EDITORS DESK

Corporate Speak
Name: Mr. Vishwas Shah
Designation: Vice President - Synthesis Business and Materials
Organisation: Indofil Industries Ltd.
1. What is Vision & Mission of your Organisation?
Vision : To become a Global leader in growth with customer success
2. What Products/Services are offered by your company?
Agro Chemicals and Farm inputs
3. Where do you see your organisation from ten years from now?
To become a $1Billion company
4. What is the impact of current economic trends on your industry?
We see a very positive impact. Under the leadership of our PM we are
geared up for Make in India as we are into the manufacturing and
exporting of Agro Chemicals all across the world.
Also there is increasing need to improve the productivity of Agricultural
output, as there are more and more people to be feed with less and less of
land.
5. Is there major attrition problem in your organisation? If so, how do you
tackle it?
No we have people staying within the organisation for over 10/15/25
yrs....Our CEO is with the company for over 40yrs and have grown from a
sales executive to CEO....This shows we have a very strong People Strategy
and our Organisation give great opportunity to grow.

6. What is your opinion about present Management Education in India?

While the Management Education is our country is improving, however we
have still to learn a lot. I feel the institutions should be more autonomous
for them to adapt quickly to every changing needs of the corporate world.
Surely more interaction required between the institute and corporate for
betterment of both.
7. What specific traits are you looking from MBA Candidate during Job
Interview?
How well is he/she able to learn and adapt to the changing needs of the
business. How well can he/she take initiatives on his own.
How well can he/she works as the team member and wether he/she can be
seen in the leadership position
How trustworthy is he/she
8. When it comes down to two similar candidates, what pushes one over the
other?
Team work.
Trustworthy.
9. What is career progression of MBA Candidates in your organisation?
Excellent, provided of-course if he/she has been performing well
10.What is your advice for improvements in current Management Education?
Adapt to changes fast
Increase interaction with the Industry

Alumni Speak
Photo
Name: MANISH KUMAR
Company: INDUSIND BANK LTD
Designation: Executive Officer
Expertise: Banking & Finance
Alumni Batch: 2012-2014
I am currently associated with INDUSIND BANK LTD., as Executive Officer
INDUSIND BANK.
IndusInd Bank derives its name and inspiration from the Indus Valley civilisation a culture described by National Geographic as 'one of the greatest of the ancient
world's combining a spirit of innovation with sound business and fair trade
practices.
Swayam Siddhi College of Management and Research is an institute that imparts
quality education to its students. SSCMR as we fondly call it, provides quality
teaching for its students who aspire for a management degree which today is
considered as a Pass port for better employment opportunities.
The two years that I spent at SSCMR were the most memorable ones end will
always be highly cherished by me.

ARTICLE
SOCIAL MEDIA IN TODAY CORPORATE WORLD
In today what is social media and how it is related to the corporate world or any
business is really important to known.
First it is necessary to known that what social media means is
As according to the MICHAEL HAENLEIN as define the social media like a group
of internet-based application that build on the ideological and technology
foundation of web and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated
content as it was define on the basis of information technology.
As today social media in simple way define as exchange of information and
content through the web

The evolution of social media as by the late 1990 no one was known about it .
From 2002 onward the large number of social media sites were launched and by
2007 social media gained widespread acceptance when facebook hits 1 billion
user worldwide. And from that year is was start treading of social media
As social media also contain types of it or categories like Social networks: Social
networking websites allow users to build web pages featuring personal portfolios
and interests Examples of social networks include Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace
and Bebo.
Web blogs: Some of the oldest and most popular forms of social media are blogs. .
Blogging websites include WordPress, Blogger and Tumblr.
Microblogs: Microblogs are blogging tools that feature short posts, as opposed to
journal-style posts. Microblogging is particularly common for posting quick
updates and distributing content via mobile devices. Notable microblogging sites
include Twitter and Tumblr. However, social networks such as Facebook, Google+,
LinkedIn and MySpace also have their own microblogging features.
Content Communities: Users on content communities organize, share and
comment on different types of content, including images and videos. YouTube,
Flickr and scribe are examples of content communities.
Wikis: Wiki websites allow a community of people to add and edit content in a
community-based database
Apart from this other type of media also include in social media like

Rating and review sites

Social bookmarking or social tagging features
Forums and discussion boards
Virtual social worlds
Music and audio sharing

Advantage of social media in corporate world

Marketing of the product: As big company or business person set their product
web page on the social sites like on facebook, yahoo.com or they set their own
account of product on this site and use this site for promoting their product. In
that a person like or tweet on their product the automatic the marketing of
product is done by person and it send to other person by him in this case
marketing of product is done.

