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This is a blog by the students at the S P Jain Center of Management, Dubai, Singapore. The site is designed to play a common ground for the students and alumni of SPJCM to blog about their lives at the campus, industry exposure, events, current happenings, and everything else. The views expressed are solely those of the author(s) and do not reflect the views of S P Jain Center of Management. For more information on S P Jain Center of Management and the courses offered, visit the official SPJCM website
Playing with waves and particles is the game of future world. These days we follow up waves in the fields of Mobile Computing, GSM, GPS, Listening radio, Bluetooth for transferring Data, RFID Tags, Infra red in TV remote and many more numerable examples in day today life. These are some of the basic usage of transferring Information through waves. If transfer is possible, then why not processing of information in waves? Quantum, wave Computing comes and play a major role in developent of wave processors.
I would like to share with you all a recent experience and relate it to what we have learnt about branding and/or will be learning about branding. Around one week back my mobile phone broke down, I tried getting it repaired but the repairing cost was too high as compared to India, so I decided to rather buy a rather basic model for the time being and get my phone repaired once I get back to India.
So as a typical Indian consumer I enquired about price on a number of shops and thus finally find a shop close to our hostel. The shopkeeper was an old man, gave me quite a few options ranging from 60 dollars to 600 dollars, but as usual I was broke and had very little money! So I told him to narrow down the range to minimum, which is $ 60.
World of Information is becoming complex day by day. New information is getting accumulated at Geometric progression. Side by side different innovative tools, algorithms and web applications are getting developed to have search, usage and utilization of information as best as possible. Accumulation of tremendous information in this Global world has forced us to do proper trade-off between Precision and accuracy of complex Information, using tools like Six Sigma. Because information derived and needed would be different for different humans, but database is same, and more precise the information, higher chances of inaccuracy and vice versa. Now, by analysing and embedding different variables and Technologies, we are slowly and steadily moving towards Knowledge based search Engines, adding intelligence to our search for information and last but not least trying to imitate “Human mind".
Sundeep Malik Information Technology Management December'08
Welcome to my second post on Cloud Computing, this article speaks about the Ontology of the cloud. Though there is no industry defined ontology for the cloud, I found this particular representation most appropriate.
Siddharth Vishwanath
Human Resources Management
December 08
 - A day in the life of an MBA...
Aastha Gupta
Product Marketing and Management
April 09
Ayaz Furniturewalla, general manager of Elizabeth Arden’s distributor market and travel retail in Singapore says that “Beauty is recession-proof. Even when the economy isn’t doing well, people still need a little distraction to feel good about them.”
For majority of the Singaporeans, beauty is a ‘must-have’ rather than a luxury.
Irrespective of the slowing economy and the growing financial crisis, the beauty products and the cosmetics industry in Singapore remains upbeat. Above all, this industry is expected to maintain the current pace of growth next year also. A small survey conducted by a marketing research company also showed that despite the job losses and the deep economic recession that the country has faced till date, seven out of ten Singaporeans will continue to spend on beauty products and services. Those who wanted to cut their spending on beauty products like cosmetics said that they would just switch from designer labels to house brands.
Rounak Jhawar
Investment Banking and Wealth Management
December 08
4th April, 2019
Today prices of water made a new high, it touched a record price of €50 per barrel before closing at €47.52 a barrel. In the futures market the water prices surged upto €60 a barrel. Analysts say that the recent increase in the price of water is not due to the speculation , rather it is attributed to the acute shortage in fresh water world wide.
Richa Tewari
Retail Marketing, April 2009 batch
Retail Mobility refers to the collection of real time accurate data at any point of store activity and gaining access to task related information at the work location point. As a result of this technology, more staff is available on the shop floor between customers instead of performing heavy backend work. The consumer perception of store service assumes a marked impact by concentrating staff availability in customer facing locations. This is mainly achieved using some form of hand-held computing device which is used to implement a process in software at the point of activity or location of work.
Retail mobility technological solutions include a variety of single application devices, stand alone technology, wirelessly connected multi-tasking computer platform with printing and automatic data capture (bar-code, RFID) capability.
Sameera Yargop
Human Resources Management
December 08
No. This isn’t a book review for the James Ivory bestseller. Nor is it a claim that soldier’s daughters (more specifically, me) never cry. It is a line my father used on the occasions when I would hold on to his OG (Olive Green) clad leg for dear life and refuse to let him board his train. I have always wanted to write about my feelings for the spirit of the Indian soldier. Having experienced it so closely and drawn from it all my life.
