Yesterday Samsung’s botched up handling of a trip the company had organised for reporters and bloggers to the IFA show in Germany vaulted into social media stardom when it became known that the bloggers were apparently stranded in Berlin, their tickets back home and their hotel accommodation cancelled –- or under threat of being so. The PR disaster that followed for Samsung would make any company cringe. Well, except for Samsung, perhaps. Ironically, it was just such a social media disaster that a colleague, Chitra Narayanan, and I had finished writing about. Online Reputation Killers and the fiasco with Samsung would have illustrated rather well, underlining so many lessons. For Samsung, having just barely emerging from a court case that will forever remain etched into the annals of corporate litigation history, it was not a good time to be in the news for the wrong reasons. Coming out looking like the world’s great copy cat, Samsung nevertheless did manage to get some sympathy for being the target of Apple’s relentless “thermonuclear war” against competition of the Android kind. The blogger incident was relatively minor in the general scheme of things, but anyone skeptical or naïve about how quickly and how ugly things can get on social media, should go back and trace the events that led up to Samsung trending on Twitter. But it’s precisely that ugliness that I like about social media. It means that things are coming out into the open. It means the bare facts are up for analysis, and that it’s time for meaningful introspection all around. The Berlin DiaryYoung blogger, Clinton Jeff, who writes some nice detailed reviews on his blog, unleashthephones.com, was invited to go to IFA Berlin as the guest of Samsung global. He agreed to go as a reporter, not as a promoter, which was what participants of Samsung’s 'Mob!lers' programme were going as. As a result of a series of miscommunications and possibly some casualness about tying up loose ends right at the start, Jeff and another blogger found themselves, to their apparent shock, being asked to don Samsung “uniforms” and man the Samsung booths at the show, demonstrating products to the press. Apart from anything else, how insulting this must have felt to young men who believe themselves to very much be part of the technology press, one can only imagine. They could even have been in the position of showing off Samsung products to their own friends from the media. That, of course, is all besides the sheer impossibility of doing Samsung’s marketing for them when you have gone to report on products. Well, Jeff objected. And Samsung objected right back. Calls to India resulted in the bloggers’ tickets back home and hotel accommodation being cancelled -– although it’s not clear whether this was a threat that was eventually put into action. So, there were the bloggers, stranded in Berlin, far away from home, and quite an expense away. Not an expense many from this part of the world can afford on their own. The bloggers’ plight spilled on to Twitter after tech online magazine The Next Web, wrote on the incident. Outrage on Twitter fed back into the media and soon dozens and dozens of magazines, blogs and websites took up the story. And who should come to the rescue of the bloggers but Nokia. Bailing both bloggers out, Nokia apparently paid for their hotel accommodation, organised their tickets back, and gave them free reign to cover whatever they liked while at IFA. So while Samsung, who didn’t respond on social media for most of the day, got the brunt of the outrage, Nokia got lots of warm fuzzies for being so nice. Eventually everyone came around to looking at both sides of the picture, realising that there has to be more than just Jeff’s perspective here. Others explained the Mob!lers programme in some detail, pointing out that anyone who participated was clear about their role as promoters and fans. Samsung apologised and Clinton Jeff heaved a sigh of relief and everyone was friends again. Hopefully. But that doesn’t mean there weren’t very interesting lessons to learn for everyone. Should a reporter say yes to junkets? The situation with the bloggers in Berlin also raked up the issue of whether they should have agreed to go on a company paid trip in the first place. While the US tech media feels anyone accepting a “free ride” and a “vacation” should expect no less than being owned by the sponsoring company for that period, Sarah Lacey described this in the crudest terms in PandoDaily. Indian writers see it otherwise. Neither can they individually afford frequent trips abroad to cover shows nor can most of their publishers. Besides, there’s little comfort in a ride on a plane for up to 10-15 hours and the vacation involves reporting on products all day. Few would want to sell their souls for a few hours off in the evenings, even if it is in another interesting country. But the key is in clarity between the company and the reporter on what is expected on both sides. A few tweets discussing this:Varun (@varunkrish) 04/09/12 8:14 AMi have even ended up not covering anything if there was nothing interesting Raju (@rajupp) 04/09/12 8:16 AM@varunkrish same here Varun (@varunkrish) 04/09/12 8:21 AM@rajupp and theverge had samsung banners right on top :P .. if ads are okay , travel is okay too .. lets call it travel sponsor :P Raju (@rajupp) 04/09/12 8:26 AM@varunkrish lol! why can't they just do what they believe is right, rather than accusing others. Beats me. Companies need writers as much as the writers need the opportunity to see their products and it’s a mutual arrangement which can only go wrong if one side or the other decides to misuse it. But the fact that it came up for discussion and examination is a positive fallout from what was was a bad day online for Samsung. Blown Out Of Proportion?Looking at it from the PR agency’s point of view, this was an incident that could have been resolved without a fuss if only it hadn’t been “blown out of proportion” the way it was. While this may be true, it’s time to figure out that social media is about proportion. Rather than being taken by complete surprise at how far things can go online and how quickly, this is an age where companies will need to be prepared for such eventualities. Everyone has a voice online and everyone can be an activist -– if they feel they have got a case. This is a new reality and one that companies will just have to contend with. Responding quickly is one way to stem the tide. While people inside the company argue that in a large organisation, involving a mix of global and local, it takes time to find out what happened, guard against blaming the wrong person, and deciding on what needs to be done in accordance with internal policies. In the meanwhile though, half the world will have taken up the cause and the cost of not responding will only escalate. Far better to say something at all -– including reassurance that the issue is being looked into immediately -- and remain silent for too long. Is It True?It’s in times of social crises like these that a good dose of introspection is needed. Was the situation really handled badly? Are there a few policies or something else that needs to be changed? One of the nicest things about social media is when crowd power makes you take a good hard look at yourself and fix whatever is wrong, going on to better times. The Crowd Is ReasonableIf outraged people on Twitter were vociferous in their protest, they were also balanced enough to want to look at all sides of the picture. As the day wore on, it was not as if everyone was just anti-Samsung all the way, but many began to search for facts and discuss the background. With the chapter finally being closed now, mistakes on both sides were very clear. If it can get ugly, it can also get cleaned up. Meanwhile, Clinton Jeff needs to figure out what he owes Nokia. mala(at)pobox(dot)com, (at)malabhargava on Twitter
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The University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business recently launched a student recruitment campaign in India and is the first African business school to do so. “The GSB was inspired to launch the campaign because of the similarities between both the countries as emerging economies. As a result, the institute is proving to be beneficial for the foreign students planning to pursue MBA with a fresh insight into developing economies,” says Walter Baets, director of the graduate school of business (GSB). According to the Financial Times (FT) rankings, the GSB that is accredited with EQUIS, offers a great value MBA that acts as a draw-card for foreign students exemplified by the GSB’s rising annual intake of international students. Foreign rankings are important for foreign students to choose an institution. University of Cape Town (UCT) is amongst the highest ranked African universities in the Quacquarelli-Symonds (QS) World University Rankings and is subsequently home to some 4,300 international students from 104 countries; representing 20 per cent of the student body. Cape Town is ranked as the world’s top tourist destination by tripadvisor.com. Pranav Tandon, a native of Shimla, India, is one of the international students who has made the journey to South Africa to study at the UCT GSB this year, and he agrees that his decision was heavily influenced by the international ranking of the school.