Branding the image: In this social media plays a important role on this because
today every image of business or product is created with the help of the social
media like on facebook if a person like or comments on product the brand of
product is increase and on twitter it depends upon the tweets that how many
tweet had done on the product and the business and on the other websites is
depend upon the no of like has done in day or year etc had make the brand name
Reached to customer: social media play important role to reach the out customer
through all over the world in with the help of the social media site the product
knowledge and the information is reach to the customer and company also
provide the knowledge of new scheme or new product through this site and also
updated the company profile so customer doesnt call to customer service or go
to other place.
It also provides the customer opinion about the product directly to the company.
Customer handling: as social media has help in maintain the customer relation in
good way like On Twitter Company shared information regarding the customer
queries and problem asked about the product. On facebook the company
developed their own website which solved issue and clearing the myths about the
false thing related to the product.
It not only connects the company directly to the customer but also helps the
business person and company to known the suggestion and thoughts provide by
customer about the product.
Minimum costs: as compare to the advertise on TV or on radio, or through the
paper it is cheaper and also every effective and fast responding that the TV add
And advertise done on TV have 30-40% chance than that from100% and on web it
show about the 80-70%.
Investment: Has in today many company invested a lot of money in social media
and also state as different department in the company and it become important
part of the business.
Examples of company or business which has gone rapidly through the social
media like HDFC bank which recently had come on top in India in bank sector not
in terms of promotion but also in providing the better services to the customer as
compare to the other competitor .

Other company like coco-la is lack behind but is getting into market by help of this
media and many have started their promotion of the product on these sites like
woodland, mc Donalds, and many more.
Drawback:
Social media also contain some drawback also like fear of getting bad image into
market. False information or knowledge is provided to the customer through the
faked accounts or the competitor. Or some time the advertises is cost more than
expected and profit is not gain or promotion is done in good way or expected
way.
Future concepts about the social media: As today a company which working
without the social media or not using the social media will not gone survive in the
market or in the field very long. As in future it will become necessary for company
to maintain the their link with the social media or to invested or must be part of it
It will become important for the company to reach out the customer directly
through it and make the promotion and developed their brand name through it.
And in future it will become a different part or another important department in
the marketing department
Other concept of the social media
As it not only help the corporate world but is very useful to the student or person
also In studies a student is connect in social media it will interact with corporate
person in LinkedIn and facebook for their quires and problem related to the
subject and it also help to student or fresher to find the jobs or be in touch with
famous person or become their followers so they will experience the knowledge
about the market which will be the beyond the book so it will also help the
students

Article by: BARAI ABHISHEK SURESH PRASAD

First Year MBA Student

FINANCE NEWS
Stress tests and TLAC will transform bank funding markets
Bankers are looking past Sunday's publication of the stress-test results and the
TLAC requirements that will follow to a substantial change in how banks fund in
the capital markets and maybe even new forms of senior debt. Investors, bankers
and analysts are braced for a busy Sunday afternoon examining results of the
European Central Bank's (ECB) asset quality review of the euro-areas biggest
banks and any capital shortfalls after attendant stress tests. Full results will be
posted on the ECBs website at noon on Sunday. Leaks, rumours of leaks and pure
speculation abounded, as banks were each informed of their own results on
Friday.
Full results will be posted on the ECBs website at noon on Sunday. Leaks,
rumours of leaks and pure speculation abounded, as banks were each informed of
their own results on Friday.
RBS Credit strategists ran a simplified stress test on European banks after the EBA
methodology and its projections in the adverse scenario. Alberto Gallo, credit
strategist at RBS, says: "Based on our results, we think a majority (70%) of banks
are likely to pass the ECB test comfortably, with 18% on the border and 11% at
high risk of failing. "The weakest are generally mid-tier banks in Italy, Cyprus,
Portugal and Germany with relatively small balance sheets one exception is
Monte Paschi in Italy. Total assets of banks that are most likely to fail account for
only 2.9% of total bank assets in the test." RBS expects the total remaining capital
shortfall to be just 10.2 billion under the adverse scenario, which appears quite
manageable, given that European banks have already raised 40 billion of equity
and 31.2 billion of AT1 CoCos in 2014.
So while there is always the risk of short-term market surprises if the ECB
stretches to appear tough, bankers are already looking past the stress test and
wondering how bank funding markets will change in the weeks ahead. A big
source of remaining uncertainty is the proposals on total loss-absorbing capacity
(TLAC) for the 29 global systemically important banks, of which 16 are based in
Europe. The delta for expectations of what will be unveiled at the G20 Brisbane
summit in November is extraordinarily wide, ranging from 16% to 25%. Sam

