Laughing @ my assumptions and hence inferences

It has been more than two months since I posted something. There are n number of reasons for which you can assume why am I not posting and hence you are at freedom to draw your own inferences. But the fact is that I didn’t feel like posting as life was going on at the levels below the self actualization level* (Array...yaar bakwas bandh kar ..aur sidhi baat kar). I didnt want to post now..as I have to prepare a SHRM plan for a company as a part of my course curriculum. I have to submit it by next week. Just before posting here, I figured out that its high time to prepare a plan and a good plan would have commenced a lot earlier. (Array yaaro chhodo...this girl is just venting out whatever she is having in her mind right now..you have many better things to do than to read this post..Some philosophical thoughts come in her mind during night hours). Okay then suddenly something struck me out of introspection. (Hain ..itne dino baad aaj time mila introspection ka…??) What was that ? ...The title of this post...(Hmmm posts zyaadaatar bottom up approach use karke likhe jaate hain ..aur ye top down method use kar rahi hai...aur ek wajah post read nahin karneki…yaar post has no direction also…rail ki patri pakad dost)

Well, the title came out of something that had happened today. It was failure in a test. The test is called "trust". Initially I have failed in this test many times but the examiner is a very magnanimous and pure soul who would each time give me one more chance. He/She has a hidden hope somewhere in her/his heart that someday I will clear this test. Thanks to him/her for his/her leniency and for believing in me.

Failure of the test today made me feel really miserable as last time when I failed the test I had shown high prospects of clearing the test next time. But each time when testing times come I just move to some lower levels and hence fail the test. This level according to me is the level titled "Social Needs". This realization was a result of a little bit of introspection that had automatically started in my mind ..even though my eyes were mechanically reading the Strategic Human Resource Management book's Index. I closed the book thereafter and then got the true reason of failure. I started laughing by myself on myself. This laugh made me feel lighter and in true sense happy. The concrete reason that I managed to put in words is as follows:
"Assumptions you make and Inferences you draw from those are very much related" .

My assumptions when I appear for the test were my own and hence the inferences I drew were also my own. This caused failure. So the bottom line is unless and until mentioned don’t assume things. Be it theory or practical, work or life, move ahead on the basis of facts.


*For those who are unaware of the levels that I have mentioned above, I am referring to Maslow's Hirearchy of Needs.

Apology: People who know this incidence, I sincerely apologize for making the entire incidence a bit fictitious. Modifications are made to convey the essence of the topic to the readers.

Island of Ants

The other day I opened the lid of the water jug to drink water. I was about to drink water but suddenly I spotted something in the transparency of the water. I saw some ants and thought that by mistake they had fallen in the jug and all are dead. But when I observed them closely I found that they are approximately 40-50 in number and all of them were alive. I wanted to drink water instantly so without taking much interest I slowly poured out water in the wash basin and the ants dispersed as they came out. I rinsed the jug two- three times, scrubbed it with brush, thinking that some eatable parts might be inside the jug. Then I went to water cooler and filled the jug with fresh and chilled water.

Night passed. The next day again I found ants. I was surprised this time and again did the same thing which I did the day before. This time I was keen to know why the ants were coming inside my jug. The third day same thing happened and I got fed up of this thing. Finally I took other jug from the mess and started drinking water from it.

The scientific reason that I can think is that there is still some deposit in the water jug or some essence that is attracting the ants. (Who has time to remove these microscopic things..)

The imaginative reason which first came to my mind was that this is an evolution and ants are forming colonies on water…!! What say? I have still kept water in that jug and those little creatures venture and stay (group swim ..hehe) in it..

I am blessed !!

Dont take the nice and best things in your life, for granted. They need your attention and care.

Dont test their limits. They may shatter and never be the same again.

Dont take their goodness for a ride. Life gives you one chance. And time and words once gone never come back.

Live your life at best but before that take atmost care of the those that make your life worth living.

Life is teaching me so much each day. I am really grateful to my fate and that supreme being for making me a skillful sailor in this rough sea of life.

When it hurts

When it hurts you feel like crying and shouting at the whole world. You forget your own self and you lose your mental stability and rational attitude. These moments are your acid tests. If you survive those then there is high probability that you would sustain the future shocks. You train your mind to deal with such situations. But then such shock absorptions are against the law of nature. If pressure gets built up in the pressure cooker then the whistle should blow up or else the cooker will blast. Same is with life. I need to learn to vent out my aggressions and grievances before there is a whistle blowing situation. This would be in the larger interest of majority surrounding me. Many times such pressure is in-built due to my own assumptions and self centeredness. I am learning to look at the situation as an outsider. What would I suggest to my friend when I see him/her in such situation? I am being a self heeler. And one remedy to change your mood or to be that outsider is to blogJ. It helped me now. I was having a pressure cooker situation in my mind. Well I didn’t have the whistle to release the pressure, but I turned off the gas burner (uncontrolled and baseless thoughts running in my mind). I am feeling cool and normal now. Thanks blogger.com for providing me this space.

When I actually want to post

These days life has really become very busy. And this busy is for good. This term we are having electives. We don’t have lectures throughout the week. Its different thing that most of the time, we have classes on weekend as well. But then these times I have chosen all the subjects except for the two core subjects, which are my conscious choices. Hence I am wholeheartedly involved in the subjects. Is it that way or the project work asks for lots of involvement? (As in summaries, presentations and lots of pre-read material) Above all this, many non-academic activities are happening in this semester. These all keeps me engaged throughout the day. Sleeping at 2 and getting up at 8 is a luxury.

Sometimes I have story, incidence etc. to post here, but due to the engagements mentioned above, I am unable to post anything in this space. We have a subject named 'Soft skills' this time. In that the instructor has asked us to make a 24 hour timetable for oneself and make best efforts to abide by it. So in today's timetable I deliberately allotted a slot to type this post.
Don’t know how life is going to be in future. At present you can say that I am in the bed of roses. Things are going to be much more difficult than what it is now and I have to deal with much more difficult people. (Now friends surround me)

We can predict the working of the machine. What we can not predict is the behavior of the human beings. No matter how ever familiar you are to some people, its just next to impossible to predict their behavior. Be it good or bad you get surprises at various points. I am not sure whether these surprises are because my ignorance and inexperience.

Life is the most able teacher for me and I am learning as things are coming along my way. I would try to post quite often now onwards!!

Aawjo (Bye in Gujarati)

Want to be a happy man?

I read a book "The conquest of happiness"... by Bertrand Russell

Its a book that one should read at different stages of ones life...I happened to read it at the age of 23. When I am 35 or 50 it will have a different meaning for me.

