Kriti @ XLRI

Kriti is the annual inter-school cultural competition conducted by the XLRI sub-chapter of SPICMACAY (Society for the Promotion of Indian Classical Music And Culture Amongst Youth) for the schools of Jamshedpur. Kriti provides a platform for students to showcase their talents in Indian classical music, dance and other facets of Indian culture.

Kriti 2006 was held on 28th October, 2006 at XLRI Campus. It comprised of three events, namely, Indian Cultural Performance (a group event for students of Class 8 and below), Rangoli and India Quiz (for students of Class 9 and above). 6 schools participated in Kriti 2006. About 65 students took part in the events.

Kriti was started as an annual programme from last year (2005) onwards. Kriti 2005 saw the participation of 5 schools and around 70 students. The events held were Indian Cultural Performance, Rangoli and India Quiz. DBMS School emerged overall winners of Kriti 2005.

The winners of individual events were awarded medals. Little Flower School emerged overall winners of Kriti 2006.

Royal Challenge Friendship Meet Pics

Hi,

You can see the Royal Challenge Friendship Meet 2006 pics at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/69418398@N00/tags/Royal/

Thanks to Tuhin Ghosh & Shebu Raphael for the pics. If you have your own pics, which you would like to share, please email them to me.

Thanks again to our sponsors:

- Royal Challenge (McDowell's - United Spirits)
- SAP India
- Kingfisher (UB)
- Mandovi Motors (Maruti)

Credit also need to be given to Shebu & K Ram from Marlabs for the free caps and key chains.

Kuru

XLer in News: Anuradha Vijayakrishnan (98BMD)

This makes her the 2nd literary star from the batch of 98 - the other being S Minsthy, IAS

congrats!.. way to go :0)

her story, Narayani's Journey in NW 14 can be downloaded from:

http://newwriting.britishcouncil.org/all/themes/?theme=33

NEW AUTHOR

It's Written In The Stars

A banker who wrote in the small hours. And how one meeting changed her life.

http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20061030&fname=David+Godwin+(F)&sid=2 Like most of his discoveries, David Godwin's latest find found him, rather than he finding her. Kochi-born Anuradha Vijayakrishnan, a 32-year-old banker from Chennai, was an occasional scribbler till then, publishing her poetry and short stories wherever she could. But she landed up one day recently at Godwin's London office wanting to meet the legendary agent. Luckily for her, he was in town and available. They met. She showed him a short story she had just published in an anthology of New Writing, NW 14, that the British Council had published along with Granta. And told him she had written a novel. Godwin asked her to e-mail it to him. "I get a lot of manuscripts on e-mail. I read them all conscientiously but there is very, very little I actually like. This I liked," says Godwin. From a South Indian banker trained in Carnatic music, Anuradha suddenly finds herself with a golden future as a writer. Anuradha is the 60th author and the sixth Indian to enter Godwin's select agency. An editorial makeover was perhaps the first perk. She is currently brushing up her novel about a girl who commits a murder. Like all his finds, Anuradha is an improbable candidate who will soon join the world's literary firmament: she has a degree in chemical engineering besides an MBA from XLRI, Jamshedpur. She stole time after working in Citibank well past midnight to write her novel. Watch out for India's next litstar to shine across the world sometime next year. Anuradha Vijayakrishnan's Profile Anuradha Vijayakrishnan, working with Citibank in Chennai, was born in Cochin in 1974. She has a Bachelor?s in Chemical Engineering and an MBA from XLRI, Jamshedpur. Her interest in literature stems from her culturally oriented family. She has also received training in Carnatic music. Her poems have been published in Femina (1995) and in the anthology Voices in time (Poetry Society of India, 1995), and her short story in Indian Literature (2002). Her short fiction Narayani's Journey has just been selected for inclusion in New Writing 14, an international anthology from British Council and Granta. She is married and has a one year old daughter.

Royal Challenge Friendship Meet Results & Credits

Fellow XLBangers,

We may have lost the Royal Challenge Friendship Meet but we made a
lot of new friends in the process, which is why it was called
"Friendship Meet" in the first place.