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Over the past few years, the way large organisations and governments communicate has changed drastically. One of biggest catalysts for this transformation has been the growth of video collaboration. It has changed the way they operate and communicate. It has also resulted in better access to public services, education, health and security. One of the biggest players in the video conferencing market is the $1.5- billion Polycom. Marc-Alexis Remond, director, enterprise solutions and market development for Polycom Asia Pacific was in India recently. Remond told BW's Anup Jayaram how the Indian video conferencing market is changing from pure video conferencing to that over tablets and other mobile devices.Excerpts:Do you see the spread of videoconferencing in companies across India? How is videoconferencing changing the way business is done?Since I joined Polycom two years ago, I have been coming to India at least three times a year. India is a key market for Polycom, which explains the presence of many Polycom executives in the country. We are doing very well in India. In fact the Frost & Sullivan report of 2011 shows that Polycom is the leader in the market in terms of video conferencing as well as video conferencing infrastructure. From an end point perspective we have a 50.2 per cent and for the infrastructure 48 per cent market share. And we have seen year-on-year growth of 47 per cent and 57 per cent on infrastructure. So the market is growing about 20 per cent. So we are definitely growing faster than the market.But the key is for organisations to realise that they can do much more with video conferencing. If I tell you that the benefits of videoconferencing are all around—reduction of travel costs, time, and reduction of risks associated with travel, reduction of carbon emissions, would you agree?Well, ideally the video conferencing technology today can do much more for the enterprise, whether you are from the public or the private sector. In fact, studies and research have shown that yes you can save up to 30 per cent in travel costs, but also that in other industries you can shrink the recruitment time by 19 per cent. So for a fast growing organisation, they need to hire, interview a lot more employees, they can shorten the time by using the technology. The hiring manager and the interviewee do not need to travel. All this leads to a reduction in the time to onboard a person into an organisation.In some industries like the apparel industry, the time to market is critical. You have collections coming out for spring, summer, fall and winter. There are very short cycles between the design and the manufacturing stage. Here videoconferencing helps reduce time to market by 24 per cent. So you can imagine in the automotive and the consumer durables industry if you are the first one to launch that gives you a great competitive edge. In the manufacturing industry, we have seen that videoconferencing on the shop floor can be used for technical support. An engineer can be connected over video from the shop floor to a subject matter expert at another location to fix the equipment and reduce the downtime by 27 per cent.So basically, enterprises and public sector organisations need to look at the value of videoconferencing beyond travel. They need to look at how it can add value to their existing processes. Videoconferencing helps streamline processes and benefit different corporate functions.Different employees have different needs. A business executive would spend 30 per cent of his time outside office, 30 per cent at his desk and 30 per cent on travel. A sales person would spend 90 per cent of his time outside office; a marketing person or an accounts person would spend more time at their desk. The function of a person in an organisation will define their behaviour in terms of communication.So we are saying that you need an organisation to become a high performing workplace, you need to integrate three components—the processes, people and technology. When it comes to technology, it is not just video conferencing as a siloed solution for meetings only. It is part of the entire ICT solution of the company, because now video has gone mobile. It is available on mobiles, laptops and tablets. So sales people can now collaborate over video from customer locations and home to connect with the people in the organisation. Video has gone social.Today there are video applications for enterprise. These include Yammer, Jive for enterprise social connect. These solutions now integrate video.What is the current trend in videoconferencing and how is it changing?The 2011 Frost & Sullivan report shows that everything is moving towards high-definition. That is what customers are looking for in India. The first concern that public and private companies have over HD in India is bandwidth. It is still quite expensive. So what Polycom has done to enable more video conference is to integrate a new protocol, H264, high profile. It reduces the bandwidth consumption by 50 per cent compared to other solutions in the market.The second trend that we see in India is that most customers have a couple of end points, with 4-5 locations. Now enterprises are looking at investing in infrastructure, which will enable multi-party connectivity over video and audio. So we are not talking of connecting from a conference room—but from a tablet, a personal computer or even from a mobile phone for audio.The other thing that we see is more and more people recording and streaming video. Many of them use it for training. So you are not able to see just the trainer, but the content that is being shown. That is recorded and put on the corporate intranet, and people can watch it when they want. And for those who are outside the office like your channel partners, who you need to train, there is a video streaming happening.Has demand for your products risen post the slowdown?Whenever there is a slowdown, companies step back and take a look at their standings — be it travel related, investment or capex. So normally what we see is that during a slowdown, some of the projects may be delayed. Executives take a hard look at all expenses. Very quickly it goes back to normal for video conferencing as it is a great alternative to travel. Some companies that would have planned to invest in PCs would look to invest in videoconferencing because they did not have it in the past. So, Polycom is growing but it is not because of the slowdown in particular. It is because of the adoption of video conferencing overall.There are some sectors like education and healthcare where videoconferencing is big