Theodore and Thue Sondergaard at Scope Ratings suggest: "Once the new TLAC
norms are firmed out, the market investors, analysts, rating agencies will
increasingly consider TLAC coverage as a key risk-protection metric for banks,
alongside CET1 or leverage ratios."
Scope Ratings suggests there could be some big shortfalls to a 25% ratio of TLAC
to risk-weighted assets, which might leave BNP Paribas, for example, needing to
issue 56 billion more of capital instruments and subordinated debt, HSBC 51
billion and Santander 45 billion. Greater risk And while banks hope to build their
TLAC reserves overwhelmingly out of equity, new capital instruments and
subordinated debt, there is the obvious chance that the higher the standard set
for TLAC, the more likely that senior unsecured debt and even deposits will be
seen to be at greater risk of bail-in and so will re-price to banks substantial
disadvantage. Coupons on AT1 deals that had been coming at 5.625% earlier in
the year now require 7.5% to 8% to win investors, and the market is not working
well. "This could trigger a sea-change in the way banks fund themselves," one
head of DCM at a large bank tells Euromoney. "Were seeing discussion of many
banks each needing to raise 30 billion or more of CoCos and tier 2, but I dont
understand this obsession only with subordinated debt. "A portion of TLAC has to
comprise senior unsecured and the market has to find a price for that." Behind
the scenes, there has been discussion of whether losses to restore a bank to
viability might be applied to just a specified portion of their senior unsecured
debt, say 2.5%% to 3%. "And we have been talking about a new special category
of senior unsecured debt that is bail-inable, possibly with shorter maturities and
regularly rolled over," says the DCM head.
How might markets price this? Another banker says: "You have to see the asset
quality review, the stress test and the single supervisory mechanism in Europe all
as part of a process that also includes resolution regimes. "OK, it has taken six
years in Europe to achieve what the Americans seemed to do in six months in
2008 and 2009, but this process has vastly improved the stability of European
banks. In 2007, the banks funded for five years through senior unsecured at
spreads around 15 basis points while operating with just 2% of equity. Today,
senior trades at 45bp, but banks have 10% equity." He adds: "And more than
that, the single supervisory mechanism should do away with regulation by nods
and winks between national banks and local regulators. I work for a French bank,
whose primary contact at the new supervisor is a Spaniard who in turn reports to
an Italian."

The banker tries to end the argument on a hopeful note: "Maybe after the
markets absorb the stress tests, improved supervision, comparable regulatory
standards and the TLAC requirements, then even if that includes 3% of senior
unsecured, maybe senior spreads sink to 35bp." Maybe. However, there is
another worry: if the outcome of all this is that analysts and investors downgrade
actual and implied ratings of senior debt funding and more banks become
dependent on high-yield investors. That is a smaller pool of money and one
overseen by specialists that are not experts in analyzing banks. And policymakers
have another concern: slowflation, the combination of slowing growth and
increasing fears of deflation in Europe. Anshu Jain, co-chief executive of Deutsche
Bank, on an Institute of International Finance panel on the future of banking at
the Washington IMF meetings, declared: "We have had five or six years of rules
and regulations, but at some point we must focus on making the world grow. "In
Europe, 80% of credit creation is via bank lending. Of the multiple factors
impacting European growth, contraction of bank balance sheets is definitely one."
Source: Euro money
ECB-Fed divergence triggers corporate hedging
The US has reached a milestone by announcing the end of its eight-year
quantitative easing stimulus programme as its economy recovers, but the news
highlights the increasing policy divergence between the US and Europe.
Corporates have as a result started factoring in increasing euro weakness ahead
of 2015.
The US Federal Reserve has pumped trillion of dollars into the US economy since
the global financial crisis by buying securities such as government bonds, but will
wind up its asset purchase programme this month.
The central bank released a statement yesterday that it was ending the
programme because it was confident of a continuing US economic recovery,
despite a global slowdown, citing "solid job gains and a lower unemployment
rate".
The decision was widely anticipated but the relative hawkishness of the
statement has led many to believe that the Fed will increase interest rates earlier
than expected, triggering a surge in the dollar against the euro.