A big thanks each one of you who trekked over bad roads to make it
for the event. Also thanks to our sponsors who made this event a
reality:
- Royal Challenge (McDowell's - United Spirits)
- SAP India
- Kingfisher (UB)
- Mandovi Motors (Maruti)

Results:
IIM-C won in Football (5-6), Cricket (we made 85 in 15 and they
made that in 14.2 overs with 5 wickets in hand) and raising
sponsorships. Quiz & attendance was tied. Volley was cancelled
because of poor light.

Overall: IIM-C won.

While we brought in Bodhi Tree from various cities to have a
great musical event after the sports, IIM-C brought in their best
sportsmen from various cities to beat us at the task at hand. Talk
about focus!

Thanks to the guys who made the event happen:
- Satish Venkatachaliah and the whole XL team at SAP for the
continuous and unflinching support they give us
- Sanjay Anandaram from IIM-B and a very well renowned VC who
organized a really fun quiz
- David D'Costa for the inspiration and pushing the idea to light
- Titto (John Idicula) for lots off coordination and sponsorship
activity
- Srichu (Sricharan Muralidhar) for single handedly manning the
bar all night! What a great job!
- Rajesh Ranjan, Arun D'Silva and Muthukumaran N S for
coordinating cricket, football and volleyball respectively
- Arun again for organizing the venue
- George Ollappally for the contacts, guidance, and help with PR
- Vikram Rao & Madura Garments for the great Louis Philippe
T-Shirts which went to all the players
- Swati, Muthukumaran's daughter, for handing the registration
- IIM-C guys for all the sponsorship, support, PR and
coordination they put in

We'll get them next time!

Yours,

Kuru

Dadu's new look

Asterix, the Entrepreneurship Cell of XLRI , has taken up the project of reviving Dadu’s…

…and hence we see the Dadu’s beautifully painted by the well wishers of Dadu’s…way to go guys!!!

Nicknames

Dipta reveals the secrets of nicknames of some of the Jalebi batch !!

Excerpt from Calcutta Chromosome

Basically, there are three broad reasons behind the naming –
(a) Mutilation of name / surname
(b) Schoolboy cruelty towards physical attribute
(c) Tangential rendition of behavioural trait

MUTILATION OF NAME
All Bengalis and South Indians go through a shortening – but they are generally in the realm of logic. Shivaramakrishnan, Venkataraman and Tridibendranarayan get shortened to Shiva, Venky and 3D respectively. However, in a few recent cases, the Venkataraman got shortened to Chicken as well. (Venky’s Chicken – for those who are taking some time to charge their batteries!).

Some of my mates were not too thrilled with Dipta – and inexplicably enough, started calling me Deepa. But thankfully, the basic letters remained common.

As for surnames, lots of Chowdhurys have to live as Chow. All the Zachariahs of the world are rechristened Zac the moment they leave home. A Velankar has to make do with Velu. And Talapatra has to manage with Talu. (One Ms Talapatra I know was called Talumein because of the proximity of a Chinese joint near our college at that time. She never had a special liking for the soup!)

Sometimes, surnames are not changed. They are simply invented. It was once felt at a drinking session that our very handsome friend – Mr Vineet Singh – had too short a name to be impressive enough. So, we appended a Solanki to it. Why? Well, Vineet Singh Solanki does have a regal air about it. We affectionately called him Solu, though. (On a connected note, the 6’ tall Vineet’s family hailed from Bihar. So, we occasionally referred to him as A Tall Bihari!)

Topper: He was the archetypal intelligent, idealistic Bengali – and modest to a fault. He dug his own grave by topping the toughest course in B-school (which was a Quantitative Techniques course, taught by another intelligent, idealistic Bengali). And he became Topper. In fact, now some friends call him Topu. Talk about nickname of a nickname!

Chacha: My roommate from B-school. His full name was Gaurav Narasimhan, the latter of which was shortened to Nara and then anglicized to Narrow. The Narrow meandered between the correct pronunciation and Narroo – and one fine morning, he became Chacha Narrow (Narroo – Nehru, get the connection?). And eventually, only the Chacha was left! Of course, he was old beyond his years and that helped the name to stick!

XLRI Student bags CEO Post

XLRI student bags CEO post
By PaGaLGuY.com News Service
Published: October 16, 2006


Nandamudi Sunil Kumar, a student of the present batch of XLRI's one-year GMP programme has bagged the post of the CEO of ABN AMRO Foundation. The salary figure stands undisclosed but there are rumours at the XLRI campus says that it is one of the highest so far from any B-school student.

