Saturday, September 29, 2007

XLRI's Entrepreneurship Development Institute becomes a reality

From : The Telegraph

Ranchi, Sept. 28 (The Telegraph): The state government and Jamshedpur-based XLRI today inked an MoU to establish the state’s maiden entrepreneurship development institute.

The institute would come up on about five acres beside the XLRI campus in Jam- shedpur.

The state government has provided the land to the B-school for setting up the institution.

The Centre and the state government have agreed to pay Rs 1 crore each to establish the centre.

XLRI, too, has agreed to invest on the centre. The total project cost would amount to Rs 3.91 crore.

The recurring cost for running the institute would be about Rs 62 lakh a year.

The secretary of the industries department, S.K. Satpathy, and the director of the premier B-school, Father N. Casimir Raj signed the agreement in presence of deputy chief minister and in-charge of industries department, Sudhir Mahto, here today.

The industries depart-ment director and special secretary Sunil Kumar and Dhirendra Kumar were also present.

The institute “in making” would offer a one-year diploma course on entrepreneur development.

Its capacity would be 60 seats.

Fifty per cent of the seats would be reserved for the students of the state. The cen- tre would also conduct short-term management development programmes for young entrepreneurs.

The classes for the one-year diploma course would start in October 2008 and XLRI would conduct the entrance examination.

The state government would provide scholarships to the deserving students who hail from economically weak family backgrounds.

“The institute is a big boon in the industry sector. The B-school would gift new entrepreneurs to our state. Our government is committed to promote trade and industry,” said the deputy chief minister, after the signing of the MoU.

The XLRI director assured that the B-school management would try its best to shape up aspiring entrepreneurs of the state.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

XLRI Documentary





Rajesh (Ciggy - xl 99 - Singapore) says :
Karthik is a student @ XLRI Singapore Chapter
We had this at our Alumni meet on 22 September in Singapore.

Prof. Sarin was there and this was shown first there. There are about 30+ students here and they were all bubbling with enthusiasm.

We alumni shared our experiences and Karthik was kind enough to compile this from Madhukar's photo's on the web and then posted this on YouTube.



Message from Karthik : I am enrolled in PGDBM and a full time student here in Singapore, it was a pleasure to see that XLers all over the Globe liked the Documentary. The purpose of the documentary was to show how XL has grown over the years that are why 1 can see pics taken from the year 1949 till date.

My email address is: kar8752[at]gmail[dot]com

Kartik

XLRI to roll out new courses for managers

From Business Standard

Pradipta Mukherjee / Kolkata September 26, 2007
XLRI Jamshedpur, the school of business and human resources, plans to offer a number of courses this fiscal for senior and middle-level managers.

The B-school, for instance, has designed a course for executives and owners of large- and medium-sized enterprises that are in the process of expanding their operations overseas.

According to XLRI officials, there are many instances that led to the designing of the course — the recent ones being the takeovers of Arcelor and Corus by Mittal and Tata Steel, respectively.

Christened “Challenges of Internationalisation: Risks and Strategies”, the course has been designed to meet the HR and management challenges faced by companies planning overseas expansion.

The programme will focus on understanding the challenges of globalisation that Indian businesses face when venturing abroad. This will involve risk assessments of the economic, political, technological and cultural factors to draw up appropriate winning strategies.

According to XLRI, strategies which make a business successful at home are, many a time, redundant in the new environment.

After assessing the environment, the participants would be better equipped to devise strategies for globalisation of their businesses, tailoring the capabilities and resources of their organisations to meet the challenges that may lie ahead. The focus will be on China, India’s primary competitor in Asia.

XLRI has also lined up courses for analysts, traders, fund managers from corporate treasuries, banks, funds, and executives in brokerage houses.

In its introductory course this December on derivatives, the focus will be on understanding the design, pricing and usage of derivatives in general and futures, options and swaps in particular.

According to XLRI, this course would also look at the characteristics of the markets in which these instruments trade and the nature of the players in the market.

The fees of the courses will range between Rs 15,000 and Rs 30,000. The duration of these programmes will be between two days and one month, depending upon the variety, magnitude and complexity of topics covered.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

26 Sep : Invite for the Ma Foi Foundation Anniversary Function


The following is the invitation from K Pandiarajan (84BMD),
...the Founder MD of Ma Foi Management Consulting, Director of Madras Stock Exchange, recipient of Eisenhower Fellowship for Leadership...
...among his many other achievements....

-------------------------------

Dear XLers

I have pleasure in enclosing a cordial invitation to attend the first Anniversary of our Ma Foi Foundation (MFF) in Chennai on the 26th Sept 2007. We presently have adopted 1130 poor children from the Sivakasi and Chennai areas from 46 schools – they get scholarship, mentorship and career education from 5th standard to college completion ( Rs 1200 pa upto 10th std, Rs 1500 pa during higher secondary and Rs 5000 pa during college). All our Corporate Social Responsibility efforts have been integrated under MFF since last Sept. We run a School for the underprivileged in Chennai with about 650 children. We have taken micro-finance to about 8000 women through Self-Help Group and fostered about 450 tiny enterprises. We also run a network of about 172 NGO’s under the CIOSA (Confederation of Indian Organisations for Service and Advocacy) banner. We have also recognized 10 Young Achievers (unmined gems) every year during this function. You can get more details about this in www.themafoifoundation.org

The function will start at 6.30 pm and will see a creative expression by some of our Disha Scholars, recognition of achievements, performance by young artists led by Abhaswaram Ramji/Venky (Venky Monkey fame) and networking. I look forward to your support and wishes,

Regards,
K Pandiarajan (84BMD)
Ma Foi Management Consultants Ltd
First Floor, No.49,Cathedral Road,
Chennai - 600 086

Reel route to real world for XLRI kids

From : The Telegraph


XLRI students are a happy lot.