"[There is a] clear shift towards more hawkishness [this] provides the catalyst
for dollar momentum," says Vasileios Gkionakis, head of global FX strategy at
UniCredit.
Euro weakness
The euro/US dollar currency pair fell from a high yesterday of 1.27 to as low as
1.25 after the announcement, and analysts predict further euro weakness.
The euro might even hit parity with the dollar, according to analysts at leading
banks including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Barclays. This would suggest
the euro could become a leading funding currency for carry trades, enabling
investors to borrow cheaply in euros and invest in higher-yielding currencies,
typically emerging market currencies. "The euro been used as a funding currency
for quite some time now; I think people will keep using euro as the currency
[goes] lower," says Gkionakis, UniCredit predicts further weakness in the euro,
with a year-end euro/dollar forecast of 1.22. But despite the euros decline and
apparent attractiveness as a funding currency, it pales in comparison to the yen.
The yen has substantially weakened against the dollar this year dollar/yen
traded as high as 109 today, compared with 98 a year ago. "If looking for a true
funding currency, we prefer the yen to the euro." says Adam Myers, head of FX
strategy at Crdit Agricole. "The Bank of Japan is more likely to do sovereign QE
than the ECB. It is more likely the yen will be used as a funding currency."
Corporate hedging Corporates are preparing themselves for further weakness in
the euro and anticipating how this might affect their bottom lines in 2015. "That
[euro/dollar] move overnight after the Fed announcement will prompt a lot of
corporates to lift their hedge ratios on EUR/USD," says Myers. "If it hadnt fallen
overnight I think a lot of corporates would have been inclined to maintain their
currency hedging ratios in the 2015 hedging meetings they are having now, as the
euro has remained relatively strong over the last three years." He adds: "But with
the fall I think a few will come out to protect their P&L in 2015." However, a
weaker euro is a boon for exporters in the eurozone. Ignacio Sanchez Miret,
global treasurer and risk manager at international shopfitter HMY Group, says the
company had anticipated euro weakness and worked on a few strategies over the
past few months to boost its competitiveness. He says: "We have changed some
of our Chinese suppliers' contracts into euros and offshore renminbi and fixed
some rates for the whole of 2015 with some of our foreign customers with annual
agreements, concentrating as much as possible on the use of the euros in our
commercial flows. "The weakness of the euro currency has to be seen as a good
opportunity to sell abroad for our teams and our treasury department is focusing
to reduce the bad impact of the currencys life," he says. Analysts are divided as

to whether the euro will sink so low as to hit parity with the dollar. Myers points
out that the euro remained conspicuously strong throughout the eurozone crisis,
largely because central banks continued to diversify their dollar reserves into
euros, which artificially supported the currency. "Now that QE is ending, that
force has considerably lessened, but it is still a force in 2015 and one of the
reasons EUR/USD wont drop [to parity]," he says.
Myers remains long on the euro, arguing that investors are too optimistic about
the Fed tightening monetary policy and will be proved wrong in the coming
weeks. Despite his contrarian view, it remains clear that US and European
monetary policies are increasingly divergent, which will put pressure on the euro.
Source: Euromoney

Marketing News
Google launches ecommerce Export Business Map
Google has launched an Export Business Map to help UK companies to expand
overseas. The map identifies the ten most exciting international markets, in
terms of strategic value and operational readiness, for UK digital
businesses. Markets profiled include Germany, USA, France, Austria, Spain, Italy,
Netherlands and Switzerland. The new map includes information on internet
penetration, web search and online purchasing, along with other key
demographic insights into each marketplace. The Export Business Map is backed
up by new research from OC&C Strategy Consultants in collaboration with Google.
The study revealed UK businesses in the travel, retail, leisure and content sectors,
could benefit from a global ecommerce export market worth 45 billion by 2020
three times its current estimated value of 13 billion.
Peter Fitzgerald, UK country sales director at Google, said: The rules on
international business have changed. The internet has removed boundaries,
changing markets forever. This means that everyone from traditional businesses
and established internet players, to bedroom start-ups, can take advantage of
online tools and digital marketing to easily target new territories and engage with
new customers. We hope the Google Export Business Map will help UK
businesses to capitalise on the 45 billon opportunity, inspiring them to think
beyond their local markets and grow quickly and strategically.

Source: B2B Marketing

Global Brands Are Using Fantasy Sports in Their Marketing Mix
As the popularity of fantasy sports continues to grow, some of
the most prestigious global brands such as Unileve, Toyota, and
Hilton have begun to use fantasy sports to help market their
products.
This fall, Unilevers Dove Men+Care launched its all-new fantasy
football hub, which grants customers exclusive access to fantasy
football advice from ESPN analysts. Meanwhile, Toyota
purchased advertising space to become the exclusive sponsor
of Yahoo YHOO +0.44% fantasy football league recaps, and
Hilton launched a free-enter fantasy racing contest for the
hotel chains honors club members. For each of these large
global brands, their promotions involving fantasy sports help to
capture a challenging marketing demographic: high income
males between ages of 25-50. This is an audience that has
become becoming increasingly difficult to reach through
television commercials, and which spends far more time on the
Internet and their smartphones than watching television or
listening to radio. Global brands such as Unilevers Dove
Men+Care and Toyota recognize that entering the fantasy sports
marketplace as a sponsor provides a low-risk way of involving
their companies with Americas newest national
pastime. Unlike companies that must navigate around the
complex of federal and state laws that apply to online skillbased contests such as Yahoo! and CBS CBS -0.3% Sports, global
brands such as Dove Men+Care and Toyota have very little, if
any, legal risk associated with their current fantasy promotions.
It remains to be seen how many other large global companies
join Unilever, Toyota, and Hilton in the fantasy sports craze. But
for now, all signs point to this being just the beginning of a new
form of target marketing by major brands.
In all likelihood, it will not be long before these same large
national brands become named sponsors of fantasy football

contests, or begin to white label fantasy sports website

themselves. But for now, this is an important marketing step in
a new direction.
Source: Forbes

