XTRAVAGATE - THE BUSINESS PROBE ISSUE 13, JUN 2017 DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (TRICHY)
In This Issue
Paris Agreement without United States
Anfangen ist leicht, Beharren eine Kunst
A Nostalgic return to our Cam- pus Memories
Work of an MBA Graduate
MBA in Operations Management and Linked Roles and Opportu- nities
World Bank and its role in the Global Economy
Movie Corner– Phas Gaye Re Obama
Snippets
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go”
- Dr. Seuss AUTHOR Paris Agreement without United States
he Paris Agreement of 2015 the situation is not as grim as it might was an iconic moment in seem to be. Trump government may History. Unlike its predeces- have pulled out of the Agreement and T domestically hindered the progress sors in Kyoto (1992), Copenhagen made by the Obama administration, (2009) or Doha (2012), which tried to but the momentum will not be lost ‘force’ greenhouse gas emission cuts simply because of one word – Eco- on its signatories, the Paris Agree- nomics. Since last few years, the cost ment asked all the countries of the of generating energy from renewable world to put forward their own plans sources has reduced tremendously; in fact, like the Moore’s Law for tran- for controlling emissions and mitigat- Pranav Kumar sistors, there is the “Swanson’s law” ing global warming, and they did, 195 which states that the price of solar MBA Batch of 2015-2017 of them! The goal is to limit the cli- photovoltaic modules tends to drop Mobius Knowledge Service mate rise to less than 2 degree Cel- by 20% for every doubling of cumula- sius by 2060, thus giving us 40 more tive shipped volume. American com- [email protected] years to clean up the environment. panies have lead the way in this “Green Revolution” and are already Every five years the member coun- reaping the benefits from it. In the tries will be evaluated (the first USA, the coal generated electricity evaluation will be in 2023) on the pro- dropped by more than half in the last gress of their commitments and the ten years; while the electricity gener- plan for the next five years, which ated by solar rose 5000%. Today, it should be more ambitious than the costs less than $8 megawatt/hour to maintain and operate utility-scale so- previous one. This comes with no lar power plants as compared to an “While this is a step legal binding, but the Agreement average of $33 from coal (not includ- works on “praise or shame” model. ing the $500 million that the Ameri- forward it goes no- Additionally, the developed world has can government spends annually where near far enough. taken the responsibility to commit towards health ailments arising from $100 billion every year by 2020 to coal usage). A comprehensive com- parison can be found here. The planet is in crisis. help the developing countries fight We need bold action in climate change. The USA leads the Although Mr. Trump promises to take contributors with $3 Billion in commit- the country back to coal, to generate the very near future ments by the Obama administration employment, around 250 coal mines have plans to switch to cleaner en- and this does not pro- (though it has one of the lowest per ergy. More than 300 cities and a vide that.” capita contribution, around $10 per dozen states have pledged to be taxpayer, while Sweden has pledged committed to the Paris Agreement around $60 per taxpayer). It has al- targets. Texas is one of the pioneers - Bernie ready contributed around $1 billion, worldwide where Wind Power is con- but further funding is expected to be cerned and is a staunch Republican State along with being an oil-rich re- Sanders halted. gion. While Trump administration brushes aside Climate Change as With Trump administration pulling out rumours, corporate America along of the Paris Agreement, it has put the with the states is taking the situation agreement and the funds in peril. But seriously.