For, film-watching at college has now become a part of their time-tables.

In an effort to make the students aware of life beyond their immediate corporate surroundings, XLRI authorities have decided in a first-of-its-kind initiative to screen movies to “educate” students.

And the students are certainly not complaining about such an education.

This evening, Bafta award-winning film-maker Brian Wood’s film The World Without Water was screened for the students and faculty members.

Wood’s compelling movie tells the intimate and revealing story of the dramatic impact of the battle for water ownership on the lives of four disparate groups of people across the developing world.

It studies the fates of families in Bolivia, India, Tanzania and the USA.

The other films on the watch-list will also mainly be award-winning documentaries and films.

“Be it the industrial sector or the corporate world, there are always two sides to an issue. Mostly managers are only aware of what is going on within the boardrooms but are completely oblivious of what takes place in the real world. So we thought, why not use film as a medium to make aspiring managers aware of real situations?” said Madhukar Shukla, senior faculty at the B-school and the brain behind such exclusive film shows.

So, from films on the Narmada water issue to films about children in brothels and even a speech by Magsaysay award winner P. Sainath, students here have already seen almost five award-winning movies in the past month.

Introduced in the last semester, the films are generally based on some current social issue and explores topics through which students can get a clear picture of how multinationals work beyond the confines of their office space. They will also be exposed to the kind of problems that common people are facing in the name of globalisation.

Earlier, the films shown comprised a lecture by Mohammad Yunus, Drowned Out on the Narmada Issue, Born Without Brothels and next in line would be the BBC special documentary on the 60th year of Indian Independence.

“Right now we are concentrating on general and contemporary issues but later we will take up more relevant issues like environment, rural business and social entrepreneurship,” said Shukla.

The B-school is also planning to screen some international documentaries in the coming days.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Leena (Menon) Nair 92PMIR: among "25 Most Powerful...

http://www.business-today.com/btoday/20071007/cover2.html

HR High Priestess
FMCG giant Hindustan Unilever's first and youngest, woman Executive Director is an HR ace.

Leena Nair
37/ Executive Director (HR), Hindustan Unilever
Education: BE Electronics and MBA from XLRI
Work Experience: 15 years
Career High: First woman ED at HUL
Hobbies: Bollywood movies, reading, outdoor sports and traveling
Success Mantra: Look for a win-win in every situation



It's a hat trick, in some sense. Leena Nair isn't just the first woman to make it to Hindustan Unilever's Management Committee (mc), but also the youngest Executive Director (ED) and that too one in charge of not a profit centre, but human resources. As the HR boss, Nair heads a team of 250 people who look into the well-being of about 15,000 employees across 70 different locations in the country, including 45 factories and four regional offices.

The 37-year-old Nair joined Hindustan Lever (as it was known until recently) straight out of XLRI, Jamshedpur, 15 years ago, and has risen quickly through the ranks. From being a factory personnel manager to management development planning manager to hr manager for the detergents business, Nair has been there, done that....

--
Posted By Madhukar to XLRI Alumni: Making News at 9/24/2007 04:19:00 AM

Friday, September 21, 2007

Prof attending the Oxford Leverhulme Programme on the Changing Character of War

Rear Admiral Rakesh Chopra , IN, VSM, (RETD), will be attending the Oxford Leverhulme Programme on the Changing Character of War as a Visiting Research fellow in Michaelmas, Term 2007.

After serving in the Indian Navy for 38 years, on retirement he took up appointment on the faculty of XLRI Jamshedpur, one amongst the top five B-schools in India, as Professor of Strategy and was subsequently appointed as Chairperson of the Strategy Area.

He studied at Bishop Cotton School, Simla. An alumnus of the National Defence Academy and the Defence Services Staff College, he was a founding member and Chief Instructor of the College of Naval Warfare at Karanja, Mumbai. He has also been one of the guiding members on the Directing Staff of the Staff College and Chief Instructor of the Navigation & Direction School.

A specialist in Navigation & Direction and diving, he has navigated several ships, controlled aircraft from the carrier and commanded three major Indian Ships. He has been moving perfectly between multiple roles assigned to him, as part of his four decade long career with the Navy including National Cadet Corps, Flag Officer Sea Training, Joint Ops, Information Warfare and Weapon systems etc.

He commanded a ship in the 1971 Indo Pak war in the Eastern Theatre and was a member of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in Sri Lanka in 1988. Subsequent to this service, he was awarded the Vishisht Seva Medal for exemplary service by the President.

He is an MSc from Madras University and an MBA from a prestigious B school in Mumbai. After doing an MPhil from Mumbai University on “Energy Security”, he was awarded PhD for his thesis on ‘The Strategic Significance of Oil and Gas for the Security of India’.

He is a member of two prestigious institutions dealing with strategic and security matters, the USI, New Delhi, and the Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi. He regularly contributes articles on national security and strategy to professional journals and reads papers at national and international seminars. He is also on the Board of Directors of a think tank ‘Peace Operations Institute’ in Washington DC.

More here http://ccw.politics.ox.ac.uk/people/bios/chopra.asp

Prof Pitabas Mohanty's new collaboration

Prof. Pitabas Mohanty, one of the stalwarts in the world of finance; has added a new feather to his cap. He has now co-authored the book “Principles of Corporate Finance” along with Brealey, Myers and Franklin Allen. This book is a Bible in the world of corporate finance and used by leading universities all over the world. It is indeed a matter of great honour for XLRI to have one of its professors to co-author such an illustrious book. Prof Mohanty has also co-authored another prestigious book “Investments” along with Bodie, Kane and Marcus. Prof Mohanty is the Chairperson of the Finance Area at XLRI.

