Given the depth and width of the Indian offering, we can have gourmet tourism as a serious global play and an effective way to position India to the world, Ramesh Jude Thomas writes Way back in 2003, I had this very interesting conversation with the Ministry of Tourism under Prime Minister Vajpayee. It was run by Minister Jagmohan and the very articulate Secretary of Tourism Amitabh Kant (of the Incredible India fame). It was indeed incredible that at the time India had fewer tourist arrivals (2.1 million) than a single location in the world viz. Madame Tussauds (2.24 million). The discussion was around a vast, diverse and multi-faceted destination unable to compete with the most attractive tourism brands in the world. Indeed, we had plenty to offer, but even today the big question still evades the travelling community: What is India about? Like one very well recognised client put it some time ago, “I wish we were more credible than incredible.” So lets look at some of the most visited tourist destinations in the world. France is thronged for its fashion and art, England for its royalty and countryside, Spain for its Latin charm and the US for its sheer energy. As you can see, all these places have a well-defined character of their own. What is India’s claim to fame? Surely tourists aren’t lining up outside Electronic City. This however begs an even bigger question — what really is India about? What might be the one thing that any country would find it hard to compete with us for? What could be the building block for a robust reputation? Our global partners at the time of this meeting were the leading name in our practice, boasting one of the most widely travelled teams in the consulting business anywhere. There were few countries they hadn’t worked in. However, whenever a trip to India was planned, the first query was never about the project itself. It would invariably be about the menu for the week-long stay in India. This was consistent to a man, with one insufferable English exception. Cut to 2014. I am in Delhi looking for a place to have a nice dinner after a long day. Zomato throws up hundreds of options but I was startled by one that had a rating of 4.8. How many can you think of with a score like that (with over 800 raters). I called a couple of local foodies to check for myself and decided it was a worthwhile experiment. It was an experience, which more than lived up to its billing. What was its magic? Simple. It offered the most simple of Indian fare, picked up from any part of the country and served it with style and sensitivity. I have been a regular since and have had no reasons to change my mind. I believe that food is one area in which most countries would find it difficult to compete with the depth and width of the Indian offering. This is reflected in the most important metrics of any brand or business valuation: High repeat purchase and high advocacy globally. How many business from India can claim this? So after a dozen years I am still wondering why we can’t have gourmet tourism as a serious global play and an effective way to position India to the world. There are several collateral benefits that go with this possibility. A multi-pronged ecosystem that creates jobs, exports, foreign exchange earnings, farming standards, cold chains et all. Think about this: if this can get us as many visitors as Paris does, it can over-take the IT industry. So instead of more arbitrage like Make in India, can we start cooking up something of our own for a change? After all, it’s not everyday that you have a sensation like Lady Gaga say that she’s always happy to go into an “Indian food coma”. And I bet what she is talking about is still a Bangladeshi version of what Britain claims is their national dish — Chicken Tikka Masala. The author is president and CKO, EQUiTOR Value Advisory (This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 24-08-2015)
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There are different kinds of fats, and the human body needs the uncooked fat and not the cooked one, Rachna Chhachhi explains Yes, you read it right. We need fats. We need fats for healthy brain and thyroid functioning and regulation of hormones, to control our mood swings, to lose weight, for a good skin, improved eye health, for absorption of fat soluble vitamins like vitamin A, D, E that ensure that we have a good immunity to fight off infections and diseases, and to lubricate our joints. But fat also makes us fat, clogs our arteries, gives us cholesterol, makes us lazy, hungry and cranky, makes us crave. Confused? Don’t be. There are different kinds of fats, and the human body needs the uncooked fat and not the cooked one. So how can you incorporate fats into your foods, and get the healthy benefits without gaining weight and getting heart disease? Use minimal oil in cooking. You don’t need fat that becomes carcinogenic on heating. Use an oil with a high flame point like canola, sunflower or mustard for all your cooking. This will ensure that the fat you cook with doesn’t get cancerous. Oils with low flame points get carcinogenic when heated at high temperature. Use as less as possible. Start the cold pressed oils. Extra virgin olive oil, flaxseed oil, evening primrose oil and