:‘Nelson Mandela’. Even watching him on TV you canfeel his warmth. In person, he makes you feel like thecentre of his world.Many studies report that as much as 90 per cent ofcareer or business success depends on our socialskills. When it comes to success in romance, marriageor parenting that of course climbs to close on a 100per cent. We live in a celebrity-obsessed world thatadulates the individual, yet the self made-man is amyth. We are all people-made-people. The royal roadto our greatest dreams is lined by people, how we dealwith those people will determine whether we get toour destination or not. You’ve heard the old saying:‘It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.’ The wayit should really go is: ‘It’s not who you know, it’s howyou treat who you know.’We didn’t come out of the womb with our socialskills they had to be developed. Some of what welearnt has stood us in good stead but by changingsome of it we may greatly increase our influence inthe world. Here are ten people powers designed tohelp you build better relationships.1. Choose your response: If we are to take on anynew behavior we will have to make a consciouschoice. Eventually the new behavior will becomea habit and we will do it naturally but initially wewill have to stop our habitual reaction and chooseto respond in a better way.2. Make them the center of your world: Makingsomeone else the center of the world requires usto override our own natural self-centeredness andshift to a them-centeredness. We do when we givethem our full attention, use their name frequentlyand take a real interest in them.3. Express appreciation: The number one reasonpeople give for leaving their jobs is ‘lack of recognition’.The number one reason wives divorce theirhusbands is ‘lack of appreciation’. Our greatestpsychological need is the need for social validation.Be liberal with sincere compliments.4. Power listening: One of the most powerful waysto tell someone how much you appreciate them isnot to tell them but instead to listen, really listen.That may be a bigger compliment than anythingyou say.5. Know what you want: The best way to get whatyou want out of a relationship is to help others getwhat they want. But you also need to know whatyou want and communicate it clearly. The art ofcommunication is not how well you say something"WE LIVE IN A CELEBRITY-OBSESSEDWORLD THAT ADULATES THE INDIVIDUAL,YET THE SELF MADE-MAN IS A MYTH. WEARE ALL PEOPLE-MADE-PEOPLE"it’s how well you are understood.6. Be polite, patient and persistent: When peopledon’t do what we want, we become frustrated andimpolite but by doing so we mess with their selfesteem,making it even less likely that they willdo what we want. You can say anything in a waythat is polite. They may not always do it immediatelythat’s why we need to be patient and persistent.7. Respect their free will: When you make a demandyou ride over people’s free-will. Always tryto frame a request as a choice, even a tight one,for example: ‘Would you prefer doing it now orlater today’. That gives people a sense of control.8. Express positive expectations: Treat people asthey can be and that’s what they become capableof being. Remind the people that you work withthem because they are honest, hard working andcommitted. They may not always live up to yourexpectations but they are far more likely to thanwhen you don’t make your expectations clear.9. Focus on making it right rather than being right:Ever got into an argument and in the middle wonderedwhat you were arguing about? That’s becausemost conflicts have less to do with a substantiveissue and more to do with two vulnerable self-esteemstrying to build themselves up by breakingthe other down. Focus on your objective: whatwould make the situation right, usually it beginswith an apology.10. Do what you say: Rather under-promise and overdeliver.When you don’t follow through on a promiseyou’re really saying: ‘You aren’t important.’Take something as simple as returning a phone call.I am amazed at how often people simply don’t giveeach other that courtesy. Being ignored can be moreinsulting than being slandered. At least when you areslandered you can defend yourself, when you are ignoredyou are not even accorded that dignity. If you’reignoring them, it’s probably because they’re not importantto you, on some level you’ve decided you canget nothing from them. In the same light, considerthe definition of class. Class is not style, pedigree ormoney, class is how you treat someone who is no useto you. That’s what shows humanity, compassion andconscience. Besides, as the old saying goes: Carefulhow you treat people on the way up, you might meetthem on the way down. And if you find yourself onthe way down and you’re wondering why, it’s the relationship,stupid!count your chickens before they hatch 11 july 2012

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW"OPEN MARKET IS INDEEDGOOD FOR ANY COUNTRY"HEAD OF THE IMAGES GROUP, AMITABH TANEJATALKS ABOUT HIS JOURNEY AND FUTURE OFRETAIL INDUSTRY IN A CONVERSATION WITHHARSHITA SINGHAmitabh Taneja has founded Images MultimediaPvt Ltd in 1992 and has served as its ManagingDirector. Mr. Taneja serves as the Chairman ofImages Fashion Forum and India Retail Forumwhich host India's leading industry conferences in thesefields. He serves as Director ICSC India by the InternationalCouncil of Shopping Centres, New York. Mr. Tanejahas been Non Executive Independent Director of Provogue(India) Limited since October 20, 2005.Tell something about Images Group.A retail intelligence organisation with publications,research, education, events, awards and retail supportservices, the IMAGES Group (established in1992) has played a vital role in organising fashionand retail businesses in India and has successfullyset up an information exchange via media.How your retail magazine is different from othermagazines, which talks about retail and textilein a different manner?We cover every aspect of retailing especially shoppingcenter, food, fashion and many more on thesame horizons. Our magazine is basically for thosepeople who are well-connected with the retail sector.Moreover, we organize events on fashion,food, textile and beauty but everything on retail relatedonly.Do you have an online portal for shopping?On line portal is extension of our magazine andevents, which basically covers researches on retailing.Our site www.indiaretailing.com is designed asan exceptional online interface aimed at the retailingcommunity across the world, providing a wide analysisof the business of retail in India. Interactivefeatures such as interviews, chats and business developmenttools apart, it also contains exclusive andinvestigative editorial content. Our fast-paced portalis focused and highly dynamic and it has an ambitiousphilosophy.Do you only focus on national retail industry oris there any specific plan for globalmarket also?We have few magazines which are entitled with internationalcompanies, and cover global content onAmitabhTaneja,Founderand MD,ImagesGroupretail. For example, Salon International brings a 360degree know-how of the industry — from trends tostyles, salon management to new products, news tointerviews, merchandising strategies, HR training,and much more. We would like it to be a platform tohelp and bring joy to the daily creativity in developingthe business of beauty, and also to define bestpractices in this very dynamic retail category.How did you play a game to elaborate peopleabout how changes are good or bad?Our magazines are in market from last 10 years, andevery time we put new content to help the peopleinto retail. We are prompting people with goodthoughts which are best practices in national andinternational market. Biggest change that I havewitnessed in retailing is shopping malls from fewhigh street markets like South extension and Bandralinking road. We have done extensive researchon how malls will be benefited out of India and viceversa.At present, there is an intriguing debate onallowing FDI in the retail industry in India. As far asmy opinion on the subject matter is concerned, allowingFDI in retail would be a good positive movewhich would eventually benefit India and the Indianconsumers more than anyone else. Consumers inIndia will get new products, new ideas of business,maximum profit, better pricing, better services andfurther employment. Open market is indeed goodfor any country.What is the future of retail market?Now people think that retail is very tough business,but once corporate realise that there is great opportunity,more and more people will be attractedtowards the industry.count your chickens before they hatch 12 july 2012

PAOLO BERTAZZONI"OUR LONG HISTORY HAS TAUGHT US TO BE PATIENT"PAOLO BERTAZZONI, THE FIFTH-GENERATION CEO OF 130-YEAR OLD PRECISION-ENGINEEREDKITCHEN LIFESTYLE PRODUCTS REVEALS HIS PLANS IN INDIA OPERATION TO NIDHI GUPTAStarting his professional career in a manufacturingbusiness, Paolo Bertazzoni entered his family businessunder the tutelage of his father. Using the topdesigners from Milan, Paolo has expanded the company'sinternational presence to more than 60 countriesworldwide.You are running a business which is the world’soldest family-owned company (130 years old).How easy or difficult it is to run such a businessset-up?Our company is the oldest Italian manufacturer ofhome appliances, it is still owned and managed by thesame family through six generations, I represent thefifth one. It is our pride and at the same time it takesa great responsibility. The responsibility of each generationis to understand and interpret the times theyare leaving.Europe is going through a very critical conditionbut what make you think that you can achieve arevenue growth of 18% this fiscal year 2012?Well, I do agree to the fact that the European economyis going through a slowdown and is at a very criticalstage but amidst all the difficulties, we are putting allPaoloBertazzoni,Presidentand CEO ofBertazzoniefforts in achieving by year end 20 per cent growthbacked by our niche marketing and brand value. Havinga strong export base we are confident that thisexcellent result will be achieved.Were there any design or functionality changes youhad to bring in particular if we speak about Indiabefore launching your products here?We have our presence in lot of countries. The basicdesigning of the entire kitchen appliance range remainsthe same which also includes its functionality.The only changes which we are required to incorporatewhen we launch an appliance in another country outsideItaly, are based on the different legislations on gasand electrical standards. Pricing of the appliancescould vary according to the custom and logistical aspectstypical of each country.What is it about Italian design that consumersworldwide find so attractive?Italy is a country with a rich culture and heritage attached.The picturesque monuments and architecturesaround the country had been witnessed by the entireworld. With the world’s best designers present in Italy,everything we make comes with style and elegance.And, that is longed by the consumers worldwide.Your products are meant for high-end customersand Indian market comprise of middle class people.What was the aim behind coming to India? Howmuch research was done before launching yourproducts in India?Approaching a big and far away market such as Indianeeds the support of a strong local partner. We havefound it in Hafele India, and we have shared with themthe right amount of our and their knowledge to makethis venture work.What are the various challenges that you face inthis industry?There are many challenges now-a-days for the appliancesindustry. Competition is very strong in the lowerend of the market, our challenge is to keep our positionsin the higher segment, where the end users aremore and more exacting and knowledgeable. Of course,product performance, exclusive finish, tedious attentionto detail and quality are also must.What are your future plans with respect to expansionsin India?We plan to be displayed in the most exclusive showroomsand high-end building projects across the Indiansub-continent. After all, our long company historyhas taught us to be patient and do things properlyrather than taking haste decision.count your chickens before they hatch 13 july 2012