globally. Do you see that happening in India?We do a couple of things here. We have solutions for the administration of hospitals and hospital networks. So just like they would use for conferences, training, project management, we have customers like Fortis HealthCare in India who have rolled out Polycom across their hospitals and integrated with their Microsoft link solution. So they have a complete unified and communication and collaboration solution for their employees all over India. We also do solutions for what we call continuing medical education. Medical information is increasing every day. So people need to upgrade their skills and knowledge. We bring video conferencing solutions all the way to the operating theatre, where a live surgery will happen and other doctors will watch it from remote locations. This is happening in the UK and in India at Lucknow. It is also used in telemedicine for both primary and specialty care. There is a lack of specialists in rural areas. It does not matter. People can go to a clinic or local hospital and be connected over video for all kinds of specialties.We do a lot of solutions for tertiary education as well as primary and secondary. It is all around e-learning. There are two components — download content when you are free. The other is live lectures. What we are seeing worldwide is that students are going less and less to the classroom. They have to review material before going to class online. Then they discuss it with the teacher. We provide a solution to capture the lectures, archive them and of course provide the live learning. It doesn’t matter where the teacher is located. They can connect smart boards to do annotation.What solutions do you have for small enterprises?It is not about how many employees you have or what is your revenue. You could be a law firm with 12 lawyers, but they are highly mobile and are located all over the country. You have a high need for collaboration. These people invest in video conferencing. You may be a manufacturer with a 1,000 employees at a single location. Your need for collaboration may not be that large. So you need to look at the number of sites you operate in and the kind of business you do — whether you provide services to people all over or you are a single site large business. Even a large manufacturer will need to be in touch with suppliers and channel partners. So the need for collaboration may not be internal, but be part of the overall supply chain.What is the most interesting application that you have seen?I have seen very interesting applications in oil & gas which is called remote project management. Oil & gas and energy companies may have their headquarters in major cities, but their plants are located remotely. They use video conferencing to monitor the progress of the project.Who is your competition?In the market, Cisco would be the second player. Because of that we made a commitment to support all vendors. So even if some organisations use the Cisco product, we will be able to connect to the Cisco systems even though some of them are based on proprietary standards by Cisco systems. The Cisco Telepresence (TPS) has a proprietary protocol called TIP. The TPS can talk to only other TPS. We have taken that protocol and embedded it in our RealPresence platform. So those who invest in the RealPresence solution can also connect to the TPS. So our customers are not restricted in the way they do videoconferencing.What about mobile videoconferencing?Yes the boom of tablet PCs is happening in India too. It is like any other country. More and more people are bringing those devices to the office. Today we have an application—the Polycom RealPresence Mobile — which is available free of charge for download from the Android market and from the App Store. So people who download this application will be able to do point to point video conferencing free of charge. If you want to integrate this application as part of your enterprise video conferencing, you will be able to this. This application will be registered to a centralized server. The server will take care of authentication and encryption.
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Like the audience of a horror movie anticipating a beast beneath every bed, the Corporate Social Responsibility proposal in the new Companies Bill seems to have brought the conspiracy theorists to the front of the stage. Is this truly a new demon in the dark?It’s certainly not in the Companies Bill 2011. Clause 135 says that every company with a net worth of Rs 500 crore or a turnover of Rs 1,000 crore or a net profit of Rs 5 crore has to create a corporate social responsibility committee of which at least one director must be independent. The good news so far is that since there is no such thing as an independent director, promoters can basically pack the committee with whoever they like to achieve the results they like. The bad news is that since Rs 5 crore of profit is peanuts, a lot of companies will be in the loop and jump the CSR hoop. The hoop consists mainly of creating a CSR policy, setting up a budget and monitoring its implementation. Once this is done, the Company has the onerous duty to “make every endeavour” to spend two per cent of the average net profits of the company in the last three years. Should the company fail to do this, the board has to explain why in a report. I do note that no one is getting prosecuted, paying fines, going to jail or otherwise being subject to coercive process for being heartless, selfish, insensitive or self-serving. Since the implementation of the CSR policy has to be put up on the company website, people will be able to see through your sanctimonious self-righteousness though!So where is the beast beneath the bed? First, you don’t have to spend the money if you don’t want to; you only have to make up reasons why you didn’t. Second, if you do actually spend the money, you can find a whole bunch of self-serving stuff to do it on. Schedule VII asks you to promote gender equality and empower women, promote education, enhance employment vocational skills, ensure environmental sustainability or even run social business projects. The way I read it, if I spend 2 per cent of my profits training up a bunch of kids who I can then employ in my factory, I have discharged my burden. Or, if I spend time and money to develop vendors in a backward place, I have myself a brilliant social business project that I could easily profit from. Even at a superficial level, it seems to me that CSR can bring immediate short to medium reward for the generous of heart. What then is the problem?For one lot of people, the main problem is that