It is one of the best self-help books I have ever come across.

One thing I would like to mention is that ...great works are there in such life changing books..but all is in vain unless practiced in real life.

All in all a must read book!!

Chennai Stories - 1

I am really jobless today and hence thought of scribbling some things that amazed me in past few days.

Incidence - 1

One day my friend and I were at Koyembedu private bus stand (Chennai) and we wanted to go to Spencer's plaza (one of the oldest shopping mall of Chennai). We asked the auto rickshaw drivers for the amount they would charge to take us to that place. This is typical of Chennai. Here the auto rickshaws will have the fare meters. But the drivers will never charge fare according to the meter. Instead they will charge some arbitrary amount and extort money from the passengers like anything. If you are aware of the distance and the fares that are generally charged, u know how much is apt and up to what you can bargain. But if you are a novice then be prepared to get “looted” by them.

Taking this into consideration, the auto fellows were asking for somewhere in the range of 80 -100 bucks. This was just too much and therefore we decided to go by the local city bus. We needed the direction to reach to that place and so we asked a few people for the way to the bus stand. One old gentleman, instead of showing us the directions, came all the way with us to the bus stand. This was some 1 -1 ½ Kilometer from the place. My friend and I were just wondering why he came all the way there. What is the motivation for him to come all the way to that place without any selfish motive?

He was the hero of the day in my eyes. I was thinking about this and one day, I chanced upon to read somewhere that some people feel motivated by helping others. There are many live and bigger examples of such people the in past. But this was one live and recent case before my eyes. When such things happen, very naturally you pray to Almighty for the well being of that person.

Incidence-2
I wanted to get my leather handbag stitched. It was torn from sides. I thought of getting it done from a roadside cobbler. The other day I was carrying that bag and was returning from an ATM.

On the roadside, I saw an old lady cobbler having her afternoon “siesta”. She was dark in complexion. A little bit fat. She wore a saree. Though she was a cobbler her nose and ears were pierced with jewellery that looked of gold to me. She wore a thick golden necklace and many bangles. Now ladies with this much jewellery is a common sight in Chennai. She had a hand fan lying besides her. Expression on her face were that of an “angry old lady”. A mat containing her tools and many shoes were lying in front of her. It seemed that she is into this business from quite sometime. This was taking into consideration her age and the way tools were lying on the mat. All required tools were arranged so that they are handy and convenient to use.

I thought of waking her up. But then, thought of not spoiling her nap. But my presence around woke her. I don’t know Tamil so I showed her my bag and the torn part. She took the bag and started stitching the torn part. She really did a good job. I asked for the fees. She showed me with her 3 fingers “3”. I understood that she asked for three rupees. I thought that this wonderful job is at least worth Rs. 10 (Kunjoos me !! ). So, I handed over a 10 rupees note. She gave a perplexed look to me then I asked “what?” Then again with her fingers she showed me 3 and 10. I thought I understood this time what she was asking for. So I wrote on the ground with my fingers “30”. She nodded her head. I started laughing at my intended generosity and I was literary feeling like a fool. Then I explained her that the amount she got was okay. But then she was looking very furious, so I gave some other 6 bucks (this was all I had with me in my money purse, though I had Rs. 2000/- in my pant pocket which I recently withdrew from ATM). I escaped from her showing her my empty money purse indicating that this was all that I have. When I reached my room, I was contemplating over the entire episode. Whether I did a right thing or wrong ?
I thought, we spend 100 bucks and many times 200 hundred bucks for the movies at multiplexes, but when it comes to giving 30 rupees to cobbler you refuse to give. This is because YOU don’t think that it is worth it

One minute please !!

The other day, I attended the brainstorming session of MMA (Madras Management Association) to decide the theme for the 6th MMA All India Management Students' Convention. At the end of the session we were shown a small video...

It had three parts

One minute Goal setting
One minute Praise
One minute Reprimand


Here are the steps for all the three

One minute Goal setting

Agree on goals
Set a goal and performance
Write down goals
Read and reread the goals


One minute Praising

Be Upfront
Immediate
Approximately right
Specific
Share feelings
Moment of slience
Encourage more
Touch

One Minute Reprimand

Share before hand
Immediate
Specific
Share feeling
Pause for reflection
Reaffirm
Touch


All these points were explained with famous Hollywood movie "Rocky".

Of all the "One minuters"..I have started practicing..One minute goal setting..
For the other two I am waiting for the right time.

U and your organization ( part -1)

At the start of your new job/work, you have your own pace, your own zest, of doing work in the organization. As time passes, either you have conflicts with the methodology of the organization or you adapt to the methodology of the organization. If the organization’s way of doing work is lead back kind of and moves ahead in a laggard manner then its really bad. It will change you to work slowly. There can be many such non acceptable things present at the organization u work for, like bureaucracy etc. You can not enforce your good ways of tackling the work in a matter of week or month or even sometimes a year or two. The work culture of the organization is there since the time it was incepted. To bring the change you need to be a part of the system and slowly by getting along with the processes you can bring in that change. The duration of such a change depends on the magnitude of the change. The change that is near to the truth or the truth itself, will take the least time to get accepted. So let your changes be the changes for the progress of organization built on the strong foundation of truth so that no earthquake (trend change) will be able to disrupt it.

CeLeBrAtInG 1st BiRtHdAy !!

Hi all,

It has been one year since this mania called blog-o-maina caught me !! ..Well I would sincerely like to thank my friend Rajneesh ( http://rajionsong.blogspot.com/ ) for encouraging me to start blogging. Blog has always been a space for me to express my ideas, opinions and many times complete article I liked At this point I am wondering, that I have grown one year older in blogging and I personally feel that I have grown mentally too. This is in terms of my thoughts. They are more organized than what they were earlier.

Ya. I do agree that there were a lots of breaks in between and topics were spread across various fields. But, its because of your earnest comments, my dear readers, that encouraged me to blog and especially Anoop's and Ravi's feedback to post original work has given me a new jolt to blog more furiously.

Keep reading and dont forget to leave your invaluable comments.

Well ,..ending this post by a wonderful painting by some unknown artist. This is one of my favourites.

Originality ... made great people !!

Recently, I read Creating Minds, a book by Howard Gardner. In this book Howard Gardner has described seven personalities in the descending order of his perception of their being creative. The names of the great personalities are as follows

Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso, Igor Stravinsky, T. S Eliot, Martha Graham
and Mahatma Gandhi.

