cosultants forum issue no 124 - · pdf filethe latest scandal at volkswagen, a reputed car...

1. President’s Message

2. Editor’s Note

3. How to be SMART Manager-Mr. Sharu S. Rangnekar;

4. Business Ethics and Profession-alism-Dr. Mosharraf Hossain;

5. Consulting for start-up ventures-Prof. Rajat K. Baisya;

6. Trusteeship in CSR and good CSR Model-Dr. R.N. Prasad;

7. Authenticity and Networking-Mr. Suneel Agarwal;

8. Bonus for Law abiding Citizens-T. Ramaswamy;

9. Management Consulting for NGOs-Mr. R. P. Mohapatra

10. News from IMCI Pune Chapter;

11. News from IMCI Mumbai Chapter;

12. Members making News

13. New Members

Issue No 124

Contents

Dear Members, My Greetings to you and your family.

At the outset of my term – I had outlined a few tasks that were to be our focus areas for the year.

- Increasing value to Members and increasing the number of members

- Getting IMCI better known

- Ensuring CMC remains the cornerstone of a user choice when a consultant is required

- Driving up the demand for consultants and ensuring that such demand comes to IMCI

members

- Strengthening the Constitution and operations of IMCI

- Finalizing the Reaccreditation for CMC with the global Body

I am happy say that by the time of AGM will be in a position to discuss all these at the AGM. We will be announcing the dates of the AGM shortly – we await the finalization of accounts. The delay in consolidation of accounts from chapters has become chronic and I being taken up as a part of streamlining operations.

On the compliances side the organisation has seen itself register for Service Tax – as we are not likely to be exempt anymore.

My personal request to the members is to reach out and enroll more members.

As we pack our calendar with lots of activities, we seek to make the year transformational with your active collaboration.

Anuj Bhargava President IMCI (Year 2015-2016)

COSULTANTS FORUM

Global Perspectives

CMC means the Consultant meets the world class standards of competence

Issue No 124

CONSULTANTS FORUM

Dear Readers

We have great pleasure in presenting the September 2015 issue of Consultants Forum. The issue includes articles on the areas of interest to consulting community. How to be a smart manager, business ethics and professionalism, consulting for start-up ventures and NGOs, importance of authenticity and networking, equity and justice demand are some of the topics covered.. The issue also highlights the activities at Pune and Mumbai chapters of IMCI. We hope other chapters will not miss the opportunity of sending highlights of the activities of their chapters in the next issue of Consultants Forum.

Business Ethics and Professionalism have assumed greater importance in the present complex economic environment. Dr. Mosharraf Hossain has made interesting observations. Pursuit of wealth and fame sometimes blurs the vision. Deceit and lies overcome the virtues, values and deeds which should benefit the society. The latest scandal at Volkswagen, a reputed car company, which is facing serious charges of cheating is an example. To quote The Guardian (24th September 2015),“The company has admitted that 11m cars were fitted with the defeat device and has set aside euro 6.5 billion to pay for the cost of the crisis. ----Fitting 11m cars with a piece of software which artificially reduces vehicle emissions during regulatory tests is not the work of few rogue employees. That decision was taken and put into action by people of reasonable seniority.----”.

Professionals are value bearers of the society. Skills and expertise are not enough. Doctors, consultants, lawyers, engineers and others need to follow the norms of commitment, integrity and values to be qualified as professionals. They should be trusted implicitly. We put our lives into the hands of heart surgeons because we trust them implicitly. Consultant-client relationship and doctor-patient relationship are protected under the laws of ethics. We do hope members will share their experiences on this important subject in the forthcoming issues.

Mr. Sharu S. Rangnekar in his usual style has communicated the essence of becoming a smart manager. To manage smartly you need a sense of Mission, sense of Action and sense of Loyalty. This sums up what management is. One chief executive said: “ If my people know what their goals and objectives are and rowing with vigour in the same direction as a loyal team, I have not to worry about growth and profitability of the company.” We are all good at fancy power -point presentations but poor in implementation and execution of the projects and plans.

Prof. Rajat Baisya has written on “consultants for start-up ventures”. He mentions that most people who start new ventures in service sector are young and some of them are fresh from college and universities and even college drop- outs. According to NASSCOM , 70 percent new ventures in India are started by young people below 30 years of age. He also mentions a figure of very low success ratio. Do we need to teach entrepreneurship as a discipline? It is something like saying that many successful leaders did not undergo any formal training in leadership. Does it mean that training in leadership development is not relevant? It is the mode of training which needs to be looked into. In case of entrepreneurship, only theoretical training is not enough. I have personal experience of working in Sub-Saharan African Region in this area. We used the term “hand-holding” which means that consultant works with the entrepreneurs at all important stages of setting-up the venture from the stage of writing business plans, organising funding, training of people in the related discipline and helping them to locate markets for the products and services. This kind of approach was more successful rather than only class room lectures. From that point of view even MBA Programmes need to be oriented towards industry needs and equip the students with better practical knowledge.

Mr. Mohapatra has mentioned the importance of consulting for NGOs. Mr. Ramaswamy has lamented about the present political environment in the country. Dr. R.N.Prasad has written that CSR is business ethics and should be in-built into the functioning of various activities of the corporate sector. Mr. Sunil Agarwal mentions that productivity and enhanced performance breed in an environment of trust.

We highly appreciate and thank the authors for their contributions. This is a forum for sharing your thoughts and experiences.

Ramesh S. Tyagi

[email protected]

Issue No 124 E-News Letter September 2015 page 3

How to be SMART Manager Sharu S. Rangnekar

The first difficulty in deciding how to be a smart manager is to understand what is a smart manager. Once Boswell

(disciple of dictionary maker Johnson) asked Johnson, “How to synonyms (several words with the same meaning)

come in a language?” Johnson replied, “Because stupid people use the language - so they use different words as if

they have the same meaning!” Boswell again asked, “Then how do at sometimes the same word has different

meanings?” “That is because smart people use the language - so they use the same word with different meanings.”