the government is telling them what to do with what appears to be a lot of money! I am somewhat arithmetically challenged here but isn’t 2 per cent of 5 crore more or less equal to the cost of the last summer’s vacation in Switzerland? Even if you prefer Leh to Interlaken, it’s only the price of the cheapest SUV that will get you there.For a great many other people, CSR obligations take Companies out of their zones of core competence which is to make money and more money. It comes down to what we think companies are here to do: just make money for shareholders, or serve a wider ‘public interest’. The law doesn’t seem to agree with the narrow view. When the law mandates minimum wages, reasonable working conditions, maternity leave and so forth; it asks the company to foreswear profits and march to the beat of a more socially conscious drummer. When the law asks companies to control pollution and be more environmentally conscious, it assume that profits do not take precedence over public health or the protection of the mother earth. It’s now settled law that a company has a few owners but many stakeholders.A third and probably more credible fear behind the horror is the sense that the government is burrowing even deeper under the corporate skin, perhaps looking for some other cow to milk, some other protection racket to run. So while there are no penalties for shirking CSR today, there really is a CSR department inspector lurking round the legislative corner. I can see the point. Sixty years of big brother sniffing in our bathrooms has left us believing that when Government walks in through the door, no good ever comes of it. But in a dynamic world of ever changing realities, to use the past to test the future, as any investment advisor will tell you, is specious business.Globally, legislated CSR is slowly becoming quite the flavour of the month. UK’s Companies Act 2006 mandates disclosure on environmental, employee, social and community matters in the Business Review annexed to the Directors Report. In December 2008, Denmark amended the Financial Statements Act to mandate disclosure of CSR work in the annual reports of large companies, institutional investor and mutual funds. Germany spearheads its CSR initiatives through its Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Program of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. Lately, in October 2011, the European Commission has published a new policy on corporate social responsibility.Beyond the specious logic and the contrived argument, I think the horror of CSR is really about dharma, karma and the meaning of life. If the teeming masses of India are rotting in a chikungunya pools, then that is their sorry karmas to endure and all I need do is get on with the business of following my dharma of pursuing the creation of even more wealth. Unfortunately, nations cannot be built on this logic. I am not too sure that the future of my children can be secured on this logic either. One third of India is already under the sway of the Naxels: if I don’t change my attitude, how long will the other two thirds last? I can see at least two very good reasons why corporate India should not resist CSR. Quite the contrary.First, to avoid CSR is to shoot yourself in the foot. We know that the Government of India is so busy spending money on itself just to keep its politicians and bureaucrats happy that that it is quite unable to find the money to pay for development. The little that it can spare is channelled through some collaterally motivated Rozgar Yojana or Udyami Mitra Yojana or Panchayat Shashaktikaran Abhiyan, the proceeds whereof are then promptly misappropriated as late Rajiv Gandhi so candidly revealed. What you have in the result are disgruntled people by the million with no opportunity and no hope ready to pick up a wrench and beat some poor floor manager at the factory to smithereens before setting him afire. Mind you, those are your privileged disgruntled folk. As for the marginaliaed ones, a Naxalite gun is the best hope they have of empowerment and there is a bit of that going on too. The corporate world needs to fix the country in its own self-interest in the same way that it needs to have a just and fair land acquisition law (see Pandora’s Real Estate Box #) so it can set up its factories. You can’t do everything in your power to criminalize the peasant and then accuse him of stupidity of he elects Didi to run your colleagues out of the state, can you?The second big reason to embrace CSR is the ugly fact that we live in a world where the Government has abdicated a great many sovereign functions; leave alone the directive principles of state policy. It has outsourced the internal policing function (see Inflection Point 2011), is unable to protect its citizens from extortion (see Maul the Messenger) and does not want to educate its children (see Abandoning Aid ). Lately, as disclosed in the new Land Acquisition bill, it is refusing to even acquire land for development projects. If the Government will not discharge its basic duty to its citizen, should we allow ourselves to degenerate into a lord-of-the-flies Darwinism or should someone else take up the task? Is CSR extortion by another name or a great opportunity for the Corporate Sector to rise to the occasion and bring its managerial skill to the task of uplifting the people of India? The way I see it, the real question is this: should we sit around moaning about the Dhritashtra-like impotence of our rulers or should we instead put our money where our corporate mouth is and show the world how it’s done?(The author is managing partner of the Gurgaon-based corporate law firm N South and author of the pioneering business book Winning Legal Wars. He can be contacted at rcd@nsouthlaw.com. Many of the views expressed in this column are amplified in his forthcoming book “Bullshit Quotient: Decoding India’s corporate, social and legal Fine Print” due August 30th, 2012)