It is a fact that the Indian Army has a standing in our country that no other government institution can match or even come close to. Most people take this for granted, but very few know what goes into being a soldier.
When I was young, my father being an Infantarian was posted in inaccessible (Families weren’t allowed.) field areas for almost 2 postings out of every 3. It was a rare treat to have him around on birthdays and Diwali because that meant that unreasonable and absurd demands would always be met with a benevolent smile, which otherwise would completely be ignored by my knowing and experienced (read strict and no nonsense) mother.
Since we were in Pune for the most and did not travel with the paltan (A unit within the Regiment is referred to as a Paltan.) there were times when I knew that my mom found it hard to cope without an adequate support system. Having dad come to school on annual days was something that was unheard of and it wasn’t rare that he forgot what class my brother and I were in.
I have no doubt that my father like every single member of any defense service had his moments of weakness too. When pressure was high and the warmth of home and family must have seemed far away. But the only dad that we ever saw was the one smiling and whipping us into shape ever so often, when reports of wayward behavior reached him.
I’ve had the good fortune of visiting a few army posts over the years. The respect that an officer commands from the troops is the basis on which The Indian Army functions. An officer’s authority, whether he is a Second Lieutenant straight out of IMA (Indian Military Academy) or a Lieutenant General with 30 years of experience behind him, is unquestioned by his men. If he commands them to stand in the line of fire, they do it. With a simple belief that he will watch their backs.
The pressure of watching your men injured, maimed and often killed on a day to day basis, while putting your own family on the back burner, is one that would make any board room seem almost laughable in comparison.
Bravery and chivalry, these are the values that a soldier always stands for. And believe me when I say, these are not empty words. Only the lucky few who have experienced this life can truly understand its depth.
If I were to be born more than once, I would proudly choose to be a soldier’s daughter again. My father has demonstrated to me not just with words but with every action that there is no place for fear in a warrior’s heart.
Because for a soldier all the sacrifices are but a small price to pay for the glory and privilege of being of able to serve his country.
Madhur Dhawan
Services Marketing and Management, December-08
With each passing day, we all are moving towards “crucial time”. This time is something which we all dreamt of when we applied for this institute. No doubt all of us are full of energy and have high hopes!
We all see the glimpse of the totally commercial world outside within our batch. We have seen many ups and downs in past eight months which have brought us together and have taken us apart. Each case study and each subject has thought us of being more and more professional in approach, to focus more on our objective. Our professors have given us a piece of their minds and we have engrained those conclusions in our minds.
Gopal Rathnam
IT Management, April, 09
“Its time to clean up your fridge” claimed a mail from his roommates. “Anything is welcome, as long as it is stale” it mentioned.
It was close to midnight. Every room in the hostel was busy. Every one, for once, decided to close their books and open their refrigerator to look out for leftover food stuff. Everyone knows that anything that was not stale was strictly not accepted.
I was sitting in the kitchen table and was deeply disappointed that my fridge was already clean. Thinking whether we should borrow something from the next room’s fridge, I was sipping my cup of coffee. People started gathering in the corridor, with a pack of ‘presents’ for the birthday boy.
We have been hearing a lot about a revolution which will change the way we do business. A revolution which will make the best IT solutions available to any organization/individual at a very reasonable cost, yes we have been hearing a lot about these two revolutionary words ‘Cloud Computing’. These series of my posts will focus on different aspects of Cloud Computing.
Cloud computing draws a very close analogy from the world of electricity. In 1851 Henry Burden invented the big Burden’s wheel to generate electricity for his factory. This revolutionized the way factories operated and in the years to follow many factories started their own electricity generating units. It was not long before Thomas Edison’s assistant Samuel Insull realized the potential of building central electricity generation units and providing factories and households with electricity at a cheaper cost. People saw the benefit of this approach and soon electricity generation shifted from individual companies to electricity generating organizations at a very fast pace allowing businesses to concentrate on their core competencies. All one needed were few wires from the electricity generation plant to their factory and pay for the number of unit of electricity they utilised. The electricity generating organizations were able to significantly reduce electricity cost because of economies of scale and were able to create significant business value out of this approach. This made electricity a utility and a necessity for all businesses and no longer gave companies any competitive advantage.