To avoid getting different meanings, we may define smartness as the quality of an individual to access his situation,

its requirement and adopt these to get things done. Whenever we face a situation we have three ways of thinking:

1. What would happen: This is the approach of the Predictive manager.

2. What should happen: This is the approach of the Philosophical manager.

3. What could happen: This is the approach of the Smart manager.

As Josh Billing has put it: Smartness is measured by the level of common sense one has - not by education or

knowledge. Thus smartness can be called organized common sense. This can be understood by examples illustrat-

ing situation where a smart manager has to work with a team to get the best results.

I have a personal experience to cite. The first job I got was “executive assistant to production manager”. The salary

package was good but there were no subordinates. When I mentioned this to my father, he asked me to have

patience. He said if you are getting this kind of money, surely you will get some subordinates.

After six months, I was confirmed and told that from the following Monday I shall get two subordinates. That was

obviously the best news of the day. But soon I was crestfallen. Given a job, the subordinates would argue with me

individually and collectively. And when they were not arguing with me, they would argue with each other and not

much work was done. I was so disgusted that I asked them to keep quiet and let me do the job entirely by myself.

So when the boss gave us an assignment, I sat up till 8 pm every day, completed it and gave it to the boss. He said,

“You have done it quiet well”. I said, “I had to do it all by myself because the subordinates you have given are

useless. He asked me, “Did you do everything yourself?” I said with sense of pride, “Yes”. He said, “Then you have

no future in management!”. You have to get work from arguementive and useless subordinates. You can’t get

performance working only by yourself. The higher you go the situation will worsen. So you have to be a smart

manager who can get things done by others. If you can’t, better start “teaching management”. I asked him, “But

how to be a smart manager”. He said, “In this large organization, there are several departments. Some of the

managers are worse than you, but some are better than you. Observe them and experiment to get experience”.

When you study your own experience, you realise that getting people to work with you at any level (higher, lower or

equal) has three problems (3 E’s) Ego, Envy and Expectations. If the other person’s ego is affected adversely he will

not work well with you. Once his jealousy is aroused he may work against you and if you cannot meet his

expectation he will get frustrated and stop working. To overcome the three “Es” you have to establish:

· Sense of Mission

· Sense of Action

· Sense of Loyalty.


SENSE OF MISSION

The managers getting results have to create a sense of mission – everybody coming to work feeling: “I am going to achieve

something today.” These people are perpetually on a “project” – which never gets completed. As soon as they achieve some

target another target comes up! From loss if they make profit, more profit is desirable. So there is always a mission which

takes people to higher and higher achievement. These managers do not give a big list of what they are going to achieve.

There are only a few significant things. For example, when Mr. V. Krishnamurthy took over SAIL, he started with three

objectives. First, elimination of overtime. Second, modernization. Third, Customer Service.

Overtime in 1985-86 was nearly Rs.45 crores, but in a Rs.3000 crore company that is still not very much. As soon as Mr.

Krishnamurthy took over in 1985, he called the senior executives and said, “We are going to eliminate overtime.” They said,

“Eliminate? How can we eliminate overtime? This is a steel mill. Nowhere in the world steel mills work without overtime.”

He said, “Steel mills are going to work without overtime – and that would be in India. From 1st April 1986, nobody gets

overtime.” Why was this important? Look at the immediate impact it has on 250,000 employees. They feel something is

happening. We are onto something great – something which was never achieved before. They closed the year 1986-87 with

zero overtime! The production went down in the first quarter, came up to normal in the second and they closed the year

with the same production as the previous year. Next year, the production was 10% more, thereafter further 15%

more – without giving any overtime! Can you see the demonstration effect and the feeling of mission everybody gets?

Second step was modernization – a long term plan. In 1985, we were making steel with twice the energy that Japan used.

So Indian steel was probably the costliest in the world. Obviously we had to modernize. But modernization meant

investment of Rs.10,000 crores! Who will give such an amount to a company which is losing money?. Mr.

Krishnamurhty said, “We shall have to make profit.” Now they have made profit wiping out the accumulated losses and

leading to generation of cash. In seven years they generated Rs.10,000 crores for modernization.

Third step was customer service. SAIL was not working as a manufacturing-selling organization. It worked like a

rationing office. “How much steel do you require? “We shall give you half.” There after the customer negotiated to get

some more. “Whatever you want we may not give you. When we can give you, we don’t know – so how can we tell you?”

This was the approach. Mr. Krishnamurthy said, “This is no way of running an industry. The client must be

satisfied.” To satisfy the customer is important is a new idea in many industries in India! Thus there was a change brought

in.

SENSE OF ACTION

The second is the sense of action – people moving about. Progress is difficult – change is easier. Some action in some

direction is always possible. Whether the action leads to something very much better – only time will tell. We do not know

in advance. So one of the important things to do is to create action. Keep people busy. Again I look back at home. One of

the important things about most housewives is the way they keep husbands working. On a Sunday you may think of

relaxing. If the wife is at home, it is not easy. She always finds some work, because she believes that keeping people busy

keeps them out of trouble. So the action part is very important.

In fact, whenever you go to an organization, you can easily judge an effective and ineffective organization by the pace of

work. How people are moving. Sometimes even the most important things move lethargically. If you think Saturday

morning about organizing an important meeting on Monday, somebody says, “Well, how can it be done? In our

organization, a paper takes a week to go from one place to another. It can never be done.” That’s one kind of approach.

The other approach is: use mobile/e-mail to see that everybody comes to know about the meeting in a matter of two hours.


In private or public sector organizations, many managers have created these three senses: They created Sense of

Mission – even when the organization was facing a calamity. Somebody said calamity and opportunity are two sides of

the same coin. In that sense there is nothing better than getting a sick unit – because people are ready to clutch at any

straw. If you say, “Don’t worry, I am going to save the unit”, people consider you as a messiah. They want to believe in

somebody. In a well-running organization, everybody wants something from the organization. It is difficult to satisfy

everybody. But when a unit is not doing well, you can stand up and say (as John Kennedy said) “Don’t ask what the

organization can do for you, ask what you can do for the organization.” You would find people are ready to do

something for the organization. Then you can create the Sense of Mission.

