How does BCG gets project from BSNL?

BCG has recently done a study for "Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited" (BSNL), the fifth largest mobile operator in India. BSNL is semi- overnment telecom operator in India, the only one untill few years back. And it is losing market share to private operators. I remember that 15 years back when the phone was a luxury in India, BSNL was the only provider of landline phones, so if there is any problem with your connection such as the open hanging telephone line from pole to your home is damaged by a monkey, next morning you have to go and wait for the BSNL lineman to come and fix it. Additionally you have to give him some "kharcha paani"(accepted bribe). The situation is widely understood to be same (for bribes) from lineman (the lowest in hierarchy) to the top bosses (either executives or minister responsible). The result of this unholistic approaches widely taken over the years, looking only at short term face saving fixes (and personal gains), BSNL is a loss making company and going down. BCG, on the contrary is an epitom of professionalism. BCG like consulting firms and Cisco like vendors works usually with the givernment firms like BSNL. Then What Happens ?

I am putting some thought points but also would urge the reader to add anything as comments freely...

We can analyse on many issues:

1. Who benefits: BSNL does for sure. But does Cisco gets something from BSNL? Has BSNL something which Cisco needs to learn?

2. Are these deals bribe free? BCG is supposedly ethical, but for BSNL consulting projects, Will BCG like to pay upto 1 M USD to various officials for getting the contract?

3. What is the future of such governmental organisations? Can under monopoly systems (such as in China) they learn to complete projects within time and upto satisfaction? (Indian common wealth games vs. China Olympics/ Indian railways vs. China's transportation services).

And many more to see....

China to India, My airport story

I landed in India after completeing my MBA from CEIBS, China. It was 4 o'clock in the morning when I realised that I was on New Delhi airport rather than a train station. The differences were evident. It was looking everything was shabby. The baggage belt had flight number which was written so small that u will see it only from very near. So I went around but could only find one for our flight, when I saw some fellow travellers standing there. After studying an MBA (where we discuss about giving comfort to customers) and living in Shanghai, where sometimes I have seen them makign new road newer again, I was thinking why not put up a bigger LCD here, will it be a big expense compared to the expected comfort of travellers?
Second shock, I wasn't expecting that it would be so bad, but there was no sign for which way somebody at 4 AM could look at for washroom. Again you need to go to information counter, where the young lady was sitting with an angry face and seeming to be giving a great service by showing her hand into oine direction and looking into completely opposite:-). That was quite unpleasant but funny. Finally, I could find a washroom, entrance was so small that one have to leave the trolley outside and go in, may be the space inside was also small :-).

And finally, for me to make a local call, I waited for the guy on phone booth for 30 minutes but he never came back from his tea time.....

Welcome to INDIA!!

CEIBS is a thrilling place

Having spent more than one year at CEIBS as a MBA student, now this journey almost coming to an end. This is the time, I often ask myself a question "How has been the CEIBS journey & what I got here". The answers are many but the few important ones can be useful for the readers.

Every milestone in learning paves serves as a milestone for the new learning. And CEIBS has been a thrilling journey for me. I was partly picked based on my cross functional experiences into R&D, Operations and Marketing. CEIBS has provided me with further expansion of my business acumen into vast geographies, industries and functions through Business cases, interactions with fellow global students and stories from professors's experiences. If I have to gauge the exposure in the form of speed, I would say that every week , I come across 4-5 industries through business cases, 2-3 countries through company presentations and numerous cultures through my classmates; It never stops unless you close yourself into your dorm room; and do not open the computer. Because even if you just want to walk silently into the very very small and beautiful campus, chances are you will see high profile business and governmental executives there, who are in the campus for attending a global seminar or for giving a speech. God,if you happen to be one of those networkers, it is absolutely a great place to be at. I am not sure of the number but more than a quarter of China's richest (CHINA'S RICHEST) people got education at CEIBS. A few of our professor's are kind of intellectual authorities in China's economic expansion and public policies. If you are intellectually curious and eager to benefit, how would you not thrill within such an environment.


My classmates, who makes everything more interesting, comes from more than 25 nationalities and from almost every common industry and functions. Needless to say they were on responsible positions in world class MNEs and governmental institutions. It is interesting to see an Asian classmate commenting the need for respect for elders and a westerner classmate questioning the ideology of respecting the elderly more than youngers; And seeing the professor, guiding discussion to bring cross cultural self-reflections into open is an unmatchable experience.

I am convinced that CEIBS is a great place to be at for learning and the interational MBA positioning of being the best MBA school (FT rsnking) in Asia is well rewarded.

I would seek your thoughts on CEIBS in the form of comments or mails!!

Could Arcelor & Mittal truly Unified ?

I am just coming back from the campus presentation of Arcelor Mittal. The presentor were CEO of Arcelor Mittal China, (European) and the HR person, a (Chinese).

Truly they have got a lot in them to be the world’s Number-1. I liked the way they presented …particularly avoiding the subject of high energy usage, pollution and global warming from their talk, rather adding those of CSR and communities building . ...But what I also saw is that they are missing something very important… read below…!!

During the Q&A session, one guy asked “whether Arcelor Mittal is an Indian company?” CEO explained to him the formation of the company and stated that the company is headquartered in Europe and is not an Indian company. In my opinion the fact and figures of this explanation were enough to make any of the CEIBS guy clear on this point. But then what I saw simply astonished me. CEO, China said “How it can be an Indian company, we don’t have even a plant in India”.

