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Sunday, September 26, 2010

CASE STUDY 2 - DoCoMo - The Japanese Wireless Telecom Leader: The Tsunami in Trouble

DoCoMo - The Japanese Wireless Telecom Leader: The Tsunami in Trouble
In May 2002, NTT DoCoMo (DoCoMo) Inc., Japan's largest mobile phone company, announced a net loss of ¥ 116.19 billion1 and a goodwill write-off of ¥ 624.6 billion for the fiscal ending March 2002. Though the company registered an increase in operating revenues from ¥ 4,669.37 billion in 2000-01 to ¥ 5167.14 billion, the revenue growth was stated to be well below its company expectations. Company sources attributed this to the general decline in Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) for voice services and slower growth in new cellular subscribers across the country (Refer Exhibit I for DoCoMo's financials and ARPU data).

DoCoMo's announcement did not come as a major surprise to industry observers, as media reports had been forecasting losses for the company since early 2002 itself. What was noteworthy about this development, however, was the fact that the company was largely believed to be performing exceptionally well in the recent past. The fact that DoCoMo had roped in as many subscribers as the leading US-based media company AOL, but much faster, was often cited as a proof of Japan finally waking up to the challenges of the 'new' economy.

Analysts claimed that DoCoMo was paying the price for its aggressive overseas expansion drive during 1999-2002, in the form of these losses. DoCoMo had to take a huge write-off in its books on account of a decline in the value of its foreign investments and the slump in the global telecommunications market in 2001. While some analysts felt that DoCoMo should revamp its global strategy, a few others said that the company should take measures to increase ARPU. In the words of Hironobu Sawake, an analyst at J P Morgan (leading global financial services firm), "The question is whether we can see a rise in profitability."

DoCoMo announced that its commitment towards globalization was intact. The company also brushed off analysts' view that the focus should be on increasing the ARPU. Instead, it announced that it would focus more on 3G (Refer Exhibit II for a note on 3G) initiatives (developing and launching more innovative and new 3G technology products). While DoCoMo was still lauded for its well designed and executed strategic and marketing game plan that had helped it build a huge subscriber base over the years, these developments had raised many doubts about its future prospects and its ability to turn itself around.

CASE STUDY 1 - IMPLEMENTING A COMPREHENSIVE PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL SYSTEM FOR INDIA'S LEADING RETAIL CHAIN

IMPLEMENTING A COMPREHENSIVE PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL SYSTEM FOR INDIA'S LEADING RETAIL CHAIN

About the customer:

The customer is a leading retail chain in India with outlets in all the states and clients across USA, Europe and Japan. A large conglomerate with interests in various ventures, the company pioneered the concept of customer-oriented retail stores in the country. Over the years, it has successfully promoted a number of brands, products and events using innovative tactics. The company had a handful of stores for the first 5 years of its operations; today it is India’s largest retail chain with a distinct brand identity that appeals to the Indian youth.



Customer challenges:

When the customer conducted an internal Employee Satisfaction Survey, the results indicated that employees were highly dissatisfied with the performance appraisal system. The appraisal and goal sheets were manual, resulting in a huge drain on employee resources in terms of time and effort. Additionally, there was no system to post employee KRAs (Key Result Areas). Employees wanted the company to maintain rosters of employee KRAs, with a flexible KRA setting process that allowed for detailed mid-year review and interactions between HR, employees and the respective managers. Thirdly, due to the manual nature of the appraisal process, the company found it difficult to generate MIS reports. Finally, there was a strong need for an online central repository of employee data.

Employee dissatisfaction with these elements was strong and was reflected in rising attrition rate, decreasing employee morale and loss of faith in the company’s systems and its ability to manage them.

In consideration of these factors, the customer was looking to implement a complete solution for performance management that could be customized as per its needs and mapped to existing processes. This system would have to be implemented within a short time frame.



Saigun solution:

The customer evaluated a couple of products (SAP HR being one of them) before choosing Saigun’s EmpXTrack for its comprehensive and flexible features that were available at a reasonable cost. EmpXtrack was faster to implement and offered a user-friendly, web-based interface that could be accessed anytime, anywhere. It had ready-to-use and yet, customizable, templates in every module. The product offered a wide variety of options, being available in five different editions, with each edition offering a different set of HR modules. Each edition, in turn, comprised different options based on the number of features available. This variety made EmpXtrack easily configurable and customizable for the customer’s needs. Finally, it was cost-effective, offering a flexible pricing model and low front-end cost.

The customer chose to implement two modules of EmpXtrack that fit its requirements: the Goal Setting System and the Appraisal System. The solution was required for 500 users and was to be implemented within one and a half months. To meet the stringent implementation deadline, all the stakeholders from Saigun worked in parallel with each other, effectively handling both the qualitative and quantitative aspects.

Both modules were deployed smoothly though there were challenges in collecting the customer’s data. This was resolved through constant communication with the stakeholder at the customer site, with Saigun team working relentlessly to collect the customer data till all the requisite information was collected in the format that it was needed in.



Results:

This engagement was completed within the expected timelines. With the automation of HR processes, the organization and functioning of HR systems have become smoother and timeline-driven, resulting in a huge saving on time, efforts and resources. The solution allows the company to generate any kind of MIS report demanded by the management, and this ready availability of data has had a positive impact on non-HR processes as well. Most importantly, with the Goal and Appraisal Sheet being readily available to all employees and managers, employee satisfaction has increased and employees’ faith restored in the company’s capability to meet their expectations. The HR team in charge of the project on the customer side has won kudos for completing this engagement within such a short timeframe.

Saigun’s product and flawless implementation has resulted in complete customer satisfaction, with the customer opting for three more modules from EmpXtrack – HRIS (Human Resources Information Systems), Employee Self Services and Payroll. This will be a bigger engagement covering 6000 employees.

“The Saigun team worked within a tight schedule to meet our appraisal cycle requirements. EmpXtrack is easy to use and offered some comprehensive features that were customized to meet our specific requirements. We found the Saigun team very proactive and quick to help during a crucial implementation phase where they provided us with 24/7 support.” – HR Manager

SOURCE - WWW.EMPXTRACK.COM

ARTICLE 22 - A STORY ABOUT PEAK PERFORMANCE

A story about peak performance

Very insightful story on a number of levels related to HR and Performance Management,

A Japanese company (Toyota) and an American company (General Motors) decided to have a canoe race on the Missouri River. Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race. On the big day, the Japanese won by a mile.

The Americans, very discouraged and depressed, decided to investigate the reason for the crushing defeat. A management team composed of senior management was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action. Their conclusion: The Japanese had 8 people rowing and 1 person steering, while the American team had 8 people steering and 1 person rowing.

Feeling a deeper study was in order, American management hired a consulting company and paid them a large amount of money for a second opinion. They advised, of course, that too many people were steering the boat, while not enough people were rowing.

Not sure of how to utilize that information, but wanting to prevent another loss to the Japanese, the rowing team’s management structure was totally reorganized to 4 steering supervisors, 3 area steering superintendents and 1 assistant superintendent steering manager.

They also implemented a new performance system that would give the 1 person rowing the boat greater incentive to work harder. It was called the ‘Rowing Team Quality First Program,’ with meetings, dinners and free pens for the rower. The new change initiative also included plans for getting new paddles, canoes and other equipment, plus extra vacation days for practices and bonuses.

The next year the Japanese won by two miles.

Humiliated, the American management laid off the rower for poor performance, halted development of a new canoe, sold the paddles, and canceled all capital investments for new equipment. The money saved was distributed to the senior executives as bonuses and the next year’s racing team was outsourced to India.

Sadly, The End.

Sad, but oh so true! Here’s something else to think about: Ford has spent the last thirty years moving all its factories out of the US, claiming they can’t make money paying American wages. Toyota has spent the last thirty years building more than a
dozen plants inside the US. The last quarter’s results: Toyota makes 4 billion in profits while Ford racked up 9 billion in losses. Ford executives are still scratching their heads.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

ARTICLE 21 - 25 TRENDS THAT WILL CHANGE THE WAY YOU DO BUSINESS

25 Trends That Will Change the Way You Do Business

From e-mail to health care, and from artificial intelligence to the end of HR as we know it, here are forecasts of how different the world of workforce management will be 10 years from now.

workforce-management decisions aren’t made with crystal balls. What they do demand is a clear sense of the landscape on the far horizon. As a human resources executive, you probably know what health care will cost your company next year.

But you’re far less certain whether or not legions of workers will be full-time telecommuters five years from now, or if defined benefits will even exist in 2013. Fortunately, there are forward-thinkers and trend-spotters out there who make it their business to suss out the future for us.

Our visionaries don’t always agree with each other, as you’ll see. Still, their predictions of what factors will alter the world of workforce management are provocative, and may serve to inform and intrigue all of us who manage people.



1 E-Mail

It has taken less than a decade for electronic mail to emerge as the heart and soul of corporate communication. Yet while e-mail has made it faster and easier for people to swap words and data, it also has unleashed inbox overload and a seemingly endless stream of spam. Future e-mail systems will attempt to remedy today’s problems--but also add new capabilities.

One possibility is that senders will have to match a predetermined list--either by name, company, or IP (Internet provider) address--or find themselves blocked. In addition, better anti-spam programs will help sift out the junk.

Powerful information-management and collaboration tools are also likely to emerge. They will link associated messages and track message streams more efficiently. Internet pioneer Vinton Cerf predicts that automatic language translation will take hold. Finally, unified messaging will allow workers to check e-mail, voice mail, mobile messaging, and fax machine from a single inbox.

2 Organized Labor

Despite declining membership and overwhelming odds, labor unions aren’t in danger of dying any time soon. They do, however, face the future with these grim facts: Membership dropped from 20.1 percent of the labor force in 1983 to 13.2 percent in 2002. The decline in U.S. manufacturing cost union members 1.5 million jobs in the 1990s. The Bush administration has eliminated collective bargaining rights for large numbers of federal employees.

Still, more than 500,000 workers formed new unions last year. Union members make on average $150 a week more than non-union workers. Pharmacists and physicians, faced with alarming shifts in the medical marketplace, will join unions in growing numbers in the coming years.

But to retain their power, unions must reverse the shrinkage, experts say. "Unions have been doing a better job than ever," says Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of Labor Education Research at Cornell University. "It’s just that the bar is a lot higher."

