It was an inspiring lecture delivered by Mr. Mahesh Anand from Nippon Paints on April 3rd and 4th 2010 at Chennai Business School. Mr. Mahesh is the zonal head of Southern India for Nippon Paints- and he comes with a 20 yrs work experience. He talked with abundant information about the paint industry in India and how Nippon paints carved its way in the Indian paint industry.
Decorative paints are made available with different colors and patterns and it covers around 70% of the Indian market. The paint industry in India is mostly dominated by the Asian Paints company, a veteran paint giant with market share of 56% and having more than 25000 dealers across the country.
Nippon paints – the 129 year old international paint major, headquartered in Japan penetrated into the Indian market showcasing its innovative property of elasticity, odorless and environment friendly paints developed from its numerous research and development centers established using Japanese technology.
The company has maintained a robust supply chain management. Having learnt that shipping duty is more than the cost of the product, it has setup two distinctive manufacturing units in India, one at Chennai and the other at Gurgaon. It has capacious warehouses that enable to store bulk amount of products as per the specific requirements of the clients. This made the cost effective supply of paint products across the country through only specific and experienced paint dealers. It targeted Asian paint dealers who had relevant experience and exposure with the Indian market scenario.
Nippon is the first company to setup an exclusive specialty retail outlet for paints- this helped various consumers like building contractors, builders, painters and even common people by exhibiting its various products with distinctive features and quality. It has helped the consumers to feel the product and realize Nippon’s USP. These exclusive stores will provide professional help and consultancy service apart from providing a retail experience that will be exciting, customer friendly and product centric.
Contributed by Leela Vijay Kumar, Retail Varsity, CBS Batch-4 (2009-10)
Monday, April 12, 2010
Bowled Over
“Oh, that’s a beautiful delivery. That’s the flipper, and he is gone right through Andy Flower”. It was 2003 Cricket World cup when one of the greatest players of spin bowling was bamboozled by this ‘china man’ bowler. A typical tough Aussie, known to take on battle on the field was up for it this time, on a completely different play area. Brad Hogg, the cricketer and an alumni of Curtin University, Perth spun his enriching web on strategy, leadership and attitudinal facets an individual should possess, and the secret of touching heights in one’s life.
“Pup (Clarke) has been through troubled times of late” remarked Hogg, answering to my question on succession planning. He pointed to the importance of building second string leadership and backed Clarke as an able leader in the making. Half the battle is won in minds and very little involves the actual skills and technical shortcomings. This was the strategy that Mc Grath used to destabilize Sachin with his in-swingers. Killer-Instinct was an integral part of the game plan Aussies had. This often enabled them to play with a lot more intensity, pressurizing the opponents with a ‘never die’ spirit.
Waiting under the wings of Warne ensured Clarke learnt the lessons of ‘deserving’ to play only through performance and appropriate results. It brought out the importance of being ‘mentored’ thereby understanding intricacies in the art of bowling (of business). “ I would n’t mind taking Sachin or Lara giving away 200 odd runs, instead of running through the lower order” opined Hogg, hinting at the fact that efforts needs to be channelized in targeting and winning the best in business, and not just the stand alone records in the form of numbers.
While Waugh used to deal with players upfront, Ponting in comparison was relatively quiet. This shows how leaders use different styles and strategies to tackle situations and team members. Mental disintegration (Sledging) was yet again such a vital tool, to get to the nerve of the opposition, as long as it never crossed the line. Sportsman spirit, camaraderie is fine, beyond these was ‘Uncle Sam’ (referee) watching to axe the ones with suspensions, who get a little too carried away. Need for controlled aggression was put forth in typical cricket’s ‘Mouthful’ language!
Apart from the synergies that management and cricket shared, there was a competitive round of questions asked. Hogg presented self autographed bats to students. Hogging the limelight, the magician from West Australia spoke on Injury- “When one enjoys what he does, he neither feels the pain nor complains”. Drawing analogy to organizations, when someone works with passion, he looks at the larger picture of success than the trivial issues.
Thanks Hoggy, you have left your “rough” marks to make the most out of. We will exploit it and spin our way to glory in the times ahead!
