Innholdsfortegnelse for March 13, 2016 i Business Today

What makes for a great workplace? How does one create a company that is considered wonderful to work for? What is the kind of an organisational culture that allows employees to be most productive – and equally importantly, happy – at work? There are no standard prescriptions for creating a great workplace. And over the years, the benchmark for what constitutes a good workplace as opposed to a bad one has gone up many times. In the ’70s, for example, local offices of European and US multinationals that had operations in the country were much coveted as workplaces for the best and the brightest. Good pay and perquisites were obviously an attraction, but what drew a lot of jobseekers of that era were the formal work systems, the culture of…

GOOD NUMBERS 15.2 LAKH CRORE What the week-long Make in India fair in Mumbai attracted as investment pledges from global and Indian investors. Though impressive, this number fell short of the `25 lakh crore of investment pledges that the three-day Vibrant Gujarat summit had attracted a year ago. BAD NUMBERS 8 LAKH CRORE The amount of stressed assets in the balance sheets of Indian banks, as per an estimate of the Reserve Bank of India. 1.4 LAKH CRORE The amount of bad loans written off by Indian public sector banks in the past three years alone, according to a report by a newspaper. SOCIAL MEDIA HOWLER OF THE MONTH “Anti-colonialism has been economically catastrophic for Indian people for decades. Why stop now?” Tweet by Marc Andreessen, famed Silicon Valley venture…

Almighty Hack Hackers on the Internet seem to have shifted their attention to Twitter these days. Recently, a bunch of Twitter accounts, including two with 'God' in their handles, were taken over by hackers. Followers of @God and @TheTweetOfGod were bombarded with NSFW (Not Safe for Work) tweets. Alhough the handles were recovered after a while and the objectionable tweets deleted, some reports say the hacked accounts are still facing technical issues. It is believed that a bug in 'password change reminder' of accounts enabled hackers to get hold of @ God, @TheTweetOfGod and other handles. So when users tried to change their password, their full e-mail address linked to the account was also visible, using which hackers got into these accounts. While @God has over 183,000 followers on Twitter,…

FRIEGHT COST: Majority of freight moves on road. This is expensive and time consuming LAND ACQUISITION : Acquiring large tracts is a herculean task due to complex laws TAXATION : Multiplicity of taxes such as sales tax, VAT and octroi makes compliance cumbersome INFLEXIBLE LAWS : Outdated laws and slow judiciary act as major speed breakers. Litigation adds to the cost of doing business CLEARANCES : A manufacturing firm has to comply with 70 laws and regulations, apart from multiple inspections, and file 100 returns in a year SKILLS GAP : Low-cost labour is abundant but lacks the necessary skills. Training costs time and money.…

To propagate more start-ups, the government does not need to come out with schemes geared only towards a class of companies called start-ups, but for all companies India is in the grip of start-up fever. From Start-up India, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to the daily obsessive headlines we see in the pink papers, to the fêting of start-up entrepreneurs, we are surrounded by this new-found excitement. And for the most part, correctly so. After all, isn’t it wonderful that young Indians with dreams in their eyes and ideas in their heads are able to come up with innovative customer propositions around the new internet world, and are able to fund these ideas with capital from third-party investors and build rapidly growing businesses? But it will take time for…

The connect between the stats thrown up by the Business Today Best B-school survey three months ago and the results of the Best Companies to Work For survey is hard to miss – perceptions at B-school campuses were, in fact, a precursor to what young minds admire about companies they would like to work for. When Business Today visited the campuses of India’s leading B-schools for its annual survey in 2015, it found that technology and Internet-based companies were the flavour of the season. Students were fired up by the prospects of working in a challenging and hierarchy-neutral world. Three months on, the entry of Internet-based companies, such as Amazon and Flipkart, in the coveted list of Business Today Best Companies to Work For confirms that Internet-based and hierarchy-neutral companies…