3 Business Goes to Kindergarten

All signs indicate that corporate involvement in public schools--already redefining kindergarten-through-high-school education--will continue to increase over the next decade. Alarmed by under performing public schools and students poorly equipped for the job market, business is getting directly involved. Corporate sponsors are popping up on campuses from Washington, D.C., to Stockton, California, as a new generation of students prepares for college, and for jobs such as auto mechanics, Internet specialists, and hotel workers. School-to-business field trips start in kindergarten. Internships, meetings with top executives in office settings, and even paychecks are available for older students.

"We’re saying, ‘See, there is a reason to go to school,’" says Knute Momberg, director of Stockton’s Weber Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology. The school has more computers than students, and GM provided the new cars that teens take apart in squeaky-clean service bays.

4 Going Euro

In Europe, snooping at employees’ e-mail isn’t only considered bad form. It’s often flat-out illegal. And as American companies increasingly enjoy their reputations as global trendsetters in business practices, they may have to reverse some key employee policies, says Andy Boling, a partner and employment-law expert in the Chicago-based law firm Baker & McKenzie.

One obvious area is workplace privacy, where U.S. companies may be compelled to reduce their monitoring of e-mail and Internet use. "Multinationals are finding that it’s too cumbersome to have one set of privacy policies for Europe, another for Hong Kong and Australia, and a third standard for the United States," he says. With U.S.-based employees communicating increasingly via e-mail with their European counterparts, Americans also will begin to covet their liberal vacation policies and parental-leave benefits. "These things may not be implemented here to the extent of the privacy regulations," Boling says, "but American workers and organized labor may increasingly look to Europe as the standard."

5 Companies Won't Sleep

In a quest to reach new customers in foreign time zones and to speed up production and services, more and more companies in the future will be open for business around the clock, seven days a week. Already about 24 million Americans work in the 24/7 culture, according to Circadian Technologies, a Massachusetts-based consulting firm. While the 24/7 worker used to be an assembly-line worker, today he or she may well be a college-educated computer-tech-support specialist working nights in San Francisco, providing Japanese-language advice to a customer who calls from Tokyo during his lunch hour.

The migration to a 24/7 workplace will make human resources managers’ jobs far more complex, says David Mitchell, Circadian’s director of publications. "You may have to offer nighttime child-care providers, who watch kids while they sleep," he says. "And you may have to be much more creative in terms of scheduling--for example, if you’re running a call center for a retailer, you may have to have more staff on hand right after the 2:30 a.m. infomercial." Employers also will have a trickier time dealing with disability claims, since some mental health conditions may be exacerbated by a shift to nighttime work.

6 Artificial Intelligence

Making computers think more like people is an idea that persists. In the workplace, software already predicts customer behavior and machine failures on the factory floor. These capabilities will continue to evolve. As the Web and data warehouses grow, artificial intelligence will solve problems that are beyond the reach of the human brain.

AI’s strength is that it can uncover patterns and spot problems amid a mountain of data. That might translate into detecting financial fraud by examining billions of transactions, says Pepperdine University business professor Owen P. Hall Jr. Meanwhile, agents and bots--tiny pieces of software--will use real-time data to make decisions about how to maximize the efficiency of trucking fleets, machinery, and network resources.

"AI will bring advances but also usher in ethical concerns," Hall says.

7 The Simmering Malaise

For several years, employees have had a very tough time. They’ve lived with the fear of downsizing. They’ve watched benefits and retirement savings shrink. And they’ve been forced to work harder and longer, with fewer opportunities for promotions or raises. Even when the economy eventually recovers, experts say, pervasive dissatisfaction and anger aren’t likely to evaporate.

Only 25 percent of workers feel a strong attachment to their employers, and 4 in 10 feel trapped in their jobs, according to Walker Information, an Indianapolis-based research firm. Walker vice president Marc Drizin says employee loyalty was on the decline even before the economy stalled, and that pattern is likely to continue. "I think most organizations still don’t understand why you need to be good to your workers," he says. Employers who ignore workplace discontent run the risk of periodic productivity slumps as skilled staffers depart for higher-paying positions whenever the labor market surges. Smart companies that make employees feel valued will gain a crucial competitive edge.

8 Office Design

In the coming years, most cubicle-dwelling employees probably won’t have a room--or a door--of their own. There is an office movement toward more shared work space coupled with private desk areas, especially in creative industries, says Gervais Tompkin, a lead designer with the San Francisco-based Workplace Practices Group at Gensler Architecture, Design and Planning Worldwide.

What’s more, workforce managers will play a key role in office design, serving as a critical link between the personal and professional needs of workers and the vision of architects, he says. "When we analyze what makes our best designs successful and keeps those clients coming back to us, it is the active involvement of human resources managers early on in the process," Tompkin says.

He isn’t prepared to predict the demise of doorless cubicle kingdoms, but says that he is seeing changes. "I personally could never operate with a closed door because people need to interrupt me at will since our work is so collaborative. Lawyers, on the other hand, will always need a way to shut out the world because their work is by nature mostly one-on-one."

9 Defined Benefit Plans

Attracting the best and brightest employees in the future will become nearly impossible without a defined benefit plan. Stewart Lawrence, a senior vice president of The Segal Company in New York, predicts that companies without retirement plans that provide guaranteed benefits will be passed over for employers that do. "Employees now understand the volatility of defined contribution plans and are looking for a balanced program with both the upside potential of a defined contribution plan and the mitigation of downside risk of a defined benefit plan," he says.

Major employers such as Microsoft, Wal-Mart, and Cisco Systems currently don’t offer defined benefit plans because they have been able in recent years to recruit effectively without them. This will no longer be true. As the workforce ages and labor shortages increase, Lawrence says, companies will have to offer retirement plans that provide a floor level of retirement income.

10 Telework Has a Part-Time Future

By the year 2010, more than half of American wage earners will spend more than two days a week working outside the office, reports the Sulzer Infrastructure Services firm in London. Today, 28 million people "telework" under formal company policies--a leap from 4 million in 1990--and millions more work informally out of the office one or more days a week. As inexpensive broadband Internet access and mobile technologies take hold, the number will increase, says Toni Kistner, managing editor of Net.Worker, a division of Network World magazine. "The technology has steamrolled ahead, making it cheaper and easier to work from anywhere."

It will be rare even 10 years from now, however, to find people in any profession who telework five days a week. When teleworking took off in the 1990s, people talked about how the workforce would be dispersed and offices would shut down. That hasn’t happened, Kistner says. As the economy improves, companies may reduce their real estate, encouraging employees to share offices. That will create open work spaces that accommodate a flexible part-time telework environment. But there will always be a central location where people come to work, she says. "Some people need to come to the office to stay connected."

In professional jobs, teleworking is already common. With technological upgrades and guidance, the trend soon will take hold in fields such as nursing and call-center management. New kinds of work that combine technology and service also will be more feasible as technology improves, says Sirkka Heinonen, senior research scientist at VTT Communities, the biggest technological research center of the Finnish government. As the number of senior citizens in the industrial world rises, for example, many will want to live at home as long as they can. "Some kind of telework service providers to monitor these people at home will likely grow up around this need," she predicts. "These won’t be traditional nurses, who are always on-site, but they will be telepresent and will probably visit [patients] physically from time to time."

11 Consumer-Driven Health Care Reigns

Despite exploratory moves toward consumer-driven health care, most American companies aren’t exactly blasting into this new benefit area--not quite yet. Ten years from now, however, the notion of health-care dollars that employees can spend as they see fit will be routine, say benefits experts.

Consumer-driven plans take many forms. All are designed to make employees more aware of, and responsible for, the cost consequences of their health-care choices. Roger Vaughn, president of Aon Consulting U.S., says that employees will benefit from the hard bargains that employers drive with health-care providers, so they won’t have to bear the expense of buying health care on the open market. And thanks to the Internet and a push for greater openness about corporate finances, employees will be able to see exactly what health care will cost them, and they’ll also be able to make comparisons to other plans, Vaughn says.

The other critical pieces for the success of consumer-driven programs are "education, advocacy, and assistance," says Richard A. Travers, CEO of Travers, O’keefe, a New York-based benefits consulting and brokerage firm. Those elements aren’t entirely present yet, but five years from now they will be, and "we’ll be well on our way," he says.

12 Child Care

Child care is and will continue to be a major, often heartrending subject for working parents. As the national workforce ages and the number of women of childbearing age levels off in the next five years, the demand for child care may lessen. But access to quality child care will continue to be a major issue for working moms and their employers.

Susan Seitel, president of Work & Family Connection, Inc., a Minnesota-based consulting firm, says one of the major problems for working parents is what to do when the babysitter is sick or doesn’t show up, or the regular preschool is closed for a holiday or vacation break. She expects that an increasing number of companies will offer backup-care arrangements that employees can use in the event of emergencies. "Employees often are willing to pay a fee for the care, so all the company may have to provide is the space," Seitel says. A related trend may be the rise of contractors that provide innovative activities for company-sponsored day care, such as theater classes for kids, she says.

13 Help Wanted: Ten Million Workers

The convergence of several trends--declining births, retiring baby boomers, and expected business growth--will create more jobs than there will be workers to fill them by 2010, experts predict. The math is relatively simple. The civilian labor force will increase by 17 million, reaching 158 million in 2010, reports the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But by then, the BLS says, the number of jobs will reach 168 million.

Roger Herman, a futurist specializing in workplace issues, says pressure on baby boomers wanting to retire will be so great that they will be pulled back into the labor market. Even so, he says, older workers won’t show up in large enough numbers to fill the millions of jobs available. Herman says the problem will be aggravated by the shortage of skilled, educated workers already occurring in manufacturing, health care, and various technical fields.

14 Outsourcing

Outsourcing is to in-house human resources what Pac-Man is to dots. Double-digit growth is expected in the multibillion-dollar outsourcing market, dramatically gobbling up traditional human resources tasks and significantly altering people management. Companies spent $61.2 billion worldwide in 2002 on human resources management outsourcing, an amount expected to jump 11 percent annually, to $103.3 billion by 2007.

Growing even faster will be in the one-stop shopping market, where companies bundle different human resources management services into one large contract rather than serving it up piecemeal. Industry analyst Marc Pramuk of IDC in Framingham, Massachusetts, says U.S. companies packaging end-to-end services did $6 billion of business in 2002. That business will more than double in five years, to $15.4 billion, a 21 percent annual growth rate, he says.

