Mission Africa! Is it time to look beyond India.

Airtel has been able to break into Africa with the signing of Zain deal. There is a lot of speculation about the success or failure, either ways it is a bold move by Mr Mittal. But it is a telling sign that Indian MNCs are looking out, it could be for diversification or stagnation.

A big size deal, paying more than $255 per subscriber, just to get in and climb up the learning curve. With a lot at stake, Bharti has to prove a lot to itself and its investors. On the face it looks expensive, But Mr Mittal knows more for sure, otherwise he won't be looking beyond India.

So,What do we learn from the deal, Is Indian market getting too full?
We hardly know anything about the african markets
Strangely so this blog has been accessed by people from all inhabited continents except Africa...

Gyan chain

Sitting through finance electives and listening about philosophy, I wonder what is the source of knowledge. Where do new thoughts emerge, most fields like IT borrow concepts from real life to build architecture, for example, we have abstraction, inheritance, encapsulation as object oriented concepts. Also in finance, a lot of ideas seem to be brought in from physics, life sciences, even philosophy.

So I thought about a gyan chain..
Most gyan flows from philosophers, the greek kinds Platos etc.

Next are the Physicists, The newtons the Einsteins....
And then comes the economists...
Well there is actually a subject called econophysics, where fractal analaysis is used on derivatives.

They are followed by Finance and Marketing which borrow from Economics.
marketing was pulled out of Economics by the like of Kotler.

So essentially a brilliantly thought concept flows down the gyan chain.

Wonder where MBA grads sit in this chain.!!!

what on EARTH HOUR

A few days back, Earth hour was called for by WWF to promote awareness about climate change. The cause was championed by few thought leaders of our batch. It was communicated to the whole campus by email. It was decided to pull the plug out for street lights and common areas. Many individuals decided to take initiative to switch their own lights.

D-Day
On the D-Day at 8:30, the electrician, decided to switch the lights off for the residential hostel along with the street lights. Either it was poor communication or the electrician was a real environmentalist, the net result was a bunch of unhappy folks. Although the Earth hour was a partial success, the subsequent mail chain that happened late that evening made it memorable. Following are some of the best ones.

Dear,


Well, this is a great initiative taken by you and a very noble one too. But, you must understand that you cannot force your views upon the rest of the world. Its a good thing that you have voluntarily switched off your lights and those of my lobby and staircase. But taking out the power in my room is just pushing it a bit too far. Please don't turn into an extremist. ;)

Another brilliant one followed soon.

I too was observing the “Earth hour” with my lights off.

Then some *@$#%^ switched off the mains and cut off the fan too.
Not once did he think that people could fall off stairs, including kids in ‘B’ block.
Then it occurred to me that it could have been the “Dark hour” for someone.
Now I am sitting with all lights, etc. switched on. Don’t force things, PLEASE.
Raj Thackeray is looking for people like you (the one who switched the mains off). GO APPLY.

And the best one, this guy was not sure who switched the mains off.

I was walking down the stairs when suddenly the lights went out and I almost stumbled. The face of the culprit was camouflaged since it was dark and blended well in the blackness. I did see a bear like figure, but cannot say whether it was was whether it was a baby bear or just a T-shirt.


Is it the return of the Monkey man ? Or is it Bhalu-Manushya? Or is it something more sinister...... as in 'Andhera Kayam Rahe' ?

 
PS. Ours is a very environmentally concious batch, some guys were worried about safety, most were just having fun....
 

Ticker is God...

During one of our finance courses, while appreciating the power of markets, Our prof who is not very conversant with Gujrati said, "Pattiya bhagwan che". i.e Ticker is God. A simple line that holds a deep meaning. So deep that it transcends language, culture and way of thinking.

It says that  "Markets are never wrong, Opinions are".

But is it not too easy for the market????
Everybody tells their opinion by buying or selling, markets just do a sum total and hands out a verdict.

Its the investor who try and guess this sum total, falter or make money, consider markets their bread earner, and treat it like god.

OB Courses....

XLRI is the best school when it comes to Human resources and Organizatioanl behavior courses among many other things. All programs typically have some HR & OB courses. While explaining about the use of CRM externally and internally, a professor delved into OB fundas.

He asked, "How many OB cousres did you guys undertake"...
Promptly a reply came...."Sir, Life is an OB course".

Change delivered?

A leader who promised change, rose to the occasion to win a vote for a health care bill he favored. President Obama in his speech after the acceptance of the bill proclaimed "This is change". With that trying to answer his critics, who always questioned his abilities to deliver his campaign promise of "Change".

This blog does not indend to evaluate Obama or the healhcare bill, rather the focus is the intangible concept of change. The late night comedians and the Pro-Republican Fox news network never missed an opportunity to ridicule and crack jokes on the term. Yet the promise and expectation of Change has changed the face of American politics. With several leaders all over the world trying to follow suit, and several books on the success of Obama campaign around, the real challenge for Obama is to deliver change.