Prof Mohanty has won the Best Young Teacher Award from AIMS in 2002. He has also won the first prize for two consecutive years in the Capital Markets Conference organized by the UTI Institute of Capital Markets. He has also got the prestigious Citibank Research Excellence Award in IIM Bangalore. To add to his ever expanding list of achievements, he has also won the Best Research Paper Award from AIMS in 1999.

Invitation to meeting on 22nd Sep'07 - Homecoming 2007

Dear Xler,

It is time to start preparing for our flagship event Homecoming 2007. This year we are planning to hold the event as usual in the third week of November, i.e. 17th & 18th November, 2007. Apart from giving an opportunity for the alumni to reconnect with the Alma Mater and see the kind of progress that has been made, we will also hold the usual panel discussion and a golf tournament.

A core group comprising Fr. Casimir Raj, Prof Madhukar Shukla, Mr B.L. Raina, National President, XLRI Alumni Association, Dr J. Singh, Mr Pradeep Srivastava, and Mr Radhakrishnan Nair have, after several deliberations, decided that the panel discussion topic shall be "Entrepreneurs - Carpet Baggers or Nation Builders?" A list of the panelists is in an advanced stage of finalisation and we need to work out on the other infrastructure and logistics related arrangements.

I would like to take this opportunity to invite you for a meeting of the XLRI Alumni, Jamshedpur Chapter, to be held at 7 PM at the MDP Residence at XLRI on Saturday 22nd September, 2007. Your participation and co-operation will go a long way in making this event successful.

Looking forward to meeting you on 22nd September,

Warm regards,

Ranaveer Sinha
President, XLRI Alumni Association
Jamshedpur Chapter

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Anurag Behar Visits XLRI


Anurag Behar, MD of Wipro Infrastructure Engineering and Corporate VP (Brand, Corporate Communication and Community Initiatives, Wipro) visited XLRI on the 18th of September, 2007 to inaugurate XLRI’s CEO Forum for the new academic year.
Mr. Behar, one of India’s youngest managers and among the handful of individuals reporting to Azim Premji, is also an alumnus of XLRI, having graduated from the Business Management Programme in 1992.
His interaction with the students left the students enthralled with students insisting that he visits XLRI again.
Commenting on the sea of changes at XLRI, Mr. Behar was visibly impressed with the infrastructure facilities available at XLRI now and on the interest shown by students.
He spoke on Wipro’s journey so far, interspersed with anecdotes which were relatively unknown; like Wipro’s first plan in 1971 to manufacture scooters which did not materialise. He also spoke about how Wipro today is the largest 3rd party R&D service provider in the world.
Under his leadership, Wipro Infrastructure Engineering Limited’s revenues have grown from $30mn to $200mn, and they have also acquired a Scandinavian company to become a truly global company today.
Finally, Mr Behar also shared with the students his experiences right from his time at XLRI till today. He spoke about how XLRI is probably the only B-school which provides its students with a high degree of people sensitivity which is so critical for a leader to build an effective team. He was all praise for the skills he learnt at XLRI and how they have been helping him even today, in spite of his huge success.

Wipro Infrastructure Engineering MD inaugurates XLRI CEO Forum
Anurag Behar , MD of Wipro Infrastructure Engineering and Corporate VP (Brand, Corporate Communication and Community Initiatives, Wipro) visited XLRI on the September 18, to inaugurate XLRI's CEO Forum.

In his interactions with students, Mr Behar shared insights from his corporate career at Wipro and reflected on his learnings from XLRI education.

Anurag Behar is an alumnus of XLRI, having graduated from the Business Management Programme in 1992.

As Corporate Vice President, Anurag Behar leads Brand, Corporate Communications and Wipro's Community Initiatives. He is amongst a handful of individuals reporting directly to Infotech czar Mr Azim Premji. Under his leadership, Wipro Infrastructure Engineering Limited's revenues have grown from $30mn to $200mn, and they have also acquired a Scandinavian company to become a global company.

Mr Behar spoke on Wipro's journey so far, interspersed with anecdotes which were relatively unknown -- like Wipro's first plan in 1971 to manufacture scooters which did not materialise! He also spoke about how Wipro today is the largest 3 rd party R&D service provider in the world.

Mr Behar also shared with the students his experiences -- from his XLRI days to his present corporate responsibilities. He said, "XLRI is probably the only B-school which provides its students with a high degree of people sensitivity which is so critical for a leader to build an effective team." He was all praise for the skills he learnt at XLRI and how they have been helping him all along.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Chennai Alumni Meet - a Report

Hi,

Special thanks to PNS, Suresh Reddy, G Sreenivasan (GS), Sethu and MKR Karthik for helping with getting the whole evening off the ground. We had close to 50 people turning up, including the classes of 2008 & 2009.

No music, no speeches, just one distraction (more on that later), meant that folks had a lot of opportunity to catch up with each other - there were enough decibels for some folks in the next hall to walk in and 'request' us to pipe down; but on a Friday evening? Fat chance!

We'll do it again - maybe a few months later!!

The distraction? A quiz on Jampot & XL. Questions are given below.... answers later!