Contributed by Balaji MS, HR Varsity, CBS Batch-4 (2009-10)
“Pup (Clarke) has been through troubled times of late” remarked Hogg, answering to my question on succession planning. He pointed to the importance of building second string leadership and backed Clarke as an able leader in the making. Half the battle is won in minds and very little involves the actual skills and technical shortcomings. This was the strategy that Mc Grath used to destabilize Sachin with his in-swingers. Killer-Instinct was an integral part of the game plan Aussies had. This often enabled them to play with a lot more intensity, pressurizing the opponents with a ‘never die’ spirit.
Waiting under the wings of Warne ensured Clarke learnt the lessons of ‘deserving’ to play only through performance and appropriate results. It brought out the importance of being ‘mentored’ thereby understanding intricacies in the art of bowling (of business). “ I would n’t mind taking Sachin or Lara giving away 200 odd runs, instead of running through the lower order” opined Hogg, hinting at the fact that efforts needs to be channelized in targeting and winning the best in business, and not just the stand alone records in the form of numbers.
While Waugh used to deal with players upfront, Ponting in comparison was relatively quiet. This shows how leaders use different styles and strategies to tackle situations and team members. Mental disintegration (Sledging) was yet again such a vital tool, to get to the nerve of the opposition, as long as it never crossed the line. Sportsman spirit, camaraderie is fine, beyond these was ‘Uncle Sam’ (referee) watching to axe the ones with suspensions, who get a little too carried away. Need for controlled aggression was put forth in typical cricket’s ‘Mouthful’ language!
Apart from the synergies that management and cricket shared, there was a competitive round of questions asked. Hogg presented self autographed bats to students. Hogging the limelight, the magician from West Australia spoke on Injury- “When one enjoys what he does, he neither feels the pain nor complains”. Drawing analogy to organizations, when someone works with passion, he looks at the larger picture of success than the trivial issues.
Thanks Hoggy, you have left your “rough” marks to make the most out of. We will exploit it and spin our way to glory in the times ahead!
Contributed by Balaji MS, HR Varsity, CBS Batch-4 (2009-10)
Saturday, March 27, 2010
How did Sridevi Raghavan catch the success train?
On the 8th of March CBS celebrated women’s day with Sridevi Raghavan, a young entrepreneur, the co-founder and CEO of Amelio Chid Care who shared with us her inspiring life story of how she got to where she is today. Sridevi came across as a young, confident woman who was highly knowledgeable. Her effortless way of addressing an audience was truly commendable. What she spoke was very relevant to our current situation. With the placement seasons going-on in full swing and all of us looking at different career options, Sridevi’s session was timed so perfect that it blew our minds.
Often we all face situations where we find it difficult to convince others of the dreams that we have. And it is even more difficult to make others see things from our perspective. Sridevi too faced a similar situation when after few years of marriage she decided to pursue her MBA, and not just any MBA… but an MBA from Harvard. Although her family and friends did not react too positively to this, she went on to pursue her dream. She went on to explain how important the MBA was to her and why she decided to do what she did. She says “you cannot expect anyone to empathize with you 100% not even your parents, lover, your partner why... not even your pet. But what you can do is ask for their support.” How very true! The knowledge that you have the support of the people that you love is so comforting and with this support we get the strength to face even the worst of our nightmares.
It’s very natural that we dream big and many a times land up bursting the bubble. So many questions come to our mind...like…how? when ? where? We immediately start planning things and we get unnecessarily worked up about the execution that we fail to convince ourselves about it. And it was at this point Sridevi’s husband told her not to get bogged down by all the unknowns and to start taking things as it comes. And today Sridevi says “if you have a dream... pursue it. Don’t worry about how you are going to do it… Plans keep changing but dreams do not. So be a dreamer.” Those were some powerful words of wisdom.
Sridevi’s experience at Harvard was truly an eye opener for many of us. Never again are we going to frown at our professors for giving us another HSB case to crack…not after we heard how it happens at Harvard. Some important take aways from her time at Harvard were
• Listen to your gut feel. It is important to give as much importance to intuition as we give to logically finding “The Right thing to do”
• Fear of making a mistake. One has to get over the fear of looking foolish. In the context of a Business school, Sridevi encouraged us to look at the school as a place where we can sound our ideas and experiment with our thoughts. Once out of B School, in a real time scenario one does not have the luxury to keep experimenting. A B-School gives you the right platform, support and guidance to share your thoughts. So one should make the best use of it.