A similar revolution is currently underway in the technology industry where computing power is being talked of in the same breath as a utility service. The concept is called cloud computing, the general understanding held by the market is best described by this definition from Wikipedia “Cloud computing . . . is a style of computing where IT-related capabilities are provided ‘as a service,’ allowing users to access technology-enabled services ‘in the cloud’ without knowledge of, expertise with or control over the technology infrastructure that supports them". The idea being a user would now just need a terminal, internet connection (the cloud is the internet) and probably his credit card details to plug into the cloud. And a whole lot of applications and infrastructure would be available to him to use and pay for according to his usage.
In the early years of the last century the nature and economics of mechanical power changed with the centralization of electricity generation and we arrived at a moment where technology extended mans physical powers. We are at another such moment today with technologies that extend our intellectual powers.
Sundeep Malik
Information Technology Management
December’08
Siddarth Dudheria
Banking Management
GMBA - Dec'08
The Americans have literally thrown the kitchen sink at the problem called recession. They have tried every possible way to combat the recession. The solution will take time to address the problem and this time can be used by the corporates to prepare plans for recovery post recession. There are three problems corporates have faced as a result of the recessionary environment.
1. Loss of customer confidence
2. Loss of image and brand
3. Loss of human resources i.e. employees
For any corporate to prepare a recovery plan post recession, the above three must be the top most priorities.
Loss of Customer Confidence:
The recession has seen many corporates lose the confidence of their customers. One of the key reasons behind this is the inability of corporate to show survival skills. WoolWorths, UK is a very pertinent example in this context. The retailer was one of the most exclusive retailers in London’s High Street and remained the same till this period of uncertainty hit them hard.
Corporates must strengthen their core values and survival skills post recession to brace for a similar situation. Corporates must strip the non essential components of their business and stay lean. They must transform themselves into lean (not mean) fighting machines. By stripping non essential components, they must focus on their core competence and try delivering a confident customer experience.
Loss of image and brand
This recession has seen several big corporate with successful track record go under the belly. Several of these corporate have paid the price for being non transparent and over ambitious. They entered many businesses that made all logics disappear. Merril Lynch graduated from being an underwriter in CDO’s to becoming an investor and player in the same market. Merril was seduced by the gains that other players were making in the CDO trading space and chose to enter it. Little did it know that this decision would cost them their independence and loss of face, image and brand.
Corporates must now prepare a leadership team that is capable of not getting seduced by short term gains that will potentially risk their existence. Corporates must also rein in executive compensation and show the consumer / customer that they are a responsible company in all aspects.
A 360 degree marketing campaign highlighting the sustainability and responsibility to the soceity must be undertaken to restore loss of image and brand among customers.
Loss of employees
One of the most disturbing outcomes of this recession has been the way employees have been treated. Most of the Corporates in distress have shown no mercy for employees, firing thousands of them at will. This measure will save the corporate precious money in the short term but will sow the seeds of future doom.
Corporates seem to have forgotten that a satisfied employee can lead to higher productivity, drive margins upwards and thus result in higher stock prices. Post recession, corporates must devise an empathetic approach towards employees. The leadership must treat them as equal partners rather than as subordinates.
The post recession recovery plan must include the following
1. Following core competence to the last letter and exiting business that do not fit the core values.
2. Focusing on the brand/image and using marketing as a mode of continuous communication with clients/customers.
3. Treating employees as peers rather than paid subordinates.
4. Scenario Planning- Corporates must invest a lot of time and money to come up with best and worst possible business environments and test their responses to the same.
These are the key components of any post recession recovery plan. Recessions are violent but the will to survive and fight has to be stronger.
The common perception among people is this subject is only for HR’s. The irony is that most MBA’s like us also feel the same. I fail to understand why. Are only HR’s supposed to know about the ethics of the organization. Heard a lot of people say “my specialization (left to the readers’ discretion to guess.) and ethics don’t go hand in hand and I really don’t need to study this.”
Now coming to the question of why do we even need a course on governance and ethics ? Every other day we hear about the Stamfords, the Madoffs, the Enrons and the Satyams of the world that there is an air of mistrust all around in the world. Had there been a little amount of due diligence on the part of the stake holders of an organization, we wouldn’t have landed up in a soup like what we are in now. That’s where I realize the governance and ethics come in.
