Theory P Management

The Bangalore dispute had gone out of hand.....my best guy was poached.....how to retain the rest?....stagnant sales.....and to top it all, the doc's grim look and the long list of tests I had to undergo.....my low bp was bothering me.......what the hell?? I thought I had enough to get tensed about and here I was with "hypotension" syndromes....
I woke up with a headache....I knew I had a bad day ahead....everything seemed grey....it was 6 am....everyone was asleep....I walked to the balcony...the potted plants needed attention....a creeper was overgrown and quite unmanagable....it looked helpless and untidy....I carefully picked up a long fragile leafy green branch.....and felt it....it was soft and lush....so was each branch....each one had its own value....they only needed to be organised a bit and put back into place...."Beauty in an organization is in collectivity,in team spirit and not in individuality...your best guy has left you...in that case he is not your best guy...See to it that all your guys are happy with each other...happy to work together..."...I tied one leafy branch to the pole that was planted in the middle of the pot.....and then another....I plucked off the yellow leaves....it looked much better...."The best way to avoid dead stock is to track the movement on a weekly basis....take a physical count of your stock every week and match it up with your system....identify the items that don't move....why aren't they moving? Are they not being pushed enough? Are they priced wrongly? Or are they simply out of fashion? Take a decision accordingly....and REMEMBER the lesson you have learnt..." I dug the mud in the pot for more aeration....and watered it....watered every leaf carefully...."every person in your organization is important."..... It was picture perfect.....I looked at it with satisfaction....The sun was up....the fresh green leaves of my creeper were glistening with water droplets on top of them and looking up at the sun....and a light morning breeze was gently caressing them.....I took a deep breath...and smiled....I was looking forward to the day.....

And the Winners are....

The Fortune 500 list, at least on the top rungs continues to maintain a constant composition for the past few years. Once again, in 2006, Exxon Mobil, Wal-Mart, General Motors, Chevron, Ford Motor, Conoco Philips, GE, Citigroup, AIG and IBM have topped the charts with a slight permutation in the rankings. The big question is, shall we see the same list in 2056? Addressing this question becomes a bit easier after having a look at the industries that may be expected to rein supreme fifty years down the line. The top Fortune 500 industries in terms of return on revenue are: crude oil production, retailing, banking, communications, pharmaceuticals, insurance, metals, home builders, computers and automobile. It is not an exaggeration to expect a bull run for growth of these industries owing to an optimistic picture in global infrastructure and services industry. Even though the company-industry correlation may not be perfectly positive, it is probably a safe assumption to make that majority of the top Fortune 500 companies in 2056 will emerge from these industries.
From the existing toppers’ list, I am tempted to reject General Motors, given the current crisis situation of the company. The downfall in ranking for the company may not be too heavy, but it looks like that GM may not be able to stick to the slot of the top ten. Wal-Mart is expected to remain the topper owing to its aggressive foray into the international market and the fact that the retail industry is poised for a phenomenal boom in the recent future. Home Depot, even though a “category killer” in retail should not be far away from Wal-Mart, the current ranking for the same being 14. The winners’ chart should also see Exxon Mobil among the top five owing to its remarkable R&D efforts, innovations in upstream and downstream operations and also due to exponential growth in oil demand. Marathon Oil is catching up too and given it may not be very far away from Exxon Mobil. Google and Amazon.com, even though they not figure among the top hundred, might just make it to the top ten keeping in view their remarkable innovations and operational efficiencies. In fact Google has bagged the 15th rank among the fastest growing companies on Fortune 500. Ford Motor should continue to enjoy its leadership in the automobile sector and is expected to topple GM by a considerable extent. From the banking side, Citigroup will continue to play steady as it still has a good edge over most banks and its competitive edge lies in its volumes of operation, customer retention and marketing strategies. In fact, Bank of America is expected to be in tie with Citigroup as both are at cut throat competition with each other. GE is expected to stay on the toppers’ list as well owing to its lust for innovations in home products to financial services.