SPECIAL FEATURE".....TITLES AREREALLY IMPORTANT"WORLD FAMOUS AUTHOR AND SPEAKER ROBINSHARMA TALKS ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF TITLE INAN ORGANISATIONAL SET-UPRobin Sharma is an author. He has written 11 books;including "The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari" and "TheGreatness Guide." His latest book is "The Leader WhoHad No Title: A Modern Fable On Real Success in Businessand in Life". As a consultant, he has severalClients includingMicrosoft, GE, NIKE, FedEx and IBM.New leaders emerge, they are young and the goalseems so near, yet so far. How can the young leadersustain his/her path towards the achievement of hisgoal?I've seen start-ups with fresh ideas – innovative thinkinghas been happening for at least a decade across India. Forthe new mindset, the path towards sustainability is to createvalue, establish facilities with new technology, creatework spaces where people love to come to, and developleaders along the way.Change, you've indicated, involves being systematic.Doesn't it kill creativity?If you study the lives of Stephen King or John Grisham,they sit at their desks at 5 am, and have ritualized it. Manygreat artists work that way. They didn't live in the moment.Let planning be the springboard, so that spiritualitycan be our splash. I wake up early and do pretty muchall things on schedule three days a week. The other days,I switch off all communication channels, divorce myselffrom the world, create an uninterrupted block and then,read, dream...And you were inspired by the people you've met: SteveJobs, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa and your children...What did you learn from them?I learn from them to be a great dreamer — our lives reflectthe signs of our thinking; to stand for excellence atevery point and to be the kindest and the most courageousperson.Most people are trained to graduate College, thenfind a job and climb the corporate ladder in hopesof becoming the CEO one day. Do titles really matter"POSITIONS AND A FORMAL STRUCTURE AREVERY MUCH NECESSARY TO THE SUPERBRUNNING OF AN OPERATION"RobinSharma,Author,Speaker,Consultantcount your chickens before they hatch 14 july 2012that much?I’ll be the first to say titles are important. Positions and aformal structure are essential to the superb running of anoperation. We need people at the top setting the visionand holding ultimate accountability. I’ve learned that inmy work with organizations like GE, NIKE, FedEx, IBM andYale University. Having said that, what I’m suggesting isa business’ core competitive advantage now comes downto getting every employee to Lead Without a Title. To viewthemselves as the CEO of their own small business unitthat is their job. By doing this, people will shift from beinga victim to becoming a virtuoso. And each teammate willdrive innovation, customer wow and exceptional results.If a Vice President emails a manager, they will respondfaster. Can a title also close doors?I don’t think titles close doors in business but they do closeminds.

ROBIN SHARMA"NO OBITUARY EVER SAID, 'HE DIED PEACEFULLYIN HIS SLEEP SURROUNDED BY HIS ACCOUNTANT,HIS STOCKBROKER AND HIS LAWYER'"Here’s what I mean. Too many employees go to workeach day and excuse being world-class in their work becausethey don’t have a title. They are half-alive to theirwork and clock punchers versus icon builders. Yet, themessage in “The Leader Who Had No Title” is that eachone of us not only now has the opportunity to show leadershipin our work — we have the responsibility to do so.In stunningly successful businesses, everyone sees themselvesas part of the leadership team (Google is a strongexample). My encouragement is to remember that fewthings make you feel better that the pride you feel on ajob brilliantly done. So Lead Without a Title. Innovate.Model excellence. Be unreasonably ethical. And be themost passionate person in every room. Big rewards willflow to you.Companies, especially the successful ones, changetheir workforce structure a lot. How cansomeone take advantage of this change to becomemore successful?Drucker said it well: “shift from a focus on problems intoa focus on opportunities.”That sounds like common sense but it’s not commonpractice. So yes, businesses are facing a lot of disruptionright now. But disruption is the beginning of innovation.Now is not the time to hold back. It’s the time to take somesmart risks, bring genius-level value to as many people aspossible, leverage social media to grow a cherished brandand leave a trail of leaders behind you. Many of the FOR-TUNE 500 began in The Great Depression.Like Julian Mantle, there are many professionals inIndia who lead lives packed with work,deadlines and parties. What advice would you like togive them?Please don't be so busy that you miss out on what's mostimportant in life. Yes, reach out for your best and findsuccess, but also remember that no obituary ever said, 'Hedied peacefully in his sleep surrounded by his accountant,his stockbroker and his lawyer.'How have you built your own personal brand?What does it take to become known in over 50 differentcountries?My books have been my calling card. They have becomeword of mouth phenomena. And after businesspeople readthem, they call our shop and want us to help them growLeaders Without Titles within their organizations. I havealso evangelized the Lead Without a Title brand in over 50countries through an intense speaking schedule. Fewthings are as powerful as connecting with people's livesince authenticity and passion is contagious. I also do aton of media interviews as I like the scale that allows. Aswell, we leverage the digital/social media to grow ourbase of followers. I fuel my Twitter addiction daily andplay on FaceBook and the other usual suspects.You have written many books. You also give lecturesto corporate houses on leadership and life management.What are your plans for the future?I have been overwhelmed by the response of Indian companieswho have engaged me to do leadership developmentprogrammes with them. I not only write books,but also spend most of my time helping companies developleaders.I work with companies like Nike, Microsoft, IBM andFedex. I also want to make music with a positivemessage. I play the guitar. I would like to bring out aCD someday. I want to get more involved in peace effortstoo.(Reprinted with permission)count your chickens before they hatch 15 july 2012

FAIR FORWARD"BEING A WOMAN, I HAVEWITNESSED ADVANTAGESLIKE LESS RUDENESS"SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF GENPACT,VIDYA SRINIVASAN SHARES ABOUTADVANTAGES THAT SHE FELT BEING INTOP MANAGEMENT AS A WOMAN INAN INTERVIEW WITH AMIR HOSSAIN"AS CHANGE IS THE ONLY CONSTANTFACTOR, ONE NEEDS TO UPGRADE HIS/HERSKILLS WITH THE PACE OF THE CHANGE TOBE SUCCESSFUL IN THE BPO INDUSTRY"Vidya Srinivasan is Senior Vice President and theInfrastructure & Logistics Leader for Genpact. Inher earlier role, she was a Senior Legal Counselat Genpact.What were the major challenges that you have facedduring your long journey?Starting my career as a lawyer, ‘what is next to do’ hasalways been remain as a challenge. At the same time,building and upgrading new skills with the pace of constantchange is another challenge. Building new skillsin yourself and helping your subordinates to acquireall those skills are very necessary as it helps to do newthings in the most convenient way and it helps to keepyourself motivated.What factors do you attribute to the successof Genpact?As we know that human resources is the main factorfor the success of any organisation especially in theBPO industry. So, we take lot of chances on people. Wewould like to set a crazy target for every employee toachieve our as well as employee’s goal.How has strong Six Sigma background helped youin building strong processes based on the Genpact'scommitment to Integrity, Compliance, Controllershipand Data Security?Six sigma always helps us to make proper structurefor what we do. Being a BPO organisation, we need todeal with a lot of data and need to work across theglobe. So, Six Sigma is very necessary in such an industryto bring Integrity, Compliance, Controllershipand Data Security.Regarding safety concern for women in workingenvironment, what are the steps being takenby Genpact?This is a completely misstating fact that women harassmentis a problem of only BPO industry. The problemexists even in government organisations but peopleperceive BPO industry unsafe for women as it is workingin an unusual way. There are few things that wehave implemented in Genpact to ensure additional security.We ensure that every cab drops employees nextto the door. Moreover, Genpact has strong policy oncompliance and integrity and we have a process calledombuds person where any employee can complain forany kind of problems.Have you faced any kind of gender specific discriminationbeing a woman?As such I have not faced any challenges or biasness beingin top management. Instead of that I have witnessedadvantages like less rudeness that people are soft overany issue that a lady is in the room.How do you view transformational leadership inyour own career and among your peers?We know very well that change is constant. So we haveto constantly change or upgrade our skills with the paceof the change. Without acquiring the required skills, itis very difficult to be successful. Moreover, when thereis change, resistant comes automatically. But somehowat some level resistant is good as it helps to scrutinizethe whole issue.What kind of leader are you?I do always believe in democracy. So, I am very muchliberal to my colleagues or peers or subordinates.If someone comes with a new idea then I appreciatethem after having an detailed discussion on that particularissue.count your chickens before they hatch 16 july 2012