Cheers,
Shantaram


Questions:
  1. How was the 'R' in XLRI expanded earlier - 'Resources' or 'Relations'?
  2. What will be the total tution fee for BMD/PMIR Students joining XLRI in 2008?
  3. What is the PIN code that XLRI is located in?
  4. What is the official website of XLRI?
  5. What are the 2 rivers of Jamshedpur?
  6. By what name is the Theatre Society at XLRI known?
  7. In which year was the 3 year BME program begun at XLRI?
  8. In which district of Jharkhand is Jamshedpur located?
  9. Born in Jamshedpur, she went on to become Ms. World in 2000. Who?
  10. What is the name of the band that has had such 'hits' as 'GMD' and 'XL ki Kudiyan'?
  11. After whom are the women's residences at XLRI named?
  12. What was Tatanagar Railway Station earlier known as?
  13. What is the medal given to the best outgoing BMD student called?
  14. Which naturalist and author of books such as 'My Family & Other Animals', was born in Jamshedpur?
  15. Who is the chairman of XLRI's Board of Governers?
  16. Who was the recipient of the Sir Jehangir Ghandy Medal for Industrial & Social Peace in 2007?
  17. Who, along with Fr. Quinn Enright, founded XLRI in 1949?
  18. Whose birthday on March 3 is celebrated as Founder's Day?
  19. How many electives must a BMD / PMIR student mandatorily take at XLRI?
  20. The best PMIR student receives the JM Kumarappa Gold Medal. The second best?
  21. Before being renamed 'Jamshedpur', what was the city known as?
  22. After whom is the Library at XLRI named?
  23. Which professor from XLRI addressed the UN General Assembly on July 5/6 2007?
  24. What is the name of the train that connects Chennai Central & Tatanagar Junction?
How many will you get right ?

Monday, September 17, 2007

XL get-together on 22 Sep at Singapore

This Saturday 22 Sep 07 - 7pm at Waterside Function room, 13 Tanjong Rhu Rd.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Do we know what we are leaving behind for our children?

XLBang Presents An Inconvenient Truth - An Academy Award-winning documentary film about climate change and global warming, presented by former United States Vice President Al Gore and directed by Davis Guggenheim. See more at www.climatecrisis.net.
At the KGA, this Friday, Sept 14th at 7:00 PM
Entry & Dinner - Rs 150
Drinks/Beer - Rs 50 each
Kuru

Monday, September 10, 2007

XLRI - Number 1 among private B-Schools

From MBA Universe

Outlook B-School Survey 2007: IIM-A, XLRI, FMS and IRMA top league tables
MBAUniverse.com Bureau
Sep 09, 2007
Leading news magazine Outlook released its annual B-School survey, conducted by research firm Cfore.

For the first time, the survey has classified B-Schools into four categories: Government/ PSU B-Schools, Private B-Schools, University Departments and Sectoral B-Schools. The Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A); XLRI Jamshedpur; Delhi University’s Faculty of Management Studies (FMS); and the Indian Institute of Rural Management (IRMA) have topped respective league tables. The survey notes that while IIMs are still on top, many aggressive private B-schools are fast catching up. Says the Survey, “The most important development has been the initiative of private institutes in critical areas such as research, entrepreneurship and innovation. Although some are still behind the top IIMs in terms of overall scores, non-government schools are catching up fast.”

In the government-assisted B-Schools, IIM-A, IIM-B, IIM-C, IIM-L and Management Development Institute (MDI) Gurgaon have grabbed the first five slots. Mumbai-based NITIE, Delhi-based IIFT, and IIT Mumbai’s SJM-SOM are other B-schools to find place in this table. (See tables below)

It’s in the Top 10 private B-schools table where the competition is intense. XLRI tops the list; Mumbai-based SP Jain Institute of Management and NMIMS are followed by IMT, Ghaziabad and Hydeabad-based ICFAI Business School (IBS). XIM-Bhubaneshwar, IMT Delhi and Symbiosis Pune too find places in this table.

Delhi University’s FMS tops the University Department based B-schools. Mumbai-based Jamna Lal Bajaj Institute of Management (JBIMS) and University Business School (UBS) Chandigarh are the other top B-schools in this category.

The Survey provides rankings to 14 government institutes, 50 private B-schools, 10 University departments, and 7 sectoral B-schools.

While the overall ranking tables are presented by institute classifications, the Survey offers some insights into how top B-schools stack up when compared across the spectrum. IIM-A, IIM-B, IIM-C, XLRI and MDI, for instance, are ranked as top five B-schools on the ‘Industry interface’ parameter. On the important parameter of ‘Placement Performance’, IIM-A, IIM-C, IIM-B, XLRI and IIM-L are ranked on top.

Friday, September 7, 2007

Jaspal Bindra (84BMD) as New StanChart Asia Head

http://www.moneycontrol.com/india/news/pressnews/standard-chartered-appoints-jaspal-bindra-as-new-asia-head/20/41/301811

Press Release (Sept 7, 2007):

Standard Chartered Bank is pleased to announce today that Jaspal Bindra, currently Regional Chief Executive Officer for South and South East Asia, will take responsibility for growth and governance across the Asia region, excluding South Korea. He will oversee several of Standard Chartered’s key markets like China, Hong Kong, India, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, among others.

Mr. Bindra succeeds former Group Executive Director Kai Nargolwala’s governance role who has resigned to pursue other career interests.

Mr. Bindra was in August appointed Director of Standard Chartered Bank, the main operating subsidiary of the Group, and is a key member of Standard Chartered Group’s senior management team. He is on the Boards of Standard Chartered Bank (Thai) PCL, Prime Financial Holdings Limited, Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia Berhad and SCOPE International (M) Sdn Bhd. He is the Chairman of Standard Chartered Nepal Limited, Standard Chartered Bank (Mauritius) Limited and Scope International Private Limited, India.