Change is harder to deliver than to talk about. It is the need of people to have things fixed around them, this discomfort is the need for change. To deliver change Obama has to put America back on track and take Americans away from discomfort. The world including the upcoming stars India and China need America to do well. The economy, jobs and lives depend on America, Obama  and the intangible change.

With such expectations on his shoulders, Obama works with the media watching his each step. Presidential approval ratings and popularity polls add on to the pressure. With the upcoming election, Obama did the  best for himself by demonstrating strength and intent to do change.

It is for all to see whether Change is actually delivered or not.

Swim to Ajit

Warren buffet in his 2009 Berkshire Hathaway newsletter writes about a rising star in his Insurance business. I do not want to write this blog just because, Ajit Jain is a recognizably Indian name, it is for reasons beyond it. Mr. Buffet has a keen eye for business and more. He sees potential, in enterprise and the enterprising. His articulation of apprecation deserves appreciation. Following is an excerpt from the news letter....

"A hugely important event in Berkshire’s history occurred on a Saturday in 1985. Ajit Jain came into our office in Omaha – and I immediately knew we had found a superstar. (He had been discovered by Mike Goldberg, now elevated to St. Mike.)

We immediately put Ajit in charge of National Indemnity’s small and struggling reinsurance operation. Over the years, he has built this business into a one-of-a-kind giant in the insurance world.

Staffed today by only 30 people, Ajit’s operation has set records for transaction size in several areas of insurance. Ajit writes billion-dollar limits – and then keeps every dime of the risk instead of laying it off with other insurers. Three years ago, he took over huge liabilities from Lloyds, allowing it to clean up its relationship with 27,972 participants (“names”) who had written problem-ridden policies that at one point threatened the survival of this 322-year-old institution. The premium for that single contract was $7.1 billion. During 2009, he negotiated a life reinsurance contract that could produce $50 billion of premium for us over the next 50 or so years.

Ajit’s business is just the opposite of GEICO’s. At that company, we have millions of small policies that largely renew year after year. Ajit writes relatively few policies, and the mix changes significantly from year to year. Throughout the world, he is known as the man to call when something both very large and unusual needs to be insured.

If Charlie, I and Ajit are ever in a sinking boat – and you can only save one of us – swim to Ajit. "

Adaptability

Adaptability as per wiktionary is, "Variability in respect to, or under the influence of, external conditions; susceptibility of an organism to that variation whereby it becomes suited to or fitted for its conditions of environment; the capacity of an organism to be modified by circumstances". It is a key to survival, if we believe in the Darwin's point of view.

Either ways, adaptability is what allows some of us to settle down and perform sooner than others. In this competitive world, adaptability is a must have.

From a stable life at Houston Texas, where I was working as an IT consultants at Houston to XLRI, Jamshedpur has been an something that called for the ability discussed in this blog. It is hard to say whether it is the amount of change or the variety which is harder. In my example let us consider the changes.

Lifestyle : Professional in a Job to Student at a B-school
Culture : Liberal American to Conservative east Indian
Family : With family to Loner
Earning : DINK status to Double Fees
Exams : Appraisal to exams, quizes, in class assignments, Presentations

Lifestyle change is strenous physically, You are moving from one pattern of 9hrs working to a strange 20 hr day filled with activity.

Culture change is more confusing, there are people who detest you for quoting American examples in class, though some folks understand.

Family or lack of is emotionally draining.

Earning change has financial impact and affects lifestyle. The ever building up EMIs does take a toll especially during the placement season when people come out with their NPV calculations.

Exams remains similiar, there is pressure as this is indicative of success or failure. From an annual appraisal it becomes almost a weekly check.

Joining XLRI was a sum total of all the above changes, I realized the pressures involved and accepted that this was the biggest test for an MBA. Early adapters always spike initially, and competive spirit drives adaptability and viceversa. With time adaptability plays a lesser role and other factors dominate performance.
Setting up targets are essential, knowing oneself to be an early spiker or a consistent player is essential too. Knowing when to push and when to take it easy.

Right now with the end of this programme, it is a time to sit back and introspect, You just happen to read this blog at such a time.

Now let me adapt from being a blog writer to a finance student reading about what Mr. Buffet has to say about his companies performance and strategies.

Some Soundtrack

I watched the  movie "Darjeeling Express"
It was hard to figure out what the movie was about
Mostly it felf like a waste of time
Three firang guys going around in India.
Not sure if it was comedy or not..
Appreciate if someone can help me understand it.

But one thing was for sure...
It had an amazing sound track...
The Song "This time tomorrow" by kinks is a master piece.
But what really stayed on with me is this piece of humming.
Somebody told me that it is from an old hindi or bengali movie..
Appreciate any pointers.


Meanwhile enjoy this piece....