Global Linguist

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Arpan Sharma, linguist

At an age when most struggle to learn more than 1 language, 10- year old Arpan Sharma has already picked up 11 languages.

Aside from English, Arpan speaks Hindi, which he picked up from his teacher parents, and, at school, he learnt Italian when he was seven, German at the age of eight, Spanish at nine, and French last term.

He also speaks Thai, Swahili, Polish, Chinese Mandarin and is currently studying the difficult Lugandan language of Uganda. Staff at the 560-pupil, fee-paying Blue Coat’s School in Edgbaston, Birmingham, described his talents as “extraordinary”.

At this rate, he will be more than well equipped to succeed in a global economy !

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Coaching Questions

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coaching, Peter Drucker

In coaching situations, I have used these questions attributed to the legendary Peter Drucker:-

1. What do I do as your manager and what does your Company do that helps you the most in your job?
2. What do I do as your manager and what does your Company do that hinders you the most in your job?
3. What can you do that will help me as your manager to do the best job for the Company?

These questions provoke thought and are useful to identify issues. As Drucker said these are obvious questions but rarely asked.

Add Mini Site Translator To Your Blog

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mini site translator

Came across this neat widget called Mini Site Translator from Widgetbox.

Visitors can click on the flag of their country to have the content translated into their language of choice. Be it French, Spanish, Portugese, German, Italian, Russian and Chinese, apart from English, of course.

This could be an useful add-on to your blog as it helps those who may prefer to view content in a language of their choice.

I must add that putting the widget was not too difficult either.

Fortune Global Forum, New Delhi

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Fortune Global Forum

The world’s premier summit for chief executives, The FORTUNE Global Forum 2007, will bring together more than 300 global participants in New Delhi, 29-31 October 2007. The participants are CEOs and Chairmen of leading business organisations.FORTUNE International Editor Robert Friedman recently shared his thoughts on the Global Forum.The FORTUNE Global Forum was inaugurated in 1995 and has been previously hosted in Singapore, Barcelona, Bangkok, Budapest, Shanghai, Paris, Hong Kong, Washington D.C., and Beijing. Asked why India, and New Delhi in particular was selected as the site for this year’s Forum, Friedman said “India was an obvious choice not only because many Indian companies are beginning to compete on the global stage but also because India’s economy is finally opening up enough to attract multinational companies into the country to market products, engage in R&D, and take advantage of India’s high-tech manufacturing sector. The theme of the 2007 Forum was selected to be “Mastering the Global Economy. because it serves the needs of both Indian companies learning how to compete globally and multinational companies learning how to do business in India.

Conversations with Indian Business Leaders

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Global Forum, Maruti Suzuki

The FORTUNE Global Forum site has a great section called “Conversations With Indian Business Leaders”.

See an interesting conversation with Jagdish Khattar, Managing Director of Maruti, the organisation that produces more than half the cars on Indian roads. Maruti Suzuki India Limited registered Total Income of Rs. 47,358 million (Net of Excise) during the second quarter (Q2) of the fiscal (July-September 2007), a growth of 33.7 percent over the same period last year.
Profit Before Tax went up to Rs. 6,841 million during Q2 of 2007-08, a growth of 28 percent over same period last year. Net Profit stood at Rs. 4,665 million, up 27 percent over July-September 2006.

Speaking about poverty in India, Mr. Khattar said “Reforms in agriculture, growth in manufacturing, government investment in roads and physical infrastructure and focus on the social sector will together enable us to raise levels of living in rural areas while absorbing more people in urban centers.If we are unable to do that, then it could seriously hamper India’s role as an emerging market leader. People are bound to reject the economic model. In a democracy, they will make sure their rejection is noted and acted upon. ”

Asked to pick 5 words to describe India, Mr. Khattar said “Beneath the chaos, lurks opportunity”.

We admire Maruti for the way it has transformed manufacturing in India and has led a new movement of consumerism in the automobile sector

The Fortune Global Forum, New Delhi

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Global Forum

The world’s premier summit for chief executives, The FORTUNE Global Forum 2007, will bring together more than 300 global participants in New Delhi, 29-31 October 2007. The participants are CEOs and Chairmen of leading business organisations.

FORTUNE International Editor Robert Friedman recently shared his thoughts on the Global Forum.

The FORTUNE Global Forum was inaugurated in 1995 and has been previously hosted in Singapore, Barcelona, Bangkok, Budapest, Shanghai, Paris, Hong Kong, Washington D.C., and Beijing.

Asked why India, and New Delhi in particular was selected as the site for this year’s Forum, Friedman said “India was an obvious choice not only because many Indian companies are beginning to compete on the global stage but also because India’s economy is finally opening up enough to attract multinational companies into the country to market products, engage in R&D, and take advantage of India’s high-tech manufacturing sector.

The theme of the 2007 Forum was selected to be “Mastering the Global Economy. because it serves the needs of both Indian companies learning how to compete globally and multinational companies learning how to do business in India.

IBM’s Flexible Work Options

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Flexible work options, IBM

At a time when Work-Life Balance has become a major issue for many professionals in India, it is encouraging to read in The Hindu about the Flexible Work Options used by IBM.