You can keep on raising the objectives and avoid giving the feeling that we achieved everything. The worst thing that

can happen to an organization is the feeling: “We have reached.” Reaching is not the goal. It is the proceeding – that is

more important. To keep on getting results, the manager has to give people a feeling that they are constantly on the way

to something higher and bigger. I remember an interesting Hindi couplet: “Priti Pathaka uddeshya nahi hai prapta

bhavan me tik rahna, Kintu pahunchna us seema tak jiske agey panth nahi hai.” (You have to think of reaching where

there is nothing beyond). If you find something beyond you are going to proceed, Iqbal says, “Sitaron ke agey jahan aur

bhi hain.” (Beyond the stars are many a world).

SENSE OF LOYALTY

Last, but not the least, important task is the two way loyalty creation. If you show your loyalty to your people, very soon

you get loyalty. When you look at a mother and a child, you can see the highest feeling of loyalty. When I see a

three-year-old child with its mother, I purposely make an offer to the child. I tell the child, “Look at your mother! She

is so thin, not so smart. Why don’t you come with me to Bombay? I shall give you a nice big mother.” You know what

the child does? Immediately it sticks to its mother more closely! Of course, I can’t even start making a proposal to the

mother that I shall give her a fairer child. There is no chance of my even starting the negotiation. This intense loyalty to

each other is the authority they have over each other. All managers who get results have this authority. Smart managers

create Mission, Action and Loyalty – And that brings them results.

Obituary

We are sad to inform that Mr. Ravi Marphatia is no more. He left for heavenly

abode on April 18, 2015. He was a long standing member of IMCI from Mumbai

Chapter. May his noble soul rest in peace and God may give strength to his

family to bear this loss.


Dr. M. Mosharraf Hossain shares his views on three important issues: Business Ethics, Professionalism and need for change of Management style with specific reference to Business environment in Bangladesh.

Dr. M. Mosharraf Hossain

Business Ethics

To me in the context of business it means whatever we promise to our customers, we commit to our vendors or stakeholders, we must deliver that in the terms agreed upon by both parties. Every honest business person will certainly do that. For example: If a bank promises through announcement that customers will get their cheque cashed in two minutes time, meaning customers won’t have to wait in the queue for more than two minutes. Therefore, the bank is ethically bound to give cash to every customers in two minutes and not one second more than two minutes.

When talking about business ethics, I am always reminded of an interesting happening which I experienced with a big client of mine while dealing on head hunting. I head hunted hundreds of top and senior executives and thousands of managers and support service personal and for all kinds of business house, including multinational subsidiaries in Bangladesh and abroad. Once I was asked to find out one chief executive for a group for their trading division. I placed a very effective and experienced candidate who was at that time working in a multinational company in Saudi Arabia. He contacted me from there and an interview was arranged in Dhaka. After his interview with the owner, he was offered the job. But he was unable to join before three years as because he had just signed a contract to work in his current employment for three years. He will be willing to join my client’s group after three years. The client appreciated his spirit of frankness and asked him to contact after his obligation to his present employer was over. He was paid return airfare and other expenses for participating in the interview. Three years after he came back and joined the group as its Head of Trading Division.

Meantime, I forgot the entire thing. One day I received a call from that client’s office advising me to send somebody from my office to receive a cheque which was issued from the HR Department of that group of company. I sent my man and he brought an envelope, as I opened the envelope, I found a chuque in my company’s name amounting to an unbelievable figure. Not knowing what for this money was about, I found out in recent past we had not done any training or otherwise any job for which we claimed that amount of money. Finding no clue as what was the money for, I rang the contact person in that group. To my utter surprise, I heard his voice saying this was my professional fee (one month’s gross salary of the incumbent head hunted) for head hunting their Chief Executive Officer of Trading Division whom I placed three years ago for interview. I bow my head in respectful deference for this business house. This is called business ethics.

Just another reverse case (unethical). I put up a number of candidates for Chief Executive Officer position in a big private sector business group. Candidates were interviewed after about two months, since then several months have past. Meantime, I went to USA. came back after a month. I received a call from one of the three candidates who were interviewed earlier that he joined the group two months before. I contacted the group Managing Director but could not reach him. However, as part of the system I sent an Invoice to the company towards settling my fees.

After couple of days later, I contacted the HR guy who was in touch with me. She told me that the group will not pay my professional fees because they recruited the CEO after six months of my placement.

In Bangladesh we have both types of business houses. Unfortunately the number is more in the later one. Sooner we establish business ethics better we reach in a culture of ethics excellence.

Professionalism

Yesterday, January 3friday I was watching a health-related TV talk show in one of the local channels. At one point, the to discussants were stressing the importance of confidentiality regarding patient's disease that is expected to be observed by the physicians dealing with their clients. Just at that time, I was reminded of an event of historical importance which could be the perfect example of what the television talk show guest had been presenting.

Dr. Patel, was the personal physician of the late Mohammad Ali Jinnah- the father of Pakistan. One of the best books on Indo-Pak subcontinent independence in 1947 was written by Larry Collins. The name of the book 'Freedom at Midnight' which described vividly the perspective and happenings of the struggle for Independence of India.

Business Ethics, Professionalism and Management


Larry Collins writes in his book ''If Louis Mountbatten, Jawaharlal Nehru or Mahatma Gandhi had been aware in April 1947 of one extraordinary secret, the division threatening India might have been avoided. That secret was sealed in the gray surface of a piece of film, a film that could have upset the Indian political equation and would almost certainly have changed the course of Asian history. Yet so precious was the secret that film harbored that even the British CID, one of the most effective investigative agencies in the world was ignorant of its existence''.

In June 1946, the book narrated, ''nine months before Mountbatten's arrival, Dr. Patel had lifted those X-rays from their developing bath and discovered the terrible disease that threatened to put a rapid end to Jinnah's life. Tuberculosis, the cruel scourge that annually took the lives of millions of undernourished Indians had invaded the lunges of the prophet of Pakistan in the age of seventy''.