The author's focus here is to search for patterns to find out similarities and differences.
Author quotes, "I believe that if we can better understand the breakthroughs achieved by individuals deliberately drawn from diverse domain, we should be able to tease out principles that govern creative human activity, wherever it arises I shall argue that a creative breakthrough in one realm cannot be collapsed uncritically with breakthroughs in other realms.”

He also says, “Each creative breakthrough entails an intersection of the childlike and the mature; the peculiar genius of the modern in the century has been the incorporation of the sensibility of a very young child.

The book starts with the description of the principle components in the study of creativity, then goes on to describe the seven personalities in the context of these components and ends with drawing the similarities and differences among these creative minds.

Of all the personalities, the people about whom I was interested to know about were Freud, Einstein and Gandhiji.

Well the things that are still there in me after reading about them are:

They all had a good emotional support of their near and dear ones and friends.
They chose to shine in the area where they felt very wholesome. The area, where they could identify themselves the best.
They all isolated themselves from the society when they stood out with their first breakthrough.
After this, they gained supporters’ support and admirers’ love to make their creation widespread.

While reading this, if you were able to identify yourself with any of the characteristics mentioned above, then you may be the next creating mind of this century.

We all are unique creation of the supreme power that rules this universe and we all have creativity within us. The only thing lacking is the right blend of the circumstances, opportunities, determination and of course luck.

Just another post !!

Not a seasoned writer, but here I am, scribbling something in my blog.
Every moment you live, you judge yourself (right or wrong). This right or wrong is applicable to anything of your life (your career decision, your behavior, and your friends). And we want everything to be right. Well, there are times when you feel that you have made a wrong decision. People say,successful person moves from wrong to the right track . But is it always possible to revert to right track? And is there something called right track of life or is it just a matter of pure luck?

Well according to me, good luck is one of the factors to a successful life and it is not under our control. So give your best to everything you do and leave the rest on your luck!!

Did I do a right thing by posting this?

BE GREENER TO GET THE GREENBACK

Gaurie Mishra & Neha Kohli

IT ISN’T often small companies beat their big brothers hollow in exploiting a business opportunity. But India Inc’s Liliput brigade are doing just that by trading carbon credits to shore up their toplines as well as bottomlines. The idea is simple: Invest in eco-friendly technology, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and trade in the certified emission reduction (CER) units that one obtains in doing so. For smaller companies, it means mega bucks - there are cases where net profits have jumped as much as 300%. Significantly, around three-quarters of the registered clean development mechanism (CDM) projects from India is by smaller companies having a turnover of below Rs 1,000 crore. Big corporates such as Reliance, ONGC and A B Birla group have been late entrants and hold just about 30% of the registered CDM projects. An official of the Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI) says that considering India’s economic boom will be lead by small, emerging companies amid growing recognition that growth has to be environmentally sustainable, “we can only expect more and more small-scale units to add up CERs and make a moolah out of it”.

IMAGE IMPACT

Today, smaller Indian companies are looking for new markets abroad. They need access to technology, brands and a platform to sell their products. Often credibility comes in the way. With international presence being the norm of the day, carbon credits could add to the image of a company, as it is considered being responsible and eco-friendly. Needless to say, such an image helps in bagging export orders and helps get incentives in the host country as well. Says Deepak Asher, executive director of Gujarat Flouro Chemicals: “It is a win-win proposition. Host countries like India stand to gain through sustainable development and it also helps developing countries get more revenues. Companies across sectors and irrespective of their size also stand to gain.”

TOPLINE IMPACT

Of the six greenhouse gases, the largest carbon dioxide equivalent producer is HFC23, which is produced as a by-product in refrigerant gas-making. One tonne of HFC23 is equal to 11,700 tonnes of CO2. Medium-sized companies in India, such as SRF, Gujarat Flourochemicals etc., have registered their projects under the clean development mechanism. The carbon credits produced by these companies are in excess of their respective turnovers. Most recently, Navin Fluorine, another refrigerant-maker, will be able to sell over 2.8 million certified emission reductions (CERs) or carbon credits annually in the international market. At a conservative average price of $14 per credit revenue, the sale of CERs may fetch as much as $40 million or Rs 180 crore each year for the company for a period of 10 years. This is over 82% of the company’s total turnover of Rs 233 crore in fiscal 2005-06. Automotive tyre-maker Apollo Tyres has also managed to ramp up its bottomline by Rs 3 crore in the last one year. In sectors like cement manufacturing, co-generation in sugarcane mills, wind mill projects and recovery of waste heat at standalone units have, so far, been tapped by only smaller companies. Significant among the emerging firms in these sectors include Shree Cement, India Cement, J K Cement and Rajshree Cement. Other smaller CDM projects are by companies like Sai Engineering Foundation and Chambal Power. Other companies that have benefited are Gujarat Alkalies, Gujarat NRE Coke, JSW Holdings, Chemplast Sanmar, National Fertilisers, Torrent Power, MSP Steel and Balrampur Chini. They have either issued or are in the process of issuing CERs. Experts say the expected increase in the bottomline ranges anywhere from 39% to 173% for these companies.

FIRST-MOVER ADVANTAGE

Richard L Sandor, chairman and CEO of the Chicago Climate Exchange, recently told ET that India will “move quickly” in the future to capture a large part of the carbon credit market. “India’s future is significant. India continues to grow its economy at an impressive rate and one expects its CO2 emission to increase rapidly. At the same time, there is a tremendous recognition among Indian corporates on the need for environmentally-sustainable growth. Trading experience on platforms such as CCX and first-mover advantage will be attractive to many Indian corporates,” he said. CCX has tied up with TERI for India. “Significant amount of CDM will be produced in India. Some of the credits can be hedged in European markets and sold when the prices are good. On CCX, Indian corporates can join as liquidity providers and have the option to buy credits in the US, Brazil and China. Companies with subsidiaries in these countries can buy or sell credits on the respective exchanges,” Sandor added.