So the winners are:
Wal-Mart
Exxon Mobil
Citigroup
Bank of America
Ford Motor
Home Depot
General Electric
Amazon.com
Google
Marathon Oil

In today's age of MNCs, Amul is probably amongst the very few indegenous companies that has remained a leader in its own field. Dr. Kurien's vision of integrating the rural women of western India under one corporate umbrella called Amul has seen much more beyond than just India's no.1 rank in milk production. Prior to the white revolution, co-operative farming was a myth. A perishable product like milk was over produced and wasted. Dr. Kurien combined "social entrepreneurship" with an economic bent of mind to actually revolutionise the dairy industry in India and today the country boasts to be the world's largest milk producer. The revolution called Amul has provided self employment to millions of rural women and it has provided an "assured market" at remunerative prices for the producer. Amul has completely overhauled the marketing system of diary and today milk produced is being marketed by an "enhancement package". The company has done away with middlemen who were the key determinants of the extent of the farmer's profit and today profit goes directly to the producers. A striking aspect of the Amul model is that, in its complete revolutionary measures, it has not disturbed the farmer's own model of production. In a way, "agro economics" are in place. Its massive networking has not only given it volumes and economies of scale, it has also kept the smallest producers within its folds. This model could be extended to different small scale unorganised industries also. For example, the rural textile industry which operates on a small scale is poised for a phenomenal growth. But the lack of marketing and the lack of corporatization has not seen a boom so far....despite the advent of the quota free regime. The beneficiaries of the Multifibre Agreement are only the big names in organised retail. Kanchipuram of Tamil Nadu is of course organised to a significant extent and it is an international brand name today. It makes sense to look at the plausibility of Kurien's model for the textile industry in India too...ITC has organised the agri market to a considerable extent through its e-chaupal, which of course is a different model but is based on the same principle of "social entrepreneurship with an economic bent"...why not the textile sector now? Let's make rural India our strength and tap the untapped resources before another East India Company does it for us...

I have always believed that the solution to any geopolitical problem is more in economics than in politics. The problem of the nature of the dispute on Kashmir has had its share of discussion in major political circles and solutions proposed for the problem have ranged from a U.N sponsored government or a joint Indo Pak government to simply independent Kashmir. Feasability of such governments for a trial period of hundred years similar in line to the Hongkong-China case has also been examined. All these proposals have their own set of problems. So will any solution driven by economics.

Let us first have a look at the issues involved with the Indo Pak problem: Kashmir, cross border terrorism, water sharing disputes, Siachen, the recent Baglihar dam case and the fifth "p" of the marketing mix: "people". Let us now drift towards a bit of philosophy. A fusion is always more desirable than a fission. A political union of South Asian countries could be a plausible option. When you are part of the larger cake, you tend to behave yourself as the rottening effect of one part spreads to the whole cake. This should solve the issue of cross borrder terrorism. It is probably not as simple as "no borders...no cross border terrorism" but this is definitely expected to cater to the problem in a significant manner. A South Asian Union will see a huge market for industries. There will be an overall shift from politics to economics. The kind of foreign inflows that are going to take place will provide a platform on the same level as China. Critics are likely to term this as futuristic"....well, the problem NEEDS a futuristic solution....Former world war foes are part of the same economic union today....well that's an "ECONOMIC" union and not a "POLITICAL" one. It is true that it will take a lot for a political union to materialise. The will and the drive from both countries should take care of it. India is possibly going to play the "big brother" in such a union and she will have to grapple with her own fair share of problems. A South Asian Union COULD later materialise into a South EAST Asian Union in the future with China being part of it. The bigger union should have a strong voice in most international lobbies like those with WTO. The muscle involved in such a union will be driving force for economies of scale in the member countries....and the risk is worth taking....as the returns are more than proportionate. But it seems that the "WILL" is simply not there. It is bull headedness to keep egos at high levels and it makes every sense to some together for a fusion... Kautilya in his Arthashastra said that "any neighbour is an enemy or a potential enemy" and it looks like this holds true. But the enemity could be held at controlled levels through common interests in the form of economics.

My internship at Karvy Comtrade Ltd. has given me an insight into commodities broking. I have always believed that a summer internship project is more than just a project. I felt that learning the organizational culture forms a major part of the entire learning process. The organizational culture is pretty informal and comfortable. It is a young organization run by young people. Even senior positions are occupied by the young age group. It is the kind of organization that one reads of in management books on organizational structure. Everything seems to be in place. I would have loved some disorder, actually.And one striking aspect is , people are PATIENT, despite being young and dynamic. In short , you actually find dynamicism combined with maturity. I love that combo.I would describe Karvy as a blend of Indian and American culture. On one hand you find the " perform or get fired" aspect , on the other you also find a slight conservatism on the part of the male population in terms of their opinion on women and the existence of an executive cafeteria is a reality.Female employees are few and far between; the same occupying senior positions are even less. I am not sure if that communicates anything ( in terms of the corporate glass ceiling). Canteens are VERY Indian, in fact very SOUTH INDIAN! Anyways, I have stopped complaining on that long back. Food is just a four letter word now.We have state of the art technology and people are willing to learn , teach and share resources. Goals are ambitious and reasonable at the same time. Hoping to learn more...