HR News
Next Generation of Best Practices
Many in HR proclaim a desire to be more strategic, yet most doom themselves by
not acting any differently than everyone else. A clear indication of this can be
seen in the speed by which documented best practices are mimicked and
improved. Benchmarking has become a common practice in the profession of
recruiting, which most organizations use to identify what must be done to
emulate those who do something better. Unfortunately, most stop there with
emulation, and that may doom them to mediocrity forever.
The business world once moved at a significantly slower pace, a pace that made
benchmarking and emulating best practices prudent activities. However, things
no longer move so slowly! By the time firms benchmark a best practice today, the
situation that warranted the development or implementation of the best practice
might have changed or may no longer be present. Instead of systematizing an
effort to consistently follow the leader and mimic the soon-to-be-obsolete
practices of others, I recommend adopting a proactive approach, one in which
you develop your own "next generation" of best practices. I call these "next
practices."
Next practice development isn't about making something more efficient; instead,
it is about a fundamental transformation of the core business activity.
For example, Apple has long been a participant in the computer industry, in which
the core best practices are predominately focused on refinement of
manufacturing technologies that enable computers to do more. While Apple
could have easily jumped on the performance bandwagon, it instead opted to
develop next practices in the areas of product packaging and service.
With the introduction of the iMac, Apple demonstrated that computers don't

have to be beige and gray boxes. With the introduction of the iPod and iMusic
service, Apple demonstrated that product companies can develop sustainable
long-term relationships with consumers. It abandoned efforts to compete on the
nature of performance, long a computer-industry challenge, and reinvented the
game with best practices that were unique to its business.
Next Practices Help You Create the Future
Best practices only allow you to do what you are currently doing a little better,
while next practices increase your organization's capability to do things that it
could never have done before. By jumping a level up to next practices, you're
taking a giant step in that you are actually creating your future recruiting
capabilities, rather than relying on the innovation of others.
Examples of Next Practices If you are not sure of the distinction between best
and next practices, here are some examples in several HR areas:
Practice Area: College Recruiting :
Average practice: Visit the top schools within your state :
Best practice: Visit the top 10 schools in the US :
Next practice: Recruit remotely (without having to visit) from the best schools
around the world. :
Practice Area: Next Job Hiring
Average practice: Hire individuals who have the skills that are currently needed
by "this manager."
Best practice: Hire individuals who have the skills for both this and the nextlevel-up job (that the individual will likely be promoted to in the next few years).
Next practice: Hire individuals who can do both this and the next job but also
have the capabilities of reskilling rapidly into skill and competency areas that have
yet to be identified.

Practice Area: Global Hiring

Average practice: Hire the best from India and China, and bring them to
America.
Best practice: Hire the best in India and China and then move operations to
India and China.
Next practice: Find the very best performers in every individual country around
the world and let them work remotely in their home countries.

Practice Area: Recruiting Metrics

Average practice: Cost per hire.
Best practice: Measure quality of hire through performance appraisal scores.
Next practice: Calculate the actual dollar impact on business results of each key
hire.

Practice Area: Corporate Website

Average practice: Post information on it, like it was a paper bulletin board.
Best practice: Also include "sales" elements like streaming video and individual
employee profiles.
Next practice: Provide the capability to morph or mass-customize the
information provided to visitors, so that it provides the right tailored information
for this individual candidate, based on the background and interest profile he or
she provided.
Practice Area: Recruiting Focus and Prioritization
Average practice: Recruiters respond to all jobs equally.

 Best practice: Prioritize requisitions based on the potential business impact of

that position.
Next practice: In addition, assign recruiters, recruiting budget, and the
appropriate sourcing approach, based on the actual success rates of recent hires
in this targeted position.
Practice Area: Candidate Assessment
Average practice: Conduct behavioral interviews with all candidates.
Best practice: Add an online test as the first screen.
Next practice: Replace the test with an online video simulation developed for
this job, which both excites and more effectively assesses the candidate's skills,
weaknesses, and capabilities.
The Process for Identifying Next Practices
Predicting which HR practices will become obsolete and what will be needed to
supplant them in the future is obviously more difficult than merely calling up a
great company and asking it what it's doing now. However, the impacts are
significantly greater on the business, so it's definitely worth the effort.
The first step is to do some reading in the area of business change so that you can
learn how to identify precursors to change points. Unfortunately, there are but a
few authors who talk about what in business is known as "inflection points,"
where everything in a particular product line or industry changes. Start by
reading Only the Paranoid Survive by Andy Grove and the current best-seller, The
World is Flat. Then, start reading forecasting articles in publications
like BusinessWeek, Fortune, The Economist, Business 2.0, Workforce
Management, and the McKinsey Quarterly. Individuals who might help you
identify upcoming inflection points include individuals in product development,
R&D, and strategic planning.