Newer companies like Exult, a late-1990s start-up that is enjoying phenomenal growth, will battle it out for this business with older, established companies like Fidelity Investments, which has gone beyond its mutual fund and 401(k) business into human resources administration. A sample of things to come: Part of a broad deal with IBM called for the transfer of 700 IBM human resources employees into a Fidelity employer-services company.

15 Recruiting Older Workers

With the graying of the workforce, American business is going to have to pay attention to what older workers want and how to recruit them, says Deborah Russell, manager of Economic Security and Work at the American Association of Retired Persons. "Terms such as ‘fast-paced,’ ‘high-energy,’ ‘young,’ and ‘vital’ are often signals to older workers that they need not apply," she says. AARP encourages companies to use terminology that better reflects age diversity such as "experienced workers" and "age-diverse."

A recent AARP-sponsored study, using a nationally representative sample of 1,500 workers age 45 to 74, shows that 69 percent plan to work in some capacity during their retirement years. They work not only for money but also for intangible benefits such as enjoyment and a sense of purpose. Poll participants focused on "soft benefits" such as adequate time off and flexible schedules as well as "hard benefits," including health-care benefits and insurance and good pension benefits as "absolutely essential parts of their ideal jobs."

16 Mergers

Mergers and acquisitions are like courtships and marriages, says Ira Wolfe, a Leola, Pennsylvania, workforce consultant. Like human couples, companies "fall in love, and then later decide they can’t live with the other."

In the coming years, people management will play a far more pivotal role in corporate mergers. Wolfe estimates that company purchases conducted for the purpose of buying another company’s people could represent as many as half of all acquisitions. Now, he estimates, only about 15 to 20 percent of acquisitions are completed because one organization wants another company’s workforce.

One of the principal reasons why mergers and acquisitions have failed in the past is that workforce management isn’t brought into negotiations until the deal is consummated. No one studies the compatibility of the two cultures. Worse yet, the buyer often tries to change its partner, rather than adopting the ways of working that made the acquiree attractive in the first place.

17 Freelancers and Consultants

Today, some 30 million Americans are self-employed, and with companies increasingly enamored of outsourcing as a way to control costs and increase flexibility, the use of freelance contractors and consultants is likely to grow. Dan Pink, author of the 2001 book Free Agent Nation, predicts that corporate workplaces will evolve into a continually shifting mix of employees and freelancers, "to the point where it will become difficult to distinguish one from the other."

That may lead to profound changes. Company health plans may begin to disappear, as workers on the move opt for their own portable health coverage, possibly subsidized by an employer. "Companies may not be hiring people for jobs," Pink says. "Instead, they may be saying, ‘We definitely want this person around for 10 years to accomplish these particular tasks, and after that, we’ll see.’" The concepts of retention and career development, he says, may be supplanted by an emphasis on maintaining long-term connections to workers who manage their own rise, moving in and out of corporate positions with increased freedom.

18 Pay for Wellness Performance

Instead of waiting to pay for the treatment of sick employees, some employers will soon turn to the concept of wellness management--with a twist. They’ll give employees a concrete financial incentive to participate, says Tom Lerche, senior vice president of Aon Consulting.

The process, which is handled through an outside organization to preserve privacy and HIPAA compliance, begins by having employees and their covered spouses take a voluntary health-risk appraisal each year. These questionnaires identify factors that lead to such chronic diseases as asthma, heart disease, and diabetes, which can account for 20 to 35 percent of a company’s medical expenses, Lerche says. If the appraisal identifies two or more risk factors that point to a potential health problem, the employee or spouse is a candidate for health coaching with a nurse, health educator, dietitian, or exercise physiologist. The coach sets up a plan for the health risk and keeps track of the employee’s progress via weekly phone calls. The incentive for the employee is a reduction in insurance premium payments--$55 instead of $75 per month, for instance, Lerche says. And if the employee stops participating, the insurance discount can be suspended until he gets back on track.

"Too much of what we do is a short-term approach," he says. "Fifty percent of disease is ultimately preventable," and this approach can head off many major health problems.

"It’s for the employer that has low turnover, wants to invest in employees, and wants to see to it that they’re productive and in good health" in the working years ahead, Lerche says.

19 Spirituality at Work

Americans eat too much. They spend too much money. They are obese and in debt and worried about personal safety and job security--especially since 9/11 and the economic downturn, says Harriet Hankin, president of CGI Consulting in Malvern, Pennsylvania. And those are some of the reasons they’re increasingly looking for spiritual comfort, she says. "The biggest change in the workplace is the interest in spirituality. It’s about doing the right thing. It’s not about religion. It’s about job satisfaction. Jobs in the future will have to be more meaningful. Pay won’t be as important as a good job."

Referring to the rising number of books on spirituality and business and in subjects such as work/life balance, Jeffrey Pfeffer, professor of organizational behavior at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, says he’d agree that spirituality in the workplace is a noteworthy trend. Workers are looking for meaning and purpose, he says. "The word ‘spirit’ comes from the word ‘to breathe.’"

20 Women at Work

With steeply mounting numbers of educated women, glass ceilings are going to shatter in the coming years, says John A. Challenger, CEO of international outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. Between 1979 and 1999, the number of women earning four-year college degrees jumped 44 percent, from 444,000 to 640,000, he says. At the same time, the number of men receiving four-year degrees is declining--from 532,000 in 1993 to about half a million in 1999.

As women earn more college degrees and ascend more corporate ladders, Challenger says, they "will make further inroads into management and exec ranks, and the workforce will have to create an environment where a balance between work and home life is more valued. Temporary and part-time work and job sharing will be more common." There also will be more re-entry opportunities for women who leave the workplace for a few years and then return.

At the same time, more men will be moving into "women’s jobs" like nursing and teaching, Challenger adds. The result won’t be that women are crowded out of the job market. "The major change will be this: The line between men’s and women’s work will blur and fade."

21 Skills Shortage

A job-skills shortage is already reality in the manufacturing industry, and is likely to spread to other industries over the next 10 to 15 years as baby boomers retire. Despite a recession that cost 2 million manufacturing jobs, a recent study by the National Association of Manufacturers warns that "manufacturing could experience a shift from merely having a talent shortage to facing a serious labor crisis."

That’s just manufacturing. Warnings also are forecast about the need for savvy, well-trained workers in job categories such as information technology and the global-energy and electrical-utility industries. Shortages are expected in the global competition for managers, engineers, technicians, skilled craftspeople, and front-line workers, mostly jobs requiring a college degree or technical education. Experts say changes must come on a broad front, from better technology and skills training in secondary schools to aggressive recruitment to a coordinated national workforce policy.

22 Security vs Privacy

As technology becomes more sophisticated, the ability of those who administer company--and government--computer networks to monitor the comings and goings of workers will grow exponentially. While privacy experts shudder, cameras, keystroke logging, biometric devices, and network monitoring are becoming de rigueur within many organizations.

In the future, the cat-and-mouse war between businesses and crooks will lead to more sophisticated surveillance, the standard use of data encryption, and sophisticated data-mining techniques that spot potential problems and risks by analyzing patterns. "Increasingly, companies are realizing that security is not an option, it’s a basic requirement," says Alan Brill, senior managing director at security consulting firm Kroll Inc., New York.

Not surprisingly, the threat of terrorism is raising the stakes. For example, the U.S. government’s Terrorist Information Awareness program proposes to sift through vast quantities of business and government data to detect suspicious activity. "The dangers are greater than ever," Brill says. "It’s clear we’re living in a new era."

23 Accounting for People

Let’s say you took up the hobby of collecting every annual report from public companies over the last 40 years. You’d be shocked at how little you’d learn about what organizations often say are their "most important assets"--their people.

A few--like the Atlanta Braves, EDS, and Deutsche Bank--have gone out of their way to tell people what their workforces are worth or how much value their training will bring in the long run. In the years to come, however, human resources executives will start to see many more statistics on turnover, absenteeism, and revenue per employee in corporate publications.

"What’s the basis for competition in the 21st century?" asks Thomas P. Flannery, the director of Ernst & Young’s human capital practice. "It’s your ability to think through complex problems, serve the customers better, and be more creative." All these qualities come down to the capabilities of human beings, he says. Wall Street analysts will want to see what corporations know about the people who are winning patents for the company and closing big deals. And when companies show what people are worth, it also reminds shareholders how vulnerable those "important assets" are. Machines stay put, but as Flannery says, "People can walk at any time."

24 Universal Health Care

As costs soar and the number of uninsured Americans--both employed and unemployed--rapidly expands, there are about as many predictions about where health care is headed as Carter’s little pills. Employers are paying an increasingly large share of the cost--and so are employees. And almost everyone acknowledges that some dramatic change in health care is likely, perhaps even inevitable, in the next decade.

The country is indeed moving toward some form of universal health care system, says Jeffrey Pfeffer, professor of organizational behavior in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. He points out that the United States is the only industrialized country where access to health care is dependent on employment. Says Pfeffer, "In other countries, access to health care is a fundamental human right."

25 The End of HR As We Know It

Conventional wisdom says that human resources finally has achieved its sought-after seat at the table. But the ability of human resources to add value at a strategic level "is currently more promise than reality." That’s the sobering finding of Creating a Strategic Human Resources Organization (Stanford Business Books, 2003), a long-term study of human resources by Edward E. Lawler III and Susan Albers Mohrman.

The authors found that today’s people managers still are most comfortable with traditional human resources activities. "If they want to be effective business partners, they need to change their skill set," Lawler and Mohrman say. Almost 30 percent of the companies in the study promote human resources executives who come from the business side, not human resources.

"In essence, some companies may have decided that the HR strategic-partner role is too important to leave to someone with an HR background." The study’s conclusion: Human resources must reinvent itself. "The old approaches and models simply are not good enough."

Sunday, September 19, 2010

NRI ENTREPRENEUR 7 - VINOD KHOSLA

VINOD KHOSLA

Achievement: One of the co-founders of Sun Microsystems.

Vinod Khosla is an epitome of Indian success story at Silicon Valley. He is a venture capitalist and is better known as one of the co-founders of Sun Microsystems.