Over to the main issue, is it only for the HR’s? I have a few questions to pose. Why is a CEO held responsible for fraud when unethical practices are reported in an organization if it is only for HR’s ?Who handles the whole organizational governance? The CEO or the HR manager? Agreed HR managers are equally responsible in building the work culture but it is often built from top to bottom as the values at top percolate in to the bottom levels. It’s essentially the top leadership which drives the governance and ethics in the organization. As I see it is totally up to individuals to discover the importance of ethics in their lives but people must realize that if they aspire to be top leaders, be it a CEO, CFO or a HR in an organization, they cannot afford to compromise on ethics
Our first week in Singapore saw us traversing the malls and stores at Orchard Street trying to get a flavour of a retail world that has seen it all - growth, maturity to a current attempt at rejunevation. Having said that, one has to agree that the shopping streets of Singapore exude a certain spirit, something missing from the large shopping spaces of Dubai.
The difference though is not just of size, but also the shopping experience. Walk into store here, there are a host of smiling faces waiting to greet you and serve your needs. More importantly, the smiling faces are equally equipped with a sound knowledge of the product in question, a stark difference from their Indian and Arab counterparts who appear to be part of a mere position filing exercise.
Interestingly, even this experience varies between stores. We happened to visit some of the high end stores Like Tiffany & Co., Mont Blanc and Louis Vuitton in the upmarket Ngee Ann City. Given our sling bags and casual clothing, it wasn't hard for a seasoned salesman to to guage out shopping intentions. Yet some of them were more than willing to answer our curious queries, while others were skeptical about their wasting their time. An interesting point made by our retail faculty was that we weren't the first such casual information seeking visitors. Everyday, these stores encounter many such 'non-buyers', some out for pleasing their eyes and other students and professionals for store comparison; which may be one of the reasons behind the reluctance and sometimes blunt refusal of stores to entertain such folks. But does this defy the core of all our theories of customer service? Is the store experience or even delight meant just for the sure shot buyer - maybe a food for thought!!
Varun Kothari
Internet Marketing Management, April ’09 Batch
The Internet is a world wide web of interconnected computer networks which comprises of millions of privately and publicly owned, academic, business, and government owned networks which have local to global scope. These networks are linked by copper wires, fiber-optic cables, wireless connections, and other technologies.
Commercialization of the internet network started in the mid 1990s, and countless applications in virtually every aspect of modern human life have evolved since then. As internet is touching every aspect of the human life, we are more interested in the future of internet. What would be the role of internet in the future world, let’s say after 10 years i.e. 2020.
Recently a survey was conducted by the PEW internet and American life project to predict the implications of the internet on society in coming times and how internet will be evolved? The survey focused on the responses from the key personnel in internet industry, analysts and technocrats.
I have summarised the survey outcomes so as to understand the future of internet. The major trends that could evolve in internet usage impacting our society are discussed here.
Global network deployed: By 2020, world-wide internet network interoperability will be achieved, which would allow unrestricted flow of data, verification of credentials and billing; mobile wireless communications will be a low cost commodity available to everyone. In future, convergence of more and more services on mobile will happen.
English as the global language: Internet Networked communications will play a major role to combine the world into a single political, social and economic entity where people can connect each other and everywhere to have audio – visual exchanges using internet. English can thus become the primary global language displacing few of the regional languages.
Growing Technology dependence is a problem: In 2020, our growing dependence on the technology and day by day reducing human control as an interface with increasing usage of artificial intelligence which would cut direct human input so completely out of few key activities such as electronic surveillance, security systems that technology out of our control could generate threat of dangers and dependencies that could not be identified until it would be impossible to reverse them.
Personal privacy at stake: The other impact that internet could have in 2020 is that with growing usage of internet and it’s availability at cheaper costs, privacy of not only the celebrities but the common man would be affected. In fact, we will be connected to the outside world all the time. But if we look at the bigger picture, it will be good as both the pros and cons would be highlighted easily and the society will be more aware.
Internet opens doors to success: In 2020, Internet will open the door to success. As rightly predicted by Thomas Friedman in his book The World is Flat, in year 2008, the internet can make it possible for individuals to collaborate and compete globally. The free flow of information will completely blur the national boundaries. The new boundaries that could evolve which will be groupings based on corporate culture with varied geographical boundaries with flat organizations bounded together by the global networks.