Group Chief Executive Peter Sands said: “The Bank has robust succession plans which reflect the strength of our management team, and this appointment is evidence of this. Jaspal Bindra is a seasoned banker with a strong business and governance background, who has held many senior roles with Standard Chartered since joining us in 1998 as Chief Executive, India region. He is an excellent choice to deliver the Bank’s ambitions in Asia.”

Mr Bindra said: “I am honoured to be taking up this position. Asia is at the heart of Standard Chartered and I look forward to working closely with all our stakeholders across the region.”

Jaspal joined Standard Chartered Bank in 1998 as Chief Executive India and successfully led the acquisition of ANZ Grindlays. Prior to his current role Jaspal was Global Head of Client Relationships, Wholesale Banking where he was responsible for all client relationships and commercial banking products across all the 56 countries that the Bank operates in.

Thursday, September 6, 2007

‘HR has come a long way from backroom to boardroom’

From The Hindu Business Line

Perspectives on people policy and its evolution in the country.


The HR exposure that India provides is unthinkable in the more mature Western industrial economies. To deliver value in the contemporary scenario, HR managers have to think out-of-the-box and innovate new practices and systems. It is this requirement that differentiates Indian HR professionals from their Western counterparts. In the developed economies,HR requirements are comparatively more stable.




Prof Madhukar Shukla, Professor, OB and Strategic Management & Chairperson, Alumni and External Linkages, XLRI.

Anjali Prayag

From support to strategic, from backroom to boardroom, from union management to expectation management — HR in the country has transformed itself to suit changing business needs. But the key concern today centres around the talent pool available to fulfil the HR roles that industry demands. Is Indian HR education gearing up to meet these changes? Madhukar Shukla, Professor, OB and Strategic Management and Chairperson, Alumni and External Linkages, XLRI, has catalysed some of the changes in the discipline. In the inaugural issue of People@work, he shares his experiences, insights and perspectives on the HR education industry. Edited excerpts from the interview:

Is HR education getting its due in India? Considering that companies fill HR vacancies with people from other disciplines, is there enough formal training for these people?

The scenario is changing for HR. While it is true that in some cases, HR roles are assigned to people from other disciplines, such instances are becoming increasingly fewer. Companies do look for trained HR professionals to handle HR roles. More often than not, if the role is assigned to a non-HR executive, the reason is not because of the quality of HR professionals, but the dearth of HR professionals.

Most companies do try to provide training to non-HR people through job-shadowing, nomination to HR courses and so on when they are given HR roles. In fact, this need has also sprouted some innovative partnerships between industry and academia. For instance, at XLRI we have two such partnerships, one with Accenture and the other with L&T, to conduct long-duration certification courses in HR. I think one of the challenges for the education sector will be to keep pace with the demand for HR professionals, both in terms of quality and quantity.

Have HR education programmes changed suitably to fulfil the needs of industry? From admin to IR to personnel to HR, it’s been a long journey for the people manager. Can you talk about how XLRI has altered its programme content in keep ing with this change?

Yes, over time, HR education has also changed to meet the needs of industry. HR has moved from a ‘backroom’ function to a ‘boardroom’ function. Educational institutions have also tried to keep abreast of these changes and have updated and revised their syllabi over time. However, I also think this is easier done in B-schools than in universities, because the former have greater autonomy and freedom to revise their syllabi. For instance, at XLRI, the faculty concerned can change and upgrade courses to make them more contemporary. In addition, periodically, every two-three years, we review the entire course structure and pedagogy of our HR programme.

We seek feedback from our own HR alumni, from senior HR professionals, other academic institutions and from industry and build that into our course structure. This has enabled us to keep our syllabi dynamic and in sync with industry needs. We have been able to include new courses, modify some existing ones and even change the focus of the entire programme. In the current format of our HR programme, besides the required HR topics, the students also get significant inputs in finance, strategy, and IT.

Where does India stand in terms of HR education and how would you rate the Indian HR manager vis-a-vis his Western counterparts?

Let me attempt this question from another angle. Some of my HR colleagues in industry say — and I agree with them — that the last few years have been and the next few years will remain, the most exciting time for HR in India. There is a phenomenal growth of the industry and new sectors — insurance, retail, telecom, IT/ITeS — have emerged, all of which are people-intensive. Even in the manufacturing sector, there are strategic moves, M&As, cross-border takeovers, expansion, organisational change and restructuring, which throw-up critical people issues that need to be tackled.

This has two implications. The first is for HR education in India where there will be a need for greater partnership between industry and academia, which, fortunately, has started happening (even though it needs to accelerate).

Besides the programmes mentioned earlier, we also invite practising HR professionals to share their experiences, cases, and practices with students. At other places, professional HR bodies, for example the National HRD Network, have forged alliances with educational institutes to participate in their courses.

The National HRD Network, for instance, spearheaded the design and roll-out of the HR diploma course at MDI, their Mumbai chapter took the initiative to provide mentoring to the HR students in the institutes and so on.

The other implication is for the Indian HR managers’ learning. As a fast-growing economy, the HR exposure that India provides is unthinkable in more mature Western industrial economies. To deliver value in the contemporary scenario, HR managers have to think out-of-the-box and innovate new practices and systems. I think it is this requirement and capability, which differentiates the Indian HR professionals from their Western counterparts.

In more developed economies, HR requirements are comparatively more stable and, correspondingly, the role of HR professionals more process-driven. In comparison, Indian HR professionals have to be innovative and build HR processes around those innovations.