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Around the world, the scenario is less President Trump’s decision to with- “We have opened a new gloomy. While once upon a time, draw from Paris Agreement and to kill chapter of hope in the China and India were reluctant to be the domestic Clean Power Plan will a part of such Agreements, citing further boost China’s role in the lucra- lives of 7 billion people on massive population and relatively tive leadership role. the planet. We have (the less economic development, now planet) on loan from fu- both the nations are leading the way Overall, the situation looks like it can be managed. With private players ture generations. We have towards the next Green Revolution. India has halted plans for building recognizing the enormous benefits today reassured these fu- almost 14 gigawatts of coal-fired from renewable sources, the day is ture generations that we plants as renewable energy seems to not far, when the 80-20 ratio (presently 80% of energy consump- will all together give them be available at aggressive low costs tions from around the world from non- a better earth.” (the recent Bhadla solar power park auction in Rajasthan saw bidding as renewable sources while 20% from renewable sources) will reverse to 20 - Prakash low as Rs. 2.44 per unit for 200 Mw, while coal generated electricity sells -80. To get a detailed report on re- Javadekar at an average of Rs. 3.21 per unit). newable infrastructure investment, Additionally, the ten indigenously built one can read the report by World Nuclear reactors in India (after years Economic Forum by clicking here. of drudgery with the USA and other nuclear fuel suppliers) will generate tens of thousands of jobs and give a boost to the economy.
In Germany, often the villages gener- ate so much electricity from renew- able sources that they sell to the “This one trend, cli- main electric grid for good profits. China is steadily becoming a world mate change, affects leader in renewable energy’s R&D. all trends”
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Anfangen ist leicht, Beharren eine Kunst AUTHOR
tarting is easy, persistence is a startup into a multi-billion-dollar an art. Technically, this is the company. From initially selling just S real implementation that has books to selling computers, smart- taken place for the companies that phones, and household necessities, have grown into prosperous and Amazon has grown by leaps and dominating forces in the world today. bounds. To get lost in the sea after a fast start is one of the easiest things a busi- On the other hand, Boo.com failed to ness can achieve. Literally, for every catch consumers after a brief stint in business, the hidden goal is not to the market. Delay in launching prod- get lost into the dreary desert sand of ucts and failing to keep up with the the invisible sea. Let’s look at a few market demands resulted in a com- of the greatest companies who have plete disaster for this company’s as- Tryambak Chatterjee survived the initial troubles and have pirations. The company had a target become successful today. On the of selling fashion clothing online but MBA 2nd Year other side of the coin, let’s look at a the consumers were not able to few others and how they have fallen switch to online market for clothes DoMS NITT into the sea. Or in other words, from the brick and mortar stores. As “Fällt ins Meer”. a result, there was a complete failure [email protected] of the business model which ulti- Going back to the 1960’s down the mately resulted in the failure of the roots of one the uber expensive ex- company. otic car manufacturer in the world known as “Lamborghini”, a fire to The above examples clearly illustrate grow and a focus to be the best in the the need for proper understanding of market propelled the aspirations of its the consumer mindset. founder Ferruccio Lamborghini into a company which is valued at over a After all “Verbraucher ist der billion dollars today. Producing sports König” (Consumer is the King). cars is a cup of tea for Lamborghini and it is always in competition with its arch rivals Ferrari, the very reason why the company came into exis- “Tell me and I forget, tence in the first place. Adjusting to the requirements of the market and teach me and I may re- an unmistakable design to stand out member, involve me propelled this high-end luxurious car maker to withstand the sands of time. and I learn.” On the other side, the car company known as Nu-Klea came into exis- tence in 1959 and died down in 1960. - Benjamin It manufactured an electric car model which was ahead of its time and con- Franklin sumers were not willing to accept it all. As a result, it died a peaceful death within two years of its starting date.