Dr. Patel, on request from Jinnah, had not disclosed about Jinnah's health to anybody. He never sacrifice his professional ethics at the altar of anything and did never share his patient's condition with others although he knew that it had so much to happen on the course of direction to independence movement.

Larry Colins went on ''Jinnah knew that if his Hindu enemies learned that he was dying, their whole political outlook could change. They might try to wait him into his grave to unravel his dream with the more malleable men underneath him in the hierarchy of the Muslim League.''

In the domain of management as a profession, confidentiality or privacy is considered a virtue wherever it is necessary. Information on strategic decisions if disclosed before it is officially announced can create major setback in the process of implementation. In the eastern world, and in many places in the east, executive secretary/secretary to the chief executive is seen to be a female. The idea having a female secretary in such important position is to safeguard secrecy of strategic matters as women are considered trustworthy and they are less likely to divulge secret information. In many organizations, a secrecy oath is administered to the staffs before joining the office and this aspect is very strictly followed.

Management Style

Today, most of the Bangladeshi corporate entities are characterized by a management style which may be dubbed as half Zamindari and half modern. Industries - big or small - require full appreciation of the use of modern management systems practiced by adequately trained human resources. Bangladeshi corporate tend to spend lavishly in acquiring state of the art machineries and show up most modern corporate floors with shining tiles, fashionable work stations and fabulously decorated board room. This is not to say that these are not required. But what is more visible is that much less efforts are given to the most important aspect of effective management which is development of Human Resources , talents acquisition and retention. In most cases, apathy is discernible to investing in the instillation of latest, cost effective and high productive systems. Hardly any thinking goes as how the money is being drained through leakage, pilferage in most cases, theft, misuse, mishandling of inventories and lack of attention to R&D, etc. Very few entrepreneurs have experience and mental capability to manage big enterprises.

A careful transformation to modernization from the above present state of affairs as hinted above is paramount to explore. Many may believe that it is not possible with the less efficient, less committed human resources that we have in store. It is true that we have shortage of trained managers and the people and institutions responsible for such talent creation have not performed their job well. Macro-level planners responsible for creating a vision that should have seen the continuous incidence of trained managers have miserably failed. Companies demand for efficient and trained managers have been disproportionate to the supply. The paucity of effective workforce at all levels coupled with entrepreneurs' parochial mindset or narrow vision have been responsible for this state of affairs. Exceptions are there and they are highly respected.

Companies need a complete transformation from conventional management psyche to more forward looking, innovative and time tested attitude towards corporate governing. The question to be asked is: do we intend to build a company for ourselves to enjoy life with pomp and grandeur or an institution for people to work for their self-development and national advancement ? Industries are built to make profit and that must be enjoyed by the owners and the community as well. Vision should dictate that the institution that we build be the best in terms of not only to multiply profit but to achieve excellence in governance. Governance to be perfect should demonstrate time demanded efficient management through optimal use of available technology and management in every aspect, be it HRM, Production, Supply Chain, Marketing, R&D, HRD, physical layout, interior work friendly environment and dispensation of welfare to the people internally and externally (CSR).

People all over the world have demonstrated good governance and created wealth for themselves and the society at large with the ingenious use of their human capital. We must remember that the wealth of the corporations is the wealth of the nation.

Dr. M. Mosharraf Hossain is the Chairman and Managing Director , Rapport Bangladesh Limited, Cell: 01713-006161


CONSULTING FOR START UP VENTURES

Prof. Rajat Baisya

Chairman of IMCI Delhi Chapter

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced in his independence day speech that this year will be the year of start-upsand he asked banks to lend money at district levels to dalit entrepreneurs. Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion will start working closely with banks to kick- start the governments Start Up India initiative in both rural and urban India. Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in a recent event in FICCI that the government would ensure that startups don’t run out of money and that their equity requirements don’t go unattended. There will be a big challenge for startups and that might offer some opportunity for consultants.

There are consultants in the market who have positioned themselves by choice in SME segment and or in family business segment to create differentiated identity for them. Some of them even are focusing again in some sub-segments of those areas to communicate to their target segments that they are highly specialised having domain specialisation. Of late, however, we can see that a breed of consultants are targeting start ups. Earlier our perception was that start ups can never afford a consultant and therefore, have to manage everything on their own. Perception is changing. Start -Up ventures now have funds coming from large businesses who would not like to be left behind after seeing kind of growth and valuation these new start ups are able to achieve in a digital economy.

The characteristics of start up companies now are significantly different from start up companies that we saw earlier. We had earlier all brick and mortar companies but today in digital economy most of the start ups are in e-commerce space. The significant departure in start ups are that they all provide service. Everything in business are now considered as a means of servicing the ultimate customers and therefore business models are fast changing. Big business magnates including personalities like Ratan Tata, Azim Premzi and Mukesh Ambani are all seen to be investing in new found start up ventures in their personal capacity.

Start up companies possibly have not seen anything better before. It is boom time for new entrepreneurs particularly for technology start-ups. Everyday there are new ventures being floated and they are coming up from nowhere with only an idea. Getting capital seems to be not difficult these days. Venture capitalists, Private Equity and Angel Investors are chasing bright ideas of youngsters. I have an association with a PE fund called Gaja Capital having Rs 1000 crores as corpus. My job as an advisor to them is to help them identify targets and bring the parties together for discussion for investment. Money is chasing the new businesses now a days which was not the case earlier. Capital was very scarce earlier and many new ventures got choked to death because they could not generate fresh investment when it was required desperately. But these days capital seems to be available easily. In a recent interview Kumar Mangalam Birla sounded a word of caution that capital funding is not possible for indefinite period and commented upon the functioning of e-retailers which are heavy discounters and expressed doubt if these models are feasible at all.

Earlier success rate of new enterprises were about 5-8 %. Success rate has not increased much and it is still the same but all new ventures are able to attract capital infusion which was difficult earlier. Look at the e-retailers –none of them are making money in the bottom line but all of them have huge valuation. Flipkart, Snapdeal, Paytm –all are losing at the bottom line but their valuation is always high and still going up due to investor sentiment arising out of their scalability and growth potential and more importantly speed of growth. Snapdeal whose brand ambassador is Amir Khan has reported a loss this year to the extent of Rs 1350 crores but their valuation has doubled to 4 billion USD during the same period. In a recent report in The Economic Times it is said that Flipkart’s valuation has surpassed the market capitalisation of India’s largest corporation-Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL).