Best employers for women will strive to have 40 per cent women in the total workforce, spread across levels In the fast changing dynamics of the global marketplace – with wide and diverse stakeholders – it is becoming increasingly clear that women define ‘Best Employer Companies’ quite differently from their male counterparts. Companies that wish to attract, retain and nurture women for advanced management positions in their companies will need to take a hard look at ‘what women want in their organisations’ – rather than use minor interventions to keep women engaged in the vision of the company for business success. While most enlightened business leaders and companies fully understand the compelling need to address women’s aspirations and bring a vast talent pool of women into their organisations, there is…

A critical quality required in the leadership, today, is the ability to execute the chosen strategy. Great strategy and execution are not mutually exclusive Strategy That Works By Paul Leinwand, Cesare Mainardi with Art Kleiner PAGES: 256 PRICE: 1,095 Harvard Business Review Press Strategy is not new to this world. Every organisation and business needs a strategy for it to grow and provide value to its shareholders. While a lot of companies define their strategy, many falter in implementation. In the words of Jack Welch, “Strategy is a general direction that a business should determine – after that decision, one should implement like hell.” One cannot agree more with this statement. But the question remains – how? How does one go about executing the strategy that will lead to the…

A Tough Job for Finance Minister Jaitley This refers to your cover story, The Many Worries of Mr. Jaitley (February 28). One cannot expect any miracle to happen in the Budget given the not-so-encouraging economic scenario on both global and domestic front. It is, however, a point to note that among the emerging market economies, India is relatively better placed. But that should not be anything to draw solace. Growth rate has not been picking up for a long time now. Banks are the lifeline of the economy and their performance is directly reflected in the health of the economy. There is a huge amount of stress in the system and banks are confronted with a high degree of non-performing assets and are in dire need of capital infusion. It…

26-28 SHOWCASING INDIA WHAT: India Exhibition Lahore 2016 WHEN: February 26-28, Lahore, Pakistan WHAT TO LOOK FOR: The exhibition aims to apprise Pakistani companies about Indian products with the aim to boost bilateral trade between the neighbours. Expect an exhibition showcasing some of India’s best technologies and products as well as B2B meetings between companies for trade and possible joint ventures. 24 SMART MANUFACTURING WHAT: TN Manufacturing Summit WHEN: February 24, Chennai WHAT TO LOOK FOR: The seventh edition of the event is themed around Smart Manufacturing. Participants will share their experiences on smart factories (using new materials and techniques to produce faster through automation and digitisation); policy and regulation, and job creation and value addition. 26-27 TEA TIME WHAT: 4th Indian Tea Forum WHEN: February 26-27, Siliguri WHAT TO…

India provides a classic example of the dilemma faced by a country whose elites want direct and indirect benefits of public spending, such as improved infrastructure, more public amenities, better public health and sanitation, and educational facilities, but is simply not willing to pay more taxes for the services. Even if we add the tax revenues of central and state governments, India has one of the lowest tax-to-GDP ratios in the world. At less than 18 per cent, it is also the lowest among BRICS countries. Brazil leads with 34 per cent, South Africa is next at 27 per cent, followed by China at 22 per cent and Russia at 19.5 per cent. Ironically, this is not the result of low tax rates. In fact, the tax rates on personal…

To seize this opportunity, India will need to continue its efforts to boost competitiveness and leverage the untapped talent of its women Amid concerns over the global economy’s recent lack of stamina, India has emerged like Rahul “the Wall” Dravid to stabilise the batting line. In 2015, global growth slowed to 2.4 per cent and, for 2016, the World Bank has predicted a modest pick-up to 2.9 per cent. Against this backdrop, the Reserve Bank of India has reaffirmed its forecast that India’s GDP would grow 7.4 per cent in 2015/16. It has also marked down its 2016/17 forecast to a still-respectable 7.6 per cent. We at the World Bank have made similar forecasts, suggesting India will grow 4.5 to 5 percentage points faster than the global economy! This doesn’t…