What he stated did not make me surprise, but the way he said it (with a smile), made me realize that the magazines and reports about Arcelor employees’s outlook were not wrong. The people who worked long for the Arcelor, could not accept and appreciate the fact that Mittal’s takeover of Arcelor is for the good of economic decisions. Moreover some probably did not feel good because Mittal steel was a smaller (than Arcelor) company run by an Indian, Mr. L.N.Mittal.

Of course, there must be his reasons and thoughts behind what he said, but here I my perspective on his wordings.

Additionally, I endorse CEIBS’s emphasis upon organizational behavior studies and truly our OB’s Professor, has done a great job of making us sensitive towards such issues. :-)

The 11th Hour

Long ago, till the time, human used to consume everything powered by Sun, the ecosystem was balanced with everything being replenished. Animals, including humans used to eat either crops or other animals and the only basic support system was Sun. The population was maintained and the life was constant. And then sometime, we humans search fossil fuels (anything that gives Energy & Carbon). Our choices expanded and the era of consumerism started. We had access to energy with relatively much faster rate. And it meant that we had access to achievements too. Now everything we wanted was available with some level of research. It generated consumer’s demand; we used more energy that required more fossil fuels. It disturbed our ecosystem, the changes were increase in population, extinction of rare species and Global Warming. This is consumerism based upon usage of non-renewable sources of energy that also cause harm to the environment.

Do you know what harm happens with cutting of trees – Soil erosion, floods (tree holds an enormous amount of water in itself) and rain control.

Do you know that secretion of hazardous industrial waste into sea has caused multiple sea species to extinct. Also many places, the water is not proper to swim.

Do you know that the continuous C-pouring into the environment is causing global warming which makes our glaciers to melt, typhoons to come and temperatures to increase.

Do we ever think that every single synthetic product we use cause towards global warming. This computer on which you are reading this is a product of industrial work. And next time, you feel of upgrading your computer, you are adding to the global warming. Consumerism is parallel to global warming.

As one environmentalist has explained; assume a year which started with evolution of earth, we are living last fifteen minutes of 31st December. And within some time, we shall become extinct. Another explains that we dnt have to save earth, ironically, earth shall exist in some form or other, it is we humanity we have to save from becoming extinct.

Is there a way out????

We lack a proper leadership on this. And the available leadership is poor by standards and spirits. Earlier in the matters of environment, democrats and republicans used to join hands and approve the bills, unlike now when the opinion is divided tragically.

We are certainly not able to do all that which nature does. For example, science can not turn carbon dioxide into oxygen. We can not reverse the harm we have already made to the environment. But we can certainly slower the process of environmental damage.

Scientific view says that we have to fulfill our needs by recycling the usage of power.

J R Train lines in Japan uses the power from brake lining and resends to the power lines.
Insulated houses shall reduce the usage of wastage of energy.
Generation of electricity using the waves of the river.
Dance club powered by energy output from human movement.
Bank of America building is employs the concepts of energy savings and uses lesser energy.

The movie is a must watch for a very clear understanding of the environmental issues and that is something which is required of us a common human.

Also can look into the official website of the movie:
http://www.11thhourfilm.com/
http://www.11thhouraction.com/

Fahrenheit 9/11

It is simply an ‘A’ class documentary. Just 2 hrs changed my views on America’s war on Iraq and Afghanistan.
As if the world’s most powerful man is not a fool- that was my opinion. Ironically, it is correct despite his child like insincere behavior. This man has just one thing on his mind – his family profits. But what surprised me even more is that despite all so close connections with Saudis and Bush’s alliance with the Osama’s close aids, Bush is not been openly accused except by Moore’s film. It is very much like something that happens in India i.e. politicians openly getting away even after breaking the laws.

Did you know or could you ever imagine that –

Bush spent 42% of his presidential time on vacations before 9/11.
James Bath – Bin Laden family’s close aid is a close friend of George W. Bush.

The Carlyle group’s (United Defense) – 11th largest US military contractor has a heavy investment from Laden’s family.
Saudi’s investment in USA is approximately $ 860 Bn.
Saudi’s own 6 - 7% of equity market of America.
Hamid Karzai, President appoint of Afghanistan was an advisor to Unocal, a business partner company of Bush’s family.

This documentary strongly contradicts Bush decision to attack Iraq. It clearly demonstrates that the available evidences signaled that Saudi is at fault (due to Osama’s establishment there) and not Iraq.

Though Iraq’s invasion was strongly opposed within America but Bush administration kept reciting the ‘was against terror’ slogans. His top executives issued statements about Iraq’s accessibility upon nuclear technology (though these statements were in stark contrast to their earlier remarks). The public bought in the artificial ‘America under attack’ image. Bush was able to gather Americans’ confidence.

This documentary covers emotions of the dead soldier’s family and the prevailing grief in Iraq. Speaks against the patriot bill and films Moore’s courageous stunt of asking (in person) congress members to send their kids to the war.

“Fahrenheit 9/11” is a must see for anyone who believes that there is no space for lethargy or non-action at the top. And so despite all your weaknesses and immaturity, you always stand a chance to reach till the top. Good Luck for your aims!!