In this new found opportunities start ups are being created by youngsters – fresh from college and universities and even college drop outs. The seasoned professionals even from multinationals are joining them and reporting to these youngsters. My friend Santosh Desai has raised a question in a recent article in The Times of India on the need of traditional management education as successful enterprises are being created by people with no experience, no management education and even guiding management graduates and senior manager who are reporting to them and therefore these youngsters have better knowledge about how to run business and create enterprise. They are even a very good and hard negotiator settling deal with seasoned negotiators including investors. Santosh Desai thus has raised doubt about the need of traditional management education that we offer in B-schools. The ball game now therefore, is different. The needs of the business are also now different. Earlier new businesses were struggling for survival. These days start up businesses are really working on faster growth and in that task our consultants will have defined role to perform.

These start ups need services to keep pace with their growth trajectory and therefore management consultants are hired by these start ups to help them grow faster, establish systems and control, managing risks, technology up gradation and help in valuation etc. There was an article in The Economic Times sometime ago talking about new breed of consultants who are working with start ups. These consultants are actually failed start up entrepreneurs. After failing to create success stories of their own they become consultants and they are in demand. As we say failure provides a great learning and that learning can be gainfully used to manage the new businesses. Management consultants will have to compete with this new breed consultants.

Lastly, I would like to talk about a personal experience. I was looking for a larger flat in Mumbai and a lady estate agent who took me to a building in the same society where I live and told me that some IIT students are living there as tenants but will vacate shortly. When I went to see that flat we found four young fellows with shorts and T-shirts are in that flat. One was seen to be lying down in bed room and other three were in drawing room. One of them was working on his lap top and another fellow was reading newspaper. When I told them that I am IIT Delhi professor – all four got up and said- ‘Sir, please have the seat’. I spent little time with them and have come to know that they are all from IIT Bombay pass out. I discussed with them to understand their business model. And do you know who were they? They are the promoters of housing.com- a successful start up venture. I asked them why they are operating from a residence and wanted to know if they have office. They told me they have 100 offices in India but they would like to operate from there only. After about seven days I returned to Delhi and read in the newspaper that their CEO Rahul Jadav has exited housing.com selling his holding and he is now trying to start yet another start ups on business analytics and Mukesh Ambani is going to invest in his new project also.

New start-ups are getting help from other start ups who have been already in the market place and created some success story. For example, calltax.com a new on line venture for payment of tax was struggling and they were not having any office and do not have money even to rent an office.Help came from Paytm who has offered their office premises free for calltax. They are helping each other. It is now totally a new kind of business environment. Are management consultants gearing up to offer service to these startups?

Obituary

We are sad to inform that Dr. S. R. Mohnot is no more. He left for heavenly abode on

Oct 4, 2015. He was former chairman IMCI Delhi Chapter and a long standing member

of IMCI. He was an economist and a scholar who had written a number of books and

was a member and office bearer of a number of professional bodies. His departure is

a big loss to consulting community. May his noble soul rest in peace and God may

give strength to his family to bear this loss.

Issue No 124 E-News Letter September 2015

Trusteeship in CSR and A Good CSR Model (Dr. R.N. Prasad, Ph.D, MBA, M. Tech, BE) *

Peace is an ultimate quest of the human being. No one wants unrest as there is no pleasure

involved in it. Whatever one does, it does to derive pleasure during the process or as an output of the action.

Today, the peace is the most sought after as Unrest has pervaded our life badly. The reason for Unrest lies in

existence of inequity in the society. When a creature is born on this earth, it is necessary that its basic needs must be

satisfied. It applies to all creatures – human beings or others. If basic needs are not satisfied, there will be conflict which in turn will

result into struggle. However, there is no dearth of the resources but unfortunately they are unevenly distributed. As could be easily

observed in our society, some are too wealthy whereas the majority strives for even basic needs. Such a

situation has created ‘divides’ or ‘Centres of Power’ in the society. The divides are in name of caste, creed, religion, nationality etc. and

hence the society is fragmented. What is the cure then?

Trusteeship: Tool for Management

Trusteeship is a concept with its origin in spirituality wherein one voluntarily relinquishes one’s right on wealth earned by him and

dedicates it to the welfare for those who are not so privileged like him. In ancient days, it was known as Aparigraha.

Trusteeship was looked upon by Gandhiji as a powerful tool to be used for alleviating economic and social disparity and

ultimately establishing lasting peace in the society. In other words, Trusteeship is a strong tool for bringing equity in the

society. However, in today’s democratic set up, it is thought that the power is a pre-requisite for bringing change in the society. But,

according to Gandhiji, ‘capture’ of power did not guarantee the end of injustice or exploitation. He did not believe in the ‘capture’ of

power by a few, but in the ‘accrual’ of power to the many (ideally to all). If power is the influence or control that an individual or group

acquires, or exercises over other individuals or groups in society, capture of power is not the solution. The answer therefore lay in

altering the very concept of power, in investing it with an ethical content, in freeing it from obsession with domination and coercion,

and relat ing i t to the function of promoting sel f-restraint , and init iat ing, inducing and

mobilizing collective action in pursuit of social objectives. How is it to be achieved? The answer is Trusteeship. However, the infusion of

the sense of Trusteeship in a person’s mind is a beginning of spiritual journey which will end in self- realization of one self. Without

invasion of spiritual thoughts, one cannot understand and implement the principle of Trusteeship and hence, it is not easy to traverse

on this ‘not so frequently’ traveled path unless conscious efforts are put in this direction.

To conclude with, Trusteeship’ is a solution to the problem of inequity or imbalance of power as the concept of Trusteeship

focuses on minimization of needs of self and dedicate the surplus resources for the less privileged section of the society, thus reducing

inequity and conflict in the society.