After you identify these inflection points where business will change dramatically,
the next step is to identify which practices in recruiting and HR will no longer

support the direction of the company post-change.

It's important to remember there are almost always precursors or warning signs
that alert you to upcoming inflection points. These precursors are alerts that
recruiting and HR must prepare for change by beginning to develop the
appropriate next practice so that HR is adapting its own next practices at the
same time and speed as the rest of the business. For example, if product design
implemented changes to dramatically reduce time-to-market so that products
were introduced once a quarter rather than once a year, workforce allocation
models would obviously need to change. Speed of hiring might need to increase
to match the firm's increased speed of product development.
Other approaches you might consider include reading CEO speeches and articles
written by key industry thought leaders who have a track record of forecasting
inflection points. Look for individuals who think outside the box and are
consistently unhappy with current approaches.
The next stage of the process involves setting aside some time to think about the
future. This thinking can be stimulated with ifthen and whatif exercises that
focus on what might soon become obsolete. Part of the process should also be to
develop rules that prohibit looking at solutions that can only help you improve by
5-10%. Next-practice thinking, in essence, demands that you reject all solutions
that don't allow you to improve by a quantum amount of, say, 25%. This quantum
improvement rate is the key differentiator between best practices and next
practices. If you want to make a quantum jump in business or recruiting, you
simply must have to have tools and strategies that allow you to make a 25-50%
improvement, all within a relatively short period of time. If you are really bold,
just assume that every process must improve by, say, 25% (at the same rate of
change in your company's product line) each and every year.
You can also seek out any developing next practices by networking with only the
top firms that have been in the forefront of developing previous next practices.
Instead of asking about current best practices, ask them what practices they are
considering or developing for the future. Of course, they will be reluctant to share
future plans, so you'll need to have done your own thinking and propose a trade
of your next practice for theirs. Incidentally, you can't do this with 99% of the
firms in your industry because most firms have never developed a process to
begin thinking about next practices.

The final step, if your budget allows, is to consult with out-of-the-box thought
leaders to help validate your thinking. Efforts should be made to network with
individuals who have demonstrated their ability to accurately predict inflection
points and the related next practices in recruiting and HR. Thought leaders like
Kevin Wheeler, Michael McNeal, Michael Homula, Dan Hilbert, and even myself
come to mind. Sometimes, these individuals can shock your team into thinking
ahead.
If you want to become a leader in developing next practices, the first thing you
need is courage. Think of all the sea captains who told Columbus he was nuts
about his next practice! It takes tremendous courage to constantly argue that
your firm's best practices could ever become obsolete. Another wise move is to
commit yourself to becoming an expert in business change, so that you can begin
to identify the precursors to business change. Finally, develop a mindset that
assumes that every major practice is holding back your firm and the recruiting
function. However, if you are satisfied with a 3% rate of change, don't bother with
next-practice thinking. It's only for those that want to be first every time and to
win big!
Source: ERE Networking
China: Social Media More Often Used as Evidence in Employment Disputes
From emoticon messages to vacation photo uploads, China's social media boom is
creating a vast pool of evidence that Chinese courts are increasingly accepting in
labor disputes, practitioners tell Bloomberg BNA.
A sampling of recent lawsuits shows that employers and employees alike are
using social media posts as evidence. In this new environment, employers should
be aware of how employees use social media and should formulate clear
company policies that employees understand and notarize any social media posts
to be used as evidence, according to practitioners.
The use of social media evidence has increased in China along with social media's
booming popularity, said Jasmine Chen, an associate in the corporate practice at
Herbert Smith Freehills LLP in Shanghai.