COVER STORYGLOBALINDIAN CORPORATE LEADERSA subcontinent with over billion people,22 official languages, 6 major religions withdifferent taste and preferences, forms aperfect glass house to grow a 21 st century’scount your chickens global before corporate they hatch leader 17 ! july 2012BY Mrinmoy Dey

As the globalisation take a full-fledged shape and with India’sdomestic markets in the developed countries more orless saturated, the companies especially in the developedworld are forced to look out for opportunitiesbeyond their home nation and go global. The realitiesof globalisation coupled with increasing emphasis onthe emerging markets has presented corporation withenormous challenges of developing and finding leaderswho can manage a global entity. Many of the Multi-National Companies (MNCs) still concentrate vital decisionsin the hands of a few trusted leaders from theirhome country. They hire local experts, technician andcountry managers but rarely promote them to corporatebodies. However, this trend is fast changing. Aslong as the companies were selling standardised productsin the developed nations, the strategy worked. Butwhen it comes selling of customised products and thecompanies which have emerging markets as the mainengine of growth the above approach turned out to befar from adequate.In a situation like this, the company is required toadapt to local culture and market needs. To make sounddecisions, companies need a diverse set of leaders, comprisingdiverse nationalities, who have deep understandingof the local cultures – especially the emergingmarkets. In this context, Atlanta-based soft-drinks companyCoca-Cola has been a pioneer in geographic diversity.As early as in the 1960s, the company was run by aSouth African – Paul Austin. Since then Cuban, Australian,Irish and Turky-American was at the helm of thecorporate leader at Coca-Cola. In the same lines, Swisscompany Nestle’s executive board comprises of personalitiesfrom ten different nationalities whereas 80% ofNorvatis executives come from outside Switzerland.Interestingly, leaving all the other nationalities fromemerging markets behind, it’s the Indians who wereonce deemed as slow moving executives good only attaking directions and executing orders, are coming tothe foray to establish themselves as global leaders andmounting to the top of the corporate ladder at the bigMNCs. As per a study conducted by Egon Zehnder, “S&P500 companies have more Indian CEOs than any othernationality except American.” Similar trend echoes atanother study conducted by two professors from Whartonand China Europe International Business School –C-suite executives in the 2009 Fortune 500 list comprisedof 13 Indians as compared to two mainland Chinese andtwo North American Chinese. From Vikram Pandit atCiti Group to Indra Nooyi at PepsiCo to Anshu Jain atDeutsche Bank, Ajay Banga at Mastercard, Harish Manwaniat Unilever and Rakesh Kapoor at Reckitt Benckiserthe management story of the last decade can, arguably,be labelled as the story of the Indian managerbreaking through the glass ceiling at global companies.COVER STORYcount your chickens before they hatch 18 july 201210 prominent leaders at the helm of MNCs togethermanage business worth over $400 billion – almostdouble the total export of India in a year.This phenomenon raises a question – why are theIndians being preferred as a CEO, COO or for the topleadership position in these global corporations? Tounderstand this one needs to be clear about the role ofa global leader is ought to play. Global leadership is notentirely about doing business abroad but it's moreabout managing an integrated enterprise across borderswhere the corporations are more likely to encounterdifferent cultural, legal, regulatory and economicsystems and the hurdles of overcoming these barriers.Lack of adaptability may prove costly for a company aswas found out by Wal-Mart in Germany and South Koreawhere the company eventually had to exit from themarket in 2006.What are the rationale behind Indians performingbetter than the rest in this race? According to globalHR major Hay Group, the technical skills and the behaviouralpatterns of Indians make them adaptable toany kind of situation they come across. First, to successfullymanage such an entity requires a global mindsetand one of the key traits that define global mindsetis ‘inquisitiveness’. Interestingly, this basic orientationtowards new experiences is more of an inborn traitrather than being a learnable one. Indians score veryhigh on this particular skill-set being born in a multiculturalnation where they are born and bought up ina particular culture (say east), relocate to another culturalregion (say north) for studies and then end upstarting their career in another cultural region (saysouth). Consequently, the Indians are found to be moreinquisitive in nature. They have to adapt to new friends,new places and these provide with the perfect breedingground for global executives who would be facing newmarkets and uncertain conditions. Vindi Banga (whowas on the executive board of Unilever and currentlya Partner at Clayton, Dubilier & Rice) and Ajay Banga(CEO of MasterCard) had a similar story to tell. Beingson of a lieutenant general in the Indian army, theymoved to their father’s new postings every couple ofyears which turned out to be the perfect training forbecoming a global leader.Second, organisations worldwide have widened therange of their search for the perfect leader to run thebusiness entity. Earlier markets were comfortable andso they were confined to their own countries. Now theyare making a deep search and are looking at talent outsidetheir countries. They now need persons with globalexperience and leadership qualities to handle toughand fast changing markets. Indians fit in the bill becauseof the rigorous education systems and increasingglobal opportunities at work.TECHNICAL SKILLS AND THE BEHAVIOURAL PATTERNS OF INDIANS MAKETHEM ADAPTABLE TO ANY KIND OF SITUATION THEY COME ACROSS

L to R: VikramPandit – CEO atCitigroup; AjayBanga – CEO atMasterCard andVindi Banga –former executiveborad member ofUnileverThird, we are witnessing a paradigm shift in the globaleconomic order with the developing countries especiallythe BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, andSouth Africa) nations becoming the key driver ofgrowth in the 21st Century. These markets providewith enormous opportunities for the corporationsworldwide. However, the skill-sets required in runningoperations in these countries are very different thanthose required in running business in the developednations. As India and China are one of the fastest growingeconomies, it makes sense to have a leader fromthese two nations. However, China is a unique countryand there would be more countries that have similaritieswith Indian business environment than nationssimilar to China. Additionally, India is much toughermarket to crack. While Chinese government workstowards making the process predictable, India is muchmore volatile. There is an old say about Asian businesscultures – the Chinese roll out the red carpet; Indiansroll out the red tape. Unlike the Chinese, Indian counterpartshave to deal with its byzantine bureaucracy.Therefore capabilities build in doing business in Indiawill help you win all over the world. In the words ofStephen Elop – CEO of Nokia, “India is like a petri dishfor innovation. If we win here, we can win everywhere.Conversely, if we lose here, we could end up losing inlots of other markets.”Fourth, Indian CEOs are used to working in a resourceconstraint environment. They always try to do morewith less. They understand the real value of resourcesand always try to make optimum usage of the scarceresources. Growing up in a nation where resources areoften tight "forces you to blow through the constraintsand find the answer," says Nikesh Arora, Google's seniorvice president and chief business officer.Fifth, Indian CEOs are more focused on returns andexecutions. The Indian business scenario is dominatedby family run businesses which are niggardly in the allocationof capital, thus managers tend to have a valueorientation and a strong focus on return on equity.Sixth, Indian managers have a better overview ofthe whole business and always tend to look at the biggerpicture while taking an important decision thantheir western counterparts. Indian CEOs work moretowards execution rather than just giving direction.Additionally, Indian CEOs tend to put long term goalsahead of short term gains. How Vikram Pandit bailedthe Citicorp out of recession would be a case in pointhere. Although one can argue that he ended up destroyingthe company’s value as the share price hasfallen from around $350 to $30 during his tenure; butthe real fact is that it was largely because of his predecessor’sover enthusiastic eagerness in investing incomplex derivative instrument. On the contrary, Pandit,to his credit, not only pledged to draw a salary of$1 till the time company turns profitable before theCongress but successfully delivered five consecutivequarterly profits before drawing any compensationfrom the company.Additionally, innovations and creative thinking coupledwith their expertise in the language of global business– English, helped their cause further. Moreover,Indians have a strong business ethics and a sense towardsthe greater good. A leadership survey conductedby the Hay Group revealed that Catholic nuns andmonks are the only group that scored as high as IndianCEOs on inner strength and moral values. So, is sky thelimit for Indian CEOs? Not so fast, they have a lot tolearn still. Among others, the most important thing forthem is to understand that what works well on homewill work abroad too – a mistake that most of the expatCEOs in India made. Moreover, the number of CEOscapable of making the transition to being a global CEOis also a matter of worry with the gap between top qualitycorporate leaders and median CEOs widening. IfIndians can take care of these few concerns, we wouldsee more and more Indian CEOs storming the corporateboardroom across the world.count your chickens before they hatch 19 july 2012

