People at Work & Play

~ Being Successful at Work& at Play

Daily Archives: December 14, 2007

The Rs. 100,000 car

14 Friday Dec 2007

Posted by Prem Rao in Indian Economy

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

low priced car, Tata Motors

As disposable income increases, so do desires. The well to do youth of India could leapfrog from the thrill of “my first motor-bike ” today to that of “my first car” tomorrow.

Tata Motors is working towards introducing a sedan car for Rs 100,000 or Rs.1 lakh ( as the figure is popularly called in India), the equivalent of $ 2500. The story of the potential market for such a car is described in Time by Simon Robinson.

If Tata were to lure away even 10% of the 6.5 million Indians who buy motorbikes every year, it will have expanded India’s car market by more than half. Competitors aren’t willing to cede that kind of market share without a fight. Carlos Ghosn, head of Renault-Nissan, recently announced that his company was looking at building a $3,000 car in India. Fiat, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Maruti (the Indian division of Japanese manufacturer Suzuki), Toyota and Volkswagen are all developing low-cost cars, though none of them have promised anything quite as cheap as $3,000.

Apart from the potentially huge market in India itself, Tata Motors plans to export its economical car to other countries in Southeast Asia and Africa. With its affordability being a key advantage, the Chairman of the Tata Group, Ratan Tata hopes to eventually sell as many as 1 million such cars worldwide each year. Countries like Brazil and Russia could also be possible markets. The project is expected to succeed because of the relatively low manufacturing costs in India- engineering costs alone being estimated to be  half that of Europe or the US.

On the flip side, there may be a high environmental price to pay as poor nations convert from two wheels to four. John Rogers, a consultant for the Asian Development Bank, estimates that the number of cars in India will increase from 6.2 million in 2005 to 41.6 million by 2025.

The new car will offer a viable option for many in India who currently manage- albeit with difficulty- to take their entire family out on their two wheelers!

Advertisement

Dad’s take on Vikram Pandit

14 Friday Dec 2007

Posted by Prem Rao in People

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Indian CEOs, Ramani Ayer, Vikram Pandit

Vikram Pandit is very much in the news having been appointed CEO of Citigroup – the world’s largest bank. Founded in 1812, Citi has operations in 100 countries and employs over 300, 000 people. It has revenues of $ 147 billion and assets of $ 1.9 trillion.

A report in the Times of India highlights the fact that 15 out of the Fortune 100 companies are run by foreign-born executives, including three of Indian origin. Pandit joins the list of  Indians in CEO positions like Indra Nooyi of Pepsico, Arun Sarin of Vodafoene, Ramani Ayer of Hartford Financial and Shantanu Narayen of Adobe Systems.

Most India-born executives readily acknowledge their debt of gratitude to a society that emphasizes industry and hard work and honed their survival skills, if nothing else. Times of India quotes Ramani Ayer as saying” I have benefited from my Indian background. Growing up in a very simple family with a real passion for hard work. In other words, you never stopped working. Work was liberating and work was part of what defined who you were”.

Undoubtedly, India’s traditionally strong family based values have helped these executives. Vikram Pandit’s 84 year old father had some nice things to say about his son in an interview in the Times of India.

Cut Attrition Through Better Selection

14 Friday Dec 2007

Posted by Prem Rao in A Step A Day

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

A Step A Day, Attrition, selection process

We were discussing the reasons for attrition at a client company. Bob, the manager in-charge of the centre said ” It’s difficult to put a handle on why people are leaving. At times we feel it is the market place and opportunities outside that fuel attrition. At others, we feel may be there are things we can do better to retain talent”.

That’s true. There is no easy answer. The reasons people say why they are leaving are often not the real reasons why they are leaving. In my experience, compensation is often cited as the main reason why people leave but the truth is that people leave for factors other than compensation. The reasons why people leave an organization are not the same reasons why they joined that organization in the first place.

I told Bob ” I strongly believe that the first step to reducing attrition is, no, not increasing compensation but improving your selection process.” Better selection results in better “fit” and the chances of attrition are reduced if the overall fit is stronger. “Fit” is not made up of one factor alone- say technical skills. It encompasses issues like fitting into the organization’s culture, having values which the organization embodies, and the ability to display behaviours the organization requires for job success.

In a situation where the demand for quality talent is high, often compromises are made at the selection stage. These are done for purely short -term gains.”The project is stuck. We need a guy with his skills”, “No one here has knowledge of that geography” etc are reasons trotted out to explain away such compromises.

By the way, some candidates look to the short term, too. To add a seemingly glamorous organizational name to their resume, to rise up the hierarchy with a more fancy title ( even if was only for a few months) etc.

As I told Bob and his team:

  • Know what you want when you begin the selection process
  • Know the reasons why the person is leaving his/her last organization
  • Do not make short term compromises
  • Hire for fit rather than for skills

Do this and do this well and you will have begun the process of reducing attririton

You can subscribe to this series using RSS at https://bprao.wordpress.com/category/a-step-a-day/feed

Prem Rao

Blogger: Prem Rao

Author, Book Reviewer, Coach, and Social Commentator based in Bangalore, India. View B P Rao's profile on LinkedIn
December 2007
M T W T F S S
 12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31  
« Nov   Jan »

Categories

  • A Step A Day
  • Best Employers
  • Blogs
  • Books and Authors
  • Careers
  • Communication
  • Compensation
  • Cricket
  • Employee Engagement
  • Employee Productivity
  • Employee Satisfaction
  • Entrepreneurs
  • Events
  • Executive Coaching
  • Executive Effectiveness
  • Executive Health
  • HR Function
  • In the News
  • Indian Economy
  • Numbers
  • Organisations
  • People
  • Personal
  • Personal Finance
  • Quotations
  • Sports
  • Technorati
  • Tips
  • Trends
  • Uncategorized
  • Work Life Balance
  • XLRI

Catch My Tweets

  • Digital India- Part 1, my first podcast on digitalisation in India and how it is changing our lives.… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 2 days ago
Follow @premrao

Prem Rao, Story Teller

Prem Rao, Story Teller

Recent Posts

  • Tapering Off
  • India at Rio: 2016 Olympics
  • Do We Indians Protect Law Breakers?
  • A Phenomenon Called Rajinikanth
  • Dr. Raghuram Rajan

People At Work & Play

RSS Feed RSS - Posts

RSS Feed RSS - Comments

Archives

Blogroll

  • Bob Sutton
  • Dan McCarthy
  • Daniel Goleman
  • David Maister
  • Ed Batista
  • Gautam Ghosh
  • It Can't Be You by Prem Rao
  • It Can't Be You on Facebook
  • Looking At Life
  • Marci Alboher
  • Mark McGuinness
  • Marshall Goldsmith
  • Penelope Trunk
  • Rachael Silverman
  • Tom Peters
  • Writing To Be Read
  • XLers Blog Spot

Blog Stats

  • 401,934 hits

RSS From My Writing Blog

  • Blog Moves To “Prem Rao, Story Teller.”
  • More on Querying
  • “Devnaa’s India:Delicious Vegetarian Home Cooking & Street Food”
  • “Christmas Mysteries”
  • The Best of American Magazine Writing
WriteUp Cafe - Together we Write

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • People at Work & Play
    • Join 156 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • People at Work & Play
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar