Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Making the best out of the Worst- A Classic Example

Having had excellent share traders in my friends, I always used to wonder what is that this biggies are trying to calculate, keep on scribbling something on their touch pads, always calling out some numbers on the phone, be in while driving, talking, or eating? Its a search for alternatives.
It was the beginning of the Millennium era, Year 2000 and around, that proved the nostalgic beliefs can be changed. Perceptions can change. Sentiments can change. Facts can change. Change for good.
Aadi Month- a tamil calendar month which begins in mid July and end in mid August is believed to be one of those months in the year where no auspicious things used to be done. No marriages, no house warming ceremonies, no buying new clothes or jewels, no investments and people used to spend time in early morning prayers and keep a very low profile over all. Suddenly, a new building emerged in the heart of Chennai called Pothys- a textile showroom calling itself Aalayam of textiles, meaning a temple. And I think this logic worked, for it was called a temple. They came up with a revolutionary concept of Aadi discounts- clothing made available at throw-away prices. People found a new energy in the otherwise non-exiting month and found shopping having a new reason. Moreover, this month just preceding the Aug-Sep season of more marriages, proved to be the correct time to hit the market. In less than couple of years, Aadi became a month of expectation from the general public for every thing to go on discounts and deals. It did not stop with textiles or home appliances but became a wide-spread concept of selling in the newly emerged markets. A new change succeeded.
What is the lesson to be learnt? - Making the best even out of the worst of circumstances. As I repeatedly tell in most of my posts, change is the only constant thing. Accept it and go ahead.
This same logic applies to capital markets also. Warren Buffet is busy investing now. So what are you waiting for. All you need is the guts to take the risk. Do little bit of homework on how to plan, proceed and succeed. Keep your ears and eyes wide open. Take the least best opportunity to find a new beginning. Do not rest, do not end your quest. Recession is bad but not the end of the world. It has to change. It has no choice.

How about having "Bench" in life? -A question raised by my friend

"Bench" - No more a funny word- but the word that is threatening software professionals across the industry. For people who are not in projects for long time, and who are recruited expecting pipeline projects to materialize are said to be on Bench. First time, I heard about it, I asked, "Bench- What bench? ". Now I think I don't ask anyone this questions anymore, not sure whose on bench and whats the fate?!?!. Never know, you may end up on the Bench!!!.Be Aware!

But the same word made me have a hearty laugh after long time, when my friend Harish Mahadevan mentioned about having a bench in life?.. I believe he was asking one of our common friend, why are we not having a Bench in life, just like how we have in projects and IT companies. What a great thought!... It may sound absurd, silly, funny and all sorts of reasons that we can just laugh off and ignore and go on. I too did that when I first heard about his question this morning.

But few hours later, I thought. What made him even think about having a bench in life. Gosh, he is hinting at a much larger necessity of life- SPACE. People who are burdened at being tangled in the life's routine, busy but monotonous way of living, not having time or thought for things that are dear to our hearts do end up feeling life overwhelming. There is no space for yourself. You are searching for nothing but YOURSELF. Your every day passes by doing the things your family wants, what your work demands, what your routine takes. You are driven by everything around you and don't have that personal space for yourself. To understand or even think of what you, Just You, want in life.

Spacing is important between relationships as well. We bond and gel with the family, enjoy friendships, worship our work, and spend all our lives doing what we are supposed to do. After many years, when you turn back and look at your past, what you will find is only a life that was driven by everyone else and not you. So once in a while, a space is important. The space that is your own. The space that lets you do things that only you want. The space that is important for you to revive, re-energize and re-emerge more with new found energy to go on back again with the routine.

May be Harish, its time for a holiday of your own. Take a long drive. Take a break. You would be on bench of your own in life. A bench that would make more sense and brings in a freshness and new arm of energy to proceed with life. Go ahead Friend, its time to re-discover yourself!!!

Gaining Industrial Leadership - Magic Mantra of New India

In a small village in India, people always used to wonder, why the rich is always getting richer? For one thing, the rich had was the power of acquiring, the power to take risk, the power to look out of the box. This is exactly the state of Indian Economy and Industrial revolution happening making the dream of 2020 very near!. You may wonder, what the hell I am talking, when people are losing jobs, economy is uncertain, inflation is at 12% and credit has become a major enemy. Hold on!. Look Beyond!. Its the country's new found confidence and opportunity. The courage what made Lakshmi Mittal stand where he is today. Mr.Mittal is famous of acquiring sick industries, using the machinery, manpower and lessons learnt, revive it, re-structure it and go ahead. Today, the steel baron had made India Proud. Lot more to follow in this spree.
Indian majors like Satyam, TCS, Infosys and HCL are already in the market having millions of acquisitions in pipeline and lot many medium sized businesses also are following this process. Tata steel acquiring English - dutch Corus for whooping $12 billion. VSNL, GHCL, Reliance, and lot many Indian companies acquiring US firms have become the trend of the day.
What makes Indian companies confident to go ahead?
Reliable low cost, consistent performance, high quality of products and service and deliverable on time. These are the vital ingredients of the Indian Industry that made us having large cash flows, planning and risk taking a near possibility. Indian business is ready to handle any kind of business culture, regulations, practices and adhere to global standards and expectations. Indian Industry is no more a shy and conservative economy which had been exploited by various invasions in the past in the name of trade and commerce. Now it is the time for a new dawn in the Indian economy for a global sunrise. Be it information technology, heath care, pharmaceutical, financial services, insurance, telecommunications, FMCG, manufacturing, automobile, hotel and hospitality industry, astronomy, services sector including training, teaching and talent-acquisition, strategic planning- name it, you will find an India spreading its wings world across. Its time for the world to look upon India for every thing the best that they need- for one thing we can be very proud of - our human intellect. Nothing can be in par to it, coupled with commitment and fire to achieve our place in the global market place- towards the top- nothing less is compromised!

India Infotech - Heading towards new business opportunity

On the wall of HP office in Chennai- there is a big poster which says " Do not look at the closed door for long, for you may fail to see the new open door" something like that, not able to recall the actual sentence, any way the crux is the same.
This is exactly what is happening to India Infotech. The industry which saw a steady 30% overall growth in the last 3 years would have to settle now for anything around 20% in the next one year, probably because 40-60% of the industry is working on the Banking and Financial Services Industry (BFSI) operations work. With the global markets struggling to maintain an equilibrium, a fight for the survival continues. With huge financial companies heading towards major bottlenecks and bankruptcy filling, a new avenue of work would begin in Asian countries that can pitch in to help the west in completing the required work. Legal and Regulatory. Legal services are the most expensive work in US and UK, and India would be looked up to to handle the huge tasks associated to manage the legal proceedings, for the economies of scale are large when India Inc. participates in this activity.
Corporate governance and strong regulations to follow SOX law post experiences of the past, there is lot of work to do. Companies have to learn to handle credit, cash and customers at large. The financial vertical will see a big change with the legal vertical gaining predominance in the coming year and companies have to look on the new opportunities that are going to arise out of this crisis. Hard work always pays guys! Definitely people are working hard, having greater focus, unearthly time zones, cultural and geographic challenges, Indians have reached out to every corner of this globe. Today the major task of handling the historical 700m$ bailout activity of the US financial markets is assigned to an Indian born American. What else folks. Its time for us to look for the new door opening up or opened already- Kulja Sim Sim!!