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Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, Roman emperor from 54 AD to 68 AD, was supposed to have been fiddling while Rome burned down. Sushil Kumar Shinde was probably not fiddling when the northern grid collapsed, cutting off electricity to five states and 300 million people. Or when, a day later, the northern, the eastern and the north eastern grids collapsed simultaneously, throwing 19 states and 600 million lives into chaos. Shinde had probably switched off mentally from the problems of the power sector, because he already knew that he would be named the home minister any moment. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was probably too busy to fiddle – he was giving the finishing touches to his minor cabinet reshuffle, which would see P Chidambaram come into the finance ministry again, while Shushil Kumar Shinde got the home portfolio. It is doubtful whether the fact that the power sector’s problems have only multiplied during Shinde’s stint as power minister gave the prime minister any cause for worry. It certainly did not affect his decision to go ahead and give Shinde an even more prestigious ministry. Even before the grid collapse, routine power cuts made sure that a good chunk of the population spent sleepless nights. It is doubtful though whether the prime minister or the power minister lost even a single night’s sleep worrying about the deteriorating power sector. If they were at all anxious about the increasing problems of the power industry, they did a pretty good job of hiding it. After he was named home minister, Shinde patted himself in the back in a television programme and said that his performance in the power ministry was “excellent”. Ostensibly, the grid collapses took place because of the indiscipline of certain states which kept drawing power far more than they were entitled to. The central government’s explanation is that if only states maintain grid discipline, there will be no grid collapses. So why do these states continue to overdraw power – and why doesn’t the central government devise ways to stop a state from drawing power once its quota is over? The issue is that it is not plain greed that makes states overdraw. Power demand has been growing consistently but power supply has failed to keep up with the demand. Some time ago, the government decided to tackle the power supply problem by encouraging the private sector to get into power production in a big way. Almost every big industrial group rushed to announce plans for setting up mega and even ultra mega power plants. The government also said that it would ensure fuel for the power plants that were being set up. Plants using coal as fuel were assured of steady supplies of fuel from Coal India Ltd, the country’s monopoly coal miner. Those who did not get to sign fuel supply agreements with Coal India were allotted captive coal mines. Several power producers who were planning to use natural gas as fuel were assured of supplies from the KG basin gas fields being exploited by Reliance Industries Ltd. As it happened, the fuel promises turned out to be a cruel joke for most new power producers. First, Coal India Ltd had signed agreements to supply far more fuel than it was producing – and its efforts to improve its coal production did not bear much fruit. As a result, quite a few new power plants found that their agreements were not worth the paper it was signed on. Meanwhile, many of the industrialists who had been given captive coal blocks for their plants found that they could not start mining these blocks. That was because the coal blocks did not have the environmental ministry’s clearance. And while the coal ministry and the environment ministry bickered, the power plants were left high and dry. The fact that the coal ministry and the environment ministry, being part of the same government, could have worked together to identify the coal blocks which could be given with environmental clearances, and only then handed out to the power plants did not seem to occur to the government. Meanwhile, those who were depending on KG basin gas for fuel found that the gas production was dwindling and therefore they would not get the fuel they were banking on. Meanwhile, even those industrialists who had decided to buy coal mines in Indonesia in order to get assured supplies at a fixed price woke up one day to find they could not get import the coal easily and cheaply – because the Indonesian government had changed a critical law. As a result today, there are several plants which are ready but not running, because they have no fuel. And many others which have been half constructed and then more or less kept on hold, until the fuel issue is sorted out. This was one reason for missing the target set for addition of power generation in this five year plan. If the central government was not particularly bothered about solving the power industry problems, the states themselves did not cover themselves with glory. Most states have broken distribution systems and bankrupt state electricity boards (SEBs). But many states have not done anything to fix the SEBs or make them more efficient, fearing political turmoil and opposition. Even enlightened states leave a lot to be desired. The state of Delhi had announced grand plans to make itself free of power shortage before the Commonwealth Games were held. Two years later, this has still not happened. And long power cuts plague many parts of Delhi during summers, when power demand is maximum. Also, most states have not done anything particular to help the private power plants coming up within their boundaries. Meanwhile, the plants which are already operational also have a problem. A good 20 per cent of all thermal power plants in the country are exceedingly inefficient. They operate well below 70 per cent of their capacities. In some cases, it is because they are too old and too small. In other cases, they have simply not been maintained properly. At any rate, they burn too much fuel, and produce too little electricity and at too high a cost. But for some strange reason, most states are loath to close down these plants. Similarly, much of our hydro power capacity is inefficient, and stop working because of silt build ups or low rains. The problem of generating far less power than we actually need is exacerbated by the transmission and distribution losses. In 2010-11, nearly Rs 40,000 crore was estimated to be lost because of transmission and distribution losses. In nine states, T&D losses were over 30 per cent. Jammu & Kashmir had almost 60 per cent of T&D losses. Manipur had 43 per cent T&D losses, Sikkim 42 per cent and Madhya Pradesh 34 per cent. The UPA government has often been accused of policy paralysis, which most commentators feel has resulted in the sudden slowdown in GDP growth that we are seeing. Many states too have been blamed for putting up too much opposition on issues such as FDI in retail – which will ostensibly bring in large amounts of foreign investment and will spur our economy. But few people calculate how much the Indian economy would show as additional growth if the power sector problems were sorted out – and the power production in the country improved by even 10 per cent. Just working out the man hours lost during the recent grid collapse could help them start with those calculations.