Social media posts [in employment cases] have become a trend because people
are increasingly using social media posts in their daily lives, Chen told Bloomberg
BNA in a telephone interview Oct. 24.
An informal search in September of a court case database found 37 recent cases
involving social media posts, in 22 of which the posts were accepted into
evidence, said Dan Roules, a partner with Squire Sanders (US) LLP in Shanghai.
Accepting Electronic Evidence
Changes in China's Civil Procedure Law that took effect Jan. 1, 2013, specified that
judges should be able to accept electronic evidence in civil disputes.
Gordon Feng, of counsel in the employment law department at Paul Hastings in
Shanghai, said that in terms of evidence he doesn't see any significant
difference between social media posts and other electronic media such as email,
telephone records or text messages.
It's just a new way people share information, Feng told Bloomberg BNA in a
telephone interview August 26. The rules [for collecting evidence] are still the
same.
Further encouraging its increased use, social media evidence may be easier to
collect in China than in the U.S. because Internet users in China must present an
ID card or a mobile telephone number to use social media accounts, making it
relatively easy to trace messages back to the source, Feng said.
In a July 2014 Beijing decision, the court even went online itself to confirm that a
social media post an employee submitted as evidence was valid, according to
Chen.
Privacy Issues
The interplay between social media and privacy has not so far been directly
addressed in any court decisions, said Roules of Squire Sanders
Privacy law is under development [in China]. People are aware of the issue but
not sure how to address it here, Roules said. I think an employer is obligated
not to abuse the data it has access to, but it's not clear what that would mean.
While employers must be cautious not to access employee social media accounts
without authorization, monitoring publicly available social media may be a very
good way to find out evidence against employees during a dispute, Chen said.

People are usually not as careful on social media as they are at work, so they may
create evidence they wouldn't normally leave elsewhere. And since social media
posts are actually made by the employee, it's hard for him or her to refute.
In one case, for example, a company successfully used an employee's public travel
posts on microblogging site Weibo to prove that she went on vacation with her
family when she was supposed to be on sick leave.
Notarization of Evidence
To use social media posts as evidence, companies are advised to get an official
registered notary to observe the electronic information being gathered and then
notarize printoutsthe same way evidence is gathered from emails or other
electronic data.
Given China's requirements for civil cases, notarized evidence will prevail over
most ordinary evidence. According to Chen, there is no rule that says this
evidence must be notarized, but notarization will be a very good tool to rely on.
Put It in Writing'
If a company wants to use evidence from social media as grounds to terminate an
employee, there must be written company rules in place on which to base the
claim, said Jonathan Isaacs, a partner in the employment law group at Baker &
McKenzie in Hong Kong.
In one case, a court upheld a company's decision to dismiss an employee after he
posted negative comments about the company on Weibo, in part because the
company's policy clearly stated that employees should not post negative
comments about the company on social networks.
You want to put it in writing, Isaacs told Bloomberg BNA, adding that Baker &
McKenzie recommends companies adopt robust and comprehensive work rules
and policies about social media through employee consultation.
Source: Bloomberg BNA

Operation News
Supply Chain Screening Without Certification: The Critical Role of Stakeholder
Pressure
Companies are increasingly being held accountable for their suppliers' labor and
environmental performance. The reputation of Apple, for example, suffered after
harsh working conditions were exposed at Foxconn, one of its key suppliers in
China. Despite the possibility of major reputational risk when problems are
revealed, however, companies face tough challenges managing this risk because
obtaining information about suppliers' labor and environmental practices can be
very costly. Furthermore, buyers can seldom discern whether the information
suppliers provide a fair representation of their performance or whether it glosses
over problem areas. The authors investigate whether and how "commit-andreport" voluntary programs, which require companies to make public
commitments and to issue public progress reports (instead of requiring costly
third-party audits), can serve as a reliable screening mechanism for buyers.
Studying the decisions of 2,043 firms headquartered in 42 countries of whether to
participate in the UN Global Compact, the authors find the risk of stakeholder
scrutiny deters companies with misrepresentative disclosures from participating
in the Global Compact. Moreover, this deterrence effect is especially strong 1) for
smaller companies and 2) in countries with stronger activist pressures and
stronger norms of corporate transparency. Overall, this research reveals the
critical role for stakeholder scrutiny to enable buyers to use "commit-and-report"
voluntary programs as a reliable mechanism for screening suppliers. Key concepts
include:
The potential for stakeholder scrutiny deters companies whose prior
reports misrepresent their performance from joining a commit-and-report
voluntary program.
Smaller companies whose reports are misrepresentative are especially
deterred from joining commit-and-report programs.
Commit-and-report programs can serve as credible screening mechanisms,
especially in countries with more activist pressure and stronger norms of
corporate transparency.
Source- Working knowledge (Harvard Business school)