SASHI REDDI“EXHAUSTIVE RE-SEARCH DOES NOTREALLY GUARAN-TEE ANY SUCCESS"A SERIAL ENTREPRENEUR AND INVESTOR, SASHI REDDI, CARVES DEEP IN HISMEMORIES AND RELIVES HIS SPLENDID VOYAGE OF EMBARKING SEVERALSTART-UPS IN A CONVERSATION WITH NIDHI GUPTACOVER STORYFOUNDER AND CEO:AppLabs which wasacquired by CSC inSeptember last yearand act as Head,Independent TestingServices at CSC tofacilitate the acquisition2008: Founded FXLabsStudios and servedas its CEO, it was lateracquired by Foundation9 EntertainmentALSO FOUNDED: iCoopInc. and EZPowerSystemsHaving an applaudable academicbackground, many would liketo strive for a job in a bigMNC. What prompted you to goout of the league and become anentrepreneur?After my PhD at Wharton, I had agreat job offer to work as an optionstrader at a top notch bank inLondon and Hong Kong. At thattime I was approached by a friendwith a great technology idea andso I got tempted to jump into buildinga company on our own. So myleap into being an entrepreneurwas not planned. If I had stoppedand thought about the careerchoice I was making, who knows, Imight have had second thoughts.But at that time, I was young andvery excited to work with myfriends to try and build a greatproduct and a great company.US and Indian markets are polesapart from each other but youhave tapped both the markets byventuring into various projectslike AppLabs (now acquired byCSC), SriCapital and HyderabadIN THE US YOU HAVE TO HAVE A BETTER PRODUCTTO WIN WHILE IN INDIA YOU NEED TO BE BETTERAT OVERCOMING OBSTACLES TO WINAngels respectively? In youropinion which market is difficultto start a business?Both the US and India have theirown challenges. In the US, thechallenge is to find a completelynew idea and try to execute it– soit is the challenge of the marketsand competition. In India, the challengeis to overcome various infrastructureand legal challenges tobe able to focus on building a business– so it is the environmentalchallenges. But in either place, likeanywhere in the world, there arehuge rewards for success. In theUS, you have to have a better productto win. But, in India you needto be better at overcoming obstaclesto win and survive.How much research workyou had done before launchingthese companies?Of the 4 companies I have startedso far, 2 companies (iCoop – agroup purchasing dotcom and FX-Labs – India's leading game company)were started after doing a lotof market research. iCoop was acomplete failure when the dotcombubble crashed. FXLabs was acquiredat a low valuation by Foundation9 Entertainment which waslooking for an Indian backend studio.The two companies that Icount your chickens before they hatch 20 july 2012

Mr SashiReddi withMr BrianManning,PresidentandMD, CSCstarted without doing any research(EZPower – web content managementproduct company and AppLabs– software testing company)both had successful exits with investorsmaking a lot of money. Sodoing too much research does notreally guarantee any success. It isfinally about the market conditionsand how well you execute it.What prompted you to sell yoursignature company AppLabs?AppLabs raised money in 2004from Westbridge Capital (later renamedSequoia Capital India) froma fund that was closing in 2010. SoI had to find an exit for my investors.I was initially thinking of sellingtheir stake to a PE. We had a lotof interest from PEs but suddenlywe also got interest from variousstrategic buyers who wanted toacquire the whole company. WhenCSC came forward with an aggressiveoffer we felt that it was theright time to sell the company. Iam very happy that the 2,500 staffof AppLabs are now working for aworld class company like CSC. MySeries A investors got a 10X returnin 6 years.How do you differentiate yourcompany from the rest ofyour competitors?AppLabs was the leading pure-playtesting company. While most ITcompanies did many services, wefocused exclusively on testing. Thismade us the experts in the fieldand we won over many largevendors due to our differentiationas the leading testing company inthe world.India has a huge potential andevery foreign company wishes toinvest here. What according toyou could be major reason forthis inclination?India does have tremendous potentialbut many foreign investorsare in "wait and see" mode becausethere seems to be a lot of uncertaintyregarding tax laws in India.Unless we have clarity in our lawswithout retroactive actions, wewill not be able to attract the investmentswe need for the developmentof our economy.What is your leadership mantraand management style?Delegate extensively but micromanagethe 2-3 key things that canmake or break your company. I ama big believer in getting the company/productpositioning right sothis is an area that I normally handlepersonally.What would you like to be calledas – an entrepreneur or an investorand why?I consider myself as an Entrepreneur.My angel investing is only away to stay in touch with great entrepreneurs.What are your future plans?My current focus is to completethe integration of AppLabs intoCSC. I am in no hurry to make newplans right now. My role at CSC asthe head of its testing servicesdivision is keeping me busy. I amalso having fun doing a lot of angelinvesting and facilitating newventures. I get to meet great entrepreneurs,see innovative ideas,have intelligent discussions withyoung people.count your chickens before they hatch 21 july 2012

RAM BUXANI“INDIA & JAPANSTARTED AT SAMETIME – ACHIEVE-MENTS DIFFER”NIDHI GUPTA INVIGORATES THE GOLDEN JUBILEE MAN OF DUBAI, DR.RAM BUXANI, FOUNDER & CEO, ITL GROUP TO DISSECT THE INDIANECONOMY VIZ-A-VIZ MIDDLE-EASTCOVER STORYFOUNDER & CEO: ITLGroupPROMOTER: IndusIndBank Ltd, IndiaCHAIRMAN: VeeramInternational LtdBoard of IndusIndInternational HoldingsLtd., MauritiusBOARD: Al RazoukiInternational ExchangeCo., Dubai.How has been your journey fromBaroda to Dubai?While tottering on path of my life,I never set any goal for me. I amgreatly influenced by a sage whosaid that life should be taken as itcomes to you. Plan it by all means.But do not get disheartened if yourplans don't work.You have been inclined towardsthe Japanese style of working.What according to you is makingthem unique and admirable?Yes, I have been inclined towardsJapanese way of working. Until veryrecently they believed in a singlejob throughout life. We would neverhear a Japanese changing his job.That gives lot of consistency in runningan organisation. India and Japanstarted moving upwards almostsame time around 1947. What a differencein achievement! I rarely seeinsubordination in Japanese. Whileaverage Indian always wants tolead. Japanese PSI (Purchase, Salesand Inventory) control is indeed asystem to envy about. The way India'svaluable stock of food grainremain shelterless shows our marketingweaknesses. A Japanese willsell it out at any price instead ofgetting eaten by rats.What has been the cornerstone inDubai's development – governmentor corporations?It is always Government and Rulersof this great City State that has beencornerstone in the growth of Dubai.I don't agree that development inIndia has been poor. Yes, our spreadis not even. Certain states havedone too well. Others have not beenthat progressive. Because of generallyunchecked large scale corruptionback in India, very little portionof the funds shown on paperactually find their way in implementationof the projects. The urbanlot has to involve actively inelectoral process while ruralpopulation needs to understandpolitical designs being drawn to exploitthem.The condition of infrastructureis in very bad shape in India whencompared with many other countries.Who do you think is responsiblefor this?There is big scope of infrastructuredevelopment in India. Unfortunatelynot everything allotted for thissector is used for it due to corruptionat various levels.Your message to budding entrepreneursand leaders.One should keep away from greedand one should not move to diversificationat the cost of neglectingcore activity. And be withinbudget instead of spending on miragegains.count your chickens before they hatch 22 july 2012