Has progressive, innovative and people-oriented HR become the preserve of the knowledge-based industries alone? How is the manufacturing industry HR person different today from a few years ago?

The changes in the demands on HR are not just in knowledge-based industries. HR requirements in the manufacturing sector also are no longer what they used to be. Earlier, the primary task of HR was maintenance of the system because manufacturing companies themselves were stable, showing slow growth or change. What we see now is a spurt of restructuring, mergers, international forays through expansion and acquisitions and upgrading of technology in the manufacturing sector. In addition, there is a migration of talent from manufacturing to the service/ knowledge sector, just when the sector requires them.

In many ways, the ultimate success of all these changes and strategic initiatives depends on managing people issues. So, while HR issues in the knowledge and manufacturing sectors may be somewhat different, there is a need to develop innovative HR solutions in both. Consider, for instance, the need for cultural integration, the development of an equitable compensation package and even the alignment of policies and procedures in case of an international acquisition. Earlier, such demands were rare for HR in the manufacturing sector.

During campus recruitment at XLRI, what kind of companies get preference from students?

Well, it is still the same menu — FMCG, consulting, IT/ITeS, banking, like in all B-schools. However, I would not give much weightage to these preferences, since movement out of the first job from the campus is quite high. It is the second or third job which one should look at to conclude the attractiveness of the industry sector for young MBAs.

Your comment on the HR talent pool in the country. Is recruitment becoming the sole focus of this fraternity, sidelining other functions such as managing people’s expectations, training and performance management?

Not really, though there is a large focus on recruitment, it is with reason. With the growth of all sectors, the need for qualified and employable manpower has shot up, and there really aren’t enough such people in the job market. So, if organisations have to grow and realise the opportunities they have, recruitment is actually a ‘strategic function’ for HR. I don’t think the other functions are sidelined.

Given that there is a big supply-demand gap in the talent market, it is essentially the same set of people who keep moving from one company to another, and with an increased compensation with every move. I think, sooner or later, this trend will make the cost of talent unviable and start hitting the bottomline. I personally feel that HR should start looking not only at talent acquisition and retention, but also talent creation. That is, how do we bring in more employable people into the mainstream job market.

Any indication of the numbers (of HR people) needed in the industry; what is the shortfall likely to be and how is industry planning to bridge the gap?

I think this will be the next big challenge for both industry and academia. If we look at the employment potential across industry sectors, it is huge:

According to Nasscom, IT/ITeS will add more than one million white collar jobs in 2008; according to a PWC report on retail, the projections are about 8 million; according to a TRAI 2005 report, close to half-a-million jobs were created in the telecom sector in that year; and an AIMA 2003 report projected that tourism and IT/ITeS would generate between 20 -72 million jobs by 2020.

Most of this employment-generation is happening in people-intensive sectors. Thus, the need for a strong HR backbone.

Even if one discounts for exaggerations in some of these projections, even at a very conservative estimate we are looking at least 5 million new jobs in the next five years. And a quick calculation would show that even if we need one HR professional for 1,000 employees (which by itself is a pathetic ratio), one needs at least 5,000 new HR professionals.

On the supply-side, the situation is far from comfortable. Among the few educational institutes that provide specialised HR courses — XLRI, TISS, SCMHRD, MDI — the total number of students do not add to more than 250-300 per annum, and many of them join HR consultancies rather than industry.

This is one big gap which the HR fraternity, in industry and academia, should be worried about. I don’t think it will be feasible for educational institutions to suddenly scale up their numbers to meet this demand.

What we will need to consider are new models for developing HR professionals as a joint industry-academia effort.

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

An Interview with Percy Siganporia (74BMD), MD Tata Tea

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News_By_Industry/Media__Entertainment_/Media/Percy_Siganporia_Managing_Director_Tata_Tea/articleshow/2338117.cms

Signalling its intent to evolve as a complete ‘beverage solutions company’, the once conservative Tata Tea has been in the news lately for a couple of big-ticket acquisitions and aggressive business moves.

....In the domestic branded tea business, Tata Tea overtook market leader Hindustan Unilever in volumes for the first time in several years.

Read this exclusive interview with Percy Siganporia (74BMD), Tata Tea’s MD about how the company has changed its DNA to adopt a challenger mindset for growth.

Click to Read

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

XL Alumni Homecoming (Nov 17-18, '07) - 1st Invite

Hello Folks!
the 3rd Weekend of November - and the Annual XLRI Alumni Homecoming - is approaching
Am pasting the preliminary invite below so that you can start planning your trip for the Nov 17-18, 2007...
.... More details will be forthcoming
__._,_.___

Monday, September 3, 2007

HR & HR Education according to an XL Prof

From http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/manager/2007/09/03/stories/2007090350411000.htm

‘HR has come a long way from backroom to boardroom’

Perspectives on people policy and its evolution in the country.


The HR exposure that India provides is unthinkable in the more mature Western industrial economies. To deliver value in the contemporary scenario, HR managers have to think out-of-the-box and innovate new practices and systems. It is this requirement that differentiates Indian HR professionals from their Western counterparts. In the developed economies,HR requirements are comparatively more stable.




Prof Madhukar Shukla, Professor, OB and Strategic Management & Chairperson, Alumni and External Linkages, XLRI.