virgin coconut oil are meant to be consumed without heating. Use them instead of butter for bread spreads, make dips with them, pour them on raw salads, and you will get the benefits of good fats that make you calm, increase your good cholesterol, burns bad fat and aids absorption of vitamins and minerals from food. Eat your nuts. I couldn’t emphasise this more. Eating nuts (except cashews) has been documented to raise cognitive memory, hence warding off the risk of Alzheimer’s and dementia. As working professionals, eating nuts in small quantities helps keep our brains sharp at work. A pretty good reason to keep a jar in the office for snack time, instead of the samosa! Replace the carbs. Eating good fats means that you are satiated faster, making your carbohydrate consumption lower, and hence your blood sugar better is regulated. This means that you are lowering internal inflammation, keeping diabetes at bay by reducing insulin sensitivity and raising your BMR. Choose oily fish. Tuna, sardines, salmon, mackerel, rawas, betki are all full of good fats. Have thrice a week for best benefits.Eat eggs. The age-old myth about eggs being high in cholesterol can be junked for sure. Eggs are the healthiest way to lose weight, stay energetic, stay happy. Two eggs thrice a week keep our haemoglobin up, our energy high, our hairfall less and our skins glowing. Follow the 70-30 rule. Thirty per cent of your calories should come from the above good fats, and 70 per cent from proteins, carbohydrates and raw fibre. This means that if you’re eating 2,000 calories in a day, 600 calories should come from good fats: which means 6 eggs a week (100 calories per egg), one tablespoon of good oils (150 calories), a handful of nuts a day (250 calories)and a portion of fish thrice a week (200 calories per portion), all averaging to 600 calories a day. This means the fat from your cooked food should be minimal. Do all the above, and see your relaxed, healthier, leaner side emerge. Question Of The Fortnight Send in your questions to askrachnachhachhi@gmail.com I am a vegetarian. How can I incorporate fish oil in my diet? If I take pills, how should I eat them? — Sanjeev Jain, Noida Dear Sanjeev, You can take omega-3 fish oil capsules (1,000 mg) that contain EPA & DHA (check the label), and combine these with a fruit like apple or papaya for better absorption. The author is a certified nutritional therapist and WHO certified in nutrition. She is the writer of Restore, a book on how to fight diseases for working professionals. Order your copy from amazon.in (This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 24-08-2015)
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India’s SCO entry is important as it recognises the legitimacy of its interests and role in Central Asia, writes Kanwal Sibal
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Through this book, Ibarra makes you realise that leaders need to act both within the functions or companies they lead and also within themselves, writes K.V.S. SeshasaiI once heard of a very successful area sales manager (ASM) who refused to get promoted despite a fantastic performance in one of the group companies. I dug deeper to find out WHY?The sales head of the company told me that the said ASM (let’s call him Guru from here on) would be coming to office for a sales review meet and I could meet him then. I met Guru who, to my surprise, had been an ASM for the past 10 years despite delivering year-on-year growth and stronger performance than ever before. He had won every possible sales award that there was. He told me something quite fascinating and what he said clearly tells you WHY some people make the cut and some don’t. He said that he was great at closing sales. He could make any sale happen but when he was asked to work with some other people on a project he just couldn’t bring himself to perform.Self-centred and egoistic, some might say. Let us dig a little deeper. Did Guru know his capability? Yes. Did Guru know his limitations? Yes. Did Guru know the impact of not working on his limitations? Yes. Did Guru want to work on his limitations? No. K.V.S. SeshasaiThis last question and its answer is the difference between a leader and those who are excellent salesmen, excellent sales managers and excellent operations managers. Give them a leadership task and the ones who act versus those who just think will make the cut.In Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader, Herminia Ibarra hits a sweet note in the way she builds a fascinating, articulate and accurate description of what shapes leaders and their success stories. The focus on the ‘act’ as the precursor of ‘think’ turns a lot of management gyan on its head.What is unique about Ibarra’s insightful assessment of the traits that shape leaders is the fact that she seems practical and pragmatic in the way she depicts the “Act” of leadership and cites real life examples. The ‘Outsight Principle’ seems plucked out of my own life where I have always observed that people who end up leading are those that left their comfort zones to acquire knowledge and experiences that drove them to Act.Too often, in day-to-day jobs, managers tend to get trapped thinking “how can I do what I do a little better”, whereas