Leadership and Management

Around the time when Mark Zuckerberg was floating around in the dorms of Kirkland House figuring out Facebook (FB) or allegedly plagiarising the Winklevoss brothers’ ideas, the market cap of BlackBerry (BB) was about US$64 billion. Fast forward to 2015, the market cap of FB is at about US$225 billion while BB is less than US$6 billion. There was a time when owning a BB was associated with busy high-level corporate executives who always… Read More »BlackBerry And The Art Of Becoming Irrelevant in the Business World

Research and data can throw rather interesting theories and a recent one by Uma Karmakar, a Harvard Professor and Bryan Bollinger of Fuqua threw up an interesting argument. Their research drew a correlation that shoppers who brought their own bags to recycle would tend to buy more organic versions of food. One green action led to another. But the same people were most likely to buy ice cream, chips candy… Read More »License to Corruption

GMAT is a popular exam that most MBA aspirants appear for. And the sample tests available online throw up a very interesting food for thought. If one is just hovering around being an average or just above average (Joe Bloggs) in academics he/she would score about 550-570 out of a total of 800 ie 65 percentile (approx) if that person were to mark the entire exam randomly as per ones… Read More »Is Life and Commerce – a Casino?

We were in absolute-absolute awe of TESCO during my days in the UK, during the hey days of TESCO. The retailer had established itself as the most efficient company, churning out QOQ of phenomenal growth, managing its working capital cycle so beautifully that 3 months of working capital cash (zero debtors and 3 months creditors) allowed it to become the most wealthy real estate company as well. Sir Terry Leahy… Read More »How Boards expedite the demise of some of the best Companies

The recent Indian elections have been interesting for more than a few reasons and the resounding victory with which the ‘allegedly fundamentalist and polarising’ BJP came to power has some deep rooted lessons for the senior management in the corporate world. 10 years was a real long time for ‘the messiah of youth’ Rahul to grab this opportunity and redeem the vouchers of confidence that were secured with the grandson of… Read More »The great Indian election tamasha and the 6 lessons for the CEOs in corporate world

One of the most important tools of leadership is warmth. That’s something, which can neither be taught to a leader nor can it be acquired. The gait of true leaders can be recognised from miles away. Their warmth, way of interaction with their colleagues, a gentle pat on the shoulder, a smile or a greeting (without expecting one in return) are powerful conduits of influence that align organisations in the… Read More »Warmth – An essential leadership tool

When I first met Sh. O.P. Gupta (OPG) in 2006 he was a man who was going from strength to strength after having established his credentials as a builder of repute in Jamshedpur and establishing townships and retirement homes in Bhiwadi – A rather unsexy place. For me who was only hobnobbing with the British royalty in three previous years, setting up the group’s first hotel in Bhiwadi (then) was… Read More »Remembering a great Man : Some people who made a difference to my life – III

I stole an opportunity to speak to the CEO of a well known company at a dinner to which I was invited – courtesy of a guest who stayed on my ship a couple of years ago. Of course – being unemployed at the moment is a bit of an embarrassment when one is among a group of people who are – by any stretch of imagination – multi millionaires.… Read More »The health index of organisations