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An opinion given by a majority is always assumed to be right in our everyday life. And one is expected to comply with it. However, the minority, be it in workplace or in your friends circle, attempt to influence the majority in order to convince them of its point of view — without much success. In his book Surrounded and Outnumbered, William D. Crano, a social psychologist, explains exactly how to achieve this. Crano simply tells how to use the science of persuasion to win people over, more so in situations where the few can influence the many. A Professor of Psychology at Claremont Graduate University and a former NATO scientist, Crano has propagated a thought process all throughout this book that being outnumbered and overmatched does not inevitably ruin a person’s persuasiveness. The author has cited numerous examples from both ancient as well as recent past where the powerful did not always win the influence game and the weak did not always lose it. One example is worth citing — Dr. Jonas Salk, the father of polio vaccine — many established scientists of his time viewed him as an outsider, a lightweight technician who did not fit in the more rarefied world of orthodox scientists. It took dogged determination and tenacity from Salk and 20 whole years before American Medical Association (AMA) judged the proponents of Salk, an enormous success. Crano says that Salk’s case is not an exception and cited similar instances like that of Charles Darwin, Thomas Jefferson, Steve Jobs, etc. These icons started out with no apparent power, no influence, few obvious possibilities of success and almost no advocates; what’s more they often were targets of an unfriendly majority. But in one way or the other, their ideas were adopted, their visions realised. The author goes on a mission to explore how people like Salk succeeded? Crano has applied the science of persuasion to such cases of being outnumbered and overmatched; and has discovered strategies such as, as his university web site quotes, “working from the inside and changing the game from subjective preferences to objective decisions”, initiate actions that can cause the majority to bend and make concessions on issues related directly or indirectly to the focus of contention, etc. He, further goes ahead and refines these strategies into a collection of seven rules that, he claims, radically affect the likelihood of success. A few of the rules Crano offers in the final chapter:Be accepted as legitimate part of the larger group, as part of usBe persistent, don’t retreat and don’t compromise Be flexible, adjust to circumstances According to Crano these rules must be followed if minorities are to be successful in persuading majorities to change. Be it implementing new policy in work place, or choosing an eatery for hanging out with friends, influence management plays an inherent role in implementing theories and opinions of the minority.