Now directly jumping from the 1960s to 1990s comes the story of Amazon. The e-commerce website has grown over the years due to the vision of its founder Jeff Bezos, who transformed
Page 4 AUTHOR A Nostalgic return to our Campus Memories AUTHOR
he internships started off with an air of excitement. The last T day of college was hectic as everyone was busy with his/her travel plans. The first day of the internship was filled with anticipation as every- one looked forward to gain a rich learning experience. Though our in- ternship days were completely packed with work and provided us with deep insights regarding our cho- sen specializations, we began to Sharleena S miss our college. We started yearn- ing for the gossips at Café Coffee MBA 2nd Year Day, the endless chats on the with the realization that we have just benches, the midnight fun in hostels, a year more to spend in this glorious DoMS NITT our familiar bicycles, the roads over- campus. We do intend to make the [email protected] shadowed by trees and the list would most of it and we are looking forward go on. NITT has become very close to a fun-filled year ahead! to our hearts in a short span of time and we can’t wait to get back there. Now, as the eve of our internship completion is drawing near, we are quite eager to get back to our cam- pus life. And by the time we return to NIT, a fresh batch of juniors would be waiting to be greeted by us. We are all set to give the juniors an awesome welcome, similar to the one that our seniors gave us. We are impatiently counting down the days to get back “Live as if you were to die to the college, meet up with our friends, and catch up with the two tomorrow. Learn as if you months’ stories. Finally, we are struck were to live forever.”
- Mahatma Gandhi
Page 5 AUTHORAUTHOR Work of an MBA Graduate AUTHOR
hat kind of managers the youth, are hungry to achieve Are India producing? something, not just for themselves, Job seekers or job pro- but for the country on the whole. W Many start-ups have been created viders? The need of the after the initiation of this campaign hour? and out of them, several have been funded by the government of India. India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, with all the Despite these efforts of the govern- reforms brought by the government ment, unemployment % is not declin- to foster business in the country. Due ing. What is the reason behind it? to several relaxations in business Imteyaz Alam A very simple question, yet, very diffi- policies, many companies have come cult to answer. The government is MBA 2nd Year to India to set up their base in the doing everything it can. With growing country in order to have a healthy DoMS NITT population and growing unemploy- business, such as Microsoft, Apple, ment, it is difficult for the nation as a [email protected] Foxconn, Xiaomi, etc. whole to grow and become a super Reforms taken by Government: power.
Make in India: Now, to solve this problem of rising unemployment in the country. One of the best initiatives started by the current NDA government is the We must question our education sys- introduction of Make in India. Accord- tem first. From where are the jobs ing to the initiative, an MNC can set going to come? Starting from engi- up its base, produce, and sell, in In- neering, MBA to every other course. dia, due to the relaxations provided We educate students to become a by the government. The initiative was good employee (though recent stud- “It’s not about ideas. very well communicated by our hon- ies and surveys have shown that ourable Prime Minister Mr. Narendra most of our engineers and MBA It’s about making Modi, and now, the hard work has graduates are unemployable). If this ideas happen” paid off. is the way education teaches our young generation to become, provid- Start-up India: ing jobs can be a tough task! - Scott Belsky According to this initiative, a start-up in various fields needs to register with the start-up India campaign. These will get relaxations on certain terms; for example, an exemption from in- come tax payments on income state- ments for the first 3 years. An initia- tive well thought of for our country where almost 50% of the population, who are potential employers among
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First of all, in my view, MBA students should be moulded in a way to create employment and not to simply get employed. We should encourage stu- dents of MBA to venture into entre- preneurship. Almost 4 lakh MBA stu- “ There’s nothing dents pass out in India yearly. Even if 10% of the Students go for entrepre- wrong with staying neurship, it will bring around 20 times the employment and it can help in a small. You can do big way to bring down the unemployment things with a small rate in India.
The cause of unemployment is not team” fully due to less creation of new jobs, but also due to poor infrastructure - Jason Fried and education, which needs a great upliftment in order to provide quality professionals.