WHAT’S CARBON TRADING THE IDEA OF TRADE IN CERs

took shape after the signing of the Kyoto Protocol of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. It mandates GHG emission caps on industrialised countries, which have ratified it, but also allows them to buy a greener nation's GHG emission levels. Which means, a CER can be earned by reducing emissions through eco-friendly practices, or, in other words, a country with an emission cap can buy a CER from a developing country that doesn't face a cap. And that's where India comes into the picture as a seller of CERs under the (clean development mechanism) CDM of the legal framework of the protocol. CDM allows for company projects in developing countries, with no mandated emission reduction targets, to trade in CERs with countries that have such targets. One CER is equivalent to a reduction of one tonne of carbon.

source: The Economic Times

Government plans workers’ university

Urmi A Goswami NEW DELHI
THE INDUSTRY will have to contribute financially if it wants workers whose skills match its needs. The government is considering setting up a Workers’ Technical University that will ensure that India’s working population is able to meet the rapidly changing needs of the industry. The university will require a capital expenditure of Rs 500 crore to be set up, and Rs 100 crore annually after that. It has been proposed that trade unions, large, medium, and small industries and government all help fund the university. A four-member committee headed by G Sanjeeva Reddy, president of the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), submitted a feasibility report to the human resource development ministry in early May. On Friday, Dr Reddy met with HRD minister Arjun Singh, UGC chairman, AICTE chairman and ministry officials to discuss a roadmap for the proposed university. The university will not depend on just the government for its funding. One idea being toyed with is that trade unions commit 2% of wages, while large industrial enterprises will contribute 2% of their profit annually towards the university. Medium enterprises will required to give 1.5% of their profits, while small enterprises will allocate 0.5% of their profits annually to the university coffers. For this to be feasible idea, considerable finetuning would be required in terms of which industrial sectors would benefit and hence, contribute. Collecting a percentage of wages and profits would amount to an increase in tax rates. On the issue of management, the Reddy committee has suggested that the technical university could be managed by trustees comprising worker’s representatives. The committee has proposed that the university be based in Hyderabad with 13 regional centres and the entire network is expected to cater to nearly 3 lakh workers and students a year. Linkages with industrial and technical institutes (ITIs) will also need to be developed.


source: The Economic Times

The support is within you !!

There are times when you feel very dejected. It seems that every thing is falling against you..You feel depressed and just want to shut every thing and run away somewhere.

There are also times when you feel very happy. On cloud nine. As mentioned in the world famous and best seller book, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, it seems that the whole world is conspiring to help you achive your goal.

But, is it actually that way? Happiness and sadness are all states of mind. Its our mind that decides whether to be happy or sad in a given situation.

The key is to remain steadfast. What is called "Sthita Pragna" in Sanskrit..

Below are the verses 54-72 of Chapter 2 ( Sankhya Yoga) from Bhagavad Gita. They have helped me many times to restore my cool in very precarious situations of my LIFE. Hope it would help you too .. The crux is to remain "Sthit Pragna".

___________________________________________________________________________

Arjuna said: O Krishna, what are the symptoms of one whose consciousness is thus merged in transcendence? How does he speak, and what is his language? How does he sit, and how does he walk?

The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: O Pārtha, when a man gives up all varieties of desire for sense gratification, which arise from mental concoction, and when his mind, thus purified, finds satisfaction in the self alone, then he is said to be in pure transcendental consciousness.

One who is not disturbed in mind even amidst the threefold miseries or elated when there is happiness, and who is free from attachment, fear and anger, is called a sage of steady mind.

In the material world, one who is unaffected by whatever good or evil he may obtain, neither praising it nor despising it, is firmly fixed in perfect knowledge.

One who is able to withdraw his senses from sense objects, as the tortoise draws its limbs within the shell, is firmly fixed in perfect consciousness.

The embodied soul may be restricted from sense enjoyment, though the taste for sense objects remains. But, ceasing such engagements by experiencing a higher taste, he is fixed in consciousness.

The senses are so strong and impetuous, O Arjuna, that they forcibly carry away the mind even of a man of discrimination who is endeavoring to control them.

One who restrains his senses, keeping them under full control, and fixes his consciousness upon Me, is known as a man of steady intelligence.

While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust develops, and from lust anger arises.

From anger, complete delusion arises, and from delusion bewilderment of memory. When memory is bewildered, intelligence is lost, and when intelligence is lost one falls down again into the material pool.

But a person free from all attachment and aversion and able to control his senses through regulative principles of freedom can obtain the complete mercy of the Lord.

For one thus satisfied [in Krishna consciousness], the threefold miseries of material existence exist no longer; in such satisfied consciousness, one's intelligence is soon well established.

One who is not connected with the Supreme [in Krishna consciousness] can have neither transcendental intelligence nor a steady mind, without which there is no possibility of peace. And how can there be any happiness without peace?
As a strong wind sweeps away a boat on the water, even one of the roaming senses on which the mind focuses can carry away a man's intelligence.

Therefore, O mighty-armed, one whose senses are restrained from their objects is certainly of steady intelligence.

What is night for all beings is the time of awakening for the self-controlled; and the time of awakening for all beings is night for the introspective sage.

A person who is not disturbed by the incessant flow of desires — that enter like rivers into the ocean, which is ever being filled but is always still — can alone achieve peace, and not the man who strives to satisfy such desires.

A person who has given up all desires for sense gratification, who lives free from desires, who has given up all sense of proprietorship and is devoid of false ego — he alone can attain real peace.

That is the way of the spiritual and godly life, after attaining which a man is not bewildered. If one is thus situated even at the hour of death, one can enter into the kingdom of God.

___________________________________________________________________

Thanking is a very small word, to express my gratitude towards my parents who instilled such things of atmost importance in me. This will help me, support myself, from within.. !!


Source for translation of verses: - http://www.krishna.com/gitaframeset/gita_frameset.html

Scorching Heat and Road side watermelon

Aha it’s Saturday!! I woke up at 10 AM. I had some work in bank so had to go during day time. I decided to go walkie-talkie. Well, I took an umbrella and a scarf to protect myself from the Sun, but I think that was not enough. To and fro distance traveled is somewhere equal to 3 km. While returning back I was really thirsty and was sweating very badly. First, I thought to have some cold drink like my favorite maaza mango. But then I saw watermelon pieces nicely arranged in a plate at a road side shade. I decided to have one plate of it. I asked for the price.

I really felt like heaven. While I was relishing each bite, there were five other customers who were having it. At the end I asked the amount I had to pay. The lady replied 5 rupees. Well actually I felt like asking her about her day's income. I dont know tamil and hence due to language barrier I didn't asked her that. Then I started estimating her income myself based on the sample of customers I saw there. Heat starts killing you at around 11 AM and it lasts up to 6 PM. Lets estimate on an average 25 customers/hour ( considering the fact that the shop was on one of the very busy roads' side).Hence simple math answer is Rs. 875/day. Hence considering a 30 days month, monthly turnover is Rs. 26,250 (wow!!).

Now on an average 1 watermelon serves 3 plates. Hence approximately, 58 watermelons consumed per day. Cost price of 1 watermelon is 5 rupees. Hence monthly cost of watermelon is Rs. 8700...So Net income is Rs. 17550 (Look at the figure guys!!)...Any one wants to be a road side watermelon seller!! Well Frankly speaking I don’t want to be considering the scorching heat and the monotony of the work. But will surely ponder on to this as a business plan. What do you say?