Vinod Khosla came from an ordinary middle class background. His father was in army. At the age of 16, Vinod Khosla read about the founding of Intel. This motivated him to nurture dreams of starting his own technology company. At the age of 20, after graduating in Electrical Engineering from IIT Delhi, Vinod Khosla started a soy milk company to cater to those people in India who did not have refrigerators. But his venture failed.

Vinod Khosla went to the US and did his Masters in Biomedical Engineering from Carnegie-Mellon University. His entrepreneurial ambitions attracted him to Silicon Valley and subsequently he did his MBA from Stanford University in 1980.

After graduating from Stanford, Vinod Khosla founded Daisy Systems with two other founders. Daisy Systems was the first significant computer aided design system for electrical engineers. The company went on to make huge profits but driven by the frustration of having to design the computer hardware on which the Daisy software needed to be built, Vinod Khosla left the company.

In Vinod Khosla, started the standards based Sun Microsystems in 1982 to build workstations for software developers. Sun was funded by his long time friend and board member John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. At Sun Microsystems, Vinod Khosla pioneered "open systems" and RISC processors. He left Sun Microsystems in 1985 and joined Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) in 1986, where he continues to be a general partner of KPCB funds through KP X.

Vinod Khosla also challenged Intel's monopoly by developing Nexgen/AMD. He also conceptualized the idea and business plan for Juniper to take on Cisco's dominance of the router market. Vinod Khosla is also one of the founding fathers of The Indus Entrepreneur (TiE), a not-for-profit global network of entrepreneurs and professionals founded in 1992. In 2004, he formed khoslaventures to fund knowledgeable entrepreneurs in their new "social impact" ventures.

Vinod Khosla has a keen interest in nascent technologies that can have a beneficial effect and economic impact on society. Presently, he is looking into practicality of the use of ethanol as a gasoline substitute.

NRI ENTREPRENEUR 6 - VINOD DHAM

VINOD DHAM

Born: 1950

Achievement: Known as the father of the Pentium processor.

Vinod Dham is popularly known as the father of the Pentium processor. Born in 1950 in Pune, he had his initial schooling in Pune. He did his Bachelors in Electrical Engineering from Delhi College of Engineering in 1971. Thereafter he had a brief stint with Continental Devices, a Delhi based semiconductor company.

In 1975, Vinod Dham went to the US and did his Masters in Electrical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati. After completing his Masters in 1977, Vinod Dham joined the National Cash Register (NCR) at Dayton, Ohio. Vinod was a team member of the NCR's memory design group. He received many patents for his work at NCR.

While making a presentation at the IEEE conference in Monterrey, California on re-programmable memory, Vinod Dham received an offer from the Intel to work with them. In January 1990, Vinod was in-charge of developing the 586 or Pentium processor. He worked relentlessly on the project and the Pentium processor was a big hit in the market. Vinod Dham rose up the corporate ladder and reached the position of the Vice President of the Intel's Microprocessor Products Group. He quit Intel in 1995.

Thereafter, Vinod joined NexGen, a start-up firm as Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President.. When Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) acquired NexGen in 1996, Vinod Dham looked after the development of AMD's famous K6 Processor, world's fastest personal computer microprocessor. Later on he quit AMD.

Presently, Vinod Dham is the chairman, president and chief executive officer of Silicon Spice, a communications technology development firm.

NRI ENTREPRENEUR 5 - LORD SWARAJ PAUL

LORD SWARAJ PAUL

Born: 1931

Achievement: Knighted by British Queen in 1978; Awarded Padma Bhushan in 1983.

Lord Swaraj Paul is one of the most famous Indian origin entrepreneurs, based in Britain. He is the founder of multinational company Caparo-the UK-based steel and engineering group.

Swraj Paul was born in Jalandhar in 1931. His father ran a small foundry and used to make steel buckets and farming equipments. Swaraj Paul did his graduation from the Punjab University and subsequently obtained a Master's degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US. After his return to India, Swaraj Paul joined the Apeejay Group, which his father had founded. Destiny took him to London in 1966, where he went for his daughter's Leukemia treatment, and stayed there forever.

Swaraj Paul started his business in Britain in 1968. After acquiring one steel unit, he went on to acquire more units and founded the Caparo group in the year 1978. Caparo developed into one of the leading producers of welded steel tube and spiral-welded pipe in the UK. In 1996, Swaraj Paul stepped down from the management of the Caparo group and handed over the reins to his three sons.

Lord Swaraj Paul has won several honors and awards. He was knighted by the British Queen in the year 1978 and became the Lord Paul of Marylebone and a member of the House of Lords. Lord Swraj Paul wrote the biography of Indira Gandhi and was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1983. He was bestowed with the Pro-Chancellorship of the Thames University in 1998.

NRI ENTREPRENEUR 4 - SABEER BHATIA

SABEER BHATIA

Born: 1969

Achievements: One of the co-founders of Hotmail; Named by TIME as one of the "People to Watch" in International Business (2002)

Sabeer Bhatia is one of the poster boys of Indian success story at Silicon Valley. He is better known as the man who co-founded Hotmail. He later sold it to Microsoft for $400 million and today Hotmail is the world's largest e-mail provider, with over 50 million registered users.

Sabeer Bhatia was born in 1969 at Chandigarh. He comes from a humble background. His father was an army officer and his mother worked with the Central Bank of India. Sabeer Bhatia had his earlier schooling at Bishop Cotton's School in Pune and later on at St Joseph's College in Bangalore. After passing out from school he joined the Birla Institute of Technology (BITS) at Pilani. At Pilani, he qualified to try for a transfer scholarship at Cal Tech, considered to be the world's most competitive scholarship. Sabeer Bhatia was the only applicant in the entire world in 1988 to get a passing score of 62.

In 1988 Sabeer Bhatia came to America and completed his B.Sc. with honours and earned a master's degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University. In 1992, while working on his Ph.D., Sabeer dropped out and joined Apple Computers as a systems integrator. He worked for Apple Computer for a year. Then he worked for another startup, Firepower Systems Inc. In 1995, Sabir Bhatia co-founded Hotmail Corporation along with Jack Smith, a colleague at Apple Computers. They launched pioneering web-based e-mail service Hotmail. At the end of 1997, he sold Hotmail to Microsoft for $400 million. Sabeer Bhatia t worked for Microsoft for a year until March of 1999, and then in the middle of 1999 he founded Arzoo.com

Arzoo.com was supposed to be a real-time marketplace for technology related solutions and support. It was envisaged as a platform that would enable engineers, developers and scientists from around the world to monetise their expertise on the one hand, and enable corporations to improve the productivity of their employees on the other. Sabeer Bhatia's vision was to make Arzoo.com, the world's largest human network of intellectual capital. But Arzoo.com failed with the burst of dot-com bubble. In 2006 Sabeer Bhatia relaunched Arzoo as a travel portal. Sabeer Bhatia has also started a new venture called BlogEverywhere with co-founders Shiraz Kanga and Viraf Zack.

Sabeer Bhatia has won several honors and awards. These include: "Entrepreneur of the Year," award by the venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson (1997); and "TR100" award, presented by MIT to 100 young innovators who are expected to have the greatest impact on technology in the next few years. He was named by TIME as one of the "People to Watch" in International Business (2002)

NRI ENTREPRENEUR 3 - INDRA NOOYI

INDRA NOOYI

Achievements: CEO of PepsiCo; Ranked No.4 on Forbes magazine's annual survey of the 100 most powerful women in the world.

Indra Nooyi is the newly appointed CEO of PepsiCo-the world's second-largest soft drink maker. She joins the select band of women who head Fortune 500 companies. Presently, there are only 10 Fortune 500 companies that are run by women, and Indra Nooyi is the 11th to break into the top echelons of power. Prior to becoming CEO, Indra Nooyi was President, Chief Financial Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of PepsiCo Inc.

Indra Nooyi spent her childhood in Chennai. Her father worked at the State Bank of Hyderabad and her grandfather was a district judge. She did her BSc. in Chemistry from Madras Christian College and subsequently earned a Master's Degree in Finance and Marketing from IIM Calcutta. Indra Nooyi also holds a Master's Degree in Public and Private management from the Yale School of Management.

Before joining PepsiCo in 1994, Indra Nooyi was Senior Vice President of Strategy and Strategic Marketing for Asea Brown Boveri, and Vice President and Director of Corporate Strategy and Planning at Motorola. She also had stints at Mettur Beardsell and Johnson & Johnson. At PepsiCo, Indra Nooyi played key roles in the Tricon spin-off, the purchase of Tropicana, the public offering of Pepsi Cola bottling group and the merger with Quaker Foods.

Indra Nooyi has been ranked No.4 on Forbes magazine's annual survey of the 100 most powerful women in the world.

NRI ENTREPRENEUR 2 - ARUN SARIN

ARUN SARIN

Born: October 21, 1954

Achievement: CEO of global mobile telecommunications company Vodafone Group Plc.

Arun Sarin is the Chief Executive Officer of the British based global mobile telecommunications company Vodafone Group Plc. He is one of the few Indians to head a global multi national company.

Arun Sarin was born on October 21, 1954 at Panchmari, Madya Pradesh. His father was an army officer and Arun Sarin did his schooling from military boarding school in Bangalore. After schooling, Arun Sareen joined IIT Kharagpur and graduated in 1975. In 1977, he did his MS in Engineering from University of California, Berkeley and subsequently did his MBA from the same university in 1978.

Arun Sarin started his professional career in 1978 as an environmental analyst for a Washington, D.C., consulting firm. In 1981, he joined Natomas in California as a corporate development manager. Arun Sarin entered telecom industry in 1984, when he joined Pacific Telesis Group in San Francisco. At Pacific Telesis Group, Arun worked closely with Sam Ginn, the legendary telecommunications entrepreneur. He worked with Pacific Telesis in various professional and executive positions for 10 years, and was later appointed vice president of corporate strategy. Arun Sarin left Pacific Telesis in 1994 when it split its mobile and paging businesses.

In 1995, Arun Sarin followed his mentor Sam Ginn to a newly formed wireless-communications company, AirTouch Communications. He was President and Chief Operating Officer of AirTouch from February 1997 to June 1999. In 1999, AirTouch and Vodafone, a large British wireless communications company joined hands to create Vodafone-AirTouch. Arun Sarin was made chief executive of the newly formed corporate entity. In April 2000, Arun Sarin resigned from Vodafone-AirTouch and took the CEO position at InfoSpace, an Internet infrastructure company based in Bellevue, Washington. As CEO Arun Sarin led the merger of InfoSpace and Go2Net, a consumer-portal company, for approximately $4 billion in a stock swap.