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IT — the two simple letters that under the wrong circumstances strike fear into the heart of even the most level-headed entrepreneur. Networks, software, and databases are not the reason that most people start up their own business. The flipside, of course, is that if handled well, IT can turn what is merely a good company into a truly great one.Any entrepreneur knows that running a business from scratch takes time, effort, commitment and most of all, passion. Unfortunately, to stay grounded in reality, it also takes sound fundamentals, and a sturdy infrastructure. Today, IT is inevitably a big part of that. Not even the very smallest of businesses can get away without having some kind of technology to help them run.So what the new generation of entrepreneurs needs must be reliable, efficient and cost effective.The real trick is getting something in place that works reliably and efficiently and doesn't cost a lot of time and money to install or maintain. Business these days is not only global, fast-paced and demanding but employees now demand a lot more of the systems they use to do their jobs. The pace of technology innovation in the consumer world has had an impact on the business environment - employees want to use systems at work that replicate the experience they have at home. A generation used to posting and sharing photos online, instant messaging with friends and interacting online for a good chunk of their spare time is having an impact on expectations in the workplace.Internet is bringing a significant shift in the way organisations buy and use technology: This is where the power of the Internet comes into play. The Internet provides the flexibility to create, share, access and collaborate with other people at work. Email, spreadsheets, calendars and presentations suddenly become accessible quickly and securely wherever you are. Not only that but the fact that everything is online means that multiple users can access and work on documents simultaneously and edit in real-time. In short, no more emailing backwards and forwards with attachments. This means a lot when you're working at the kind of pace required as a start-up.Hosted solutions have better acceptability now, to the extent that many large companies are entrusting their entire email and anti-virus services to third parties: And then there is the issue of the bottom line cost of IT to a business. Again, once you're hooked up to the web this is all but eradicated because it's possible to effectively 'rent' these applications from a third party. Having your IT applications hosted over the Internet means no investment in hardware or software and no issues with upgrades or installing new features because that all happens automatically. It also means you can concentrate on your core business without needing to worry about the day-to-day issues of running an IT infrastructure. A suite of web-based communication and collaboration products for small businesses now comes for $50 per user per year. (Less than a cup of coffee a week!)Web is a better way of doing business: As your business evolves it's important that your IT evolves along with it. The Internet is more than just a resource for finding information and start-ups are in an excellent position to harness its full potential - without an existing infrastructure to cater; for you are effectively working with a blank canvas. Used thoughtfully, your IT environment can provide you with an interesting competitive edge.At the end of the day, for any start-up on the first rung of the business ladder, putting a sound IT system in place should be a concern but never a worry.(The author is Country Head, Enterprise Sales, Google India)
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India, a fast maturing cloud market with many new entrants, has been estimated to have grown in the region of $535 million in 2011 by IDC, with over 70 per cent growth expected for 2012 and almost 50 per cent growth forecast for the next 3 years. While a broad range of investments/solutions are playing key roles in the Indian cloud ecosystem, public cloud still lags way behind the private cloud adoption in the country.The India Cloud Market Overview, 2011-2016 released by the International Data Corporation (IDC) provides a reality check and detailed understanding of the adoption in India, the future potential and major trends the market is witnessing. The research also addresses the attitudinal and purchase behaviours of end users and what is influencing them in their choice for adoption.Business priorities have changed in the recent troubled economic times and are influencing the way IT is being looked upon as a strategic tool to grow faster. 2012 has been a tough year so far, but it is rapidly starting to get to a point where mature companies with careful planning and focus on business/ operational efficiency are fast moving into the leadership spots. These companies have been proactively looking at various “disruptive technologies” that will ensure that IT is elastic enough to meet the business needs and growth. Cloud models and the flexibility they bring are definitely featuring high there.IDC’s Research focuses on offering the readers an insight on how the cloud market landscape is evolving and how companies are taking advantage of the new mode of IT usage. In this report, IDC has not limited the discussion to what is currently happening in the marketplace, but gives actionable recommendations to IT/Cloud vendors on areas of focus and user needs/expectations."We have definitely seen cloud cross the inflexion point in end 2011; use cases especially in IAAS & SAAS areas provide testimony to that. With proper messaging from key vendors and due diligence of opportunities which exist in the cloud delivery models, the market will grow much faster in the coming years" says Nirupam Chaudhuri, Research manager – Software & IT Services, IDC India. "Alliance with key channels and enablement will further intensify the growth for major cloud providers and gradually we will see even core applications moving to cloud much faster. Users need to feel much more comfortable with fewer inhibitions like security and ownership concerns" added Nirupam.Cloud providers also need to strengthen their capabilities to understand the business requirements of the organisations and come up with apt value propositions. “Organisations are more likely to work with firms that understand their business processes better and industry dynamics, and hence are better suited to overseeing the transition of the organisation to a cloud environment without disruption of the business processes”, says Sandeep Kumar Sharma, Senior Market Analyst- IT Services, IDC India.The research pointed out that cloud providers also need to act as partners for the organisations in assessing their cloud readiness, and accordingly recommending a cloud adoption roadmap. This is absolutely essential for a seamless integration of the IT infrastructure into the cloud environment. “Organisations, even the larger ones, are on an increasing level feeling the pinching need to assess their cloud readiness and maturity levels. This would provide a boost to cloud consulting services in the coming 12-24 months. A direct corollary is that vendors need to have robust Cloud Consulting capabilities in place for making a foray into this space”, added Sharma.IDC is a premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets.
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