Executive Search Consultants

Ever wondered why the CEO of this channel is now a part of another one! Ever thought gosh! This chap was Director marketing in this firm till yesterday and today he is promoting another firm.But who routes these people form one company to another.What is the channel they use? Who are the people they consult? This is where the role of an executive search consultant comes.These are niche HR consultancies which hire people for senior management level posts only.The lowest profile people they place are Director,Marketing,etc.But the job is highly confidential keeping the database of candidates extremely secure.

How do these function?

Most of these are family setups running branches across the country with each branch having approximately 20-25 people.What? That is it?Well yes that is true.But then where is the challenge.

High Profile People!

Here is a chance to interact with the top notch people of various companies and getting to learn a lot from them

Getting Across

The people are high profile and getting through them is not an easy task.Making an entry into his office is a challenge in itself

Cracking the deal

Convincing the person to switch his job to another company is a task in itself.That person is happy with his job and you have ot provide him with geat incentives to let him leave his current job and join another company

Research

A lot of research goes into the industry and the company and the candidate's profile.Then a suitable job match is found

How does it all happen?

A client of yours say Pepsi approached you taht they are looking for a Director,HR.The consultancy will start with doing a research on the industry and company and the candidate's profile and then approach the suitable candidate with an offer.Various people will be shortlisted for the same and finally the most appropriate candidate is appointed by the client.

Nation Branding

Nike!Coca Cola!Google!Apple! Brands prevail in the market making their presence felt all the time and creating resonating relationships with customers.Brands can be products,places,services,etc.Nation branding is a niche subset of place branding.Globalization has led nations to become more integrated and competing with each other for tourists,business,foreign investments or merely for the attention of the media.100% pure New Zealand,Malaysia-Truly Asia,etc are remarkable examples of nations atempting to brand themeselves.However some nations need not explicitly brand themselves due to their popularity like America for power and money,Japan for technology,etc.



Why would a nation brand itself?



1. A nation could brand itself if it has been targeting the wrong audiences.For example targeting a segment with low spending power for tourism.



2. A nation could brand itself if wants to correct a wrongly built image.For instance.India is still known to the world as a land of culture but nothing beyond.It is important to make the people aware of the technological breakthroughs the country has gone through and also that India is the land of spirituality,youth and corporate leaders.



3. A nation could also want to correct a negatively developed image due to wars,etc



Simon Anholt describes the nation brand as the sum of the perceptions of a country and its
people across six dimensions of national assets, characteristics and competence.
Apart from the above mentioned factors some researchers have also identified agriculture as an important parameter to be use din the promotion of the nation.

Elevator Pitch

Imagine bumping into the CEO or a VC who will fund your next project in an elevator. It takes 30 secs from the elevator to go from the floor you get in to the floor on which you get out. So are you prepared? Do you have your pitch pat down, so that you can if not convince but get the attention of the VC / CEO to your idea? During the managerial communication class we had a tutorial where each student had to make an elevator pitch on a particular situation which was revealed to you just 45 secs before you are due to present and this reminded me of a very smart thing. When I was returning from Amsterdam to Cologne a few months back, in the train, I met this “desi” guy who just came up to us and started talking about how he was a research student at univ X and as a part time he provided other services like courier, arrange for events etc for other desis That’s one interesting thing I observed while in Europe. In India you wouldn’t bother talking to a stranger but there, every brown skinned person is a desi (whether from sri lanka or India or Pakistan ) and you will smile at / greet other desis.. ok I digress…
So this person gives me his card, and on the back side of the card he has a list of the services he provides. This is smart I say. After a month if I were to look at his card, I might not remember where I met him, and who the heck does this card belong to but when I turn it around immediately the context is clear. I don’t remember where I read this or who told me but this was suggested as a very good method for entrepreuners looking for funding. Take your business card and on the back write a short description of your product, main features etc. So the next time you bump into a VC or someone important who can help you in your venture, you give them your card and later they have a way to remember you and your idea later. It didn’t strike me in the train but later when I was planning for my elevator pitch, the application of the idea was blaringly apparent. Nice idea I’ed say, though you would have to be prepared for the chance encounters… but that’s what entrepreneurship is all about isn’t it?

Private Telephone Exchange?? Huh?