Sunil has rich industry experience of over 19 years working with NABARD in various branches in Hyderabad, Mumbai and Bhubaneshwar. He was an AGM in NABARD at the time he joined GMP programme this June.

The interview process for the post of the CEO happened in Mumbai and lasted several rounds. In the end it was Sunil's relevant industry knowledge and experience and his GMP education that settled the matter in his favour. In Sunil's words, "The industry has a very good perception about one year programmes and the industry has started looking for people with the profiles and expertise that one-year B-school programmes are offering".

The ABN AMRO Foundation was set up in December 2005 as part of the bank's commitment to foster sustainable development.

GMP is an accelerated programme which caters to the ever growing demand for business leaders who are well equipped to be operational from day one. The current batch of GMP at XLRI has 55 students with an average work experience of six years drawn from IT, Finance, Marketing and Operations backgrounds.

XL beats IIMA at IIMB Fest

XLRI wins TATA Boardroom Wars

The Team from XLRI won the prestigious TATA Boardroom Wars, held at Vista, the flagship festival of IIM-Bangalore. The runners up were the team from IIM- Ahmedabad.

The event, which was spread over a span of two days, 13th and 14th of October, was the first of it’s kind, where students occupied places on the Board of Directors of a multi-billion dollar automotive company, were given simulated business issues, and were expected to run the entire company on their own. The contest proposed to settle the age-old question of which B-school produces the best managers!

The team of 6 from XLRI, which included Tony Navin, K Sandeep, Mansi Bhatnagar, Dhruv Laroia, Daksh Pratap Singh and Maanvardhan Baid, were asked to handle every aspect of the company for a period of 5-6 years, in the setting of the highly competitive, evolved and intense European Market. It required them to analyze situations and take real-time decisions as the board of a company.

The first prize included a cash reward of Rs 1,00,000. The event incorporated situations covering problems in raw material sourcing, capacity planning, warehousing, manufacturing, distribution, marketing, and finance. The decisions the teams took demanded knowledge of pricing, production, R&D, expenditure, economics and finance. The final decision was made by a trial by fire: the elite panel of TATA managers, who ensured that only the best survived.

XLRI and ISM to Study Illegal Coal Mining

Financial Express (OCT 14):

The Indian School of Mines (ISM) and XLRI, Jamshedpur will jointly conduct a study to assess the problem of illegal mining in West Bengal and Jharkhand, that had led to accidents and deaths in the past.

The study would assess the number of illegal mines and total coal reserves and see whether it is possible to run them on a cooperative basis, Coal India Ltd chairman Partha S Bhattacharya said here on Friday.

As per the recommendations of a high-powered committee looking into illegal mining, headed by the Union minister of state for coal Dasari Narayana Rao, the two institutes would conduct the study, he said.... The two institutes would give their suggestions as to how the problem of illegal mining could be tackled.

Turning to the problem of wet and inferior quality coal supplied by CIL subsidiary, Eastern Coalfields Ltd to power plants in the state, Bhattacharya said due to heavy rain in late September, coal pithead and sidings were inundated.

“But it was a temporary problem,” he said. Bhattacharya pointed out that the Kolkaghat thermal power station in the state required six rakes of coal daily but it faced shortage of storage capacity. The power plant would not have faced any problem, had there been a 15-day coal storage capacity, he added.

The CIL chairman also sought the intervention of the chief minister for evacuating two lakh tonne of coal at Salanpur.

—PTI

Professor News

New Joinees :

Prof Gloryson RB Chalil
Who joined XL in the Organisational Behaviour Area

Prof Munish Thakur
Who joined as a faculty in Strategic Management Area

Book Publications :

Prof S Jayapandian
Accounting for Managers: Effective Techniques for Decision Making
Ane Books India

Fr PT Joseph, S.J.
EQ and Leadership
Tata McGraw Hill Publication

Also :

Prof Madhukar Shukla joined the Advisory Council of "University Network for Social Entrepreneurship" - a common platform of academics created by Univ of Oxford and Ashoka. The Advisory Council consists of 24 academicians across the globe from Oxford, Harvard, Univ of Colorado, AIM Manila, Cambridge, London Business School, Univ of Sao Poulo, etc… and from XLRI!