IBM’s flexi work option for employees has bust three myths at one go: first, that one needs to work long and regular hours to be considered a ‘performer’; that flexi working shows ‘lesser commitment’ and could therefore jeopardise one’s career growth; thirdly, and perhaps the most interesting, that more women prefer to work from home than men.

That does not mean that men are not choosing this option. They are and are using the extra time saved from the commute etc to devote to furthering their career by studying for programs like their MBA.

IBM prides itself on its employee-friendly programs. Globally, 42 per cent of IBMers work in a mobile environment (i.e. work from home, at a customer’s office or alternate location, or are ‘mobile’ and do not have dedicated office space).

The grass, as they say, always looks greener on the other side. Working from home is not as easy as it is often made out to be. However, if you are able to discipline yourself and stay focused, there are huge benefits from working at home.

India’s Growing Middle Class

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India's middle class, Indian Economy, McKinsey Quarterly Journal

Much has been said and written about the new found prosperity of India’s middle class.A report in the McKinsey Quarterly Journal says that over the next two decades, India’s middle class will grow from about 5 percent to more than 40 percent of the population. This will create the world’s fifth-largest consumer market. Private spending in 2005 reached about 17 trillion Indian rupees1 ($372 billion), accounting for more than 60 percent of India’s GDP. In this respect, India is closer to developed economies such as Japan and the United States than are China and other fast-growing emerging markets in Asia. India’s economic reforms, begun in 1991, have substantially improved the country’s well-being. McKinsey’s analysis shows that further improvements are to come. In 1985, 93 percent of the population lived on a household income of less than 90,000 rupees a year, or about $ 1 per person per day; by 2005 that proportion had been cut nearly in half, to 54 percent. By their estimate, 431 million fewer Indians live in extreme poverty today than would have if poverty had remained stuck at the 1985 level. It is projected that if India can achieve 7.3 percent annual growth over the next 20 years, 465 million more people will be spared a life of extreme deprivation. Along with the shift from rural to urban consumption, India will witness the rapid growth of its middle class—households with disposable incomes from 200,000 to 1,000,000 rupees a year. That class now comprises about 50 million people, roughly 5 percent of the population. By 2025 a continuing rise in personal incomes will spur a tenfold increase, enlarging the middle class to about 583 million people, or 41 percent of the population. In 20 years the shape of the income pyramid will have become almost unrecognizable. Indeed exciting times ahead for all the beneficiaries of a booming economy.

Entrepreneurship

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entrepreneurship, University of Arizona

The word ‘entrepreneur” originates from the French “entreprendre” which means “to undertake”. In today’s context, it has come to mean to start and run a business. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the entrepreneur as one who organises, manages and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise.

“Can Entrepreneurship Be Taught?” asks an article in “Fortune”. Although many Universities and B-Schools have started courses in entrepreneurship, it appears certain that certain traits like risk taking or passion for what one is doing cannot be taught. What can be taught are ground rules for sound business.

Here is some insight from research at the University of Arizona in 2002. The average annual income for entrepreneurship majors and MBAs who concentrated in entrepreneurship, 5 years after graduation, was almost $72,000, or 27 percent higher than for other business majors and students with standard MBAs.

Moreover, entrepreneurship graduates were 3 times more likely to form new companies. And these were not mom-and-pop shops. On average the businesses had annual sales of $50 million and employed 200.

Even those entrepreneurship graduates who took jobs within large companies earned bigger paychecks: $23,500 more a year on average than for other business graduates. Of course, students ambitious enough to enroll in entrepreneurship classes in the first place are likely to be more driven and confident than their peers. Even so, the gap in numbers is striking.

Ultimately, I guess the entrepreneur must have business smarts.

Radio Taxis On The Rise

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Forsche, radio taxis

Arriving at an airport in India, particularly at an odd hour, can be a troublesome experience , if you have no one waiting to receive you. Here’s good news for the traveller in India. The Hindu reports that radio taxis will zoom into many new cities in India in a big way.

Radio cab services are set to witness a boom in their business. The number of such taxis is expected to swell from the present 2,000 to 174,000, taking the business to Rs 7,210 crore per year by 2010. A study by Dare, a magazine for entrepreneurs from the Cybermedia group, found that radio taxis will become common in 5 major cities and 12 smaller ones in the country by 2010.

At present, radio taxis exist in around 10 cities, most of them in Delhi. By 2010, top 5 cities in India will each have 20,000 cabs and the 12 smaller cities will each have 6000 radio cabs, according to the study. This translates into deployment of 1,72,000 radio cabs across the country.

Megacab which operates in Delhi and Chandigarh, will start services in Mumbai soon. It plans to operate in Goa, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Jaipur and Kolkata.

Forsche, an exclusive cab service for women in Mumbai, has only women chauffeurs. Launched in March 2007, Forsche started with one cab and now has 18 women drivers. Revati Roy, the owner of Forsche, says that such an exclusive service has gained the confidence of women travelling alone, especially during night. In a month’s time, Forsche’s services will be available in Delhi and Bangalore.