While on the education front it is a distant aspect, training MBA’s for en- trepreneurship is the need of the hour and the government should under- stand this need, and bring out ade- quate changes required to motivate MBA students to create jobs and not find jobs themselves. “To any entrepreneur: In my view, MBA’s should not be seen as job seekers but should be- if you want to do it, do come job providers. it now. If you don’t,
you’re going to regret it”
- Catherine Cook
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and Opportunities
perations management is management, should help students “What you do has far the lynchpin of businesses to enter the industry by developing O over the world and suc- the requisite skillset or to help those greater impact than what cess can often rest squarely on its already in the industry to widen their y o u s a y ..…” shoulders. Operations management knowledge and push themselves is chiefly concerned with planning, further into a business leadership organizing and supervising in the role. Studying an MBA in operations - Stephen Covey contexts of production, manufactur- management commonly offers a ing or the provision of services. As global perspective on industry such, it is delivery-focused, ensuring trends and an awareness of any that an organization successfully financial regulations or political un- Keshav Kumar turns inputs to outputs in an efficient certainties that could impact an or- manner. The inputs themselves ganization. Indeed, risk manage- MBA 2nd Year could represent anything from mate- ment is getting to grips with the in- DoMS NITT rials, equipment, and technology to dustry’s inherent complexities and human resources such as staff or responding well to change. [email protected] workers.
There are two big terms that can help answer the question of what is operations management more pre- cisely: supply chain management MOVIE and logistics. Understanding global trends in supply chain management in order to meet client demand is CORNER often critical. With logistics, the careful and considered use of re- sources, as well as cost- effectiveness, has become increas- “We are what we re- The role of an operations manager ingly important in an era in which in an institution varies as per the peatedly do. Excel- resources can often be in short sup- need of industry. Operations man- ply and where customer expecta- agement roles within, say, a phar- lence, then, is not an tions have skyrocketed. There are maceutical company, fall under the strong parallels between the skills act, but a habit” category of production. Planning required for an effective operations and coordinating the use of re- management and those needed in sources to ensure products are de- both logistics and supply chain man- signed, created and dispatched to agement. Consummate organiza- - Aristotle hospitals, chemists and so on, en- tional ability is crucial in successfully sure not only the preparation of enhancing efficiency and driving these products but also its availabil- productivity as an operations man- ity to customers. Meanwhile, an air- ager. line company will often see an op- An MBA in operations management erations manager focus on services or a specialization in a related field, – transporting passengers and/or cargo from one place to another. such as logistics or supply chain
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Most companies will not fit easily into one category or the other in the en- tirety of its operations. The more one analyses the question “what is opera- tions management”, the more one sees how integral the position can be to any given company, be it small or large. There are many other indus- “ Action is the founda- tries and areas where operations functions and the skills of an effective tional key to all suc- operations manager are strongly tied cess” to an organization’s lasting success.
- Pablo Picasso
“Consistent alignment of capabilities and in- ternal processes with the customer value proposition is the core of any strategy execu- tion”
- Robert S
Kaplan
Page 9 AUTHOR World Bank and its role in the Global Economy
he whole world witnessed Unlike IDA, IBRD will not focus on “What you do has far the tragedy and the de- the poorest countries alone. It fo- T struction that happened cusses mainly on helping the devel- greater impact than what because of the two world wars. At oping countries. The International y o u s a y ..…” the end of the second world war, Finance Corporation also known as many countries were left in poor IFC, which is a part of the World economic and political situations. To Bank group, functions much like the - Stephen Covey maintain the stability and help the functions of a bank. IFC works to countries, who were in poor eco- support private sector investments nomic condition, Great Britain and in the developing countries. the United States of America Praveen S.V. worked together to come out with a All the members of the World Bank automatically become the member solution. After conducting a series of MBA 2nd Year of IMF (International Monetary meetings at Bretton Woods, in Fund). The voting share of the DoMS NITT 1944, the world bank, which com- member country depends on the prises of two institutions namely, amount of capital that the member [email protected] The International Bank for Recon- country is investing. The United struction and Development (IBRD), States of America ranks first in con- tributing to the World Bank and they International Development Associa- have been given more power in the tion (IDA) and the International Fi- voting rights. Next to the USA, Ja- nance Corporation (IFC) were pan contributes to the World Bank MOVIE formed. and they have been given consider- able voting power. The World Bank The World Bank, in the beginning, plays a very important role in the CORNER started to help the poor countries to development of the global economy. fight against the issues like Poverty The key financial indicators of the and Hunger, Education, Health and World Bank for the year 2012-2016 “I want to eradicate Economic Development. In the later is given below in the table. years, it also included the objective poverty. I think that of helping those countries in main- there's a tremendous taining Gender equality and Envi- ronmental sustainability. passion for that inside Every institution of the World Bank the World Bank.” has its own objectives to work on.