XL loses 6 Students

In the Meanwhile at XL…

XL has lost 6 of its students… at least for this term. Two have gone to Malardalen University, Sweden, and four to AIM, Manila, on the student exchange program…. The gain has been the arrival of Niklas and Anna from Malardalen Univ, who will be at XL till December. Their observations:

Anna: After 14 days in India you really start to like this country and its people. Compared to Sweden, this country differs in many ways, but most of it is good. It’s a big challenge to attend these courses. There is a new language and a new way of teaching. I think that I will grow as a person towards success in life by being here. I am looking forward towards the following weeks at the campus and hope that I will get some new good friends… Thanks

Niklas: The way I have been welcomed here on campus I don’t know if any exchange students have experienced anywhere. I spoke to Anna about the issue and the conclusion was that not many exchange students would meet with this. We have been invited to dinners, we have been showed the surroundings and we have been to town. As I understood this was the first year there were exchange students on XLRI and of course you have to face some problems but I have to take this opportunity to thank all the persons who helped me, in the beginning of my stay.

It feels great to walk around on campus and everywhere there are people who say hello to you and stop and speak with you and ask questions about Sweden, yourself and your university. Thanks to that, after a week, I already feel like a part of all this and I’m looking forward to an autumn with lots of new friend and new knowledge… Thanks for all

Delhi : Picnic Lunch on 16th December !!!!

Hi friends XLers delhiites!

Chalo time to take a break and join in for some truly hair-down masti!!

Lets all jump into a picnic lunch to celebrate the new season and get Delhi rocking!

16th December 12 noon, on the lush green lawns of Lodhi gardens get out your cowboy hats and your gypsy skirts and lets get down to lotsa groovy fun!

Couples get your kiddos as tons of games are on the cards.....

Ummmmm and did we forget the food...No way! Time to test our culinary skills too....potluck with 2 extras so we can look forward to loads of variety (and you don't get to taste slurp!! your own kitchen!!!)

So lets all spread the word around and add some XL colour to the winter.

Here's to the XL spirit! ( and those who can't join in with such advance notice MUST get their time management re-tuned).

Pour in your confirmations to Aneesh or simply say YEAH Im on! on a mail to me

Cheers
Gauri

Corporate Governance Truths

From The Telegraph

As a part of the CEO forum programme that XLRI has recently undertaken, Sanjiv Bhasin, CEO and MD of Rabo India Finance interacted with students on October 7 on the campus premises.

The topic of his presentation was corporate governance and how it effectively brings in more transperancy in the company’s management.

Being an alumnus of the 1977 batch of business management, Bhasin build a strong rapport with the students during the programme.

Taking real-life examples from the corporate world, Bhasin went on to explain the importance of corporate governance as an effective tool that sustains a company in the long run.

And he encouraged us, the students, to be pro-active and enquire about a firm’s corporate governance policy before signing on the dotted lines.

His talk also threw light on the various standards of corporate governance both in India and across the world.

Anubhav Singh,
XLRI School of Business and Human Resources, Jamshedpur
--




Posted by Madhukar to XLRI Jamshedpur - News and latest Updates at 10/12/2006 09:21:00 AM

Corporate governance truths

A students raises a question at the CEO Forum held at XLRI on Saturday. Picture by Bhola Prasad

XL-IIMC "Friendhship Meet" in Blore, Oct 14th

The XL-IIMC Friendship meet is happening among the alumni of the old rivals in Bangalore on 14th Oct.
(if you are not in Blore - pass this to you XL contacts in Blore)

VENUE:
SPT Sports Academy
198, Kodathi
Sarjapur Road
(after Wipro Corporate Office)
Bangalore 560 035
(ph: 080 - 5698 6296)

REGISTER AT:
http://www.iimcxlri.org/

DAMAGE:
single/couple/family - respectively - Rs. 200/300/400

BATTLE PLAN:
Cricket: 10 overs a side, tennis ball, regular boundaries, 11 member teams - 1600 to 1730

Volleyball: Six to a team,3 sets of 15 points each - 1700 to 1800 hrs as the court is not floodlit.Also the court is sandy,as in beach volleyball.