CSR: Tool for Corporate Trusteeship

Corporate World exists in the society. It draws its resources – material or human – from the society. It grows and develops due to

support from the society and its environment. In brief, every corporate entity owes to the society and must give its due back to the

society. The developmental/welfare activities undertaken by corporate world are popularly known as ‘Corporate Social Responsibility

(CSR)’ activities. The motto behind CSR activities matters a lot. If CSR activities are backed by the principle of Trusteeship, they can

p lay mirac le and br ing r ea l prosper i ty in t h e l i f e o f t h e p eo p l e . I t h a s p o wer t o

create society which will have least conflict and hence, maximum harmony in the society.

Conclusion—Trusteeship and CSR are interrelated. Trusteeship is a principle which should be followed by all. An individual can

practice it in his own life. He can minimize his needs and use surplus resources available with him after meeting his required needs, for

welfare of the society. Similar logic applies with group. Group can be social group or association or corporate group/company. If CSR

activities of a company are guided by Trusteeship Principle, the overall ‘Well being Index’ of its employees is likely to be higher than

those companies which do not carry out CSR activities at all or carry out CSR activities not guided by Trusteeship Principle. CSR

activities of such companies based on Trusteeship principle is likely to contribute to bringing and maintaining peace in the society.

Issue No 124 E-News Letter September 2015 Page No. 11

Authenticity and Networking

Mr. Suneel Agarwal,

CEO, Parichay Brand Consultants Yes, Sure, Definitely, 100%, Pucca are some of the polarized responses to requests for action.

People need to work in tandem. The world lives on interdependency. The best performers also rely on people other than themselves to achieve their objectives. Towards this end they find themselves reaching out to various people and ‘depend’ on them. It is however surprising how people look at these requests with different prisms. At one end of the spectrum to some it’s a casual enquiry and at the other end a definitive call to action for the others.

However, for some strange reason the response is heavily crowded at the casual end rather than a mean. People just don’t take these requests seriously and have you wondered why?

The reason is simple. They don’t take themselves seriously. They don’t see a request in the light that good performers do. They don’t surf, they plough. They not only take themselves seriously but also do what others expect of them. That someone has reached out to them is the start of the responsibility chain and the first link in the chain is an appropriate answer.

Appropriate doesn’t mean diplomatic. It means weighing the request earnestly - the need, their stance, their ability, the time frame, the prioritization. After weighing these options they decide and give an appropriate answer. The answer is the starting point of their internal commitment chain.

Saying yes or nodding an approval to a task is not a vocal utterance but a verbal action. The verbal is a verb of action. They calculate and spring into action to ‘honour’ the commitment. You may also argue that they may not always succeed. That’s for sure, you don’t always win every game you play or reach every destination you set your sights. The difference however is the intent.

When people begin a task the key factor is intent. How serious you are about your task. How committed you are. And this is more a universal approach of how you look at yourself and your actions. They tend to give each task its merit and take it seriously. So when someone makes an innocuous request they give it their full seriousness because that’s how they look at their journey.

Now the majority don’t take it seriously and scoff at the few who do. They justify their response as a reflection of the general trend and they are doing what most others are doing - following the trodden path. They wonder what the fuss all about is. They are causal and don’t get upset when they get the same currency in return.

And here lies the waste. The waste of dependency. The waste of reduced productivity. Living in an environment of casualness, distrust, devoid of any intent to deliver or the seriousness that is required for it, they don’t realize the underachievement of their endeavours.

Productivity, enhanced performance breeds in an environment of trust and the fertilizer of intent and dependability. With no pillars of trust or dependability to lean on, you are always unsure and on the edge, rather than developing the cutting edge. You always hope than be assured of a superlative performance. You always aim at getting things done at a threshold level than aim to excel. You look to pass rather than pass with flying colours.

So where did we begin. Saying yes. Yes, this simple innocuous yes is the foundation of your performance pyramid. And if you understand this would you give your yes a little more seriousness.

Say yes. But with a different intent. And see the difference.


BONUS FOR LAWABIDING CITIZENS Equity and Justice Demand

T Ramaswamy

In a democracy politicians are catapulted to positions of power by some unusual combination of circumstances. They enjoy a

mass base. They lavishly promise to do what they cannot do and what they will not do. But their existence depends on votes.

Somehow they make a following. Some of them fit in with the definition "a leader is one who follows". They blindly do what

the followers ask and not what is prudent. While opposing government policies and actions they firmly believe that their

duty is to oppose anything the treasury benches bring forth regardless of the merits of the case. In this process they mobilize

the support of a vast multitude of people who have nothing else to do except creating nuisance of various kinds.

Such nuisance includes laying road blocks, setting fire to public transport, holding demonstrations, organizing long and

often deep processions blocking the entire road, preventing even those who are in dire need of hospitalization reaching their

destination and several innumerable acts of nuisance and vandalism. Ultimately public property is damaged and even

private property is not spared.

Pelting stones is revelry for them. This causes injuries to many. When the police arrive on the scene many of them run away

and disappear. The leader is the first to escape. He believes in the escape philosophy practiced successfully by a leader who

led a team of fifty to a forest. The trek was interrupted by the sudden appearance of a huge leopard, which threatened them.

The great leader proclaimed (to instill confidence and courage in the followers) “Those who are afraid of the leopard fall over

me". The followers faithfully obeyed. They were on top and the leader was at the bottom. The leopard pounced on them and

snatched away one fellow who was on top. After it left the leader came out of his place of safely, coming-out of the clutches of

all those who were above him. He shouted: Has the leopard left? I knew it would. My strategy worked." He saved himself at

the cost of man on top.

Such leaders and their followers have a destructive mind. They give only loss and misery to those who are law-abiding. The

government grants them pardon and rewards them because their party is in power and they have the support.

In contrast a law-abiding citizen suffers all harassment. He does not cause any damage to life and property. He pays taxes.

