T H I R D A N N I V E R S A R Y I S S U E Quarterly Newsletter from Gray Matters Consulting Pvt. Ltd. Volume 3, Issue 1, September 2010 Quarterly Newsletter from Gray Matters Consulting Pvt. Ltd. Volume 3, Issue 1, September, 2010 Contents inside this issue ..... GMQ Last Issue Cover SPECIAL FEATURES If you have missed the last issue of Gray Matters Quarterly, please 6 G’nome: Thinking through the Socratic Method write to us, we will mail it to you. An interesting look at the classic “Ek Ruka Hua Faisla” through a management thinker’s glasses Growth Leaders : Creating Strategic Directions – Case Study 8 In order to grow, a business needs to develop competitive advantage. This means that it is different or does things better than its rivals. A case study on Mott McDonalds Anniversary Special : Doing Business in India For Private Circulation only 11 At present, India is the 2nd most important emerging market in the world. Eminent academicians and professionals write on various aspects of doing business in India, what to expect and how to deal with the environment. Cover painting – Kevin Pearsh WHAT CAN WE DO FOR YOU? GENERAL FEATURES If you need any information on our 35 Perspective : Ganges 21 products and services, you can mail us and we will surely respond to you with 38 Book Review : Super Power – Raghav Behl adequate details. 39 Freewheeling : ‘Prepone’ the ‘updation’ please! DO YOU WANT TO SHARE? If you have an interesting concept in your REGULAR FEATURES organization which you would like to share with the community, do write to us and we will get in touch with you for 4 Changing the way 40 Tipping point details. 5 Did you know? 41 Let your hair down BOUQUETS & BRICKBATS 5 News you can use 42 Inside Gray Matters Through this newsletter, we intend to bring to you “interesting stuff” from the 36 Lifestyle 43 Backpage world of business, nationally and internationally. Please send in your Disclaimer: comments and critique on the newsletter. We would like to improve with your Gray Matters Consulting Pvt. Ltd. has taken all reasonable steps to ensure that the information contained herein has been obtained from reliable sources and that this publication is accurate and authoritative in all respects. However, this publication suggestions and make this newsletter a is not intended to give legal or other professional advice. No reader should act on the basis of any information contained “better read”. in this publication without considering and, if necessary, taking appropriate advice upon their own particular circumstances. If such advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. TALK TO US This publication (and any extract from it) may not be copied, paraphrased, reproduced, or distributed in any manner or form, whether by photocopying, electronically, by internet, within another document or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Gray Matters Consulting . Further, any quotation, citation, or attribution of this publication, or any extract Send your mail to from it, is strictly prohibited without prior written permission from Gray Matters Consulting. contact @graymatters.co.in From MD’s Desk A McKinsey survey, conducted in February this year, found executives seeing improvement in business prospects--a third saw increase in profits--but their hopes for continued economic recovery had dampened compared to December last year. Fewer respondents (59 percent compared to 69 percent earlier) said they expect their national economies to be better in six months. Executives in emerging economies had a different and optimistic story to tell. Text books say when the economy shrinks in two consecutive quarters, you have recession. By this measure, the recession is very much behind us. But, that is only in text books, reality is waiting to be discovered. Let’s hope for the best and keep walking. Gray Matters started in 2007 and we can say that it has ‘seen the worst of times and the best of efforts’. In our journey, we have stepped into the 3rd year of our existence this year. Published in conjunction with our anniversary, every annual issue of the Gray Matters Quarterly marks a special occasion for us. This is the time we welcome change in the way we communicate with our readers; we try and add a bit more to the publication and above all we renew our bonding with our readers. What is this publication all about? This is a leisure reading for anyone interested in the world of business, in its wildest definition possible. We try to provide a wide variety of articles, to cater to the tastes of all and sundry. The quarterly also reflects our growth and aspirations as an HR advisory organization. We aspire to be at the cutting edge of HR and have endeavoured to explore its outermost reaches. We constantly remind ourselves, it is all about people. This has resulted in our exploration of human behaviour to develop better training material; our observation of children’s games to develop employee engagement programmes; our study of cowboy business styles to usher in innovation in internal HR through our HR on Site service. As we learn more we see an ocean of possibilities ahead like the boy staring at River Ganga who appears on the cover of this issue. We are really happy to include in this issue, a clutch of articles from eminent academicians and professionals on Doing Business in India. We are indeed indebted to Dr Arup Varma, one of the editors of Doing Business in India a book being published by Routledge an imprint of Taylor and Francis, for putting together these thought-provoking articles. Let’sAu Revoir raise a toast to progress and happiness. Sanjay Roy Chowdhury Managing Director Gray Matters Consulting Pvt. Ltd. Retire a little bit changing the way At Semco you don’t need to wait until you’re old to enjoy your retirement. The idea is that you can take advantage of it once a week, from any age. The “Retire a little bit” project was created based on a life-cycle analysis. In any analysis that we undertake, we will see that we have money when we don’t have time to enjoy it, time when we no longer have financial certainty and the ability to enjoy nature There are no rules here … and sports when we no longer have the health to do so. Thinking along these lines, the program allows the person to do what they plan to do when they retire, once a week, like an art course, play sports A Leader is the person who has the ability to In addition, he believes that less hours work in the afternoon or simply spend the day with their lead others in order to realize definite goals. with good final results is better than so many kids. When this project is implemented, the person Nowadays, leadership is the most important hours without any useful result for the company. will haveÊthe option to not work one day a week, subject around the world. This in fact not just replacing this day in the future, after they retire, Second, profit sharing. Ricardo thinks that because the success of any company depends with a proportional salary. employees should receive a share of the net on the level of its leader and his talent in leading profits of the company. This will impel them as the employees, but also because people need well as encourage them to work earnestly for a leader in their life everywhere and at all times. the benefit of Semco. 'I do not govern Semco - not compulsory, and thus the employees have For instance, people in any country need a leader, I own the capital, not the company - but on the choice to attend it or not. According to any family needs a leader, any successful sports taking over from my father, I did try to Ricardo Semler (1994), there is a big room in team require a good leader, also any gang reconstruct the company so that Semco could the company where everyone from the firm has requires a leader, and so on. 'Leadership is the govern itself...' (Ricardo Semler 1994). a place for discussion and to exhibit his opinion process of motivating other people to act in to solve any problem as well as to put the new particular ways in order to achieve specific goals' Third, democratic decision. In Semco all plans. (Hannagan, T : 2002, Management: Concepts subordinates participate in the decision-making and Practices, pg.37). process. Ricardo Semler believes that Semco is Furthermore, instead of the annual a big family for every worker, and thus all workers budgeting process which is followed by most of Semco’s story refers to a series of changes should take part in making the vast majority of the firms around the world, Semco has six that occurred in the organization. A Brazilian company decisions. For that all employees in monthly budget. This in fact will motivate the manufacturing company, initiated by the Semco do their best to realize the decision and managers of Semco to work earnestly as well as founder’s entrepreneur son, Ricardo Semler, its objectives. 'As I tell makes them on continual contact. '...because turning it into one of our people an annual budget tempts managers to postpone the worlds most constantly: we have unpleasant decision to the third and fourth unusual and admired “Out of Your Mind!” Committee learned to answer quarters' (Ibid). workplaces. Semco, a From time to time, members of the “Out of Your email on Sundays, but successful Brazilian The success of Semco Company started from Mind!” committee meet to present crazy ideas, none of us has industry in Sao Paolo the leader.