Ya that’s my first reaction when I heard about it. I was just talking with my gym instructor about whether he goes to other gyms as well to teach, how much he is paid and how does he manage with the salary etc. It so happens that the job as a gym instructor is just a hobby that gets him some extra cash. He owns a printing business and a PRIVATE TELEPHONE EXCHANGE.
I don’t know about you guys, but my only memory of a telephone exchange is that of a dilapidated building, with pan chewing babus who think they are doing a big favor even if they let you stand in front of them and listen to you. But those were the days of the monopoly of state owned telephone companies. With the liberalization in the telecom industry and entry of private players this has changed. “So what exactly is this private telephone exchange? How does it work?” I asked him. So here is the model. I will apply for 7 or 8 telephone lines from a private telecom company, Relaince or Tata Indicom for example. Then I will install a “box” which will let me create 150-200 lines. Something like a PBX we have in offices, or some kind of a multiplexing device I guess. Then you give these lines to customers in a local area of say 1-2 km radius. You charge them rental and on a per call basis.
“Is it legal? Do the companies know about it? How do you make money?” I ask.
Well for starters the companies know about it. Each of the 150-200 users gets a proper and unique telephone number from the telecom company itself. Its cheaper for the users because the private exchange guy will charge them lesser rental and lesser call rates than charged by the teleco. “So whats in it for the telecom companies?” One it reduces their investment in terms of infrastructure and marketing since these are borne by the pvt. exchange fellow. It helps them quickly increase the subscriber base. They get a share of the revenue from the pvt exchange. Here is how it works, the teleco will charge rental and call charges to this guy for the 7-8 lines he uses. The teleco will give this guy a better rate say 90p per call as against 1.30p charged to a retail user. This guy will give a rate of Re 1.00 or 1.10 to the user, and half the rental of a normal telephone connection. Even so, contrast full rental of 8 lines vs half rental of 150 lines. The numbers are evident. Since he charges 10p or 20p less than the teleco, users wouldn’t mind going to him. He breaks even and then pays some percentage of profits over and above the breakeven to the teleco.
Sounds like a win-win for all right? So where’s the catch you ask. I did too. “What about the quality of the line?” He assures me that there is no drop in quality, and I would agree with him, cos at the end of the day, the box is just a router, which connects your line to one of the 7 lines. So you might face a problem of delay / line being busy when you call someone or when someone calls you. “Nobody uses the phone all the time, so we have an idea of how many lines we can branch out from a single line without effecting availability or quality” he tells me. Don’t know much about the details of the technology, nor can you be sure that there is no drop in quality, but in the Indian context, I’m sure that people would be willing to sacrifice a bit on the quality if the cost is low enough. Besides in voice communication, a minor loss of quality might not be easily perceptible compared to data where your page loads slower. Doesn’t this model remind you of when broadband first came, and cable modems cost in 5 digits. Your local cable operator would buy a cable modem between 5-10 users and you would get shared broadband.
Interesting isin’t it? The teleco gains cos it gets a higher customer base, quick penetration, share of revenue, lower infrastructure costs. The customer benefits because he pays less with almost the same quality, the exchange fellow benefits because he is able to utilize his infrastructure at high utilization rates, have his own business and earn a decent return on his investment. Sounds too good to be true, the zero sum mentality in me doesn’t let me leave it at a “win-win for all” so looking forward to your suggestion / comments on flaws, problems in this model.

BENCHMARKING

Courtesy: Professor Satish Ailawadi
( can be contacted at ailawadi24@yahoo.com)

Definitions of benchmarking

(1)“A continuous systematic process for evaluating the products, services and work of organizations that are recognized as representing best practices for the purpose of organizational improvement.”

(2)“ A continuous search for, and application of , significantly better practices that lead to superior competitive performance.”

(3)“A disciplined process that begins with a thorough search to identify best-practice-organizations, continues with the careful study of one’s own practices and performance, progresses through systematic site visits and interviews, and concludes with an analysis of results, development of recommendations and implementation”.

(4) “Benchmarking is an external focus on internal activities, functions, or operations in order to achieve continuous improvement.”

(5) “Benchmarking is systematic and continuous measurement process – a process of continuously measuring and comparing an organizations business processes against process leaders anywhere in the world to gain information which will help the organizations to take action to improve performance.”

Why Benchmarking ?

•Successful companies in every industry engage in a variety of practices, which lead to achievement of high level of performance.

•Benchmarking has become one of the most important tools of business management in corporate that attempts to gain and maintain competitive advantage.

•The central essence of benchmarking is about learning how to improve business activity, processes, and management.

The Benchmarking Process

•Benchmarking involves looking outside a particular business, organization, industry, region or country to examine how others achieve their performance levels and to understand the processes they use.

•Thus, benchmarking helps explain the processes behind excellent performance.When lessons learnt from benchmarking exercise are applied appropriately, they facilitate improved performance in critical functions within an organization or in key areas of the business environment



Types of Benchmarking

Supply Chain in Diwali - Ops funda!

Oye, to all.... here's my take on Diwali :) yenjoy.... learn Ops fundas aswell !!!

Give and Take - Inventory Management Mom Style!!!


Operations Managament is the essence of life. It's all encompassing as well as it permeates everything! Take for instance this mail. The inputs are my weird thoughts, the output is the mail and the process of typing it, the value add ---------- yeah right :)!!!!

Diwali - the festival of light, is also the season where Mom's all across the globe face up to the big challenge of Inventory control. It's the time for the deluge, the give and take and the smooth maneuvering of gifts from one hand to the other.

Take my home for example. In Diwali, my Kitchen plays the role of a warehouse and MOM the part of the Inventory controller. Her job is not only to procure - gifts for people; but also find the right suitors for the parcels that are received from other people! Its not as simple as it sounds.