After an eight-month tenure at InfoSpace, Arun Sarin resigned. In July 2001, he joined Accel Partners and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) to lead a new telecommunications venture called Accel-KKR Telecom. After an eighteen month stint at Accel-KKR Telecom Arun Sarin resigned and on July 30, 2003 he was installed as the CEO of Vodafone.

NRI ENTREPRENEUR 1 - AMAR BOSE

AMAR BOSE

Born: 1929

Achievements: Founded Bose Corporation in 1964; Invented the 901(R) Direct/Reflecting(R) speaker system - one of the first stereo loudspeakers to utilize the space around them instead of reproducing sound as if in a vacuum; featured in 2006 Forbes Billionaires list.

Amar Bose is the founder of Bose Corporation and is known for his pioneering work in the field of acoustics. Bose speakers are world-famous for giving high-end performance despite their modest size.

Amar Gopal Bose was born in 1929 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father Nani Gopal Bose was a revolutionary freedom fighter who emigrated from Calcutta to escape British prosecution. Amar Bose was interested in electronics right from his childhood and used to make small electrical toys to supplement his family's income. He did his schooling Abington Senior High School and graduated with a BS in Electrical Engineering from MIT in the early 1950s. He also completed his Ph.D. from MIT.

While doing graduation from MIT in 1950s, Amar Bose purchased a new stereo system. But he was disappointed with the performance of the speakers. Despite their impressive technical specifications, the speakers failed to reproduce the realism of a live performance. This led Bose to start working on stereo speaker. He aimed to design a speaker that would emulate the concert hall experience in the home. Amar Bose's early patents won him great respect within the industry. But Bose needed capital to do further research and begin production. Amar Bose received financial support from MIT professor Y. W. Lee and in 1964 he founded Bose Corporation.

In 1968, Amar Bose invented the 901(R) Direct/Reflecting(R) speaker system. They were one of the first stereo loudspeakers to utilize the space around them instead of reproducing sound as if in a vacuum. Bose's 901(R) speakers remained an industry benchmark for 25 years. Amar Bose also captured the car stereo market, with systems that transformed the on-the-road listening experience.

Today, Amar Bose has over two-dozen patents to his name. His products can be found in Olympics stadiums, the Sistine Chapel, NASA Space Shuttle, and the Japanese National Theatre. Amar Bose was also a professor of electrical engineering at MIT for many years until he retired in 2000. Amar Bose featured on the 2006 Forbes Billionaires list with a personal wealth of $1.2 billion.

Friday, September 17, 2010

INDIAN ENTREPRENEUR 37 - SHOBHANA BHARTIA

SHOBHANA BHARTIA

Born - 1957

Achievements - Daughter of renowned industrialist KK Birla, Shobhana Bhartia is the vice-chairperson as well as the editorial director of the Hindustan Times group, which is among India's major newspaper and media houses. In the year 2001, she received the Outstanding Business Woman of the Year award.

Born in the year 1957, the daughter of renowned industrialist KK Birla and grand daughter of GD Birla, Shobhana Bhartia is the vice-chairperson as well as the editorial director of the Hindustan Times group, which is among India's major newspaper and media houses. This lady holds the credit of raising Rs 400 Crore via public equity launch of the HT Media group in the year 2005. Till the year 2004, the Birla family owned 75.36 per cent stake in HT Media.

Here's more information about the biography of Shobhana Bhartia, who graduated from the Calcutta University and later, wedded Shyam Sunder Bhartia. This particular gentleman is the chairman of the Rs 14 billion Jubilant Organosys Limited, a Pharma company. Shamit Bhartia, their son, is also a member in the HT Media group. At the same time, he operates lifestyle businesses like Domino's Pizza franchise in the country and a convenience store chain in Bangalore city.

At the time when Shobhana Bharatiya became a member of the Hindustan Times in the year 1986, she was the very first woman chief executive of a national newspaper and in all probability, also among the youngest. Shobhana Bhartia is regarded as one of the crucial people there who played a pivotal role in revamping the image of the Hindustan Times into a "bright and young paper". The life history of Shobhana Bhartia's career is full of achievements.

Shobhana was nominated the member of the upper house of the Indian Parliament i.e. the Rajya Sabha. Shobhana Bhartia was also handed the Global Leader of Tomorrow award by the World Economic Forum in the year 1996. Then again in the year 2001, she received the Outstanding Business Woman of the Year award. The National Press India Award was given to Shobhana in the year 1992.

INDIAN ENTREPRENEUR 36 - SULAJJA FIRODIA MOTWANI

SULAJJA FIRODIA MOTWANI

Joint Managing Director of Kinetic Engineering Ltd, she is the in charge of the Company's overall business developmental activities. She is also very well performing the role of the Director of Kinetic Motor Company Limited and Kinetic Marketing Services Limited. Well, we are talking about Sulajja Firodia Motwani. In this article, we will provide you with the biography of Sulajja Firodia Motwani, who has made an incredible contribution in making the firm reach heights of success.

She is a fitness person, who is very conscious about her health. She is very particular about carrying out one or the other activity for keeping fit and active. She has always been enthusiastic about sports, especially badminton. She has played badminton on the national level. She is also very fond of pursuing adventurous sports like skiing & scuba diving. She tries to spend as much time as possible with her five year old son Sidhant. Read on to know the complete life history of Sulajja Firodia Motwani.

Prior to joining Kinetic Company, Sulajja worked for a period of four years with a well known investment analytics company, BARRA International, based in California. She has been an active participant in setting the operations of the company in India. Throughout her studies, she has been a rank holder. She has always cleared exams with merit. Her name appeared in the toppers list in the SSC examinations and HSC examinations. She graduated from the Pune University. Thereafter, she went to the United States for pursuing further studies. She is an MBA degree holder from the reputed Carnegie Mellon University at Pittsburgh.

She is an epitome of boldness and courage. With her strong determination and courage, she has been able to establish a niche for the firm in the business world. The Company has witnessed tremendous expansion during her tenure. From being a mere moped manufacturer, today, it has set its foothold in the industry as a manufacturer offering a complete range of two wheelers right from mopeds, scooters to motorcycles.

This major transformation can be attributed to the new competitive business strategy that the Company has adopted, which is driven by the market and customers. Kinetic Company has been constantly coming up with new models to cater to all segments of the society. Sulajja has been instrumental in designing and implementing the marketing strategies of the Company. In the recent times, Kinetic has collaborated with the well known Italian company, Italjet Moto. This acquisition has given full rights to the Kinetic Company to launch seven new scooter models in the country.

Kinetic is also working in partnership with Hyosung Motors of South Korea. This major collaboration has led to the launching of the most popular Kinetic Aquila and Comet. These motorcycles are very much in demand. Sulajja has played an active role in plotting the course of action for the Kinetic Company. For her great job, she has received many accolades. She has been called upon to deliver speech in a number of public forums.

"India Today", a well known magazine honored her by presenting her with the title of business "Face of the Millennium". It ranked her among the top twenty five business entrepreneurs of the country. She was presented with the Society Young Achiever's Award for Business in the year 2002. The same year, she was chosen as the "Global Leader of Tomorrow" by the World Economic Forum. In the year 2003, the Institute of Marketing and Management bestowed her with the award for excellent performance as the woman CEO. She also received the Young Super Achiever Award from the leading magazine "Business Today" in 2003.

INDIAN ENTREPRENEUR 35 - SHAHNAZ HUSSAIN

SHAHNAZ HUSSAIN

She is one of the most prominent personalities of the corporate world. She is making a constant effort to beautify the skin of people with her beauty products. She has been continuously striving hard to slow down the aging process and nourish the skin of people and thus make them look younger than their age. Well, we are talking about none other than the ruler of the beauty world, Shahnaz Hussain. In this article, we will present you with the biography of Shahnaz Hussain.

She comes from a royal Muslim family and her father was a very powerful man. She did her schooling from the Irish convent. Since a very young age, she had an interest in poetry and English literature. She grew up in a traditional family, but was privileged to receive modern education. She got married, when she was only fifteen years old. The next year after her marriage, she became a mother.

When she went to Teheran along with her husband, she developed a keen interest in beauty treatments. Eventually, she decided to study the cosmetology course. She wanted to be self independent and so she began writing articles for the Iran Tribune on varied subjects. While pursuing studies, she learnt about the harmful effects of chemicals on human body. She studied Ayurveda and believed that it is the best alternative to chemical cosmetics.

After leaving Teheran, she took an extensive training in cosmetic therapy for a long period of 10 years from the leading institutions of London, Paris, New York and Copenhagen. She returned to India in the year 1977 and established her first beauty salon in her abode. Unlike other salons, she did not use chemical cosmetics. Rather, she made use of Ayurvedic products that are absolutely safe on the human body. She has ushered an era of herbal cosmetics. The products launched by her Company head their way to leading global stores such as Blooming Dales (New York), Harrods and Selfridges (London), Seibu (Japan), Galleries Lafayette (Paris), and La Rinaeccente (Milan).

Her beauty products are very skin friendly and give a beautiful glowing look. She has not only been able to tap the markets of India, but made her presence felt in international market too. Now, her aim is to set her foothold in the space. People who go to space usually suffer from skin problems. At present, Shahnaz Hussain is focusing her attention on creating products that can prove to be beneficial for the astronauts. To know the complete life history of Shahnaz Hussain, read on.

Her company Shahnaz Husain Herbals has witnessed tremendous growth throughout these years. She has launched more than 400 different kinds of beauty products. In the contemporary times, people are becoming more and more conscious about the way they look. It is here that Shahnaz Hussain comes to play a major role by providing people with products that can bring the glow back to their skin.

She has dominated the market from the USA to Asia. During 1990s, the average growth rate of her company, which is based in New Delhi, was nearly 19.4%. In the year 2002, her Company touched $100 million. Her works are real praiseworthy and have been appreciated all over the world. She has received many awards such as "The Arch of Europe Gold Star for Quality", "The 2000 Millennium Medal of Honor", "Rajiv Gandhi Sadbhavana Award" and many more.