International Development Associa- tion (IDA) works with the poorest countries to help them grow finan- - Jim Yong Kim cially. IDA offers zero-interest loans and grants them aids. International Bank for Reconstruction and Devel- opment (IBRD) borrows money from private capital markets and invests it in projects in developing countries.
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Phas Gaye Re Obama AUTHOR he Slogan “Yes, We Can!”, well how to optimize the available used by Barack Obama in conditions to his maximum benefit. T 2008 presidential campaign “Businessman hoon yaar! Chaar could not be used in a better way paise jeb me aate hi confidence apne than in Subhash Kapoor’s 2010 aap aa jata hai!(I am a businessman, Socio-political satire “Phas Gaye Re my confidence boosts up with the Obama” to weave the then- money in my pocket)”, says Shastri contemporary social elements like who knows very well how to make it global recession, Indian political Gun- profitable! draj, Indian Education System and Indian obsession for America (which Other characters like “Bhai sahab” (a Amey Neve cannot be claimed to be completely local kidnapper played by Sanjay Mishra), “Munni”(The head of an all- MBA 2nd Year out of date even today!). women kidnapping gang who hates DoMS NITT The lead character Om Shastri men, played by Neha Dhupia), (played by Rajat Kapoor), a bankrupt “Minister Dhananjay Singh” (A crimi- [email protected] NRI from the US, visits India to sell nal turned politician played by Amol his ancestral property to pay off his Gupte) and “Anni” (Only ‘educated’ loan. But, due to the contemporary gang member who accompanies global economic downfall, he finds it Shastri throughout the movie, played difficult to do the same. To his (and by Manu Rishi) are very well written, audience’s!) surprise, he finds him- and performed and should be given self in a series of kidnappings by lo- their chunk in credit for the movie. cal kidnappers who also happen to be affected by the global recession. The movie is a piece of art that serves its purpose of entertainment Subhash Kapoor, being a political and at the same time, gives manage- ment and business lessons leaving journalist, uses his experience to the audiences with a smile and build up different characters in the amusement. It is a must watch for story who show obsession for English aspiring managers and business en- and America, criminalisation in poli- thusiasts! It is one of the lesser tics and realistic socio-political condi- known ‘Desi’ options! tions, but still manages to keep the experience of the cinema comic. The lead character Shastri is depicted as an ultimate manager and a business- man, who uses his wit and business aptitude to get out of situations that seem impossible to get out of. Shastri is a person who understands people, MOVIE CORNER their needs, and offers them exactly what they want to get out of the situa- tion. He is confident and knows very
Page 12 Snippets
Tryambak Chatterjee authored Research Paper titled “Prediction of Survivors in Titanic Dataset: A Comparative Study using Machine Learning Algorithms” has been published in the “International Journal of Emerging Research in Management and Technology” , Volume 6, Issue 6, June 2017.
Xtravagate -The Business Probe, is an initiative by the 37th & 38th batch of MBA Department, NIT Trichy.
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TEAM XTRAVAGATE
MONISHA RAVI
EDITOR—IN—CHIEF
MBA 2ND YEAR
IMTEYAZ ALAM AHMED UNAIS ABHISHEK KUMAR
EDITOR (DEVELOPMENT) EDITOR (DESIGN & LAYOUT) EDITOR (CONCEPT)
MBA 2ND YEAR MBA 2ND YEAR MBA 2ND YEAR [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
The Initiators from 2015-2017 Batch
PRANAV KUMAR- [email protected]
PRADEEP KUMAR DONTHA- [email protected]
SHRIYA CHANDRABABU- [email protected]
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