Anjali Prayag

From support to strategic, from backroom to boardroom, from union management to expectation management — HR in the country has transformed itself to suit changing business needs. But the key concern today centres around the talent pool available to fulfil the HR roles that industry demands. Is Indian HR education gearing up to meet these changes? Madhukar Shukla, Professor, OB and Strategic Management and Chairperson, Alumni and External Linkages, XLRI, has catalysed some of the changes in the discipline. In the inaugural issue of People@work, he shares his experiences, insights and perspectives on the HR education industry. Edited excerpts from the interview:

Is HR education getting its due in India? Considering that companies fill HR vacancies with people from other disciplines, is there enough formal training for these people?

The scenario is changing for HR. While it is true that in some cases, HR roles are assigned to people from other disciplines, such instances are becoming increasingly fewer. Companies do look for trained HR professionals to handle HR roles. More often than not, if the role is assigned to a non-HR executive, the reason is not because of the quality of HR professionals, but the dearth of HR professionals.

Most companies do try to provide training to non-HR people through job-shadowing, nomination to HR courses and so on when they are given HR roles. In fact, this need has also sprouted some innovative partnerships between industry and academia. For instance, at XLRI we have two such partnerships, one with Accenture and the other with L&T, to conduct long-duration certification courses in HR. I think one of the challenges for the education sector will be to keep pace with the demand for HR professionals, both in terms of quality and quantity.

Have HR education programmes changed suitably to fulfil the needs of industry? From admin to IR to personnel to HR, it’s been a long journey for the people manager. Can you talk about how XLRI has altered its programme content in keep ing with this change?

Yes, over time, HR education has also changed to meet the needs of industry. HR has moved from a ‘backroom’ function to a ‘boardroom’ function. Educational institutions have also tried to keep abreast of these changes and have updated and revised their syllabi over time. However, I also think this is easier done in B-schools than in universities, because the former have greater autonomy and freedom to revise their syllabi. For instance, at XLRI, the faculty concerned can change and upgrade courses to make them more contemporary. In addition, periodically, every two-three years, we review the entire course structure and pedagogy of our HR programme.

We seek feedback from our own HR alumni, from senior HR professionals, other academic institutions and from industry and build that into our course structure. This has enabled us to keep our syllabi dynamic and in sync with industry needs. We have been able to include new courses, modify some existing ones and even change the focus of the entire programme. In the current format of our HR programme, besides the required HR topics, the students also get significant inputs in finance, strategy, and IT.

Where does India stand in terms of HR education and how would you rate the Indian HR manager vis-a-vis his Western counterparts?

Let me attempt this question from another angle. Some of my HR colleagues in industry say — and I agree with them — that the last few years have been and the next few years will remain, the most exciting time for HR in India. There is a phenomenal growth of the industry and new sectors — insurance, retail, telecom, IT/ITeS — have emerged, all of which are people-intensive. Even in the manufacturing sector, there are strategic moves, M&As, cross-border takeovers, expansion, organisational change and restructuring, which throw-up critical people issues that need to be tackled.

This has two implications. The first is for HR education in India where there will be a need for greater partnership between industry and academia, which, fortunately, has started happening (even though it needs to accelerate).

Besides the programmes mentioned earlier, we also invite practising HR professionals to share their experiences, cases, and practices with students. At other places, professional HR bodies, for example the National HRD Network, have forged alliances with educational institutes to participate in their courses.

The National HRD Network, for instance, spearheaded the design and roll-out of the HR diploma course at MDI, their Mumbai chapter took the initiative to provide mentoring to the HR students in the institutes and so on.

The other implication is for the Indian HR managers’ learning. As a fast-growing economy, the HR exposure that India provides is unthinkable in more mature Western industrial economies. To deliver value in the contemporary scenario, HR managers have to think out-of-the-box and innovate new practices and systems. I think it is this requirement and capability, which differentiates the Indian HR professionals from their Western counterparts.

In more developed economies, HR requirements are comparatively more stable and, correspondingly, the role of HR professionals more process-driven. In comparison, Indian HR professionals have to be innovative and build HR processes around those innovations.

Has progressive, innovative and people-oriented HR become the preserve of the knowledge-based industries alone? How is the manufacturing industry HR person different today from a few years ago?

The changes in the demands on HR are not just in knowledge-based industries. HR requirements in the manufacturing sector also are no longer what they used to be. Earlier, the primary task of HR was maintenance of the system because manufacturing companies themselves were stable, showing slow growth or change. What we see now is a spurt of restructuring, mergers, international forays through expansion and acquisitions and upgrading of technology in the manufacturing sector. In addition, there is a migration of talent from manufacturing to the service/ knowledge sector, just when the sector requires them.

In many ways, the ultimate success of all these changes and strategic initiatives depends on managing people issues. So, while HR issues in the knowledge and manufacturing sectors may be somewhat different, there is a need to develop innovative HR solutions in both. Consider, for instance, the need for cultural integration, the development of an equitable compensation package and even the alignment of policies and procedures in case of an international acquisition. Earlier, such demands were rare for HR in the manufacturing sector.

During campus recruitment at XLRI, what kind of companies get preference from students?

Well, it is still the same menu — FMCG, consulting, IT/ITeS, banking, like in all B-schools. However, I would not give much weightage to these preferences, since movement out of the first job from the campus is quite high. It is the second or third job which one should look at to conclude the attractiveness of the industry sector for young MBAs.

Your comment on the HR talent pool in the country. Is recruitment becoming the sole focus of this fraternity, sidelining other functions such as managing people’s expectations, training and performance management?

Not really, though there is a large focus on recruitment, it is with reason. With the growth of all sectors, the need for qualified and employable manpower has shot up, and there really aren’t enough such people in the job market. So, if organisations have to grow and realise the opportunities they have, recruitment is actually a ‘strategic function’ for HR. I don’t think the other functions are sidelined.