Footer: 5 a side, unlimited substitution, 2 sessions of 15 minutes each, with a 10 mt interval - 1920--2000hrs

Quiz runs concurrently from 1900 to 2000hrs and also scores 1 point. So there will totally be competing for 6 points, and a tie is possible.

All scoring event participants get free T-Shirts

Fun games like lemon and spoon and other games like sack race, pillow-fight will run concurrently from 1630 hrs and will be aimed at the portly, spouses and kids.

Music from 2000hrs: Deejay.

Live music from 2130 hrs or as per popular demand.

Tea and beer will be served from entry time.

Bar opens at sundown: 1830 hrs

Dinner from 2030 hrs

If you are around & quiz or play any of these games, get in touch with
David D'Costa
Rajesh Ranjan
Chandrashekhar Sridhar

Here are the details of The Royal Challenge XLRI - IIM-C Friendship Meet.

Highlight: We need to BEAT THEM!

Summary:

- Sponsors
- Events
- Charges & Registration
- We need your kids help for registration
- Cab Pick Up
- Venue Directions & Map
- Dinner for drivers

Sponsors:

This event is made possible by our gracious sponsors.

- Royal Challenge (McDowell's)
- SAP India (as usual!)
- Kingfisher Beer (UB)
- Mandovi Maruti Motors (Get test drives of the Swift)

Events:

Registration starts at 3:30 PM and the Cricket starts at 4:00PM SHARP, we are fighting daylight availability for the events.

FREE BEER TILL 4:30PM

1. Cricket -- 10 overs a side, tennis ball, regular boundaries, 11 member teams - 1600 to 1730 hrs

2. Volleyball -- Six to a team, 3 sets of 15 points each - 1815 to 1915 hrs

3. Footer (Floodlit) -- 5 a side, unlimited substitution, 2 sessions of 15 minutes each, with a 10 mt interval - 1920 to 2000hrs

4. Quiz by Sanjay Anandaram from 1900 to 2000hrs

Fun games like lemon and spoon and other games like sack race, pillow-fight will run concurrently from 1630 hrs and will be aimed at the portly, spouses and kids.

Deejay Music from 2000hrs
Live music from 2130 hrs or as per popular demand.

Tea and beer will be served from entry time.
Bar opens at sundown--1830 hrs
Dinner from 2030 hrs

Charges & Registration:

Single/couple/family - respectively - Rs. 200/300/400
If you're an Xler and your spouse is from IIM-C - FREE ADMISSION!

Beer/Alchohol – Rs 25
Snack/soft drinks - free

Please register at:www.iimcxlri.org

Kids help required for registration

We need the help from your kids. Preferred age: 15
We pay 500 bucks to man/kid the registration counter from 3:30 to 8:30 PM
Let me know by tomorrow if your kid is interested. We have only 6 openings.

Cab Pick Up

We will have 2 cabs running from outside St John's Main gate to the venue. The Indica cabs will have our placards in the windscreen. Drops are from 3:30PM to 8:00 PM. We advise you to come back to Koramangala with friends as cab availability late in the night will be iffy.

Venue:

SPT Sports Academy
198, Kodathi
Sarjapur Road
Bangalore 560 035
Ph: 080 - 5698 6296
After Wipro Corporate Office turn right after the railway crossing.

Dinner for drivers

Please ensure your drivers DO NOT eat dinner at the venue. There are restaurants nearby which serve dinner. Consumption of beer/alcohol for all drivers/domestics is also not allowed.

Call me if you have any questions.

Kuru

Flashback on occassion of the Friendship meet in Bangalore

A message from a pioneer... check out the certificate

From: Chandraraj

Subject: Friendship Meet

Hi David/Kuru,

I am extremely pleased to know that you are organizing the 'Friendship Meet' between XLRI and IIM 'C' on 14th October, 2006.

Incidently i was one of the pioneers to initiate and participate in the FIRST EVER

XLRI and IIM 'C' meet held on 27th and 28th Feb 1970 at their campus. In fact we won all the events in Atheletics in which we took part.

I am enclosing the certificate given by them in an event we won in which i participated.

I was elected the Games Secretary in my final year at XLRI Viz. 1970-71.

Wishing you the very best.

Yours

Chandraraj S.L.