leaders think what they can do differently that changes the paradigm. That, to me, the very fact that someone is bridging boundaries, taking up new challenges and is willing and accepting change, is the person that I view as a future leader and that is what Ibarra mentions constantly.Something else that struck me about Act Like A leader, Think Like A Leader was the way Ibarra slices through the concepts of networking, authenticity and storytelling to differentiate the leadership styles of people. It left me thinking whether the passion for authenticity can sometimes be a drawback and that leaders need to probably craft new identities and new stories — the belief in which needs to be inward and the outsight thereafter will drive the believability in the outside world. Through a range of self-assessments, Ibarra manages to make you ‘Act’ and realise the changes that leaders need to act upon — both within the functions or within the companies that they lead and also within themselves.The book is also an excellent guide for new leaders who have just stepped into leadership roles and seek to establish themselves as visionaries and leaders of the future. From ‘Disconfirmation to Internalisation’, Ibarra weaves an excellent and very practical guide that can help young leaders truly step up and be counted.I must revisit the story of our star, ASM Guru. I well and truly believe that the reason he was scared of leading was because he was stuck in his ‘Competency Trap’. And that he would have made a terrific leader had he looked outside and acted.As a guide that can truly help you assess where you stand and thereby act, the book is an eye opener and a fantastic tool that uses the ‘Outsight Principle’ to change the way you see yourself and others as also how others see you. Creating the slack in our schedules to act differently can truly help us get started in the way we act and, to me, that is something that all young leaders should internalise. Who doesn’t like a young leader who can make things happen? I wish all young managers who aspire to lead to read this and get started, as change is imminent and it begins with you. Seshasai is CEO, Zee Learn(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 24-08-2015)
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Traditional examples, planning tools, benchmark data and models will not be able to help us solve the housing needs, wtires Sanjay VermaEarlier this month, Beijing became the first city ever to host both summer and winter Olympics, after it was awarded the 2022 winter Olympic Games. Beijing, which has little or no snow, will have to rely entirely on manmade snow for the games. By all means, this has been a bold and very ambitious move by China and going by its track record, it will make sure it showcases its organising prowess to the world yet again.One cannot miss the parallel track that’s part of this story about China’s approach in raising its cities’ profile. Beijing (Summer Olympics 2008), Shanghai (World Expo 2010), Guangzhou (Asian Games 2010), Shenzhen (Summer Universiade 2011) and Nanjing (Youth Olympics 2014) are few of the cities that have immensely benefited from hosting such events. Winter Olympic Games alone will bring $56 billion in investment, mostly for the Zhangjiakou region (a sleepy hill station surrounded by poor rural areas). Compare this to the $40 billion-plus investment in Beijing that went into the 2008 summer games and you will realise that in one ambitious stroke the government will end up urbanising yet another underdeveloped region.The point here is not to start the India-China debate. I cited the above example to show that large developing nations such as China and India require more than policy making to tackle the challenges of urbanisation. Apart from how China leverages global events to upgrade and showcase its cities, it’s evident from China’s success (and to some extent from India’s inability in the same space) that the government needs ambition, boldness, imagination and above all, extreme focus on execution to tackle the urbanisation issues, be it infrastructure, housing, income disparity, employment or environmental issues. It’s the last one, where China has not been impressive, that can derail the success story for it.I am certainly not advocating that the answer to urbanisation problems is hosting global events, but the fact that political will and national ambition have to be part of the big picture that goes above and beyond announcement of schemes and policy formulation. The case in point is the Commonwealth Games, which gave us more problems than benefits because of our narrow focus, poor planning and extremely inadequate governance towards execution. The trickle-down effect of the event towards urbanisation and development (which should have been the main objectives, because nobody really cares about the Commonwealth!) was cosmetic and too little.Urbanisation in India occupies an interesting place on the challenge-opportunity spectrum. India had the second-highest urban population in the world in 2012 and will perhaps be the fastest-growing urban population in absolute terms until 2020. This massive trend holds significant investment opportunity and economic potential, but it also creates