Given that there is a big supply-demand gap in the talent market, it is essentially the same set of people who keep moving from one company to another, and with an increased compensation with every move. I think, sooner or later, this trend will make the cost of talent unviable and start hitting the bottomline. I personally feel that HR should start looking not only at talent acquisition and retention, but also talent creation. That is, how do we bring in more employable people into the mainstream job market.

Any indication of the numbers (of HR people) needed in the industry; what is the shortfall likely to be and how is industry planning to bridge the gap?

I think this will be the next big challenge for both industry and academia. If we look at the employment potential across industry sectors, it is huge:

According to Nasscom, IT/ITeS will add more than one million white collar jobs in 2008; according to a PWC report on retail, the projections are about 8 million; according to a TRAI 2005 report, close to half-a-million jobs were created in the telecom sector in that year; and an AIMA 2003 report projected that tourism and IT/ITeS would generate between 20 -72 million jobs by 2020.

Most of this employment-generation is happening in people-intensive sectors. Thus, the need for a strong HR backbone.

Even if one discounts for exaggerations in some of these projections, even at a very conservative estimate we are looking at least 5 million new jobs in the next five years. And a quick calculation would show that even if we need one HR professional for 1,000 employees (which by itself is a pathetic ratio), one needs at least 5,000 new HR professionals.

On the supply-side, the situation is far from comfortable. Among the few educational institutes that provide specialised HR courses — XLRI, TISS, SCMHRD, MDI — the total number of students do not add to more than 250-300 per annum, and many of them join HR consultancies rather than industry.

This is one big gap which the HR fraternity, in industry and academia, should be worried about. I don’t think it will be feasible for educational institutions to suddenly scale up their numbers to meet this demand.

What we will need to consider are new models for developing HR professionals as a joint industry-academia effort.

XAT 2008 and XLRI - Jamshedpur forms out

From PagalGuy :

XAT 2008 and XLRI - Jamshedpur forms out
By PaGaLGuY.com News Service
Published: September 2, 2007

The Xavier's Admissions Test (XAT) 2008 for admission to 43 B-schools including XLRI - Jamshedpur, XIM - Bhubhaneswar and Goa Institute of Management will take place at 31 cities on January 6, 2008. Registration for the test has begun.

The test will be held between 10 am and 12:30 pm. Registration has begun at www.xlri.edu. Besides, the prospectus is available at 112 branches of the State Bank of India.

Click here for the detailed form notification

Registering for XAT, however does not automatically make you apply to XLRI - Jamshedpur or other XAT affiliated institutes. One has to buy the forms of and apply to individual B-schools. The XLRI form has been released separately.

Important links to help you crack XAT

How is XAT different from other management entrance exams and how to prepare differently for it?

Ask general queries about XAT 2008

Life on the XLRI - Jamshedpur campus

Sunday, September 2, 2007

Sutapa Banerjee (89 PMIR) - a First for India Inc.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/ET_Features/The_Sunday_ET/Leading_the_pack/articleshow/2330194.cms


Economic Times (Sept 2): In a first for India Inc., Abn Amro Bank’s Sutapa Banerjee (89PMIR) has been nominated among 20 most successful, rising wealth managers in the world by leading international business magazine, The Institutional Investor. For Banerjee, who heads the private banking department in Abn Amro Bank, the feat is even more noteworthy as there are only two nominations from Asia.

Banerjee, who is an alumnus of top Indian B-school XLRI, Jamshedpur, will fly to New York on September 10 to take part in the award ceremony.
“It is highly satisfying. We were one of the early entrants in this field. When I set-up the new private banking business thus paving the bank’s foray into the wealth man-agement business in 2002 there was no success model to follow. We worked hard as a team and created our own niche. This award is the worthy recognition of the team work that we have demonstrated in the last five years,” a joyful Banerjee told SundayET.

As per The Institutional Investor, the winning nominees oversee between $50 million and $32 billion in assets under management and work across the U.S., Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. The average age of those nominated is 37 years with the youngest 29 years old and the eldest 45 years old.

On very few nominations from Asia, Banerjee said that it was symbolic of nascent stages the wealth management industry is in this region. “We are relatively very small compared to the West where the practices are already es-tablished. The bunch of people who are working in this industry are the ones chosen from the best in their respective fields, be it brokerage houses, fund houses and other financial services. But I am confident that that this industry would continue to witness growth in double digit numbers over the next five years,” she lamented.

Banerjee, who has experience of 18 years in the banking business, also holds to her distinction setting up consumer banking division for ABN Amro in India from scratch in 1996. Prior to joining ABN Amro, she was working with ANZ Grindlays Bank plc for seven years from 1989 to 1996

Saturday, September 1, 2007

Chennai Alumni Dinner on September 14

Hi,

It is a pleasure to invite all XL Alumni in Chennai to gather at the Alumni Club (1, 3rd Avenue, Boat Club Road, R.A. Puram, Chennai 600028) at 7.00 pm on September 14.

We will be hosting the XLers of the current batches (2008 & 2009) who will be in Chennai for their 1st term vacations. We do not have any formal agenda for the evening; the focus is on catching up with each other, across batches - as we all know, it's been a while since we had a 'non-summer-trainee-organized-alumni-meeting'.

We expect the per-head cost to be around Rs.500/-; this is slightly higher than usual, since we will be sharing the cost of the 08/09 batches between us. Of course, if we can have a few sponsors, it will reduce the per-head rates!

Please spread the word, coax, cajol and persuade all alumni you know to be present!

Looking forward to the 14th!!

Regards,
Shantaram
IR 90