DINESH C. PALIWAL"CEO’S BIGGEST CHAL-LENGE IS ATTRACT-ING AND MOTIVATINGGREAT LEADERS"DINESH C. PALIWAL, PRESIDENT AND CEO OF HARMAN INTERNATIONAL(NYSE:HAR) EXPRESSES HIS CONCERNS IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEARINGGLOBAL ECONOMIC SLOWDOWN AND REVEALS HIS FUTURE PLANSYou have worked in almost allregions of the world. How is businessand management differentin India compared to the West?Traditionally, India has been a societywhere organisational rolesare very rigidly defined and thishas a detrimental impact on theculture of innovation. Fortunatelyhowever, this style of managementis losing ground and Indian companiesare adopting a more inclusiveapproach. Fewer layers in the managementhierarchy help reducecosts, and also ensure that goodideas don’t get lost in its ascent tothe top.How did you revamp ABBfrom a loss making unit to aprofit making?My work at ABB was heavily focusedon simplification and commonglobal processes by tearingdown the “silos” which fragmentedthe group’s businesses. As head ofABB’s automation business, I transformedeleven different businessunits across the company’s globaloperations into just three “lean andmean” divisions.What are your concerns as a CEO,in the light of the nearing globaleconomic slowdown?In both good times and bad, I believea CEO’s biggest challenge isattracting and motivating greatleaders and innovators. My job is tomake sure that Harman can competein any economic environment.We will continue to carefully watchour costs and simplify our structure,but the real key will be continuedcutting-edge innovationthat differentiates Harman from itscompetitors and keeps customerscoming back for more.What is your strategy for Harman'sfuture and how do youplan to take it to its pinnacle?Our strategy is built on four mainpillars: First, we will grow sales ofour “smart” infotainment systemswhich are increasingly helping today’s“connected generation” taketheir favourite media, entertainmentand information on the road.Secondly, we will increase penetrationof our automotive audio systems– built on great brands suchas JBL, Harman/Kardon and Infinity– to help customers enjoy thesame premium sound in the carthat they have long admired athome. Third, we will continue toincrease our activities in theemerging markets – targeting some$1.5 Billion in BRIC country salesby 2015, compared to just afew tens of millions when Ijoined Harman. Finally, we willcontinue to focus on cost and capitalmanagement.HARMANINTERNATIONALINDUSTRIES, INC.:Chairman, Presidentand CEOWORKED AND LIVED:in six countries onfour continents,including the US, China,Switzerland, Singapore,Australia, and IndiaON THE BOARD: of TycoInternational, AmericanIndia Foundation (AIF)count your chickens before they hatch 23 july 2012

SURESH K. VIRMANI"THERE WAS NOCONCEPT OFPROJECT FINANC-ING IN INDIA"SURESH KUMAR VIRMANI, MANAGING DIRECTOR OF BHAWANENGINEERING GROUP, CANDIDLY TALKS TO HARSHITA SINGH ABOUT HISINTRIGUING JOURNEY FROM INDIA TO OMANCOVER STORYBHAWAN ENGINEERINGGROUP (BEG): ManagingDirector, OmanLIFETIME ACHIEVEMENTAWARD: Won at CWAwards 2012PRAVASI BHARATIYASAMMAN AWARD:Received in 20101977: Landed in Muscat,Oman as the firstemployee of BEGWhat are your thoughts on theOmanisational front?We firmly believe in meaningfulOmanisation and we believe thatOmanis have the first right to employment.The young Omanis, likeany other community, need handholdingto become experts. We puttrust on them and provide themgenuine opportunities and are alwaysready to hold hand.What kind of challenges andhurdles have you faced in yourlong journey?There are many challenges that wehave faced but one thing that Iwould like to highlight is financingproblem. It was easier and moreconvenient to raise funds in Omancompared to India. In the late1970s, there was no concept ofproject financing in India. Althoughhaving a very attractiveand feasible project plan, our fundraising initiative was rejected byfour leading banks. At last, we wereable to close the deal in CanaraBank after having a very blisteringdiscussion. Moreover, performingconsistently to retain ‘NumeroUno’ position in construction industryis another challenge.You started the company with 14employees and today it employsmore than 15,000 people. Howdo you manage such a hugetask force?Managing such a huge task force isalways a challenge. But we do believethat if we take care of ouremployees, our employees will alsolook after us. First, we do focus onone thing whether the dreams ofthe employee are getting fulfilledor not. If an employee comes fromoverseas, he/she immediatelyneeds a good accommodation.Some of the employee have an aspirationto send their children toUSA for higher studies. So, we keeprecord for each of these things andtry to fulfill them. Moreover, weeven provide financial assistancewhen required. We feel a hugepressure in the time of promotionas we try to be very fair to eachand every employee.What are your future plans?As the construction business isbecoming very competitive day byday in Oman (and India) due toemergence of local players andbee-lining of global players, we arelooking forward to expand ourgeographical presence across theglobe especially in Qatar and Libya.Qatar has a lot of potential dueto its ambitious development plansas the country is going to hostFIFA 2020.count your chickens before they hatch 24 july 2012

KANWAL REKHI“IN INDIA, SIMPLETHINGS DON’TWORK WELL MOSTOF THE TIME"PIONEER OF THE ETHERNET NETWORKING TECHNOLOGY, KANWAL REKHI,SHARES HIS VIEWS ON DIFFERENCES IN ENTREPRENEURIAL ENVIRONMENTIN THE US AND INDIA WITH NIDHI GUPTATell us something about yourexperience as co-founder and CEOof Excelan.It was a hard but exciting journey withno role models and mentors. I made thecardinal mistake of partnering with myfriends. It was an acrimonious break upthat caused me a lot of heart ache.It was an exciting time as it was thedawn of PC computing and computernetworking was looming as an opportunitythat we latched onto. We pioneeredTCP/IP and Ethernet. Theyeventually became building blocks ofInternet. We did succeed in spite of ourmistakes. We did have a successful IPOin 1987.In India, many technology start-upshave had a hard time in getting thenext round of funding. Is it true thatit is difficult for technology drivenstart-ups to get funding in developingcountries like ours?Second round of funding is tougher toget than the first. The first round canbe based upon a good story and salesmanship.The second round is basedupon the achievements since the initialfunding. One has to define financiallysound milestones and deliver on themto get the next round. Initial fundinghas to produce enough tangible resultsto inspire the additional funding.How different is the working conditionin West from India?Working conditions in these two countriesare totally different. US is an orderlysociety where things work wellall the time, India is chaotic societyand simple things don’t work wellmost of the time. Entrepreneurialecho-system is very well developed inUS, especially in Silicon Valley andBoston. One has to be a whole lot moreself reliant in India.How do you foresee the role of aleader in the 21 st century especiallyin India?Leaders in 20 th century were fixated onpoverty and wealth re-distribution.This has kept India backwards. Weneed economically literate leaders whoare focused on wealth creation. Weneed to see some self-made peopleemerging as leaders, rather than scionsof the political dynasties.To retain talent in a growing companyis very challenging. What isthe best way in which one can addressthis issue?Early employees have to be treated aspartners with fair amount of stake inthe company. Attracting, motivatingand retaining talent is the main job ofthe entrepreneur. One has to developa fair, success oriented culture thatvalues performance over everythingelse. Entrepreneur has to hold himselfaccountable to higher standard thanhe expects from others.CURRENTLY: ManagingDirector, InventusCapital1989: Sold Excelan toNovell and became EVPat Novell1982: Founded Excelanin partnership with hisfriendsCO-FOUNDER: The IndUSEntrepreneurs (T.i.E.), aventure firmcount your chickens before they hatch 25 july 2012

KEVIN S PARIKH“I WAS FORTUNATETO WORK UNDERTHE CLINTONADMINISTRATION"KEVIN S PARIKH, FOUNDER & CEO OF AVASANT – AN IT AND BUSINESSPROCESS OUTSOURCING COMPANY, REVEALS HOW AVASANT SAILEDTHROUGH THE FINANCIAL CRISIS PERIODCOVER STORYCURRENTLY: CEO andPartner of Avasant, ABPO companyEARLIER: Served asVice President ofGartner ConsultingSPECIALISED AT BPO& ITO SOURCINGAGREEMENT: wasinvolved in more than300 outsourcing deals– transactions rangingfrom US$20 million toUS$2.5 billionYou have been involved withmore than 300 outsourcingtransactions including billiondollar plus deals. What are thefactors you always keep in mindbefore executing such deal?There are three key yet very simplerules to negotiating a successfuloutsourcing transaction: Ensure Alignment of Vision: Boththe buyer and provider must understandthe strategic financial,and operational objectives. Align Executive Support: Relationshipand buy-in from the keyexecutives for both companiesmust be present to ensure a successfuldeal. Build for Value: Outsourcingservice is not a procurementfunction. Transactional successmeans getting real value fromthe deal, not only the lowestcost.How do you foresee Indian outsourcingindustry vis-a-vis hugechallenges from Chinaand neighboring countries?India continues to be a leader inthe services space for outsourcing.I expect that this advantagewill continue through 2025. Although,China’s BPO and ITO privatesector continue to grow andbecome more proficient in outsourcingservices, China still onlyrepresents a fraction of the Indianmarket. Moreover, India shouldcontinue to dominate the outsourcingspace due to breadth anddepth of its talent pool.Will this election, in the US,would harm Indian outsourcingindustry or is this just a politicalgimmick?count your chickens before they hatch 26 july 2012