challenges like poor infrastructure, lack of affordable housing, unemployment, pollution, crime levels and lower productivity.Prime Minister Modi has said on several occasions that urbanisation is often seen as a challenge and yet it can be the biggest opportunity for our country. I completely agree, and especially, at this juncture. If tackled with reasonable political will and a robust execution plan, urbanisation and housing-related investments will not only create significant employment but also become a major source of future GDP growth. Ironically, the challenge created due to poor handling of the urbanisation process in the past now gives rise to this unprecedented opportunity. The trick, however, is to grab it and not squander it away by leaving it to partisan politics and bureaucratic inefficiency.Perhaps, the announcement of initiatives (Smart Cities, AMRUT and Housing for All) by the government is the very first step in this direction. Apart from solving our urbanisation needs, these initiatives, if well executed, can bring to the Indian economy what China enjoyed for nearly 20 years, a very high growth. But given our track record of ‘policy to performance’ journeys in the past, this is a herculean task and unless the government supports it with clearly defined accountability structure and execution plans at the micro level, chances that these will end up being slogans, are quite high.At the very outset, there is a need for an immediate realisation that our existing government institutions responsible for implementing these initiatives may not be able to deliver on these bold and critical initiatives. There is a need to create new institutions that are focused, nimble and accountable to deliver. We need speedier decision making, agile approval processes and, most importantly, a pool of skilled executives who can be held accountable. The ownership of the overall programme has to quickly cascade to the lowest denominator i.e., city administration level. In other words, whilst the federal policies can create a broad framework, the real benefits and deliverables need to be formulated at the city level.There is another reason for a complete overhaul of the planning and delivery system and that has to do with the interesting/exciting times that we live in today where technology, innovation and disruption are causing changes that are too fast to be handled by traditional methods.Technology is rapidly changing the basic components of the urbanisation framework. The need and definition of mobility has been turned on its head with the advent of e-commerce and other Internet-enabled platforms. Services like Uber are challenging the basic assumptions for traffic planning and need for parking. Number of applications for driving licenses is already falling in countries where these services have gained momentum. As a result, car ownership levels, parking needs and the framework for office and residential buildings will have to be re-thought. This is just one disruption, we can well imagine the complexity when we start evaluating the total impact of this new ‘knowledge economy’ and how it will unfold in the coming years. The way people live, work and shop is changing more than it ever did. I believe its essential we change the way we look at urbanisation needs in the same manner.The writing is on the wall. Traditional examples, planning tools, benchmark data and models will not be able to help us as we embark on solving the urbanisation and housing needs for the next couple of decades.I am an optimist and a big believer in the India urbanisation opportunity, but we live in a disruptive world and there is work to be done. This time, we cannot afford to let it slip! (This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 24-08-2015)
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In its annual general meeting of 2014, Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani had talked about people centric policies in the company. The statement was important in the backdrop of the country’s second largest private sector company (largest private sector company in 2014) taking a plunge into the telecom sector, known for cut-throat competition. People who have worked with the Reliance Group of Industries since the Dhirubhai Ambani days say that the company is run in silos by the kith and kin of the Ambani family. This is perhaps the reason why the position of the chief human resources officer was vacant between 2009 and 2013 and then was filled with HR wizard, Prabir Jha, who came from the country’s most respectable conglomerate, Tata group of companies. The sudden exit of Jha and his position being taken over by one of the family members Hital Meswani raises questions over RIL’s top management’s ability to trust and work with professionals who are not a part of the family. Meswani, is the son of Dhirubhai Ambani’s cousin Rasiklal Meswani and was responsible for building some of Reliance Industries' biggest projects including the Hazira petrochemical plant and the Jamnagar refinery. Hital and his brother Nikhil have been the executive directors on board RIL, since the 1990s. The brothers, many say are close confidantes of Mukesh Ambani. Neeraj ThakurRIL inherited the culture of a traditional