But he is put to great misery and agony due the acts of the vandals. He does not get any incentive to continue his good

conduct and behavior. Is he not entitled to get bonus for his good conduct, help in preserving law and order and in helping

the government to conserve resources? Hence this appeal for bonus to law abiding citizens. This demand is fully justified

considering he folly and inequity of payment of bonus to those who produce nothing except unproductive paperwork.

T. Ramaswamy is Management Consultant and an author

[email protected]

Page No. 12


Management Consulting for NGOs: A Practical View

In my earlier article “Management Consulting in Public Sector: A Practical View” (IMCI New Letter, September 2014), I explained the scope and challenges of consulting to Government. This article is composed in the same line for Non-Government Organisations.

Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) work for the development of the citizens especially for the poor. Corporate use CSR mode to carry out similar functions under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). NGOs often work in line with the government policies by implementing and monitoring government developmental programmes. In India, NGOs do not hire highly technically sound human resource. Earlier, the NGOs were hiring students from Social Science (Economics, Political Science and Sociology). Few students from Humanities (Literature, Philosophy) also join NGOs. In fact, NGOs welcome human resource from all disciplines. Presently, many graduates from Social Work and Rural Management are joining leading NGOs.

The major consulting support often NGOs demand is documentation and research. Documentation refers to preparation of programme proposal, annual report etc. while research embodies conducting studies, evaluation or baseline survey. Many NGOs have field level extensions and the field personnel often assist the consultant for conducting the research work. Unlike, the prestige conscious government officials, NGO workers love to work in the field and also strive to learn from the consultants. Individuals with past experience in working with leading NGOs (CARE India, World Vision, Amnesty International etc.), worked in government programmes (MGNREGA, NRHM, NLM etc.) or worked with UN Organizations (UNDP, UNICEF etc.) normally turns to be consultant for Non-Government Organisations. Retired government officials especially technocrats like Agriculture officer, Horticulture officer, Forestry officer etc. also work as consultant to NGOs. Consultants with prior experience of monitoring and evaluation to government programme can also act as consultant to NGOs. Overall, expertise on the mechanism of the development sector at one end and technical know-how of research can enable anybody to be a consultant to NGOs. Consultants to NGOs may not possess any degree in management. But, NGOs demanding financial auditing, HR solutions (Staffing or Restructuring) or Project Management training demand qualified management consultants.

Working as a consultant to NGOs demands certain challenges. Travelling to the remote locations, understanding the demand of the target groups and grasp over local dialects (especially outstate consulting) are three challenges faced by consultants to NGOs. Besides, short duration of consulting assignment and comparatively low pay structure are two other challenging sides of consulting in NGOs. Often, NGOs are found to have conducted the field study by themselves and fail to analyse the data. For this they demand one week assignment for data analysis. Keeping apart some International NGOs (INGOs), often other NGOs bargain for consulting fees and go with low consulting fees compromising quality.

Rudra Prasanna Mohapatra, has been involved in Public Sector Consulting and Non-Government Consulting for more than one decade delivering services in planning, surveys and studies to departments like Tribal Development, Planning and Co-ordination, Public Enterprises, Panchayati Raj and Education for government of Odisha and Chhattisgarh. He is a management graduate from XIMB also holds post-graduation degree in Physical Anthropology from Utkal university. He has special interest in quantitative analysis and has undergone multiple online courses on Data Analysis and Surveys from oversea universities like Duke, Michigan and Johns Hopkins. He is a Freelance Management Consultant based in Odisha. (Views are Personal)

Page No. 13

Rudra Prasanna Mohapatra, MIMC


IMCI Mumbai Chapter

IMCI Mumbai Chapter organized a talk by Mr. Suneel Agarwal, CEO, Parichay Brand Consultants on the subject of “PERSONAL BRANDING” on Friday, 21st August 2015.

The synopsis of the talk

We live in a world of brands. Brands need no introduction. From kids to adults, from the modest to the affluent, from the simpleton to the experts, everyone knows the impact of brands. While the significance and benefits of brands are known to everyone, they have been confined to products and services. But is that the truth? Are Individuals brands too? Like products and services can professionals ‘build’ their brand? Can coaches develop their brands, and use it to their advantage?

Page No. 14


IMCI Pune Chapter

IMCI Pune Chapter organised “Faculty Development Programme on IPR Management” on July 25, 2015 in association with BVDU Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship Development (IMED) Pune.

Resource person was Dr. Bharati Dole.(M. Com, PhD, LLB.)

The objective was to create conceptual understanding of IPR and importance of IPR Management. Dr. Sarwate

(Renowned Management Consultant), Mr. Gankar and Mr. Shrikant Pangarkar (Chairman- IMCI, Pune Chapter)

were among the eminent guests who also attended FDP.

Dr. Bharati Dole started her session with reference to increasing IPR awareness in developing countries like Chile,

South Africa. Chinese companies like Huawei have surpassed even Philips which had retained the position of top

international patent filers for many years. In China, the share of domestic companies in patent filing is around 70%.

China has been transforming itself from a factory of fake and imitated products to IP intensive country.

As against, this general awareness about IPR and its importance is low in India. The rate of International as well as

domestic patent filing by Indian companies has been declining over the years. She introduced the managerial

aspects of IPR by explaining the design structure of IPR and how IPR can be utilized for the economic growth of the

country. We can overcome infringement of IPR in India by creating awareness about IPR. She suggested that

Industry as well as Educational Institutions should have their own IPR policy in place.

Page No. 15

Dr. Sachin S. Vernekar ( Dean - FMS, Director –IMED) felicitating Dr. Bharati Dole

Dr. Sachin S. Vernekar ( Dean - FMS, Director –IMED)

felicitating Dr. Sarwate

Dr. Sachin S. Vernekar ( Dean - FMS,

Director –IMED) felicitating Mr. Suresh Gankar Dr. Sachin S. Vernekar ( Dean - FMS, Director –IMED) felicitating Mr. Shrikant Pangarkar( Chairman- IMCI, Pune Chapter)


IMCI Pune Chapter

FDP Program held on 18th September 2015

A Faculty Development Program was jointly conducted by IBS Business School, Pune and IMCI, Pune Chapter on the 18th of September 2015. The program was conducted at IBS Business School, Pune. Prof. Rajendra Nargundkar of IIM-Indore conducted the program titled “How to research and publish nationally and globally”, which emphasized the importance of publication for the academic community. The program was attended by 30 participants representing members of IMCI and also educators and faculty from various Engineering and Management Institutes in Pune. Some of the issues which were discussed in the program included: the types of studies, controlling the lifecycle of a paper, importance of conference papers, and the various quantitative techniques used for research. One of the methods, “multi-dimensional scaling” was discussed in detail to demonstrate how this can be a useful tool for use in a marketing management paper.