Sridevi gave us first hand information on how to make our first move into the corporate world. Her speech gave us a feel as to what to expect in the real world. It left us with the feeling that each one of us could also achieve something by tapping the hidden potential in us. The pointers she left behind were those that no books teach you. A truly inspiring speech!
Monday, March 15, 2010
Slice out of life!
The occasion was spot on for one such electrifying guest lecture- Women’s day. And what’s more, we had one of the most energetic ladies sharing her lifetime experiences on how to dream big and achieve through sustained focus. Sridevi Ragavan, a graduate from HBS kept us captivated with insights into her path to entrepreneurial success. She is the founder of ‘Amelio’ child care centre, India’s first on-site childcare service provider.
“Never mix dreams and plans, the moment you confuse both, you tend to doubt your dreams”- how true! Plans keep changing but dreams don’t. Sounds simple, yet has a powerful realization. She spoke on how people muddle up plans and dreams, making it difficult to realize one’s dreams.
To recognize and enhance one’s uniqueness is the need of the hour. This is furthermore important considering the cut throat competition around. “Never expect others to empathize with your dream- ask for support though…” Yet again these words made a lot of sense to our entrepreneurial minds. “To be faced with problems early on is to be lucky,” she said. Simple liners though, but the message penetrated deep within.
She took us through her own planning exercises during the ‘Amelio’ set up times, also bringing out the challenges that came across then. She stressed on understanding the fact that different people come from different background and respecting the same will ensure a healthy win-win scenario. After all what’s fun in everyone doing the same work with similar thought processes? She looked at her own competition as a means to bring out innovation and called the competitor ‘A free consultant’ to trigger her to better ideas!
Passion for one’s work is as critical as one’s life. Draw energy from your work…Remove the ‘HOW’ element from your dream…all well communicated take aways, worth a million!
‘Women are far superior when it comes to work as they are more committed’ … “All the men out here are because of women, hence at least change one woman’s life and empower her” ….She was indeed a true representation of our country’s contemporary working woman. The 80 odd minutes of interaction with her was content rich and highly reinforcing. Bravo...hail her achievement!
Signing off with warm Women’s Day wishes!
Workshop on Creativity and Cross Culture
Red Green Blue color model (RGB) has connotation for an artist and people at large who use their sketches and brushes. But for strategies, meetings and organizations- RGB at work? Ah now…that’s got to be deciphered. Just as they say life is all about different hues, planning also involves tinges of shades. If creativity is considered a niche and a gifted paradigm, one may well need to self introspect. Ms Mrinalini from ‘Paper Clip’ termed it as a ‘Skill’ that can be honed. In fact we learnt ‘Six-Thinking Hats’, ‘Random Word’ and ‘Po’ tools among many to build on the ‘creative skill’ of an individual.
The basic purpose behind hats is to maintain discipline in thinking during meetings, and to bring every participant in page with one another. The facet of every individual hat was brought out with live case analysis. White symbolized facts while green stood for solution. Black provided the negative aspect, yellow the benefits and finally red for emotions. Blue hat manages the remaining five hats and ensures that discussions stay focused and the agenda is maintained.
The discussion then shifted to random word techniques where we were tested by relating to focus elements through any randomly chosen word. The whole exercise brought out the importance of staying focused to put one’s creative ideas to practice. Creativity as such does not fail; neither do the ideas behind it. But focus is one large piece of connection that needs to be intact for implementing creativity.
‘Po’ revolved on thinking beyond the obvious. It helped us realize how best a particular business can thrive under extreme conditions, if innovative solutions are sought dropping the ‘taken for granted’ element.
Cross cultural insights were provided through audio visuals and case discussions. In a world of global workforce, cultural diversity and ways of handling it tends to be the crucial part of any business. This was emphasized and shared through examples and specific scenarios posed to the HR students.
We enjoyed every exercise done to test the creativity tools. Scope of implementation is huge and almost present in every sphere of professional and personal life. HR folks have been tuned well to coherently think and use creativity tools to coordinate and facilitate discussions better. The session has left us with positive verve, much disciplined and focused than ever before!
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