Indian business house, running through hierarchies and institutional clout of the family members to run the show rather than nourishing a talent pool of professionals. But the failure of RIL to take off in the retail sector was largely attributed to the company lacking a pool of decision making people at the middle and the bottom of the pyramid. To Change this, RIL had also roped in its partner company British Petroleum (BP) PLC, to bring in some of the best practices. The HR teams of RIL and BP worked together for a new performance and reward system, talent management practices, resourcing systems, and learning and leadership frameworks in various phases. BP's HR head David Oxley and Jha were jointly trying to change the work culture of a group that was used to implementing the ideas of top few executives of the company. Jha brought with him the employee friendly culture of the Tatas. Among his important decisions were announcements of a five-day week, increased leave entitlements and modernising performance appraisal processes to make it transparent. He also bought 58,000 film tickets of Bollywood hit “PK” for RIL employees and their families in Mumbai, which received wide media coverage and became the talk of the town. People who have worked with either of the Ambani brothers say that in the Ambani companies, “the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing.” Many times, more than four people are working on the same project with none of them knowing about the other. In the end the top management takes the decision on whose work is to be accepted. Appraisals are well guarded secrets and many complain that they are also arbitrary, at times. While this culture bodes well with a company in the business of mining and petrochemical, with no interface with the retail customers, it can be a roadblock for a company that is dealing with disruptive ideas and technologies every day. The fact that RIL has spent over $14 billion to set up its telecom infrastructure even before the launch of its 4G services- an amount that Airtel, the largest telecom player, has spent in over a decade, puts the company at greater financial risk if the new venture meets the fate of its Retail sector stint.
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Yashvendra Singh on why it is wrong to write he epitaph of e-commerce so soonThe Indian e-commerce sector has attracted both investors and detractors. The sustained Bull Run in this segment has given rise to at least six companies with valuations of over a billion dollars. Snapdeal, Flipkart, Paytm, Quikr, InMobi and OlaCabs have all touched the magic number. While most e-commerce players, at least till now, have found raising capital to be relatively easy, voices raising concerns on their future are getting shriller. Critics argue that a majority of the companies are neither making profits nor do they have a business model that will ensure profitability in the near future. Without a clear strategy, they claim, it doesn’t make sense for investors to put in money, and they readying to pull the plug. However, it would be wrong to write the epitaph of e-commerce so soon. The players may not be making money today but make no mistake. The sector is at an inflection point. Investors are pumping money into e-commerce companies today with an eye on their disruptive capabilities tomorrow. When Facebook splurged a whopping $22 billion to acquire WhatsApp, the latter was not making any profits. After eight months of the acquisition, Facebook disclosed the financials of the deal, and even then WhatsApp was making losses. The reason Facebook acquired a simple messaging service like WhatsApp was not based on financial numbers. It was because of WhatsApp’s ability to look into phone contacts of its users. This disruptive feature drove the investment. The underlying interest point for Facebook was where WhatsApp could reach from its level at that time. Similarly, BMW, Audi and Diamler are collaborating with each other to offer about $3 billion for Nokia’s mapping division – HERE. That the division has had a chequered past is no secret. For the last three years, it has been running into losses. But the troika have their sights on the future. They are betting on HERE’s ability to enable driverless cars, which will be the future of automobiles. The situation for the Indian e-commerce players is not too different. Today Flipkart is an online store but the day is not far when it will become your bank also. It can become your hotel reservation resource too. What stops Airbnb, Flipkart and ICICI Pockets (a virtual bank, which can be linked to any bank’s account and any number of accounts) to work together in a single application framework? A Flipkart with ICICI Pockets can enable you to not just do shopping but drive your experience around lodging, traveling etc. | And who hasn’t heard of Amazon. The e-commerce company started as a bookstore. Today it is giving one of the world’s biggest information technology companies, Microsoft, a run for its money. The investments into the sector are not about what it is doing today. It is all about the possibilities of tomorrow.For the Opposite View Read: Can We Evade The Dotcom Bust?
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