Disclaimer: Financial gurus please take into consideration the ideal conditions. Accordingly please calculate +ve and -ve tolerance for the net income/month ;)

Glimpse of Book:- India Unbound

About Author:-

Gurucharn Das is a columnist for The Times of India and other newspapers. He graduated from Harvard college and attended Harvard Business School. A Former CEO of Proceter and Gamble, he is venture capitalist and a consultant to industry and government.

India Unbound is a book written in a lucid manner. Gurucharanji's typical writing style of bringing everything; History,Economics,Commerce , Business and Description of his life under one roof, makes this book an interesting read. He has described the British Raj, License Raj and Liberalization of Indian Economy very precisely. He says that India is a wise Elephant, unlike China. Although slower, India is more likely to preserve its way of life and its civilization of diversity, tolerance, and spirituality against the onslaught of the global culture.

-His inclination towards philosophy and confusion to pursue Sanskrit course at Harvard or leave it to go for something more, so called "substantial" in those days, is penned down.

-One should not miss the Vicks VapoRub incident of Surat lady ..while he was on his sales visit...

-He has described the leaders of Indian Industry:- G.D Birla, Narayan Murthy, Dhirubhai Ambani...

- How caste system can hinder the growth of a country , is very well explained.

In a Nut shell --its a book about the opening up of India to the outside world and to change for good...

Howzzat! HR masterstrokes for BCCI

HR Consultants Proffer Suggestions
Malini Goyal NEW DELHI

RELIGION is often beyond reason. And in a country where cricket is religion for many, reasoning and rationale has to take a back seat after a devastating World Cup loss. But let’s for a moment step back and think of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) as a corporate body and cricket players as its employees. And look at the players, their compensation structure and restrictions on them through the eyes of HR experts. After all companies have done a great job of balancing conflicting stakeholders’ concerns, achieving difficult tasks while balancing individual vs team rewards in an extremely competitive and global business environment.

Here are some of the issues and suggestions that HR consultants and heads have for the BCCI. Not all of them may be implemented - but if the BCCI can pick up at least some of the ground rules that India inc has learnt over the years to win business and manage employees, cricketing at least would gain. If some of the outpourings below feel emotionladen, just discount for the passion these experts may have for the game.

BCCI as a corporate body If BCCI wants to become a world-class company with a world-class cricketing team it has to have a clear business plan with well-articulated time frame and key milestones like any business proposal. It also needs to identify what it needs to get there – money, infrastructure and of course best team, best coach etc.

For each of them - coach, selectors, players, even board members – their roles, the key deliverables and targets have to be clearly defined with accountability and responsibility fixed. “One has to see where are the failures on the deliverables before talking about sacking the coach or the player or the selector,” says R Sankar, head, Mercer India. Role clarity is very critical at all levels and the measures to vet performance have to be put in place. Performance review has to be regular and in a more structured rather than a reactive manner - the way its been happening.

And last but not the least, the board members have to be accountable for their jobs. “Right now its (the board) being used as a facility for gaining social respect,” says K Ramkumar, HR head of ICICI Bank. Maybe board members should be charged – Rs 1 crore – to get a board seat, and in times when the team isn’t doing well they could be penalized with Rs 2 crore fee,” he says.

GROOMING leaders & team This is a place where guys with far lesser experience can be asked to lead the team of people with far more experience. It happens frequently in the corporate world and they do it all the time. But the cricketing world is far more challenging - There are many prima-donnas here with high public stature. Add to it the fish-bowl experience of being always under media glare and public scrutiny. Amid all this when some of them are pitch-forked in leadership roles at a relatively young age without any formal grooming, it creates enormous leadership challenges. From a holistic HR perspective there should be a formal intense process of grooming prospective leader and this could not just be left to chance, says Hema Ravichandar, a strategic HR consultant and ex-HR head of Infosys Technologies. But once chosen a leader, the captain has to walk the talk and be a leader standing up for his team. “Dravid has acted as a stooge either for the coach or the board. How will he derive any respect from the team,” says Ramkumar.

SALARY bouncer How best to remunerate players? What could help align individual performance with the team? Should there be a graded system? What’s the crticilaity of the variable pay? In most of the above issues, opinions vary, but here’s snapshot of what they have to say.

VARIABLE vs fixed pay Variable pay, which is performance-linked, has to be a critical component. That’s the only way wins can be rewarded and losses can be penalized. Most HR experts recommend in the range of 40-50% of the total compensation to be variable. Variable pay can have two components they suggest – team performance and individual performance. While team performance can be rewarded at the end of every match win, ICICI’s Ramkumar warns that individual performance should be assessed on an annual basis. “Right now they have a warped variable pay which rewards players deal by deal. That’s a very narrow and short-term approach,” he says. Assessing annually will help avoid short-term approach to performance and it will also allow for bounce-back for players who may have short spells of bad form. Also they suggest that, there could be differentiated slabs for rewarding individual variable pay - for example those making 100 runs, those making more than 200 runs annually can fall in two slabs.

SKIPPER vs rest The thumb rule in the corporate world is that the leader gets at least double the remuneration than the person next in line. And ideally, HR experts would want the captain and vice-captain to get far more than his team members simply because he has two roles to play in the game. But the experts differ in how the two should be paid higher. While Ramkumar suggests that the captain’s compensation should be structured such that the variable component is higher than the others. For example, if for the players, 50% of the compensation is variable, for captain it should go a notch higher to 60%, he suggests. But Piyush Mehta, HR head of Genpact, differs. While the percentage rise in variable salary is a given in the corporate sector as you move up the hierarchy, it should not be the case in cricket, he says. This is because the ability of say a CEO to change the flow in an organization is quite high as compared to a cricket match where a skipper’s efforts can play only a marginal role.

Source:- The Economic TImes

HP's perfect enough ....CARLY ...The Change leader

Born in 1954, (Carleton S. Fiorina) Fiorina was brought up in Austin, Texas (USA). Her father was a lawyer who also taught law at Stanford and other universities while her mother was a painter. Fiorina attended school in different parts of the world including Ghana, England, North Carolina and California.

She graduated in arts (BA in medieval history and philosophy) from Stanford University in 1976. Fiorina displayed her analytical capabilities at Stanford, where she was able to summarize hundreds of pages of religious writings into crisp, two-page abstracts in quick time.
After graduation, she attended the law school at UCLA (University of California at Los Angeles). However, she opted out of the course after completing one semester. In an interview to Investor's Business Daily, she said that 'lack of interest' had prompted her to drop out since law 'was all about discovering precedent someone else has set.' She then completed a master's degree in science (MS) from MIT's Sloan School.