The program was well received by the participants, who spend several hours discussing specific issues with Prof. Nargunkar, after the program ended formally.

Page No. 16


Page No. 17

"What is written without efforts is generally read without pleasure." Samual Johnson

“Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.—-Who knows why certain notes in music are capable of stirring the listener deeply, though the same notes slightly rearranged are impotent.”William Strunk Jr and E.B.White (1979) The elements of style—-.

“Writing has four pillars-structure, style, readability and grammar-and each pillar is like the single leg of a sturdy chair. Structure is about organization and deciding in which order to present your ideas. Style describes how one writes, including how to use specific examples to support what is written. Readability is about presentation, or how to make a document visually pleasing and easy to read. Grammar, including diction, is about expressing language in a correct and acceptable form.” (Royal, Brandon, 2004)


Members Making News

Page No. 18

Some of the Books written by T. Ramaswamy

Prof. Rajat Baisya

Special Invited Lectures

1. Education and Skill Required for Entrepreneurship- a special invited lecture delivered at India Islamic Cultural Center, Lodhi Road , NewDelhi on 25th July 2015 organised by Imamia Chambers of Commerce and Industry at E3 ( Education, Employment, Entrepreneurship) Summit & Expo 2015.

2. Family Business to Business Family-sustenance across generation- a lecture delivered as Guest of Honour at India International Centre, New Delhi on 1st August 2015 organised by Prospur Events at Family Business Summit 2015.

3. Global Market-Exploring the Opportunities to harness the Export Potential- a special invited lecture delivered at PHD House, August Kranti Marg, New Delhi, on 2nd September2015 organised byPHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry at National Seminar on Promotion of Agri and Horti Exports from India.

4. What it Takes to Create A successful Start-Up- an invited lecture delivered at Entrepreneurship Development Centre, School of Business, Amity University, Noida, UP on 17th September 2015.


Members Making News

Mr. Manoj Kumar Mittal, Member IMCI Bangalore Chapter gave a TEDx talk on "Getting Analytics to work" at the Analytics Symposium of Honeywell in Bangalore on September 25, 2015. He was invited as a member of IMCI and introduced as such.

Page No. 19

BOOKS AVAILABLE @ IMCI

The Institute of Management Consultants of India No. 305, Third Floor, Navjivan Commercial Premises Co‐Op Society Ltd., Lamington Road, Mumbai – 400 008 Tel / Fax.+91 22 23005375 Tel No. 91 22 23005376 Email : [email protected]; [email protected] Website : www.imcindia.co.in

mailto:[email protected]�

http://www.imcindia.co.in/�


Page No. 20

On-line Diploma in MANAGEMENT CONSULTANCY

THE INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS

OF INDIA is conducting an eDMC online course.

Any graduate from a recognised University who is interested in learning the

processes of the profession of Management Consultancy are eligible to register for this course. There is no specific requirement of age, experience, gender or

profession. As the medium of instruction will be in English, reasonable proficiency in the subject will be essential.

For more information and registration please email us on [email protected]; [email protected] OR call us on

Tel: 022-23005375/76

Certified Management Consultant

CMC = mark of excellence In selecting management consultants, clients are well advised to seek individuals who meet the profession's own standards of competence, ethics, and independence. Institute certification is a valuable aid in this quest. It is the mark of excellence among management consultants.

When you see the initials CMC following a consultant's name, it means that he or she is a Certified Management Consultant and has met strict certification

requirements of the Institute of Management Consultants in his or her country.

For more information and registration please email us on [email protected]; [email protected] OR call us on

Tel: 022 23005375/76


Page No. 21

Ram Nath Prasad Ahmedabad

Dayakar S. Murthy Bangalore

Anuj Sethi Mumbai

Sanjay Pituri Delhi

Ketan Thakorbhai Bhatt Ahmedabad

Bhavish Sood Mumbai

Venketswara Ravi Shankar Mumbai

Harish Chawla Mumbai

Sukant Ratnakar Mumbai

Vijay Shankar Laghate Pune

Girish Padmakar Atre Pune

Shekhar Rangnath Agharkar Pune

Jaswinder Kour Hyderabad

Ramachandra Aryasri Ankisetti Hyderabad

Vijaya Saradhi Badipatla Hyderabad

Rajeev Mathew Thomas Chennai

Rajiv Sajdeh Mumbai

Arjun Chhabra Delhi

Ravi Kapoor Pune

Sanket Sunilrao Deshpande Pune

Mithun Devanand Chennai

Narayan Datt Joshi Pune

Jerry Thomas Chennai

THE INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS OF INDIA

When you see the initials CMC following a consultant's name, itmeans that he or she is a Certified Management Consultant andhas met strict certification requirements of the Institute ofManagement Consultants in his or her country. The initials meanthe consultant has met world class standards of competence, ethicsand independence, and is eligible for reciprocity between ICMCImember institutes in 50 countries.

CMC = mark of excellenceIn selecting management consultants, clients are well advised toseek individuals who meet the profession's own standards ofcompetence, ethics, and independence. Institute certification is avaluable aid in this quest. It is the mark of excellence amongmanagement consultants.

What is a CMC?

IMCI Secretariat

The Institute of ManagementConsultants of IndiaNo. 305, Third Floor,Navjivan Commercial PremisesCo-Op Society Ltd.,Lamington Road, Mum – 400 008Tel / Fax.+91 22 23005375Tel No. 91 22 23005376Email :

Website :

[email protected]@gmail.com;[email protected]

www.imcindia.co.in

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