Terror risks looms: Increased connectivity and information will led few people to stay away from the global networks to live in peace but few others could utilize the efficacy of these networks for terror attacks as they might not be happy with the way the technology is shaping the world. So, a new type of terrorist segment could arise in the years to come.
These are the major trends that could evolve in the 3rd stage of internet evolution and we can clearly see how our lives will be changed within few years. The technology will accelerate the change process so fast, that would be, beyond imagination. Semantic web will have a drastic impact on this change cycle in the coming years. We should look forward to evolving convergence technologies to make this world a better place to live in.
Khushboo Ponwar
Internet Marketing Management, April ' 09
Here is a ppt on different online business models in the evolving internet industry.
http://spjcmstudentblog.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/advolve2.ppt
Shreeram Kunte Services Marketing, April '09
The growing economic crisis that has gripped the world currently doesn’t really make a difference to 12-year old Kishan who is busy mending shoes in the dark by lanes of Dharavi in Mumbai. Neither does the news of a gain in Sensex excite Murthy, a poor farmer in Andhra Pradesh who has a feed his family of five. Life, for millions of people across India, is a crisis any way. Isn't this a cold-blooded fact that we are completely alienated from a larger part of India? While we discuss the impact of this crisis in the comforts of our air-conditioned class-rooms, these people, in a sheer helplessness fight the already lost battle.
Madhur Dhawan
Services Marketing and Management
My recent trip Pulau Ubin Island provoked a thought. We took a ferry boat from Singapore coast and it a ten minute boat ride and you reach Pulau Ubin. As I de-boarded the boat and entered the island, there were many shops which were renting out bicycles for one day. As Pulau ubin is a small island, one can easily roam around the island on the bicycles.
Looking at the business these shops were able to generate, I thought the possibilities which are there in services. It was the Right Place, the right product which helped these shops to do the business, no tourist wants to buy a bicycle just to roam around the island and yet every one wants a bicycle to roam around. What a business opportunity!
Now if you see how many such places are there in India, I mean places like Pulau Ubin, places which are unexplored and have tremendous potential to be the nest tourist destination. Not only in tourism but in every aspect of business, I think there is a huge potential for services as they offer what customer wants and that to without buying it as it is required for a short time. There are companies which are offering IT hardware on rental basis for short terms as many organizations want IT hardware on project to project basis and are unwilling to incur the cost of purchase.
I can now relate everything I buy to services. Say for example why do I buy bottle of water when I m thirsty. Its not the bottle which I need but its jus that I want o quench my thirst. Just think how big this business of bottled water is. Why cant there be a company which offers water instead of bottles. What If a customer doesn’t have to buy a bottle of water whenever he r she feels thirsty, instead there can be dispensers which can be placed across a geographic location and anyone can just pay a small flat rate for the amount of water he or she drinks, I know this idea is a bit too radical but may be something can be worked out!
I believe that there is a lot of scope of services and innovation in this field, any government can look into this as a means to promote tourism and more over it can act as a source of employment for the local people. Even if there is no help intervention form the government, innovative ideas by local people can attract a lot of tourist. Similarly innovative ideas in services can bring in a drastic change in any field. I see endless possibilities in the field of services!
 They say providing one meal to the needy is the biggest Dharma. An even bigger one is donating blood to the really needy. One is a life giver and the other is a life saver.
We at SPJCM Singapore followed the latter to conduct one of the most successful Blood Donation Drives for the Singapore Red Cross. Ably led by Thanneer Sir, our team of volunteers and the workers of the Red Cross made it an event to remember for one and all.
Balagopal
Banking Management, December 08
It is again the time to cull out men from boys.
The world is still pondering over what has hit them while I am writing this article. The news articles are filled with recession economics, what went wrong? , what are CDO’s? , who is to blame? Et al. Are we witnessing one of that black swan event’s which has defied all human logic and predictions? Time will tell. However world would move on and so would the economy.
One of the laws of physics which will stay in almost everyone’s tiny head is that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The action? No prize for guesses since most of the world is well educated about the consequences of this economic catastrophe by now. The reaction is an upswing and prosperous growth in the near future. When? Even I wouldn’t know. The only clear signal to everyone is that there will be a recovery and when that happens there will be a sudden surge in demand. The corporate who would like to be on the right side of that growth need to start working for it now.
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