INDIAN ENTRENEUR 34 - NAINA LAL KIDWAI

NAINA LAL KIDWAI

A prominent personality of the corporate world, she is the first woman to guide the functioning of a foreign bank in India. At present, she is working as the Group General Manager and Country Head of HSBC India. Well, we are talking about the corporate diva Naina Lal Kidwai. In this article, we will present you with the biography of Naina Lal Kidwai.

She was born in the year 1957. Raised in Mumbai and Delhi, she did her schooling from Simla. Alumna of Delhi University, she is the first Indian woman to have graduated from Harvard Business School. She is among the top business women of India, who have made it to the top with their constant hard work and sincerity. To know the complete life history of Naina Lal Kidwai, read on.

She began her career in the year 1982, when she joined the ANZ Grindlays Bank, which is now known as the Standard Chartered Bank. She took up a variety of banking assignments before moving to Morgan Stanley's India operation. She kept climbing the ladders of success. She played an important role in NYSE listing of Wipro. She was instrumental in facilitating the cellular phone services nationwide through a deal involving the Tatas and Birlas. Last November, she became the Managing Director of the HSBC bank.

In the year 2000, the Fortune magazine declared her as the third most powerful businesswoman in Asia. She is the mother of two children, who is maintaining a great balance between work and home. She is very fond of Indian classical as well as western music. She loves to go on trekking tours to the Himalayas. She is a nature lover, who has a keen interest in observing the wildlife. For her praiseworthy work, Naina Lal Kidwai has received many accolades. Her commendable work has been given due recognition by honoring her with the Padmashri award.

INDIAN ENTREPRENEUR 33 - MALLIKA SRINIVASAN

MALLIKA SRINIVASAN

Economic Times Businesswoman of the year 2006, she is a well known entrepreneur of India. She has always strived hard to reach for skies, but has deeply rooted her foot into the ground. She is a strong headed woman, who is leading the activities of a Company that is involved in macho business such as tractor manufacturing. She has been able to rise and stand out above all others and make a name for herself in the competitive business world of today. Well, we are talking about Mallika Srinivasan, director of the Rs 2500 crore Amalgamations Group Tafe. Mallika Srinivasan is one of the most successful women CEOs in India. In this article, we will present you with the biography of Mallika Srinivasan, so read on…

Life History

Born on November 19, 1959 as the eldest daughter of industrialist A Sivasailam, she is the pride of her parents. She was always brilliant in academics. She did her in MA (econometrics) from Madras University. Thereafter, she went abroad to pursue further studies. She did her MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Married to Venu Srinivasan, the CMD of TVS Motor, she is living happily with their two children.

In the year 1986, she planned to join the family business. She was made the General Manager of Tafe (Tractors and Farm Equipment) Company. When she took over the responsibility of furthering the economic wealth and business, the turnover of the Company was Rs 85 cr. Under the expert guidance of her father and the whole hearted support of the team, she brought about a major transformation. She converted Tafe into a hi technology-oriented company, thereby becoming the initial choice of the farmers. There was a period, when the Company had to face a tough time, however; even then, the Company invested a huge amount of over Rs 70 crore in the designing and development of product.

At present, the Company is earning a business over Rs 1,200 cr. It has been a long journey for the Company, which has witnessed many ups and downs. But, it was the strong determination of this courageous woman that slowly and steadily made the firm climb the ladders of success. Today, the Company has not only found a niche for itself as the leading tractor manufacturer, but also expanded its area of operations. It has also entered into others businesses like engineering plastics, panel instruments, automotive batteries gears, hydraulic pumps, and farm implements.

The company has had a long alliance with Massey Ferguson, which is now a part of Agco. The company is looking forward to exporting fully constructed tractors to Agco. Presently, Agro has a stake of 24% in the company and the rest lies with Simpson & Co. Presently, Mallika Srinivasan is serving as the president of premier industrial bodies like Tractor Manufacturers Association and the Madras Management Association. She is the first lady to have assumed the role of a president of the Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry. She is also a prominent member of the governing board of the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.

INDIAN ENTREPRENEUR 32 - VIJAY MALLYA

VIJAY MALLYA

Achievement: Chairman of the United Beverages (UB) Group; Launched a new domestic airline called Kingfisher Airline; Rajya Sabha M.P.

Vijay Mallya is the Chairman of the United Beverages (UB) Group. He recently launched a new domestic airline called Kingfisher Airline which is making great waves. Vijay Mallya is famous for his flamboyant and flashy lifestyle.

Vijay Mallya is the son of a famous industrialist Vittal Mallya. He assumed the Chairman of the UB Group in 1983 and took the company to great heights. Under his dynamic leadership the group has grown into a multi-national conglomerate of over sixty companies. During this process United Beverages acquired several companies abroad. The UB Group has diversified business interests ranging from alcoholic beverages to life sciences, engineering, agriculture, chemicals, information technology and leisure.

In 2005, Vijay Mallya established Kingfisher Airlines. In a short span of time Kingfisher Airline has carved a niche for itself. It was the first airline in India to operate with all new aircrafts. Kingfisher Airlines is also the first Indian airline to order the Airbus A380.

Vijay Mallya has other interests too apart from business. He has won trophies in professional car racing circuits and is a keen yachtsman and aviator. Vijay Mallya has also won numerous trophies in horse racing including several prestigious Derbies.

In 2000, Vijay Mallya entered politics superceded Subramaniam Swamy as the president of Janata Party. Presently, he is a Rajya Sabha M.P.

INDIAN ENTREPRENEUR 31 - Dr VERGHESE KURIEN

Dr. VERGHESE KURIEN

Born: November 26, 1921

Achievement: Known as the "father of the white revolution" in India; Winner of Ramon Magsaysay Award; Awarded with Padma Shri (1965), Padma Bhushan (1966), and Padma Vibhushan (1999).

Dr. Verghese Kurien is better known as the "father of the white revolution" in India. He is also called as the Milkman of India. Dr. Varghese Kurien was the architect behind the success of the largest dairy development program in the world, christened as Operation Flood. He was the chairman of the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. (GCMMF) and his name was synonymous with the Amul brand.

Born on November 26, 1921 in Kozhikode, Kerala, Dr. Verghese Kurien graduated with Physics from Loyola College, Madras in 1940. Subsequently, he did his B.E.(Mechanical) from the Madras University and went to USA on a government scholarship to do his Masters in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan State University. In between, he completed special studies in engineering at the Tata Iron and Steel Company Institute at Jamshedpur, Bihar, in February 1946 and underwent nine months of specialized training in dairy engineering at the National Dairy Research Institute of Bangalore.

Dr. Verghese Kurien returned from America in 1948 and joined the Dairy Department of the Government of India. In May 1949, he was posted as Dairy Engineer at the Government Research Creamery, a small milk-powder factory, in Anand, Gujarat. Around this time, the newly formed cooperative dairy, Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers' Union Limited ((KDCMPUL), was engaged in battle of survival with the privately owned Polson Dairy, which was a giant in its field. Enthused by the challenge, Dr. Verghese Kurien left his government job and volunteered to help Shri Tribhuvandas Patel, the Chairman of KDCMPUL, to set up a processing plant. This led to the birth of AMUL and the rest is history.

In 1965, the then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, created the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) under the leadership of Dr. Verghese Kurien to replicate the success story of Amul throughout the country. In 1973, Dr. Kurien set up GCMMF (Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation) to market the products produced by the dairies. Under Dr. Kurien's stewardship India became the as the largest producer of milk in the world,

During his illustrious career, Dr. Verghese Kurien won many accolades and awards. These include: Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership (1963), Padma Shri (1965), Padma Bhushan (1966), Krishi Ratna Award (1986), Wateler Peace Prize Award of Carnegie Foundation (1986), World Food Prize Laureate (1989), International Person of the Year(1993) by the World Dairy Expo, Madison, Wisconsin, USA, and Padma Vibhushan (1999).

Thursday, September 16, 2010

INDIAN ENTREPRENEUR 30 - TULSI TANTI

TULSI TANTI

Achievement: Chairman of Suzlon Energy Ltd, Ranks among top 10 richest men of India.

Tulsi Tanti is the Chairman of Suzlon Energy Ltd, a company dealing in wind energy. He is one of those first time entrepreneurs who saw potential in an inchoate idea, ventured into it, and made it big. Today, he ranks among top 10 richest men of India.

A commerce graduate and a diploma holder in mechanical engineering, Tulsi Tanti originally hails from Gujarat and is presently based in Pune, Maharashtra. Tulsi Tanti was earlier into textiles. He started his textile business in Gujarat. But he found that the prospects stunted due to infrastructural bottlenecks. The biggest of them all was the cost and unavailability of power, which formed a high proportion of operating expenses of textile industry.

In 1990, Tulsi Tanti invested in two windmills and realized its huge potential. In 1995, he formed Suzlon and gradually quit textiles. Suzlon Energy is the sixth largest wind energy company in the world and the largest in Asia. It is presently building what will be among the world's largest wind parks of its kind at 1,000 MW capacity.

Suzlon is currently concentrating on global expansion drive. It recently acquired Hansen Transmissions, a Belgian maker of wind-turbine gearboxes. Suzlon is also building a rotor-blade factory in Minnesota and has invested $60m in a factory in Tianjin, China. Tulsi Tanti is poised to make India a wind-power export hub.

INDIAN ENTREPRENEUR 29 - SUNIL MITTAL

SUNIL MITTAL

Achievement: Chairman and Managing Director of Bharti Group, India's largest GSM-based mobile phone service provider; IT Man of the Year Award 2002 from Dataquest and CEO Of the Year, 2002 Award from World HRD Congress.

Sunil Mittal can be called as originator of cellular phone revolution in India. He is the founder, Chairman and Managing Director of Bharti Group and runs India's largest GSM-based mobile phone service.

Sunil Bharti Mittal's father was an M.P. Sunil did not followed his father's footsteps. After graduating from Punjab University in 1970s, he set up a small bicycle business in Ludhiana in partnership with his friend. By 1979, Sunil Mittal realized that his ambitions could not be fulfilled in Ludhiana, so he moved out to Mumbai from Ludhiana.

He spent a few years in Mumbai and in 1982, Sunil Mittal started a full-fledged business selling portable generators imported from Japan. This gave him a chance to acquaint himself with the nitty-gritty's of marketing and advertising. His business was running smoothly but later on the government banned the import of generators as two Indian companies were awarded licenses to manufacture generators locally.