Leverage technology to enable continuous, two-sided communication India is on a roll. A 7.6 per cent GDP growth is forecast for the next year, and the ‘start-up’ buzzword has created a positive circle of influence in the overall ecosystem. As almost every segment throws up its own unicorns, the employer brand is experiencing interesting changes. And the same is visible in the Business Today- PeopleStrong Best Companies to Work For study. For the past five years, the study has been bringing interesting insights on employee perceptions and aspirations, right from the need for differentiated HR strategy for employees of different genres and geographies (2010), to driving coherence for the employer and the consumer brand (2011), casualty of the bosses (2013), and relationship between ethical leadership and employer brand (2014). This…

“TEXTILES IS A DIFFICULT BUSINESS TO BE IN”GAUTAM SINGHANIA, CMD, Raymond Group Gautam Singhania’s passion for fast cars is well known. The 50-year-old Chairman and Managing Director of the Raymond Group owns several of them. An avid racer, he became the first Indian driver to win a race in the Ferrari Challenge Europe Championship 2015. He had 10 podium finishes in the series despite two accidents – one, a gear box failure while rounding a corner at 160 km per hour, and the other when he was caught between two competitors outracing each other. Both times, thanks to the high level of safety in the vehicle, he escaped unhurt. “Motor racing keeps me physically fit and agile, and mentally disciplined, focused and capable of split-second decision making,” he says. What…

In today’s dynamic times, the weekly working hours vary from country to country – from 40-44 hours generally, to 35 hours in France, and significantly higher in North Korea. In the past, these variations have generally been driven by history, geography and culture. However, increasingly, company needs or lifestyle choices are the drivers. One of the practices that has gained popularity globally, and looks like it’s here to stay, is flexitime – defined as a system of working a set number of hours, with the starting and finishing times chosen within agreed limits by the employer/employee. The common perception is that flexitime is not a good thing. It is seen as a challenge for businesses; one that adversely impacts productivity. At the same time, it remains clear that flexitime is…

Hyderabad’s Trident Hotel was the centre of activity in the city on the evening of February 11. And why not – Hyderabad’s HR community descended in droves on the hotel to witness two scintillating panel discussions on two burning issues: (a) Analyse IT: Is HR Analytics a boon or a curse?, and (b) Attrition: Can it be a good thing? Both discussions were moderated by BT’S Associate Editor E. Kumar Sharma. The first topic, on the impact of analytics in HR, started off with Mayank Tivary, Recruiting Lead, Facebook India, saying that HR is very qualitative, and the difficult part is to handle the quantitative aspect, adding that Facebook has built in processes that can capture the quantitative aspect of HR. Raamchander Maddela, Executive Vice President & Head - Corporate…

State Government has been pursuing a policy of value addition and in the process providing opportunities for increased employment, besides generating revenue for undertaking welfare programmes for the people. 49 Memorandum of understanding (Mot) have been signed with different promoter companies for establishment of steel plants with a production target of 77.16 MT involving an investment of over Rs.213,969.40 crores. Already 33 steel plants, one pellet plant, have commenced their partial production with an investment of over Rs. 1,30,000 sores. Besides these, total 32 iron ore-based industries are coming up through non-MoU route. To make iron ore available to the end user industries, the State Government also implemented the pre-emption policy mandating the standalone iron ore lessees to sell at least 50 percent of their production to the State-based industries.…

STAY CONNECTED WITH US ON www.facebook.com/BusinessToday @BT_India INTERVIEW “It is more of caution than fear or worry right now” The Indian IT industry is facing multiple headwinds. It could be a short-term blip and demand might pick up later during the year, says Ramakrishnan Chandrasekaran, Executive Vice Chairman of Cognizant India, in an interaction with Business Today’s Goutam Das businesstoday.in/cognizant-chandrasekaran PERSPECTIVES A Dream Policy to Boost Manufacturing Sector The National Capital Goods policy covers all the major sub-sectors, and suggests not just visionary roadmaps but practical solutions to improve productivity and demand in each of them businesstoday.in/makeinindia-manufacturing Wipro HealthPlan Acquisition: Buying Growth? Wipro has acquired a healthcare BPM service provider, the first major move by the new CEO Abidali Neemuchwala. It will help the company consolidate its position in the…