In the early days of her career, Fiorina taught English in Bologna, Italy and she taught English to many clients, who were eager to know about American businesses using articles of American businesses. She also worked as a receptionist in Marcus & Millichap, then a small real-estate firm in New York. It was in this firm, when writing deals for brokers that she became attracted towards business management. In her autobiography “Tough Choices” Carly has mentioned that her work helped her develop people skills and she discovered that she loves to be part of a team. While continuing to work, Fiorina did a course in marketing management from the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland. After she acquired her MBA degree, she joined the sales department of AT&T Long Lines as an account executive, in 1980.
Fiorina spent nearly 20 years at AT&T and Lucent Technologies, where she held a number of senior leadership positions and directed Lucent's initial public offering and subsequent spin-off from AT&T.

Fiorina joined Hewlett-Packard Company on July 19, 1999 as CEO, succeeding Lewis Platt. She reworked the value statement of the company. She built a new management team. She was responsible for the faster and innovative and learning culture of HP. She undertook a major restructure of the organization and set new performance measures. However, many of Fiorina's initiatives at HP had been controversial. A major one was the HP-Compaq merger, which finally made the board of HP to fire her. In her autobiography Carly mentions “HP had consumed me. My entire life was programmed around it- every moment on the calendar, in advance.”
Some powerful ideas that have driven her life are the foundations laid down by her parents. She strongly believes,” Character is everything and character is defined as candor, integrity and authenticity. Authenticity is about knowing what you believed, being who you were, and standing up for both.”

As a leader she is well known in the corporate world as “The Change leader”. She is an inspirational leader, charismatic personality, has strong value system, ready to break established structure; innovative, influential and energetic and a marvelous orator. In 2002, (Fiorina), the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of HP was the only woman CEO to head a Fortune 50 company. Fortune magazine also ranked her as the most powerful woman in business for the sixth consecutive year.

She has a personal touch that inspires intense loyalty. She's known for giving balloons and flowers to employees who land big contracts. When Lucent was spun off from AT&T in early 1996, Fiorina stayed up all night with Comptroller Jim Lusk and other employees to make sure the prospectus for the stock offering was perfect. And it's not just business: When the wife of a senior Lucent executive fell ill recently, Fiorina helped make sure he got medical advice, doctors, and emotional support.

Fiorina holds positions on the board of trustees of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Foundation Board of the World Economic Forum. She is an Honorary Fellow of the London Business School. In early September 2005, Fiorina was named a director at Revolution Health Group, a venture formed by Steve Case. In October 2005, Fiorina joined the board of computer security company Cybertrust. In April 2006, Fiorina joined the board of directors for TSMC (Taiwan). Fiorina is an independent TSMC board member and serves on the audit and compensation committees.

In Carly Fiorina's Keynote Speech at MIT, 2002 she mentions “Trust comes as a basic DNA question” that is if you don’t have trust coded into your own organization then it is difficult to convey it to the larger market. Trust is doing right thing when no one is watching.”
Carly Fiorina remains and stands apart as a powerful and innovative leader.

Home Sweet Home....my oxygen

Here I am...after 5 months, at my home, for a week. There is no single moment when I am idle. It started by meeting my masi's,mama's and chacha's family....get togather with my cousins....really enjoyed the time with them...we are a big fat Gujarati family. At home there are happier times with lots of sleep and all my favorite dishes made by dearest mother. Then phone rings and aha !! its a call from an old friend...fix up time and place of meeting and hang out with him/her....Just do hi...hello with neighbouring aunty..and she hand overs you 3 fat album of his sons marriage. ...Open some unread e-mails (which you thought you will open when you are relaxed)...you find album of marriage/cute baby of either one of your friend or cousin. You are wonder struck by the sudden additions of new people to your memory...One who were miss are now mrs. and some are even "Mom". (You think that 5 months is a small time for these many things to happen...but they have actually happenend)

This year can be named as "under construction" for my home town. Not a single street was without the sign board "Work in progress".Hope the corporation finishes the work well before monsoon sets in ... Besides...when I enter the lane of my house...I reconfirm whether I am entering the correct lane by looking around. This is beacause two humongous building are standing facing my house...( what a speed man) ....and I also see the palm trees of our garden grown quite taller (1 and 1/2 storey...last when I saw...they were just of my height)...

This is all ...4 more days to go and I'll get more surprises...hope fully all are pleasant.

Morality is a private and costly luxury

BUSINESS ETHICS
John Maxwell

AN ETHICAL dilemma can be defined as an undesirable or unpleasant choice relating to a moral principle or practice. In such situations, do we do the easy thing or the right thing? Business people in particular desire to win through achievement and success. But many think they have to choose between being ethical and winning. Many people believe that embracing ethics would limit their options, their opportunities, their very ability to succeed in business. They agree with Harvard history professor Henry Adams who stated: “Morality is a private and costly luxury.” Fortunately, there is an increasing desire for ethical dealing in business. One of our problems is that ethics is never a business issue or a social issue or a political issue. It is always a personal issue. People say they want integrity. But at the same time, ironically, studies indicate that the majority of people don’t always act with the kind of integrity they request from others. If you embrace ethical behaviour, will it automatically make you rich and successful? Of course not. Can it pave the way for you to become successful? Absolutely! Ethics + competence is a winning equation. In contrast, people who continually attempt to test the edge of ethics inevitably go over that edge. In the short term, behaving ethically may look like a loss. However, in the long term, people always lose when they live without ethics. Have you ever met anyone who lived a life of shortcuts, deception, and cheating who finished well?

Source: - The Economic Times

Are HR professionals in the people business any longer?

Ganesh Chella

A sound grounding in the science of human behaviour will help today's HR professionals diagnose people issues better and strike a better balance between business demands and people's needs.

As a human resource consultant, I have had the unenviable task (on more than one occasion) of introducing my clients' HR manager to their own employees! If you find this hard to believe try this test - ask a random sample of employees in any large organisation to list the names of their HR team members. If they do pass this test, ask them if they have seen them at least once, face-to-face. If they pass this test too, they are blessed. The rest may read on ...
The reason for the `invisibility' that I have implied in the example is the fundamental shift in the way today's HR professionals are seeing their roles. They seem to be taking a "hard" and "business like" view of their roles to the exclusion of the "softer" championship, advocacy and connect dimensions. As a result, many of today's HR professionals are not dealing with "people" as "people" and that is worrying.