XL Team in last 5 in Wharton-ET B-Plan Competition

From the Economic Times

Five finalists for the ET Wharton competition

Business Plan	Team
Bio Diesel	Nasree Monjee Institute of Management studies
ERP Construction	Team: Indian School of Business, Hyderabad
Nav Nari	Team: XLRI Jamshedpur
Think Carbon	Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
TRI Technologies	IIT Bombay

Vikas Gupta, the PMIR senior ('07) batch student, has made it to the last 5 of the ET-Wharton Business Plan Competition. His project "Nav Nari" was one of the 600 entries from across the Indian B-Schools. The final round is scheduled on Nov 1st,'06 in Mumbai.

Soccer Practice on a t Lourdes School Ground

Hey all you guys who want to prove your manhood...Becks is passe...and Zizou's become a consultant...that leaves the field wide open for the stars out there. I have fixwd up that we can practice at the Lourdes School ground ( Cambridge Layout, just adjacent to Frank Anthony School). I am there every morning by 6.30am. We have a football academy there, so you will certainly get a good game. I dont see us being able to practice in the afternoons, so lets try for at least one or two mornings. We have to coaches there as well...Joy, and Xavier, so go ahead and stretch those feet. Look forward to seeing a lot of you there, starting Monday the 9th..
Cheers!!
Arun

Apna "Bodhi Tree" HT Delhi Edition mein

Thanks Prof Shukla, Guessing this means you are currently in Delhi on a program :)

Practice Session(Cricket)-XLIIMC meet:PlaygroundConfirmed

Hi Folks:

The scoring for the XL--IIMC Meet is totally for 5 points.

1---for sponsorship--won by IIMC through the Mc Dowell's sponsorship already.

1--for number of Alumni who attend--so please ensure you and all your XL buddies in B'lore show up

1--each for Cricket ,Footer and Volleyball.

We cannot afford to lose any more points if we wish to go 4:1 up :)-

So if you play any of the games ,, land up at the cricket ground between 10.30 and 1.00 noon tomorrow.

We will then have the chance to develop the team's strategies.

This is the palace ground --entry through Jaymahal road,which is one way. Entry through Cantonment Railway station under bridge.

Bring your own chilled beer and sandwiches and make a picnic of it.

Carlton Saldanha has kindly consented to be there and iron out any flaws in yr technique.

If you care about XLRI--now is the time to show it

See you tomorrow

David

The Royal Challenge XLRI - IIM-C Friendship Meet

Folks,

We are proud to announce the Royal Challenge XLRI - IIM-C Friendship Meet happening on Saturday, Oct 14, 2006.

We need to thrash them. One of the events was to see who will get more sponsorship money and they have already beat us in that, so we need to make up on the sports field. Get ready to maul them!

Cricket, Football, & Volleyball players get ready!

Venue: SPT Sports Academy, Sarjapur Road.

Time: 2:30PM till midnight

Gate:

Single - Rs 200

Couple - Rs 300

Family - Rs 400

If you're an Xler and your spouse is from IIM-C - FREE ADMISSION!

This includes: Tea, snacks, soft drinks, juice, dinner, music, & fun.

Beer & drinks: Rs 25 each.

Bring your own Gatorade

Please register your participation: www.iimcxlri.org

Call for clarifications

Kuru

(Please let me know if your organisation is working on the 14th, thanks.)

Brajesh Bajpai (BMD 96) to Head Marico Acquisition in Egypt

Marico eyes more buys in Egypt
Priyanka Sangani / Mumbai October 03, 2006
From Business Standard

After acquiring the Egyptian hair care brand Fiancee last month, Mumbai-based Marico Industries is hungry for more. The company was scanning the Egyptian market for more acquisitions, Marico CFO Milind Sarwate told Business Standard.

This time Marico is looking closely at the beauty and wellness segments. Marico may also examine rationalising the Fiancee portfolio.

A source close to the development said Marico was already in talks for other international acquisitions. But like all Marico acquisitions, the company will pick up brands and not entire companies.

Sarwate said the company would continue with its strategy of acquiring brands as companies often came with a lot of unwanted baggage like litigation or unwanted assets.

To get a closer grip on its Egyptian operations, Marico recently appointed Brajesh Bajpai, a former executive of Frito Lay India, as its country head for the African nation. Marico might also make Egypt the hub for its expansion into other African markets.