In 1986, Sunil Bharti Mittal incorporated Bharti Telecom Limited (BTL) and entered into a technical tie up with Siemens AG of Germany for manufacture of electronic push button phones. Gradually he expanded his business and by early 1990s, Sunil Mittal was making fax machines, cordless phones and other telecom gear.

In 1992, when the Indian government was awarding licenses for mobile phone services for the first time, Sunil Mittal clinched Delhi cellular license in collaboration with French telecom group Vivendi. In 1995, Sunil Mittal founded Bharti Cellular Limited (BCL) to offer cellular services under the brand name AirTel. Soon, Bharti became the first telecom company to cross the 2-million mobile subscriber mark. Bharti Cellular Limited also rolled out India's first private national as well as international long-distance service under the brand name IndiaOne. In 2001, BCL entered into a joint venture with Singapore Telecom International for a $650-million submarine cable project, India's first ever undersea cable link connecting Chennai in India and Singapore.

Today, Sunil Mittal runs a successful empire with a market capitalization of approximately $ 2 billion and employing over 5,000 people. He has been honored with several awards. Sunil Bharti Mittal was chosen as one of the top entrepreneurs in the world for the year 2000 and amongst 'Stars Of Asia', by 'Business Week'. He also received IT Man of the Year Award 2002 from Dataquest and CEO Of the Year, 2002 Award (World HRD Congress).

INDIAN ENTREPRENEUR 28 - SUBROTO ROY

SUBROTO ROY

Achievement: Chairman of the Sahara Group

Subroto Roy, is the head of the $10bn (£5.5bn) Sahara Group. Sahara Group has interests in banking, aviation, media and housing.

Subroto Roy began his journey in 1978, when he founded Sahara in 1978 with three workers in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh as a small deposits para-banking business. Today, the group has diversified into a giant business conglomerate with interests in housing, entertainment, media and aviation.

Sahara Group presently runs a private airline, entertainment and news television channels, a newspaper, and claims to own some 33,000 acres of real estate across India. It also sponsors the Indian cricket and hockey teams and intends to move into life insurance, housing finance, consumer products, sportswear, and healthcare.

Sahara Group has come up with one of the most prestigious real estate projects in India, namely Amby Valley Project. The project boasts some of the biggest name in Indian entertainment and sports arena as well as some former international Olympic medal winners as its brand ambassadors. Sahara Airline was recently in news for its merger with Jet Airlines. But the deal fell through.

Sahara Group has a huge complex in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. The complex is known as Sahara City. Subrato Roy is famous for his flamboyant lifestyle. The wedding of his two sons became talk of the town. The who's who of Indian elite attended it and its expenditure ran into hundreds of crores. Subroto Roy calls himself as the group's "chief guardian".

INDIAN ENTREPRENEUR 27 - SUBHASH CHANDRA

SUBHASH CHANDRA

Achievement: Founder of Zee TV, India's first private TV channel

Subhash Chandra is the founder of Zee TV, India's first private TV channel. This onetime rice trader from Hissar, Haryana has today transformed into a media baron and his other interests include packaging, theme parks, lotteries and cinema multiplexes.

Subhash Chandra launched Zee Telefilms Limited in October 1992 as a content supplier for Zee TV - India's first Hindi satellite channel. Subash Chandra was the first in India who sought to harness the huge business potential of satellite television channels. Before the launch of Zee TV viewers in India were under the firm grip of Doordarshan, the state-controlled terrestrial network. It was Subhash Chandra's vision that helped give birth to the satellite TV industry in India and inspired others to follow suit.

After the launch of Zee TV, he commenced Siticable operations in 1995 and also started a joint venture with News Corp. In 1995, he launched two new channels, Zee News and Zee Cinema. In 2000, Zee TV became the first cable company in India to launch Internet over Cable services. In 2003, Zee TV became the first service provider in India to launch Direct to Home (DTH) services. In a short span of time Zee TV has become a big media and has give tough competition to international media moghuls such as Rupert Murdoch.

Subhash Chandra's meteoric rise in the past decade is somewhat similar to the rise of Dhirubhai Ambani in 1980s and 1990s.

INDIAN ENTREPRENEUR 26 - SHIV NADAR

SHIV NADAR

Achevement: Chief Executive Officer of Hindustan Computers Limited (HCL), India's largest infotech conglomerate

Shiv Nadar is the Chief Executive Officer of Hindustan Computers Limited (HCL), India's largest infotech conglomerate. He figures in the Forbes list of Indian billionaires.

Originally hailing from Moolaipozhi Village,Trichendur,Tutocorin District, Tamil Nadu, Shiv Nadar moved to Delhi in 1968. He worked as an engineer with DCM Ltd. But the entrepreneur in Shiv Nadar wanted to set up his own business. Therefore, he along with six of his colleagues launched a firm making office products like copiers.

In late 1970s, when IBM quit India, Shiv Nadar's HCL stepped in to fill the vacuum. In 1982, HCL came out with its first computer. Today, HCL derives 80% of its revenue from computers and office equipment. HCL has also been spreading its global reach. Its Singapore subsidiary, Far East Computers, achieved a breakthrough in imaging technology, which, among other applications, enables computers to read handwritten tax returns.

HCL has adopted innovative practices to achieve growth. In the U.S, a software subsidiary, HCL America, has reaped huge dividends by taking advantage of global time zones. Every morning, the company's Chennai office receives software assignments from the U.S, just after work stops there for the night. A team of Indian engineers, with salaries much lower than those of their American counterparts, complete the jobs and send them back in the evening.

In a short span of time, Shiv Nadar has reached pinnacle of success by his hardwork, vision, and entrepreneurial spirit.

INDIAN ENTREPRENEUR 25 - RAUNAQ SINGH

RAUNAQ SINGH

Born: 1922

Achievement: Founder of Raunaq Group; Elected as a member of the Executive Board of the International Chamber of Commerce, Paris

Raunaq Singh was one of the earliest entrepreneurs of independent India who made it big. He was the founder of Raunaq group. The Raunaq Group's major companies include Apollo Tyres Ltd, Bharat Gears Ltd, Bharat Steel Tubes Ltd, Raunaq International Ltd, Menarini Raunaq Pharma Ltd, and Raunaq Automotive Components Ltd.

Raunaq Singh was born in 1922. After initial struggle he went on to become a powerful figure in corporate India. At one point of time in his life he could afford only one paisa a day for meals and when he retired his group was employing 9000 people on his payroll.

Raunaq Singh was a great advocate of economic liberalization and globalization of the Indian business. He worked tirelessly to put the Indian industry on the global map. He held several key leadership positions in Industry & Trade Associations. These included President Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), President The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), Chairman Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC), Chairman Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association, and President Federation of Indian Export Organization.

Raunaq Singh won several awards for his entrepreneurship. He was often referred as "Mr. Exporter", because of his inclination for exports and export promotion for Indian Industry. Raunaq Singh also won international recognition for his entrepreneurial skills. was elected as a member of the Executive Board of the International Chamber of Commerce, Paris for a three-year term.

Raunaq Singh died on September 30, 2002.

INDIAN ENREPRENEUR 24 - RATAN TATA

RATAN TATA

Born: December 28, 1937

Achievement: Honored with Padma Bhushan, one of the highest civilian awards in 2000.

Ratan Tata is presently the Chairman of Tata Sons, the holding company of the Tata Group. Ratan Naval Tata is also the Chairman of the major Tata companies such as Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Tata Power, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Tea, Tata Chemicals, Indian Hotels and Tata Teleservices. He has taken Tata Group to new heights and under his leadership Group's revenues have grown manifold.

Ratan Tata was born on December 28, 1937, in Bombay. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in architecture from Cornell University in 1962. Ratan Tata had a short stint with Jones and Emmons in Los Angeles, California, before returning to India in late 1962. He joined the Tata Group and was assigned to various companies before being appointed director-in-charge of The National Radio & Electronics Company (NELCO) in 1971. Ratan Tata was appointed Chairman of Tata Industries in 1981. He was assigned the task of transforming the company into a Group strategy think-tank, and a promoter of new ventures in high technology businesses.

In 1991, Ratan Tata took over the Chairmanship from JRD Tata. Under him Tata Consultancy Services went public and Tata Motors was listed in the New York Stock Exchange. In 1998, Tata Motors came up with Tata Indica, the first truly Indian car. The car was the brainchild of Ratan Tata.

Ratan Tata was honored with Padma Bhushan, one of the highest civilian awards in 2000. He was also conferred an honorary doctorate in business administration by Ohio State University, an honorary doctorate in technology by the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, and an honorary doctorate in science by the University of Warwick.

INDIAN ENTREPRENEUR 23 - RAMALINGA RAJU

RAMALINGA RAJU

Born: September 16, 1954

Achievement: Founder and Chairman of Satyam Computer Services Ltd; Chosen as Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for Services in 1999

Ramalinga Raju is one of the pioneers of the Information Technology industry in India. He is the founder and Chairman of Satyam Computer Services Ltd.

Ramalinga Raju was born on September 16, 1954 in a family of farmers. He did his B. Com from Andhra Loyola College at Vijayawada and subsequently did his MBA from Ohio University, USA. Ramalinga Raju had a stint at Harvard too. He attended the Owner / President course at Harvard.

After returning to India in 1977, Ramalinga Raju moved away from the traditional agriculture business and set up a spinning and weaving mill named Sri Satyam. . Thereafter he shifted to the real estate business and started a construction company called Satyam Constructions. In 1987, Ramalinga Raju founded Satyam Computer Services along with one of his brothers-in-law, DVS Raju. The company went public in 1992. With the launch of Satyam Infoway (Sify) Satyam became one of the first to enter Indian internet service market. Today, Satyam has a global presence and serves 44 Fortune 500 and over 390 multinational corporations.

Ramalinga Raju has won several awards and honors. These include Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for Services in 1999, Dataquest IT Man of the Year in 2000, CNBC's Asian Business Leader - Corporate Citizen of the Year award in 2002 and E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2007.

The ever-soaring share prices of Satyam witnessed a sharp decline in December 2008, following a failed acquisition attempt involving Maytas, a company owned by Raju's family. In January 2009, Raju resigned as the Chairman of Satyam after he admitted to major financial wrong-doings. In Januray 2009, Raju confessed of his involvement in inflating the profits of the company for the past couple of years. The 7,800-crore fraud started with an initial cover-up for a poor quarterly performance and assumed massive proportion, with time.

INDIAN ENTREPRENEUR 22 - RAHUL BAJAJ

RAHUL BAJAJ

Achievement: Chairman of the Bajaj Group

Rahul Bajaj is the Chairman of the Bajaj Group, which ranks among the top 10 business houses in India. The Bajaj Group has diversified interests ranging from automobiles, home appliances, lighting, iron and steel, insurance, travel and finance. Rahul Bajaj is one of India's most distinguished business leaders and internationally respected for his business acumen and entrepreneurial spirit.

Rahul Bajaj is an alumnus of Harvard, St. Stephen's and Cathedral. He took over the reins of Bajaj Group in 1965. Under his stewardship, the turnover of the Bajaj Auto the flagship company has risen from Rs.72 million to Rs.46.16 billion. Rahul Bajaj created one of India's best companies in the difficult days of the licence-permit raj. He established factories at Akurdi and Waluj. In 1980s Bajaj Auto was top scooter producer in India and its Chetak brand had a 10-year waiting period.

The initiation of liberalization in India posed great challenges for Bajaj Auto. Liberalisation brought the threat of cheap imports and FDI from top companies like Honda. Rahul Bajaj became famous as the head of the Bombay Club, which opposed liberalization. The scooter sails plummeted as people were more interested in motorcycles and the rival Hero Honda was a pioneer in it.

The recession and stock market collapse of 2001 hit the company hard and it was predicted that the days of Bajaj Auto were numbered. However, Bajaj Auto re-invented itself, established a world-class factory in Chakan, invested in R&D and came up with Bajaj Pulsar Motorcycle. Bajaj Pulsar is currently a leader in its segment.

Recently, Rahul Bajaj was elected to Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra.

INDIAN ENTREPRENEUR 21 - Dr.PRATAP REDDY

Dr.PRATAP REDDY

Achievement: Founder of the Apollo Hospital Group

Dr. Pratap Reddy is the founder of the Apollo Hospital Group, India's first corporate hospital group. He revolutionized the whole health care scenario of India and inspired others to follow the suit. Today, India has over 750 corporate hospitals all over the country.

Dr. Pratap Reddy came to India after serving as the Chief Resident of the Worcenter City Hospital in the US to start his practice in Madras with a modest earning of Rs 100/- per day. The idea to establish Apollo Group of Hospitals came when Dr. Reddy lost a patient who couldn't make it to Texas for an open heart surgery. This inspired Dr. Pratap Reddy to create world-class medical infrastructure in India and make it more accessible and affordable to common people. Dr. Reddy's efforts bore fruit when he succeeded in setting up the first center of the Apollo Hospitals Group in Chennai in 1983.

Dr, Pratap Reddy soon followed this with India 's first hospital consultancy body - the Indian Hospitals Corporation - and commissioned two more Tertiary Care Centers in India. Since its inception, Apollo has demonstrated that Indian skills are equivalent to the best centers in the world and has produced world-class results in the most complicated Cadaver Transplant. Today, the Apollo Hospitals Group has over 22 centers in major cities in India and a combined turnover of over US $ 100 million.

Dr Reddy is now spreading Apollo Hospitals Group to other parts of Asia. The group opened its first clinic in Dubai in March 1999 and is coming up with projects in Sri Lanka, Africa, Bangladesh, and Oman. Dr. Reddy is currently looking at secondary health centers in semi urban and smaller cities and has already identified 23 sites for the purpose.

Dr. Pratap Reddy's latest initiatives are "Med Varsity"-a virtual medical university providing total access to experts in the field of medicine anywhere in the world- and "MEDNET" - Hospital Systems Management package. Both the initiatives are expected to transform health care sector in India.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

INDIAN ENTREPRENEUR 20 - NARESH GOYAL

NARESH GOYAL

Achievement: Founder Chairman of Jet Airways; Recipient of the first BM Munjal Award for Excellence in Learning & Development in the Private Sector category in 2006.

Naresh Goyal is the founder Chairman of Jet Airways, India's largest domestic airline. Jet Airways presently operates over 320 flights daily to 48 destinations, of which five are international. Naresh Goel also figures in Forbes list of Indian billionaires.

Naresh Goyal completed his graduation in Commerce in 1967 and joined the travel business with the GSA for Lebanese International Airlines. From 1967 to 1974 he learnt the intricacies of the travel business through his association with several foreign airlines.

In May 1974, Naresh Goyal founded Jetair (Private) Limited to look after Sales and Marketing operations of foreign airlines in India. Naresh Goyal was involved in developing studies of traffic patterns, route structures, and operational economics and flight scheduling. His rich and varied experience made him an authority in the world of aviation and travel.

In 1991, when the Indian economy was being opened up, Naresh Goyal took advantage of Open Skies Policy of the Government of India and set up Jet Airways for the operation of scheduled air services on domestic sectors in India. Jet Airways started commercial operations on May 05, 1993.

Today, Jet Airways has evolved into India's largest private domestic airline. Jet Airways has been voted India's "Best Domestic Airline" by several organisations of world-class repute. In 2005, Jet Airways came up with an IPO and it was a huge success. Jet Airways was recently in controversy over its merger deal with Air Sahara. The merger was called off and the too airlines are currently considering arbitration.

Along with Jet's meteoric rise, Naresh Goyal too rose in the entrepreneurial arena. He has won several honors and accolades. These include Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Services' from Ernst & Young in 2000, 'Distinguished Alumni Award-2000 for meritorious and distinguished performance as an Entrepreneur', Outstanding Asian-Indian' award for leadership and contribution to the global community given by the Indian American Centre for Political Awareness, 'Aerospace Laurels' for outstanding contribution in the field of Commercial Air Transport twice, in April 2000 and February 2004. Naresh Goyal also received the first BM Munjal Award for Excellence in Learning & Development in the Private Sector category in 2006.

INDIAN ENTREPRENEUR 19 - NARAYANA MURTHY

NARAYANA MURTHY

Born: August 20, 1946

Achievement: One of the founders of Infosys Technologies Limited; Chosen as the World Entrepreneur of the Year - 2003 by Ernst and Young

Narayana Murthy is the Non-Executive Chairman and Chief Mentor of Infosys Technologies Limited. He is a living legend and an epitome of the fact that honesty, transparency, and moral integrity are not at variance with business acumen. He set new standards in corporate governance and morality when he stepped down as the Executive Chairman of Infosys at the age of 60.

Born on August 20, 1946, N.R. Narayana Murthy is a B.E. Electrical from University of Mysore (1967) and M.Tech from IIT Kanpur (1969). Narayan Murthy began his career with Patni Computer Systems in Pune. In 1981, Narayana Murthy founded Infosys with six other software professionals. In 1987, Infosys opened its first international office in U.S.A.

With the liberalization of Indian economy in 1990s, Infosys grew rapidly. In 1993, the company came up with its IPO. In 1995, Infosys set up development centers across cities in India and in 1996, it set up its first office in Europe in Milton Keynes, UK. In 1999, Infosys became the first Indian company to be listed on NASDAQ. Today (in 2006), Infosys has a turnover of more than $ 2billion and has employee strength of over 50,000. In 2002, Infosys was ranked No. 1 in the "Best Employers in India 2002" survey conducted by Hewitt and in the Business World's survey of "India's Most Respected Company." Conducted in the same year.

Along with the growth of Infosys, Narayana Moorthy too has grown in stature. He has received many honors and awards. In June 2000, Asiaweek magazine featured him in a list of Asia's 50 Most Powerful People. In 2001, Narayana Murthy was named by TIME/CNN as one of the 25 most influential global executives. He was the first recipient of the Indo-French Forum Medal (2003) and was voted the World Entrepreneur of the Year - 2003 by Ernst and Young. The Economist ranked Narayana Murthy eighth on the list of the 15 most admired global leaders (2005) and Narayan Murthy also topped the Economic Times Corporate Dossier list of India's most powerful CEOs for two consecutive years - 2004 and 2005.

INDIAN ENTREPRENEUR 18 - NANDAN NILEKANI

NANDAN NILEKANI

Achievement: CEO and Managing Director of the Infosys; Conferred the Padma Bhushan in 2006.

Nandan Nilekani is the CEO and managing director of the Infosys. Along with Narayan Murthy, he was one of the co-founders of Infosys. He has served as a director on the company's board since its inception in 1981. Before assuming the post of CEO in March 2002, Nandan Nilekani held the post of Managing Director, President and Chief Operating Officer.

Nandan Nilekani was born in Bangalore. His father Mohan Nilekani was a manager in Minerva Mills. Nandan Nilekani had his initial schooling in Bangalore. Due to his father's transferable job Nandan moved to his uncle's place at Dharwad at the age of 12. This taught Nandan Nilekani to be independent. In 1973, at the age of 18, Nandan Nilekani got admission in IIT Mumbai. The stint at IIT Mumbai transformed Nandan Nilekani from a small town boy to a confident mature man. The lessons he learnt here-meritocracy; the ability to work as part of a team; hard work; and the importance of giving back to the society-have stood him in good stead.

After graduating in electrical engineering from IIT Mumbai in 1978, Nandan Nilekani joined Patni Computers. Here he worked under Narayan Murthy. Three years later in 1981, Nandan Nilekani along with Narayan Murthy and five other co-founders founded Infosys. While Narayan Murthy stayed in India, Nandan Nilekani shifted to the US to take care of Infosys' interests there. He was the company's marketing face.

In 1980s and 90s Nandan Nilekani and his team worked hard to build Infosys. Today Infosys' success story has become a legend in India's corporate history. Today, Infosys has an employee strength of 58,000, annual revenue of $2 billion and $21 billion capitalization.

Nandan Nilekani is recipient of several honors and awards. In January 2006, Nandan became one of the youngest entrepreneurs to join 20 global leaders on the prestigious World Economic Forum (WEF) Foundation Board. He figures among one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine, 2006. In 2005 he was awarded the prestigious Joseph Schumpeter prize for innovative services in field of economy, economic sciences and politics. In 2006, Nandan Nilekani was conferred the Padma Bhushan, one of the highest civilian honors of India.