While the transformation of HR as a serious partner in today's business environment is welcome, leaving behind the "humanness" is not. While HR professionals are busy designing and implementing programmes that are intended to benefit people, their current mode of relating with people seems to be what psychologists would call "agentic" — a cold approach, caring less about their feelings but more about what one wants from them.
This is what has prompted me to ask if HR professionals are in the people business any longer?

The five drivers

I see five factors driving this new "HR attitude towards people".
The preoccupation with becoming a strategic partner
It looks like some HR folks read only parts of Dave Ulrich's landmark book. While he spoke with as much gusto about the employee champion role as he did about the strategic partner role, most seem to consider the latter more attractive. In fact, the preoccupation is so severe that "being in touch with employees" is seen as totally non-strategic.
In my opinion, being champions and advocates is indeed strategic. It is for this reason that HR professionals were traditionally groomed in the "employee relations" role before being moved into "corporate" roles.

The frustration with the lack of reciprocity

In the past, the people-friendly attitude and actions of the HR professional met with a fair amount of reciprocity from the employees. Using the depth of this relationship, HR leaders were able to solve sticky people problems, negotiate with unions and hire and retain employees. In the emerging employment arrangements that we are witnessing, the relationship and persuasive powers of the HR Manager is unable to match the harsh forces of the labour market.
This is obviously leading to a certain level of frustration and anger among the HR folks with employees and their attitudes. The empathy and Theory Y assumptions needed among HR professionals to deal with the situation are not evident. Nor is there reflection about how they seem to have contributed to these changing (read bad) employee attitudes!

Disconnected by design

As organisations scale like never before, HR professionals have to spread themselves thinner than ever before. Spread thin beyond a point, HR presence becomes meaningless and leads to complete disconnect. The need for focus and specialisation is also driving the HR functions into silos. Like the super-specialist medical professional, each vertical within the HR looks only at one aspect of the employee - talent acquisition, talent engagement, talent development and so on. No one seems to be seeing the whole human being!

Feverish HR outsourcing, recourse to self-help technologies, emphasis on managerial responsibility for people and other such actions are also making HR more and more disconnected from people.

The modern HR manager has fewer and fewer touch points with his or her employees and this does not seem to cause any worry. Right from selection interviews to exit interviews, external service providers are taking over.

Mistaking a `Talent mind-set' for a `people mind-set'
HR is now called talent management and HR professionals prefix or suffix these words to their titles. Many believe that this gives the function and the professional a greater sense of purpose.
The only problem is that "Human" is now missing not only in spirit but also in "letter"!
The way the term talent is used also gives me the sense that HR is in the business of materials management and not in the business of people!
While the urgency to compete and establish supremacy in the labour market is high, the orientation seems more mechanistic and less humanistic.

Less science more techniques

Many of today's HR professionals lack knowledge about the basic science of human behaviour which forms the edifice for understanding people and their motives.
On the other hand they are overwhelmed with what today's HR consulting firms dish out - talent assessments methodologies, engagement models, criteria for becoming the "best in the list" and so on.

A sound grounding in the science of human behaviour would have helped today's HR professionals diagnose people issues better and strike a better balance between business demands and people's needs. Without this understanding of people, the empathy and concern are hard to come by.

The HR profession is undoubtedly under a lot of pressure given that most of today's business problems revolve around people. Merely being the warm and fuzzy guy around will not do. Giving up the people agenda altogether will not do either!

So... .
Let's get in touch with our own humanness
Let's understand the people behind the talent
Let's reconnect with these people as people
(The author is the founder and CEO of totus consulting, a strategic HR consulting firm that designs and implements systems and processes for organisations across diverse industries. He can be reached at

ganesh@totusconsulting.com)

A Triumph of Story telling

Every once in a while, a movie comes along that blows you away just by how utterly simple and beautiful it is. The Pursuit Of Happyness is one of those movies, a heart-warming story of father and son, human beings, pulling together. Will Smith and eight-year-old Jaden Smith, father and son in real life, bring this to us on screen poignantly, and always with a look-on-the-brightside lightness. Their optimism comes to define, and uplift the movie. And in the process, they rise above the difficult circumstances that are integral to its story.

Chris Gardner's job as a salesman is a false start; with a wife and young son to provide for, he can hardly make ends meet. Tough times are in store. His wife leaves him, and he and his son - who he fiercely refuses to give his wife custody of - are evicted from their home because he can't pay the rent. A touching, often sad story of the two of them up against life's odds unfolds. Each time they survive one(just about), you find yourself hoping that their next episode is an inflection that turns the tide for the better. Often, they only find themselves up against another trying circumstance.

Jaden Smith, both as Christopher Gardner in this movie and as Jaden the actor, is memorable: Because of the events around him rocking his world, Christopher is often unsettled, and sometimes displays it, just as a kid of his age would. But he does not dwell, and often takes comfort in his dad's presence, like any other eightyear-old (Will Smith as his real dad must surely have helped). In turn, Chris Gardner, in spite of the hopeless situation that he sees and the desperation that he feels, looks to Christopher for reassurance. His son is easily distracted by the present moment, and doesn't know enough to comprehend just how badly off they might be. He sometimes even forgets that things are looking gloomy, something that adults are able to do much less effectively. "Are you happy?" Chris asks his son in one scene, "Because if you're happy, then I'm happy, then things are fine," taking comfort from the child-like optimism that his son has.

You sense that Gardner always has a fierce ray of hope that never goes away. Will Smith's performance is moving, and empathetic, you're rooting for him fervently. He brings many unwritten (and ineffable) facets to his character, and a large part of my being drawn into this movie and then loving it is because of what Will Smith brings to his role.

The Pursuit Of Happyness is persuasive proof that a story can be told simply, without adornment or flourish, and still fully engage your senses and leave strong, lasting impressions.

FILM : The Pursuit Of Happyness

DIRECTOR : Gabriele Muccino

CAST : Will Smith, Jaden Smith

Source: Madras plus , The Economic Times

Igniting women entrepreneurship

If we could get the poor and ill-educated women to earn their own money, we would have more warriors in the fight against poverty, and more champions of the girl child, says Rama Bijapurkar
THE new buzz in the conference circuit is the arithmetic argument that there could be a big GDP boost if more Indian women became economically active (77% of urban housewives, 60% of rural do not work outside the home). To me, a more compelling pay off of women earning is the resultant increase in their self-esteem and negotiating power with family and society and the resultant social and human development benefits. More importantly, if we could get the poor and the ill-educated women to earn their own money, we would have more warriors in the fight against poverty, and more champions of the girl child.