It is hard to say. Local governmentbodies in the US are experiencingheavy budget cuts due to diminishingFederal funding and risingcosts. This budget pressure is forcinggovernment to consider alloptions, including some Offshoring.That said, where local optionsare available, you can be sure thatwork will not be sent overseas.Prior to joining Avasant, youwere Global Vice President withGartner Consulting. What wasthe motivation and idea behindstarting Avasant?Gartner is a great company, butlike all large institutions, it can bedifficult to change the fiber of theculture. I recognised in early2002, that the future was not inInformation Technology, which isGartner’s focus, but in what technologyrepresents. Technology,through the internet, communicationsand cloud has become thepathway for globalisation andeconomic integration. As such,the primary driver for startingAvasant was to go beyond ITconsulting and to tackle thestrategic challenges presentedby globalisation.As CEO of Avasant, what hasTECHNOLOGY, THROUGH THE INTERNET, COMMUNICATIONSAND CLOUD HAS BECOME THE PATHWAY FOR OVERALLECONOMIC INTEGRATION IN A GLOBALISED ENVIRONMENTbeen the most challenging decisionyou had to take?In 2008, we were faced with an extremelypoor US economy withrelatively anemic sales in consulting.Many of our competitors werehemorrhaging up to 30% of theirdelivery force through layoffs andRIFs (Reduction in Force). As theCEO of the company I was forcedto decide how Avasant wouldmanage this problem. With peopleat the heart of our business, I decidednot to layoff our team ormake significant cuts in our deliverycapabilities. Instead, we askedthe Partners and executives ofAvasant to take salary cuts untilwe weathered the storm. This decisionnot only preserved our consultingworkforce but positionedus for significant success in thepost economic recovery. Andwhile the U.S. economy continuesits slow recovery, Avasant is operatingat full capability. We areamongst a very few select firmsthat continue to grow the top lineduring these economic challenges.Now in 2012, all of our Partnershave been fully compensated fortheir sacrifice and we continue toexperience record growth. Today,we operate in over 40 countriesand across all continents.Who has been your role modeland inspiration?I was fortunate to work under theClinton Administration and serveparticipate in the One AmericaCommission discussions. PresidentClinton was one of the few USPresidents that actively supportedrural entrepreneurship. He wasa true inspiration for the corporateworld.How has this experience shapedAvasant’s commitment to povertyreduction?Avasant is committed to povertyreduction through Avasant Foundation.In fact, Avasant was recentlyawarded a Grant throughthe Rockefeller Foundation’s PovertyReduction through Informationand Digital Employment(PRIDE) Initiative. With our partnershipwith the Rockefeller weare examining ways to encouragethe use of outsourcing to createmeaningful jobs in poor and ruralcommunities.In your experience as a lawyerand business leader, you haveinteracted with US enterprisessuch as IBM, HP, Accenture andalso Indian Outsourcing leaderssuch as TCS, Infosys and Wipro.What is the major differencethat you find between Indianand American companies?Today the difference between theoperating models of Indian and USService Providers is starting toblur. In fact, increasingly USproviders have developed offshorestrongholds in Asia and LATAM toensure competitive deliverymodels. Similarly, Indianproviders have become more globaland have aggressivelyestablished US and nearshore deliverycapabilities.The challenges faced by businessestoday are so significantand transformational that aligninglegal expertise to real businessproblems is only part of the solution.Transforming business todaymeans identifying the core rootsof both success and failure andcreating innovative solutionsfor tomorrow.Is Indian outsourcing naïve ascompared to the US?I do not believe one can comparethe US versus the Indian outsourcingindustry. In fact, they are oneand the same. Today the relationshipsbetween India and the US areso inter-twined that both regionsare required to operate in concertto ensure the delivery of a “worldclass” managed service.count your chickens before they hatch 27 july 2012

PRIYA HAJI“ONE DEPOSIT INYOUR SAVINGS AC-COUNT COULD MAKEYOU A MILLIONAIRE”PRIYA HAJI, FOUNDER OF WORLD OF GOOD AND SAVEUP SUCCESSFULLYSYNERGISES ENTREPRENEURSHIP WITH SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY. EXCERPTSFROM THE INTERVIEWCOVER STORYCO-FOUNDED AND LED:World of Good, to createa branded marketplacefor fair trade andsustainable goods madeby womenLATEST VENTURE:SaveUP, an initiative tohelp american save andreduce and repay debtCO-FOUNDED: Free at Lastwhich became a nationalmodel for substanceabuse treatmentWorld of Good has helped manycauses across the globe, how didyou promote anti child-labour activismin India?My co-founder, Siddharth Sanghvi,and I started World of Good to helpthe thousands of women artisansaround the world earn a fair wageand work in safe and clean workingconditions. We partnered with manyfair trade artisan groups in India. Bydoing so, we were able to promotefair trade products in the US as wellas help grow the fair trade industryin India. We are proud that World ofGood was able to improve the lives ofthousands of Indian artisan families.What prompted you to start yourmost recent venture, SaveUp?My entrepreneurial imagination getsinspired by seeing how I can helppeople through an innovative use ofbusiness or technology. In the currenteconomic environment, prettymuch every American is trying to increasetheir savings and reduce theirdebts. Just imagine – one deposit inyour savings account could make youa millionaire. Well if you use SaveUpit could. And no matter what, younever lose because you are alwaysimproving your financial situation.We hope SaveUp will help Americansto stay motivated to contribute totheir 401k accounts or build up theiremergency savings during thesetough financial times.What is the business model onwhich SaveUp works?SaveUp is a free online rewards programmethat encourages Americansto save money and pay down theirdebt. Every time users save in theirown savings accounts or make a paymenton a loan or credit card balance,they earn SaveUp credits, which theycan use to win great prizes like vacations,cars, and cash. The biggestprize on the program is $2 million.National brands like Virgin America,Banana Republic, GameStop, and TurboTaxsponsor the prizes.How do you manage fund flow?SaveUp features some great advertisersand sponsors on the site. We alsowork together with financial institutionsto give their customers a customizedSaveUp experience. Financialinstitutions use SaveUp to acquire newcustomers as well as deepen their currentrelationship with existing customersby promoting financial productsand putting up their own exclusiveprizes. SaveUp also is currentlyfunded by two venture capital firms.From where do you draw your inspiration?I have some great role models in myfamily. My grandmother was part ofGandhi’s movement, and she showedme the importance of a commitmentto improving the world.count your chickens before they hatch 28 july 2012

RAJIV LULLA“IT IS HARD TOIDENTIFY TALENTAND EVEN HARDERTO RETAIN THEM"RAJIV LULLA WITH 20 YEARS PLUS EXPERIENCE IN CORPORATE WORLDELUCIDATES THE SECRET OF TRANSITING ACROSS VARIOUS SECTORS ANDCULTURES TO NIDHI GUPTAAfter reaching the second highestposition in NDTV Metro Nationwhy did you shift base to NY tojoin a company at VP level?There is much more to what satisfiesone than job titles. In the long run,organisations, teams, and the worldvalue us as we value ourselves. Afterleaving NDTV, I ran TCS' Advertising,Broadcasting, and Cable industrypractice. Working with some ofthe most talented brands and peoplein the industry at Conde Nast publications,was also a privilege. To bein discussions with the prominentfigures from NDTV, New Yorker,Vanity Fair and Glamour are memorableand fulfilling moments.What are the differences in theworking style of India comparedto the West?My teams in India knew how toturn on the light-bulb with lessresources, including time andmoney. Knowing the score inCricket and developing keen drivingskills in India were key metaphorsfor each business negotiation.It is important to know ifyour entire car can pass throughwhat seems to be a 2" gap betweenthe next two vehicles. In the West,I find that teams value clearercommunication, tighter teamchoreography,individual accountability,and work-life balance.How easy or difficult it is for aperson who’s worked in India toadjust and adapt to the Westernworking culture?It is actually very common to seepeople of foreign descent becomingphenomenally successful in theWest, than it is in India. Personally,I have found the West more open toforeign ideas, relatively more transparent,and an overall healthierworking democracy.What kind of challenges you faceeveryday while managing a staffof US nationals as compared tothe Indian employees?The challenges remain somewhatsimilar irrespective of politicalboundaries. To boil it down to one– it is hard to identify truly great talent,and even harder to retain them.Despite advances in technology andthe social networking revolution, Ifind that the tools and even professionalpractices available for findingtrue talent are very limiting.What is your current role in TELiBrahma?How is it different fromNDTV Metro Nation?The role at NDTV was to emulate theAffiliate TV business model that hasworked well in the large democracies.It is a joy to be associated withpeople at TELiBrahma who arebright, like-minded entrepreneursand industry veterans.AT PRESENT: President,TELiBrahma, a digitaland mobile marketingsolutions companySERVED AS VP: CondéNast – publishes someof the most well-knownmagazines includingVogue, Wired, Glamour,Vanity Fair, GQ, Traveller,Allure, Bon Appetit andArchitectural DigestFORMERLY: MD & CEONDTV Hindu, CEOMetroNationcount your chickens before they hatch 29 july 2012