The Supply Chain Gender Gap

Last December, when General Motors named Mary Barra its new chief executive,
we at APICS celebrated the decision not only as a victory for women in C-level
roles, but also for supply chain, as Barra headed this area in her former position.
We encouraged the trend of companies recognizing supply chain as a competitive
advantage and incorporating supply chain knowledge into key leadership
positions.
However, the discussion of gender lines in supply chain is not as clear-cut. An
article in Fortune caught my attention as well as several peoples on the Supply
Chain Management Now team: Want More Women in the C-Suite? Start with
the Supply Chain. Author Caroline Fairchild relays a sobering statistic from SCM
World researchwhile 37 percent of students enrolled in supply chain courses
are women, women only account for about 5 percent of top supply chain
positions at Fortune 500 companies. Comparing this to the 15 percent of
executive officer roles held by women at Fortune 500 companies reveals quite a
bit of disparity.
The representation of women in top supply chain positions is nowhere near
where it should be, says Beth Ford, executive vice president and chief supply
chain and operations officer at Land OLakes. At the same time, it could be
viewed as tremendously exciting. The opportunities are there for women.
Ford believes the demands of supply chain are partially responsible for the lack of
women in leadership roles. She says taking responsibility for planning and
production, traveling to sites, and spending time in the field can make it hard for
those who also want to start a family. However, the importance of supply chain to
businesses means more and more women are starting their educations with the
field in mind.
Ford credits her career success to taking charge of her own professional
development. She wants to move the conversation away from women being
passive about accomplishments and instead about pushing for the right
experiences. Be mindful and own your decisions, Ford says. Be an active
steward of your career and make decisions accordingly.
Source: By APICS CEO Abe Eshkenazi, CSCP, CPA, CAE |

QUIZZOMANIA
1. Which domestic e-retailer bought t Myntra for 300 million US dollar on 21
May 2014 ?
2. Who has been appointed interim CEO of Multi Commodity Exchange of
India on 23 May 2014?
3. Which application that allows users to share messages that self-destruct
was acquired by Yahoo?
4. Who has been appointed as new Chief Executive Officer of Micromax on 25
May 2014?
5. Which new smartphone Intex has launched with 13-megapixel camera
launched at Rs 9,990?
6. Who became the top source of foreign direct investment into India on 25
May 2014 ?
7. Which smartphone Huawei launched with 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek
MT6582 processor for Rs 14999?
8. Who was the President and member of the board of Infosys who resigned
on 28 May 2014?

Answer:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Flipcart
Praveen Kumar singhal
Blink
Vineet Tanreja
Intel Acqa i5 HD
Singapore
Honor 3 C
B.G. Srinivas

Management Quotes
We have to get used to living and operating in a world of vitality, uncertainity
thats the norm. And the future belong to those who can continue to crack the
calculus for growth in the world of uncertainity.
Muhtar Kent, CEO, Coca Cola
To lead in an ever-changing world, leaders must adapt and stay nimble.
Indra Nooyi, CEO, pepsico

I think that our fundamental belief is that for us growth is a way of life and we
have to grow at all times.
Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and MD of Reliance Industries Ltd.

The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an
opportunity.
Peter Drucker, American Businessman and Author
I dont believe in taking right decisions. I take decisions and then make them right.
Rqatan Naval Tata,
Im convinced that about half of what seperates the successful entrepreneurs
from the non- successful ones is pure
perseverance.
Steve Jobs
If you work with determination and perfection, success will follow.
Gautam Buddha
Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We
are the ones we have been waiting for. We are
the change that we seek.
Barak Obama
In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear for
failure.
Narendra Modi

It takes twenty years to buils a reputation, and five minutes to ruin. If you think
about that, youll do things differently.
Warren Buffet
Our assets (Employees) walk out of the door each evening. We have to make sure
that they come back the next morning.
N.R. Narayan Murthy, Chairman of Infosys
Technologies

If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you get a Boss. He doesnt have
tenure.
Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft

One whose knowledge is confined to books, and whose wealth is in possession of

others, can use neither his knowledge nor wealth, when need arises.
Chayanka, Author of Arthashatra and Neetishastra
In business, whats dangerous is not to evolve.
JeffBezos, CEO of Amazon

If youre changing the world, youre working on important things. Youre exited
to get up in the morning.
LarryPage, CEO og Google
When you are innovate, you must prepare yourself for everybody to tell you that
youre nuts.
LarryEllison, CEO of Oracle

Business Jokes
In a small town in the US, there is a rather sizable factory that hires only married
men.
Concerned about this, a local woman called on the manager and asked him, Why
is it you limit your employees to married men?
Is it because you think women are weak, dumb, cantankerous..or what?
Not at all, Maam, the manager replied.
It is because our employees are used to obeying orders, are accustomed to being
shoved around, know how to keep their mouths shut and dont pout when I yell
at them.

A disappointed salesman of Coca Cola returns from his Middle East assignment. A
friend asked, Why werent you successful with the Arabs?
The salesman explained, When I got posted in the Middle East, I was very
confident that I will makes a good sales pitch as Cola is virtually unknown there.
But, I had a problem I didnt know to speak Arabic. So, I planned to convey the
message through 3 posters
First poster, a man crawling through the hot desert sand totally exhausted and
panting.
Second, the man is drinking our Cola and
Third, our man is now totally refreshed.
Then these posters were pasted all over the place
That should have worked, said the friend.
The salesman replied, Well, not only did I not speak Arabic, I also didnt realize
that Arabs read from right to left