The only problem, as always in India, is how do we make this happen? Conventional job creation will not happen as fast as we need it to, and poor and less educated women will find it increasingly tough to have a shot at those fewer jobs. The only way to fix this is entrepreneurship, enabling them to become economically active at an income level that makes the effort worthwhile.

It is this that is the focus of TIE women’s initiative. TIE is an Indian diaspora originated, global network, committed to fostering entrepreneurship. The TIE model for action is based on awareness creation (to spark desire and spur action) — advocacy (to create systemic enablers and remove systemic road blocks) — assistance (mentoring through a semi-formal process to get high potential entrepreneurs off the ground). As a first step to understanding how best to deploy this model for fostering grassroots entrepreneurship for women, a group from TIE women and UTI Bank collaborated a baseline study (GEM — Grassroots Entrepreneurship Movement for women), to map the structure and conduct of women entrepreneurship as it exists today. The study was conducted by India Consultancy Group, and mentored by two volunteers from McKinsey. I think today would be a good day to share the study findings, for use in any which way, by all who are concerned with women entrepreneurship.

Is there a desire for entrepreneurship among middle class urban Indian women who are currently not working? A survey to measure the NQ or the entrepreneurial quotient was conducted (1,200 middle class urban women excluding the top 20% of households and the bottom 30% in terms of social class) in six diverse cities — Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Coimbatore, Chandigarh, Hyderabad and Indore.

The heartening answer was that about one in every four women wanted to have a business of her own. Half of these potential entrepreneurs already are running some money-making activity from home and are ready to convert it to a formal business. The other half have so far been solely home makers, but have given a fair degree of thought to visioning their business.

What is their profile? Forget images of Kiran Shaw or Vandana Luthra. Of these women, 40% had less than nine years of education, another 40% were standard tenth pass, and only 20% had an education beyond that. The reasons for not studying further were forced on them in 75% of the cases, “family said enough”, “financial constraints”, and “got married off”. The touching statistic was that women with high NQ also had more educated mothers — relatively speaking, of course. Of them, 95% were married, almost all had children, and 67% had nuclear families. Obviously the strategy to stimulate such entrepreneurship has to take these constraints into account.

WHAT stops them? Just about everything — lack of know-how, lack of space, lack of family support, lack of finances. (Interestingly that was not the first and last item on the list. It isn’t just about money. It is about support in many more ways, because they have fewer role models to learn from.) Part 2 of the study was to know more about what motivates and frustrates existing women entrepreneurs, and how they can be taken to the next level.

Four segments of women entrepreneurs exist: Self-help groups: Those who are well served and mentored by microfinance institutions.

Grassroots entrepreneurs: Those who are driven by a need to augment the family’s finances especially to secure their children’s future — tailors, flower sellers, STD booth owners, paanshops. With turnover aspiration of five lakh a year, they are very work focused, as they can see any increase in their earnings as directly impacting their childrens’ lives. They are hungry for formal skills and training and can clearly articulate what they want to learn that will help them earn more. Domestic family support, financial support and better infrastructure and mechanisation is what they ask for.

Mid-rung entrepreneurs: They are driven by a need to build reputation, become known, and improve quality and satisfy creative instincts . Mostly graduate +, they typically have garments shops, poultry farms, export businesses etc., with turnover aspirations from Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore. Fairly well supported by the family, their biggest need is for know-how to take the ‘quality of their business’ to the next level. However, they do not want to scale too much, because to them, there is an optimal level beyond which, they believe their children will get neglected.

Upper Crust: Drawn from the top-most social class, very well educated, with businesses like export houses, travel agencies, traders in pharmaceuticals, often adjuncts to their husband’s businesses, they aspire to turnovers of more than Rs 5 crore. Where are the bankers for the grassroots entrepreneurs? The mid-rung can get bank loans if she makes an effort to, but prefers friends and family funding, while the upper crust leverages her family balance sheet to get loans for her business. However the most potent and hungry segment, the grassroots entrepreneur is stuck in the middle with no access to finance — below the nose of the bank, and beyond the ken of micro finance.

A segmented strategy customised for the mid-rung and grassroots entrepreneurs is being worked on: Awareness to help take the leap with family blessing, advocacy relating to school curricula and new banking offerings, and assistance to hand hold them to the next level.

source:- The Economic Times

Dont try to change others to suit you!!

People are brought up with different values. Their philosophy of life is different from yours. Due to this there are differences in this world. Thats why the world exists. Dont expect them to change according to your confirmations. Accept them the way they are. Thats the beauty and basis of all the realtionships.

It’s back to school for retail head-hunters

NO MORE KID BIZ

Samidha Sharma & Deepshikha Monga NEW DELHI

THE retail sector's hunt for manpower is leading players to hitherto uncharted territory. Now, school students (Class X and XII passouts) are being roped in to help the sector satisfy its insatiable appetite for skilled workforce. So, companies such as Reliance Retail, Pantaloon and Godrej Agrovet are going to schools to scout for talent. Reliance Retail, which plans to recruit around 5 lakh employees for its venture over the next five years, expects to hire around 60-70% of its front-end staff from government schools. These Class XII passouts then undergo a sixmonth training programme before getting on to the shop floor. Similarly, Pantaloon Retail hires as many as 300 school passouts from both government and private schools, out of the 600 it recruits every month. The retail major also gives them an option of pursuing a BBA in Retail through distance-learning programmes at Madurai Kamaraj University and pays half the fee on completion of one year of the course. It currently has on its rolls around 3,500 school passouts, picked up from various schools in the country. "The distance-learning BBA programme offers these youngsters a chance to chart out a career path of growth and an opportunity to become more than mere shopfloor attendants," says Pantaloon Retail HR head Sanjay Jog. The retailer has a five-week operations and sales training programme for its recruits and a week-long training on self-development. On the other hand, Godrej Agrovet, the Rs 870-crore rural retail initiative of the Godrej Group, trains Class X passouts under its sixmonth ‘Godrej Aadhaar Krishi Gurukul’ programme. It has so far trained 85 students in the field of agricultural advisory services, apart from personality development, computer skills and sales. It will train another batch of 120 students by May this year and plans to train about 1,000 such students by March 2008. According to CII, the retail sector can absorb 90 lakh people over the next five years. Ma Foi Management Consultants has been recruiting Class XII passouts for retail players and expects this trend to catch up as organised retail goes on an expansion spree. Says the HR consultancy’s chief operating office, E Balaji, "Both employee development and retention are on the agenda of retailers who are hiring in bulk, in anticipation of their massive expansion exercise."

Source : - The Economic Times