The thing about Gifts (mostly sweets and things to eat) is that , you need to do an ABC analysis of the inventory at all times and match the inflow value with the outflow value. If the outgoing value to the source is not atleast approximately equal to the incoming one from that source, it leads to supplier dissatisfaction. Whereas, if the outgoing value is greater than the incoming one, it leads to dissatisfaction of the inventory manager - my MOM .


The second challenge lies in the fact that at all times, the average space utilization of the gifts kept in the kitchen remains the same. So no matter how much MOM tries, the replenishment is always ready. Whenever she is absolutely ecstatic that the final gift was delivered, fresh stock arrives uninvited, with the additional burden of replenishing stock of equal value in order to send a return gift.

The third challenge is how to minimize the spend on gifts, by tactfully directing gift from A to Z and B to H and J to R and so on. At all times, the value of the interaction i.e. A to Home and Home to A should remain approximately equal. And its no easy task, mind it! MOM's through years of experience - recieve, evaluate, procure, inspect, handle, store and deliver gifts with such precision that each and every relationship becomes stronger and not one person is dissatified. It becomes almost second nature, involuntary to them. The challenge also lies in inspecting the gift, without spoiling the wrapper , in order to ensure that the gift has not been customised and codified to our name!

Also, the biggest challenge lies in the security of this inventory from a certain "ME" who has his eyes on the stock at all times. Pilferage - being a threat, stock counting is done twice a day and as it is inevitable, fresh order is placed in order to reach the minumum stock level, to prevent loss of dignity!!! The quantity ordered is instinctively calculated at "Economical" Order Quantities!!!

Finally, having a huge closing stock also creates health hazards for "ME" - because I generally recycle everything by eating it !! I generally END PRODUCT, i.e. I generally make "Finished product" a reality - I finish it alright !!! So the challenge is to have minimal to zero inventory at end of season. At this time, the tit-for-tat theory goes for a toss, and generosity comes to the fore. Even though obsolescence of stock is impossible (thanks to ME) , the stock is handed out in charity to the underprivileged. Not that I am complaining, but one person that is not satisfied is me :) Insatiable is my Nick name anyways.

If you come to think of it, JIT, lean supply chain -minimizing waste are fundas that are so astutely used during Diwali, the festival of light. Salute to MOM's and at some places Dads who manage this festival of give and take with such aplomb. As for my Mom, as I said, she has an addtional task at hand during this season, because for me personally - Diwali isn't the festival of " LIGHT ", my funda is Diwali - the festival of getting "HEAVY " :) hehehehehehehehe. So, a salute to her :)

Fundamentor...

Why I like the IIMA style of learning

Here at the Univ of Koeln, as a part of my course I am doing what is called a Business Project with a leading German company (to avoid any issues later let me call it Company C). It is a live consulting assignment where C wants to evaluate the strategy it adopts for process P and evaluate whether the money spent on department D (which is a profit center) is worth it. Now the structure of the team is such that there is an academician (lets call him Mr X), who on the behalf of the prof has to act like a guide and there is a representative from C who liaisons with us on behalf of C. As is evident, the grades we get will be governed by what the TA thinks of our work and whether C is happy or not depends on the results we give them. Now the nature of the problem is that, the German system is a bit skewed in the sense that when you submit a report or use something you have to support it with adequate literature. The attitude is “I am not a researcher; some researcher has done work and shown that this works so I will use his/her work”. The work we do for C is consulting and hence there are so many things which work in the principle of prototyping. You collect data from the company, study it, make a hypothesis, and decide whether the results support your data. Now for work like this the probability that someone else has done exactly the same thing is very less because each company is different. And here is the fun part. Company C is happy with us because we are on the right track and am giving them useful insights, but Mr X is not because we don’t have literature to support what we are doing. Cost-benefit analysis is a tool that has been used since ages, asking me to find some thesis paper or literature where cost-benefit analysis has been used is like asking me to give supporting literature to show that 2 + 2 = 4. If some company is spending money on A and wants to see whether the benefits B it gets are commensurate logically implies that some kind of cost benefit analysis needs to be done. And Mr X simply wouldn’t understand. It’s so frustrating. Let’s hope that this person is an exception and not a representative sample.

Now contrast this with the way we study at IIMA. Whenever we use someone else’s work we have to reference it. Even if it is just a few words and there is a strict checking of whether what we write is copied from somewhere. You can borrow ideas, give credit to the person and use it to suit your needs. There is credit given to application of the theory and commonsense logic above all ! Infact, this strictness has somehow ingrained in most of us a quality where none of us would even inadvertently use work directly from the net. We research, we read, we google, we search, then we understand, we digest it, we apply it and then produce the output. So no matter what we do, whether its some case we are solving, some assignment or some project report, unless there is something we put of our own, we don’t feel we have done something worthwhile. Contrast this with the pedantic approach of Mr X. This is not the only example. There are few more cases. Profs insisting that you learn definitions by rote, if a model has x components that you should name the x components in the order in which the original author of the model has mentioned it, in your thesis paper you have to have a bibliography with atleast 15-20 references to well known journals…. Well what do I say, the freedom that the system gives, which I mentioned in my previous post, is more or less nullified by such approach to learning. But as they say, you gain some, you loose some.