It is the biggest social phenomenon. Just last year, Reddit had 234 million unique users logging in every month, racking up upwards of 80 billion page views, and its popular ‘Ask Me Anything’ (AMA) interview format has seen biggies like Barack Obama, Elon Musk and Bill Gates subject themselves to scrutiny from the Internet populace. Reddit remains a bit of a mystery for most, including most corporates looking to tap into what makes stuff go ‘viral’ on this network. Perhaps the best way to describe Reddit is by telling you what it is not. Unlike Facebook and Twitter, which focus more on who you are and what you have to say about the stuff you share, Reddit is all about the content. Any Reddit user (a Redditor) can submit text,…

Last year, Tata Steel started the first phase of its steel plant in Kalinganagar, Odisha. Spread over 3,741 acres, at full capacity, it will be India’s largest single-location greenfield steel plant. But what is more telling is that it is just one of the few greenfield steel plants to be built in India in the last 20 years. It sure did take some time coming. Planned at a cost of 15,000 crore, it was to start in 2010, but got bogged down by an agitation by locals who claimed they owned a part of the land given to the company. After January 2, 2005, when 13 agitators were killed in police firing, the work stopped. This took the company by surprise. Tata Steel had, after all, built Jamshedpur, then one…

I have no hesitation in saying that India’s tax laws have never been complex. In fact, tax legislations of many other countries, particularly in the US, have been far more complex. However, the manner in which it has been implemented, especially over the past decade, has been the subject of critiques at the global level, and surveys conducted by leading journals have recognised the fact that the Indian tax administration is among the most aggressive, globally. To begin with, we had inherited our tax legislation from the UK; and as India emerged as a socialistic democracy, we started building sufficient checks and balances in our domestic tax laws as well as international tax treaties. The most notable change was the introduction of “source-based” form of taxation, instead of “residence-based”, which…

“The realty sector needs clarity on foreign investments; SPV structures on a par with equity mutual funds; more clarity on DDT and reasonable withholding tax” Rajeev Talwar, CEO, DLF Ltd. “An incentive package with direct tax benefits for capital expenditure, a 10-year tax holiday for hospital projects, and exemption from GST could galvanise significant investment in the expansion and creation of healthcare infrastructure” Malvinder Mohan Singh, Executive C hairman, Fortis Healthcare “Moves towards ensuring clear, transparent, simplified procedures with time-bound accountability for approvals will go a long way in driving growth. Need to move from 'controlling to enabling' environment” G.V. Prasad, Co-Chairman and CEO, Dr Reddy's Laboratories “I hope we will see increased public healthcare spending from the current abysmal 1 per cent level to a more…

Parag Pande knows that he has struck the right chord with the employees. Pande, Managing Director, Human Resources, Accenture India, became aware of this on May 1 last year, when the company announced an increase in maternity leave benefits for women employees to 22 weeks of paid leave. Soon after, Pande’s mailbox was choked with ‘thank you’ notes and congratulatory messages. Greater inclusivity and gender diversity have been among the top three areas where Accenture has been working over the past one year, says Pande, adding “we are also making it easier for our women alumni to rejoin”. The other initiative that has kept Pande occupied over the past one year is equipping the talent with what Pande calls “next horizon skills”. “The third is the rejig of the performance…

