A Fearless Adventure In Knowing What To Do When No One's There Telling You What To Do !! Any comments...

Cheeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrsssssss Mahindra Satyam!!!!!!!!

Cheers to Mahindra Satyam for putting itself & India forth by being an official IT Services provider for the FIFA World Cup!!!!!!!!

Dilbagh Gill, Head of Sports Technology Practice & FIFA Relationship, would have been the happiest man in the company after successfully steering his team of human assets to win this responsibility. A part of the responsibility include providing IT Services to FIFA in 2010, 2014 and two Confederation Cup events.

So, what impact will this responsibility and fulfilling it successfully have on Mahindra Satyam, considering only the downturns faced by it?

War of Detergents: Cleaning others out or themselves becomming dirty?

Are detergent giants themselves becomming dirty, instead of cleaning others out, considering the stiff competition.

Comment on the title, looking at this targeted advertisment used by HUL to promote RIN against TIDE (P&G):
youtube.com/watch?v=2M5rBXtK9iA

Now, let's have an idea of how stiff the competition is:
youtube.com/watch?v=5OSqB4GlGTI&feature=related

How far is the formula of "Targeted Advertisments" fair in today's competitive world?

Some CTC related useful tips for entering in a new organization:-

* Know your break-up salary
Check on your leave policy, which vary from company to company. In MNCs, for instance, leaves lapse every year while some allow leave to be encashed.


* Look at your non-monetary perquisites carefully.
Your new employer may offer a one time furnishing allowance which can be availed of only for furnishing your apartment.

* Check on your leave policy, which vary from company to company.
In MNCs, for instance, leaves lapse every year while some allow leave to be encashed.

* ESOPs : Ask for the option plan
If your company promises ESOPs, ask for the option plan and the valuation. If the stock is trading at Rs 100 you could get it for Rs 90 or even Rs 10, if company is sitting on old or restricted stocks.

* Bonus Mantra
If your company promises ESOPs, ask for the option plan and the valuation. If the stock is trading at Rs 100 you could get it for Rs 90 or even Rs 10, if company is sitting on old or restricted stocks.

Are Social Networking sites really dragging productivity?

Corporate employees on an average spend 60 minutes on social networking sites like Orkut and Facebook in office hours, leading to loss of productivity, a survey said.

“Close to 12.5% of productivity of human resource in corporate sector is misappropriated each day since a vast majority of them while away their time accessing social networking sites during office hours,” industry body Assocham said in a survey.

Almost each day, on an average, a corporate employee spends an hour, glued to various social networking sites such as Orkut, Facebook, Myspace “for romancing or otherwise driving some satisfaction out of it,” the chamber said. With this, an average corporate employee working each day is reduced by an hour from 8 hour to 7 hour, it said.

The results are based on responses of nearly 4,000 corporate employees in places like Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Indore, Mumbai, Pune, Chandigarh and Kanpur.

“As a matter of fact, growing use of browsing sites can be dangerous for overall productivity and IT companies have already installed softwares to restrict its use,” Assocham secretary general DS Rawat said.

The Assocham survey showed that 77% of workers who have Orkut account use it during work hours. Interestingly, 83% see nothing wrong in visiting social networking sites during the office hours.

“More than half of office workers use sites such as Orkut, Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace for personal use during the working day, and admit wasting an average of 40-60 minutes each day,” Mr Rawat said.

Orkut and Facebook are found to be the most popular online destinations among survey respondents. Keeping in touch with friends and family for fun and looking for new jobs are some of the main factors which attract the workers to social networking sites, Assocham said.

Source : A leading business newspaper

So, now, let us comment on the title of this post, considering the ratio of pros and cons of these websites.

Can "Wall Street" woes really be India's oppurtunity????????

Much has been said in recent times about the reasons for the credit crisis that has hit Wall Street. But little has been said so far about what it means and what investment opportunities this crisis presents, especially for Indian investors and Indian companies.

In the ongoing shake-up of the US banking industry, three of the top five US investment banks have gone down under the burden of their exposures to bad assets. The consolidation is not limited to investment banks. Over a hundred banks are exposed to the subprime crisis and on the “troubled list” of the US Federal Deposit Insurance Company (FDIC), with the latest casualties being Washington Mutual, the largest US savings and loan company, and Wachovia, one of the largest US commercial banks.

CAUTION: THE THINGS ARE GOING SAME(GREEDY) AGAIN........

These developments have resulted in the emergence of a small number of very large “universal banks”, which control approximately one-third of the total amount of deposits in the US, who are looking for additional cash infusions to shore up their capital especially from third party investors at attractive valuations. Smaller banks in turn are also looking for additional funds resulting in attractive investment opportunities in the US banking sector as a whole.

The Treasury-led financial sector bailout that was approved recently may, due to provisions such as limits on executive compensation for troubled institutions that avail of the Treasury bailout facility, make private capital from foreign investors more attractive to such troubled institutions.

Oppurtunity for India:
The changing investment banking landscape in the US is opening the door to boutique Indian investment banks that have a strong investment advisory and research presence to expand in the US. At the same time, under increasing fire from the public over the financial cost of the bailout to US taxpayers, regulators are expected to encourage equity investments by third parties, including foreign investors, in the US banking system. Regulatory approvals for these investments are expected to be processed on an expedited basis.

The insurance sector is also expected to change quite fundamentally following the demise of the world’s largest insurer, AIG. Changes are already afoot and there is much greater pressure to substitute the current 50-state insurance regulatory patchwork with a unified Federal regulatory oversight framework.

With the focus of Indian investors and companies on value investments, it is expected that there will be significant amounts of new and attractive investment opportunities, especially in the $25-50-million (Rs 120-240 crore) range in various sectors like IT/ITES, outsourced healthcare, pharmaceuticals, automotives, textiles, chemicals, energy and power.

TODAY CASH IS KING, AND CASH RICH INDIAN COMPANIES THUS ENJOY STRATEGIC ADVANTAGE

Employer Branding: The latest fad or the future of HR?

Definetely much more than just a fashion statement

"Tomorrow’s CEO will spend more time on their organisation’s reputation as an employer than with the investment community (and fund managers will worry if they don’t)", quoted Simon Barrow (a great HR Professional).
A major reason why Employer Branding exercises are being conducted in various corporates is due to labor market conditions. Unemployment remains low and even skills shortages continue. Employers are thus obliged to compete more fiercely with one another to recruit and retain effective staff, while also being severely constrained in the extent to which they can pay higher salaries in order to do so. A strong employer brand is being promoted as the key to winning this ‘war for talent’ by establishing organizations’ unique selling point in employment terms. The branded employment product simplifies choice, reassures prospective employees about quality and reduces risk. It also included attempts to recruit, socialize and retain a committed workforce.
Moreover, if we look at the benefits which some of the reputed corporate players gained from employer branding, we can easily arrive at the conclusion
Diageo - Began with an attrition rate of 18%, costing £4 million. In 14 months they reduced attrition rates to 7%, recouping the costs of the initial research 30 times over.
GSK - applied the proposition and guiding principles to their recruitment process, increasing the number of offers accepted from 83% to 96%.
Philips - are now receiving 10 times as many quality applications from graduates and MBAs