The company is also looking at other African countries like South Africa for identifying potential acquisition targets, apart from South-East Asian countries like Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Sarwate said, “Any country where it will be difficult for Marico to export its products because of import duties will be a potential acquisition market.”

Marico may also consider manufacturing its Indian brands in Egypt in order to reach other markets in Africa.

At present, the company’s immediate task is to integrate Fiancee with Marico. This will be followed by a rationalisation of the Fiancee portfolio. “Apart from hair gels and creams, the brand also has a presence in skin care and shampoos,” said Sarwate.

With Marico’s stated focus being pre and post-shampoo markets, and not shampoos, it is likely that the Fiancee shampoos might be the first casualty in the rationalisation process.

Fiancee is expected to do sales of Rs 50-55 crore in the next 12 months and its performance will show on Marico’s balance sheet from the third quarter of this financial year.

Marico executives claim Fiancee has a market share of more than 20 per cent in certain parts of Egypt, where the hair care market is valued at Rs 175 crore.

Closer home too, Sarwate said they would continue to evaluate their strategy on brands which were on maintenance mode like the food brands, Sweekar and SIL.

However, in India, Marico will continue adding to its portfolio, though not through acquisitions in the near future. The national roll-out of products like leave-on conditioners and Parachute Therapie will happen over the next few months.

XLRI Alumni: Making News: Dinu Poonacha (96BMD) appointed Yash Birla Group's Group Prez

From Prof Shukla's Blog :

XLRI Alumni: Making News: Dinu Poonacha (96BMD) appointed Yash Birla Group's Group President

Mumbai, Sep 25: The Rs 2,300-crore Yash Birla Group has announced the appointment of Dinu Poonacha as its President-Corporate Strategy and Planning.

Poonacha will be instrumental in helping develop business and operational strategies for each company and the group as a whole and going forward, "he will play a key role in the group's aggressive path toward growth in existing and new areas of business", a press release issued here today stated.

Poonacha has over 10 years' of experience in the area of strategy consulting and corporate strategy in India and the Middle-East with leading firms including McKinsey & Co, Kaiser Associates, Tata Strategic Management Group and the Government of Dubai.

He has worked on strategy for a wide range of sectors including chemicals, energy, economic zones, government, agri-business, media, textiles, pharmacy, real estate and materials.

Yash Birla, Chairman of the group, said: "We are very pleased to have Mr Poonacha on board. Our group will benefit immensely with his vast experience and his appointment will definitely help us build a stronger organisation." On accepting his new responsibility, Poonacha said: "I would like to thank the group for this opportunity to shape the growth and development of the group as well as the individual companies. I will leverage my extensive strategy experience in this challenging and a highly-entrepreneurial role."

XLRI CEOForum:"Heart Talk" by P Rama Babu, MD EID Parry

XLRI CEO Forum:"Heart Talk" by P Rama Babu, MD EID Parry from The Telegraph


[http://www.telegraphindia.com/1061001/asp/jamshedpur/story_6814842.asp]

Jamshedpur, Sept. 30: It was a lecture straight from the heart on what it takes to establish and run a sprawling $1.3 billion group.

P. Rama Babu, managing director of EID Parry and the president-elect of India’s premier industrial association, Indian Sugar Mills Association, today addressed the students of XLRI as part of the B-school’s CEO Forum.

Babu — considered a pioneer in human resource and industrial relation practices — is known as a turnaround champion and a multi-disciplinary expert. His credit to fame was that he went on from being a HR chief to turn around EID Parry from a 40-crore turnover company to a 700-crore turnover company.

Though a mere two-hour session would not do justice to the students, the pupils said they got a glimpse into the characteristics that make a “true management guru”.

Today, he advised XLRI students to take decisions “from the heart by using just plain reasoning”.

Ethics is one quality, he said, that is a pillar of managerial excellence, and only by pursuing it and by providing the highest job satisfaction to employees can an organisation survive. He also emphasised the importance of using various managerial systems to run huge organisations.

Entrepreneurial spirit is high among today’s generation, especially among graduates, he observed, and this will go a long way in building a great nation.

He asked the aspiring managers to “maintain a perfect balance between gut-feel and data” before taking decisions, instead of basing them “purely on ratios and graphs”.