ASHWIN NAVIN"I BELIEVE IN HIR-ING THE BEST PEO-PLE AND LEADINGTHEM BY EXAMPLE"CO-FOUNDER AND EX-PRESIDENT OF BITTORENT, ASHWIN NAVIN FRANKLYDISCUSSES WITH NIDHI GUPTA THAT HOW PREVIOUS EXPERIENCES HELPEDHIM TO MAKE A MARK IN INTERNET TV INDUSTRY THROUGH FLINGOCOVER STORYFLINGO: Chairman,Co-founder and ChiefExecutive Officer, thelargest developer ofapps for Smart TVsBITTORRENT: Co-Founder and formerPresidentGOLDMAN SACHS ANDMERRILL LYNCH: Workedas Investment BankerWhat did prompt you to start acompany like Flingo?When I was leaving BitTorrent, Ihad a small group of friends whowere best in the internet industry.We looked at how far the Internethad penetrated our lives: in ourhome and work. There was onespace left which was untouched byWeb technology: the television. So,we set up a company called Flingo(www.flingo.tv, @flingotv on twitter).The television experience andrelated business model has largelybeen unchanged for 70 years. So,we are building software into thetelevision which will bring internetcontent into the viewing experience,so that people can easilyshare your favorite moments withfriends or find out more abouttheir favourite actors or easily findgreat things to watch. We thinktelevision presents a huge opportunitybecause its still the primaryway people are entertained andinformed… and its ripe for innovationand improvement.You have worked in many companiesbefore starting your ownventure. How did it help you interms of building block for thestart up?Working in different organizationshas helped me understand the importanceof culture. It is critical toidentify your company's core valuesand make them clear to everyonewho joins. I also think that it isimportant for every entrepreneuror executive to understand whereyour company sits in its evolution,and the type of people you need tohave on your team to succeed atthat stage of development.How was your experience asPresident and Co-founder of Bit-Torrent.inc?It was amazing. It was extremelygratifying to work on a productused by so many people. Wewere inspired by both the positiveand negative feedback we wouldget from our users, and from theopportunity to impact the way millionsof people get their media andentertainment. Morover, handingthe nagging legal issues as well asISP related issues was quite challengingand unique experience.What kind of leadership style doyou prefer to exercise?I follow a very simple mantra ofleadership, which is to hire thebest people and lead them by example.If you want your people tohave certain values, or exhibit certaincharacteristics, then you needto live and breathe those samethings yourself.count your chickens before they hatch 30 july 2012

MOHIT PARASAR"INDIAN ENVIRON-MENT IS DYNAMICWHILE THE WESTERNONE IS MECHANIC"FORMER MD OF SONY EUROPE AND CURRENT EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ANDCEO OF BEETEL, MOHIT PARASAR ENUNCIATES THE DIFFERENCES IN THEEUROPEAN AND INDIAN WORKING ENVIRONMENT TO GANESH KUMAR ROYHow did your journey atBeetel started?I was thinking of coming back toIndia after working for so manyyears abroad. Eventually, I wantedto join an organization which hasthe potential to grow in a morechallenging environment. Then Igot an offer from Bhartigroup which was very interestingto join.How is your experience asExecutive Director and CEOof Beetel?So far the journey has been great.I enjoy every bit of my work life.The work here is very challengingand dynamic. Beetel today is in apoint of major transformationwhere I have to take several strategicdecisions which is making itmore challenging and enjoyable.When we talk about India, howmuch the working culture andenvironment of India differentfrom rest of the world?Indian environment is a lot moredynamic while the Western environmentis mechanic where youknow everything like directions,stores inventory and many more.In India, you have to keep a closeeye on each and every step ofwork. In India, work is done moreon a relationship which does notexist in the west. People come fora purpose and after completionthey move their respective ways.India has a very youngerdemography which makes itmore challenging to work andtake decisions.In your corporate career whichtask was most difficult for youand why?The most critical factor in businessis people. You may have a greatidea and incite to execute that butif you do not have the right peopleto accomplish that then your idearemain an idea. So, the biggestchallenge for any leader is how he/she communicates the idea withpeople and makes it a reality.What kind of governmental hurdlesindustry faces?It is very easy to blame governmentbut I think it is the responsibilityof both the corporate andthe government to go hand inhand. The industry is growing andit will reach full potential in thecoming years.What kind of leader you are?I do believe in trust and relationship.If you trust your subordinatesand vise-versa then your communicationbecome much faster andengagement which provides themaximum output.BEETEL TELETCH LTD:Chief Executive Officerand Executive DirectorSONY: Former ManagingDirector – UK andIrelandGEOGRAPHICALEXPERINCES: Europe, Asia,Middle East and AfricaCONSUMER ELECTRONICSINDUSTRY: 20 years ofextensive global experiencecount your chickens before they hatch 31 july 2012

INTERNATIONAL COLUMNESSENTIAL OFTRUSTED ADVISORSAFTER GATHERING ENOUGH INFORMATION ANDCONSULTING WITH OTHER ADVISORS, TRUSTEDADVISORS PROVIDE THE BEST ADVICE TO THEIR CLIENTSBILL BACHRACHFinancial Advisor, Corporate Speaker and Best-selling AuthorOver the years, 20+ now, I've studied a lot,taught a lot, and written a lot about buildinghigh-trust client relationships. Lately, I'vefound myself saying to our core group of committedadvisors who implement the Values-Based FinancialPlanning turn-key business model that, "trustis not the objective, trust is a by-product of the otherthings that you do, like your behaviour, your communication,and the quality of your work."Consider this point of view instead: “I am going toshow up relaxed, be authentic, behave with an extremelyhigh level of professionalism, skillfully executemy process for creating a great client interview experienceor progress meeting experience, ask great questions,listen with empathy, be well-organized, be respectfulof their time by not bragging about myself ormy company or boring them with over-explanationsof financial concepts and ideas, and be selective aboutonly letting the truly right-fit people join my communityof Ideal Clients. And if, in the process of behavingthis way, they trust me and hire me, fine. If not, that'sokay too.”Some advisors try to force things to happen witheveryone they meet by using sales, influence, or persuasiontactics to "close the deal." This is akin to awoman desperately seeking a husband because her"biological clock is ticking" instead of looking for theright partner with similar goals and values who is bestsuited for the two them to create a life together of happinessand fulfillment.Think of each client relationship more like a professionalmarriage. The objectives are for them to havethe best possible experience, whether they become aclient or not, and for only the "right-fits" to"TRUST IS A BY-PRODUCT OF THEOTHER THINGS THAT YOU DO, LIKE YOURBEHAVIOR, YOUR COMMUNICATION, ANDTHE QUALITY OF YOUR WORK"become clients.Here are a few time-tested ideas for behaving in waysthat create the by-product of trust and a few thoughtsabout not-to-do behaviours that erode trust. Salespeopletend to offer alternatives and let the prospect orclient choose. Trusted Advisors gather all the informationthey need, consult with other experts where appropriate,and give the best advice for the client… withconviction. There may be more than one way to achievea goal, but there is only one best way. Find the best wayand give advice with conviction.The primary determinant of a person achieving theirgoals is their own behaviour. Your job is much moreabout managing your clients’ choices and actions thanit is about managing their money. The bottom line is thatthere is no guarantee of anything. The best you can dois to help people get their entire financial house in order,make the best choices possible at the time, and be in thestrongest position possible to adapt to whatever noncontrollableevents occur. The less you play the predictthe-futuregame the more credible you are.Put the client first. Duh. I know. It sounds almostsilly and certainly cliché. And yet there is a lot of discussionand controversy by the regulators and industryleaders about the fiduciary standard. Am I the only onewho finds it absurd that legislation is necessary for ourindustry to step up and adopt a fiduciary standard? Isn'tthat simply always, in all situations, and under all circumstancesputting your client's needs ahead of yourown? Isn't that what you already do? Do you really needa law about that? Apparently the industry does. Thegood news is that your competition needs somebodyelse to define integrity for them not you.There are several financial professionals who arevery strong about their behaviours. Moreover, they arevery good at what they do and they genuinely careabout helping people to get their financial house in order,achieve their goals, and fulfill their values. By behavingat this very high level of professionalism trustis the by-product of that behavior.(Reprinted with permission from the author)count your chickens before they hatch 32 july 2012

BRAND PRETORIUSLEADERSHIP IS ALL ABOUTRESULTS AND ACHIEVEMENTTHE INSPIRATIONAL LEADER SHOULDACCEPT THAT LEADERSHIP IS MORE OF ARESPONSIBILITY AND NOT A RIGHTBRAND PRETORIUSCEO, McCARTHY LIMITEDIt is sad to admit that an autocratic, transactionalstyle of leadership still appears to feature inthe South-African work-place. Hierarchies arefirmly in place and a ‘command and control’ approachis followed, in many instances. The obviousconsequence is a relatively low level of productivityfrom staff, as the prevailing attitude tends to be reluctantcompliance rather than real commitment.On the other hand, it is gratifying to observe thesteadily increasing incidence of transformational,inspirational leadership. More and more leaders areemerging who succeed in inspiring their peoplethrough a unifying vision. A vision that succeeds innot only motivating team members towards a commondream, but one that also leads to focused effort,maximum internal synergies and the alignment ofpersonal and organisational objectives.In organisations that are privileged to have inspirationalleadership, there is trust and a sense of belonging.Trust is a prerequisite for good relationshipsand is the glue that keeps organisations together. Scientificresearch has proven that good relationships,in turn, drive performance.VALUESInspirational leaders are highly principled people.Their behaviour is characterised by their integrity,consistency and fairness. They succeed in creatingshared values throughout their organisations. Thesevalues include respect for human dignity, equalopportunities for all, honesty and sincerity, opennessand transparency, teamwork and excellence. Theinspirational leader ‘walks the talk’, and ensuresthat these values become ingrained into the cultureof the organization.The inspirational leader accepts that leadership isa responsibility, not a right. He recognises that theprivilege to lead must be earned, it cannot be demanded.His focus is not on himself, its all about the team.Effective leaders know that leadership is not aboutego and authority. It is about results and achievement.It is also not about positional power; it is about persuasion.For that reason they are obsessed with openand frequent communication. Inspirational leadersradiate positive energy and dispense enthusiasm.They measure their success not by how many peoplethey control, but by how many people they liberate toachieve their full potential. They trust people, believein the power of the human spirit and relish the challengeof unlocking human potential through involvementand empowerment.COACHINGThe inspirational leader spends a lot more time oncoaching and encouraging, than on controlling.In fact, exemplary leaders go much further thancoaching; they have compassion, empathy and theygenuinely care. They’re also ‘servant leaders’, willingto make sacrifices for their people.At the same time, there is a passion for excellence.They are driven to achieve, but recognise that theycan only do it through teamwork. They manage tostrike a balance – they are head-headed when it comes"TRUST IS A PREREQUISITE FOR GOODRELATIONSHIPS AND IS THE GLUE THATKEEPS ORGANISATIONS TOGETHER ANDDRIVE THEIR PERFORMANCE"to results, but soft-hearted when it comesto people. Effective leaders have an abundancementality. They give generous rewards for outstandingperformance.Truly inspirational leaders succeed, over time, intranslating vision into reality. Their organisationsnever lack direction, trust and hope for a better future.They get through to the hearts and the minds oftheir people. Moreover, apart from delivering outstandingresults to all their stakeholders, they alsomake a difference. After all, isn’t the essence of humanpurpose to make a difference?count your chickens before they hatch 33 july 2012

POSTSCRIPTTRAINEES TRAIN THE C-SUITELord Krishna in Mahabharata is a supremeexemplar of reverse mentoring. Evenwhen he was in his adolescence, heattracted more influential adherencefrom the people who were twice or even thricehis age. With regards to Pandavas, he used toease off their hardships and was the source ofmotivation and guidance. Yudhishtir who waselder to Krishna used to revere him like his guruand used to chart guidance from him thatdetermined his path to eventual success. As itemerged in Mahabharata, Krishna was thesource of salvation for people (including thegrand uncle of the Pandavas as well as theKuravas, Vishma) much senior to him, which ifreplicated in modern management techniques, can spellwonder for the corporations.As said in the movie ‘Man on a Ledge’, “we don't go to work.We go to war!” Corporate world today is not less than a cutthroatbattle field where for survival one needs to have a newand seminal strategy every moment. For this one not onlyneeds a Krishna for him but for the entire organization. Notonly West, but even Indian companies like Bharti, Goodrej andmany more are recruiting and falling back on mentors andcoaches for developing survival strategies and above all, toprevent themselves from getting obsolete!So how did this trend of coaching the C-suite start? Inmodern corporate world, it was Jack Welch, who introducedthe idea of CEO coaching in GE during his stint as the CEO ofthe company. In GE, Jack Welch wanted his 500 top levelexecutives to get rid of old school of thoughts and adopt newmanagement styles. He focused on imbibing technology inmanagement and coached them to foresee the usage oftechnology in the company. Interestingly, Jack recruitedyoung people (in their 20s) as coaches for his top level greyhairedmanagement team and also hired one so that he couldlearn to surf the web. Jack Welch not only broke theconventional method of coaching but also popularised theconcept of reverse mentoring, by introducing younger coach/mentor to his top management.A Harvard Business working paper titled, ‘What an ExecutiveCoach Can Do for You’ states that, “It might seem that way atsome organizations, at least to the untrained eye. IBM hasmore than sixty certified coaches among its ranks. Scores ofother major companies have made coaching a core part ofexecutive development. The belief is that, under the rightcircumstances, one-on-one interaction with an objective thirdparty can provide a focus that other forms of organisationalsupport simply cannot.”Rocky Pimentel, Senior Vice-President of WebTV NetworksInc. once coached Eric Ludwig, Vice-President of Instill whileother senior member of Instill went to professors of KelloggGraduate School of Management CEO ofVirage Inc. to learn new tactic of business.Coaching today is just not seen as animportant part of human resourcemanagement but is taken more as aninvestment! Today companies can literallycalculate the ROI on coaching. Studies showthat companies like GE, Goldman Sachs,Google and many others spends over a billiondollar annually on C-suite coaching. So whatfinally are the returns? Shockingly, the ROIon coaching is sometimes (or rather, most ofthe time) more than ROI on the products acompany sells! A global survey byPriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and theAssociation Resource center concluded that “the mean ROIfor companies investing in coaching was 7 times the initialinvestment, with over a quarter reporting an ROI of 10 to 49times.” Another paper titled, “Maximizing the Impact ofExecutive Coaching: Behavioral Change, OrganizationalOutcomes, and Return on Investment” by Joy McGovern,Michael Lindemann, Monica Vergara, Stacey Murphy, LindaBarker, and Rodney Warrenfeltz went on proving that ROI isaveraged nearly to $100,000 or 5.7 times the initial investmentin coaching and stated in a few cases it was as high as $1million, $5 million, or even $25 million!Interestingly, reverse mentoring has become a win-winsituation. For instance, when Navdeep Manaktala, head,services sales at Nokia, mentored his senior, Nikhil Mathur,head of strategy planning, and sought insights about the newservices that Nokia is planning to offer, the former latentlyasked all his queries without even making his trainee (hissenior) realise the same. Similarly, Sanjay Kapoor, deputy CEO,Bharti Airtel never fails to spend time with his mentor. He,every week over a cup of coffee meet company's youngemployees to understand the new physiology and taste of themarket. Bharti is on a drive to unearth ideas and coachingfrom the India’s youth bulge, which comprises 560 millionpeople under the age of 25. The conglomerate has opened thedoor for the young and dynamic folks straight into the SanjayKapoor’s 7 th floor suite at Gurgaon’s towering block! A novelidea indeed, of reverse mentoring into the corridors of Bharti’stop management.Today, C-Suite members are keeping their ego at the bay andare proactively embracing reverse mentoring and coaching.Some of the CXOs have recruited external coaches while somefind it convenient to have a word of advice (regularly) fromtheir own juniors. This in turn not only breaks the hierarchybut also the top management thoughts trickle down directlyto the lower and middle management. Above all, it helps inbreaking the glass door that used to be, once, like a wall betweenthe senior and the lower management.SRAY AGARWALConsulting Editorcount your chickens before they hatch 34 july 2012