This is the 14th edition of the annual Business Today ‘The Best Companies to Work for in India’ survey. The survey is anchored by our knowledge partner PeopleStrong. The data is sourced from our survey partner Naukri.com. The basic purpose of the survey is to understand the perceptions and aspirations of India’s employees across industries, and map these against what they see in their companies, sectors and even across sectors. The key differentiator forBT’S survey, compared to some other surveys of this nature, is that it is a web-based survey open to all salaried employees, anywhere in India, in any company, any sector. The survey does not take into account any company data, including HR metrics. The idea is to put forward how the employee community rates different companies as…

RAYMOND: One of the largest integrated makers of worsted fabric in the world with over 60 per cent market share in India SILVER SPARK APPAREL: Makers of suits, jackets and shirts for international brands RAYMOND LUXURY COTTON: Makers of hi-value fine cotton / linen shirting fabric JK FILES (INDIA): Largest maker of steel files in the world with over 30 per cent market share (division of Raymond) RING PLUS AQUA: Auto parts company making flywheel starter gears and integral shaft bearings for water pumps (subsidiary of Raymond) J.K. HELENE CURTIS: Makes perfumes, deodorants; market leader in room freshener and Eau de Cologne J.K. INVESTO TRADE (INDIA): JK Group's investment company J.K. ANSELL: Joint venture with Ansell International to make ‘KamaSutra’ brand of condoms and toiletries RAYMOND UCO DENIM: Joint venture…

November 15, 2015: Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, India’s only New York Stock Exchange-listed pharma company and among the top three players from India, receives a mail from the US Food and Drugs Administration (USFDA) about an inspection the latter carried out of three Dr Reddy’s manufacturing facilities in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. “We identified significant deviations from current good manufacturing practice for the manufacture of active pharmaceutical ingredients,” it says. It then gets down to details, which include some rather surprising specifics like: “Because the conveyor belt was not operational (at one of the units), an operator manually intervened.....Each of these manual interventions risk compromising the sterility of the product.” And again: “During the inspection, the presence of an uncontrolled ‘custom QC laboratory’ was discovered by our inspection team. The existence…

Deplaning? His appointment as the CEO of AirAsia India was surrounded by plenty of speculation. Now there’s an unprecedented buzz about his likely departure. There are reports that Mittu Chandilya, the young boss at low-cost airline AirAsia India, has decided to call it quits in less than three years after joining the carrier. He is reportedly upset with the remote control of AirAsia Bhd that owns 49 per cent in AirAsia India. Chandilya, a former head of services practices for Asia Pacific at Egon Zehnder International, was given additional role of managing director last year. The start-up airline has garnered 1.7 per cent market share in 2015. New Innings Soon after the change of roles among its co-founders, Flipkart witnessed a high-profile exit when Mukesh Bansal, the founder of online…

On a warm Sunday afternoon, 87 golfers got together at the Madras Gymkhana Golf Course to participate in the Chennai leg of the LLOYD Business Today Pro-Am. The par-70 golf course, playing about 6,258 yards off the regular tees, is known for its tricky roughs, with tall and prickly grass bordering most fairways. The course is unique, being situated within the 2,400-m oval of the Guindy race course. With over 50 bunkers, most of them guarding the relatively small-sized inverted saucer greens, the course poses a tough challenge to golfers due to the ever-changing winds. Played on Stableford format with Double Peoria handicap, the afternoon witnessed some keen golf with players vying for individual as well as team prizes. Winning team to compete in the National finals The winning team…

“Companies should grow to the largest possible scale” Jobs are not keeping pace with economic growth. How can it be fixed? The first is to focus on Start-up India, but focus on the full lifecycle of a start-up – from providing students education to become entrepreneurs to supporting access to the ecosystem of mentors and angel investors, and providing start-ups with opportunities for growth. This could be in the form of procurement opportunities and innovation grants. The second intervention will be to remove barriers in the way we classify businesses as micro, small, and medium. Any company should be incentivised to grow to its largest possible scale. Third, we need to accelerate the growth of innovation. What is the biggest obstacle in skilling people at the bottom of the pyramid?…