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Consulting AheadVol. 1 Issue 2 July 2007

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Editorial Advisory Board

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Prof. C.S. Venkata RatnamDirector, International Management Institute

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Members

CONSULTING AHEAD - VOL. I - ISSUE 2

Prof. B. BhattacharyaDirectorInstitute for Integrated Learning in ManagementNew Delhi

Mr S. S. ChakrabortyManaging DirectorConsulting Engineering Services (India) Pvt. Ltd.New Delhi

Mr Arun KochharDGM Corporate AffairsEngineers India LimitedNew Delhi

Mr Navyug MohnotManaging DirectorQAI (India) LimitedNew Delhi

Mr N. S. RajanPartner Human CapitalErnst & Young Pvt. Ltd.New Delhi

Mr G. ShankarMadras Consultancy GroupChennai

Mr Tanmoy ChakrabartyVice President & Head Global Govt Industry GroupTata Consultancy ServicesNew Delhi

Mr Rajiv KhuranaManagement ConsultantThe Personnel LabNew Delhi

Dr Bhimaraya A. MetriAssociate Professor Operations ManagementManagement Development InstituteGurgaon

Dr Kiran Kumar MomayaAssociate Professor Competitiveness Chairperson Strategic Management Group Department of Management Studies Indian Institute of Technology DelhiNew Delhi

Mr S. R. RaoExecutive DirectorExport Import Bank of IndiaMumbai

Prof. P. B. SharmaVice-ChancellorRajiv Gandhi Technical UniversityBhopal

Leading Consultancy to World Class

Through this article, authors Shri Ashok Puri and Navin Talwar have drawn a value chain for consulting firms so as to lead consultancy to a world class level. The authors emphasize that in the volatile environment a dynamic strategy or continuous and flexible approach to marketing and operations of consultancy is required. This continuous and ever dynamic approach has to be based on a value chain. The authors have built a value chain model for manufacturing of FMCG or Durables. Navin Talwar


"Predicting the future is the easy part. What really matters is the ability to harness waves of change and use them to achieve high performance."

CONSULTING AHEAD - VOL. 1 - ISSUE 2

Business Value Creation – Role of Management Consulting

Ramesh S. Tyagi

The concepts and methodology of business value creation through management consulting have undergone changes as transformation has taken place from industrial to information economy. In the industrial era, there was more emphasis on manufacturing efficiency and important aspects such as human resources, their motivation and innovativeness were not given adequate importance. During recent years, IT has also made a tremendous impact on management consulting practice. In a highly competitive business environment, management consulting needs to adopt a holistic approach. In addition to functional domain knowledge (marketing, human resource development, business process management) IT knowledge is also importance for business value creation. Multifunctional Management Consulting Organisations are built around a number of functions. They are expected to bring in global perspectives for providing management consulting and have specialised knowledge of the industry, sectors and technology. In order to compete effectively in the changing environment, individual consultants and boutique consulting firms should network and adopt a consortium approach for providing multidisciplinary consulting services. It must be kept in view that consultants deliver great value when their recommendations are implemented and changes take place for improvement in processes and people resulting in higher profits and better market share.

Consultancy Brights, Greens and Blues

The article highlights the various dimensions of consultancy viewed from various angles and perceptions. An effort has been made to establish a correlation between the various features of consultancy with the instances one comes across during the course of delivering the services. The narration aims to analyse the hits and misses with a need to enhance the client-consultant-contractor relationship and trust for their mutual benefit and goal -oriented approach. Though, the examples given in the analysis pertain to engineering consultancy services, their applicability to any field of consultancy would be valid and relevant.

Through the views expressed in the article, brighter aspects of the consultancy, need for a visionary approach, following work ethics and the broadside of the services have been put forth in a simplistic thought provoking form.

Raghu Sharma


Strategic Perspective: IT Consulting in India

Indian organizations are witnessing changing market conditions with

the revolution of Information Technology (IT) & Communication

Technology (CT). The market dynamics have reached unparalleled heights.

Some of the Indian organizations have begun to learn from some of the

critical issues and respond to them appropriately. Added to the above

situation is the global competition. The world is becoming smaller and

smaller, the national boundaries are disappearing and theoretically a large

prospective customer base is available to Indian organizations, if they

correctly respond to the challenges of the global competition. There is a need

to develop the right strategic perspective with respect to IT consulting.

This paper examines the strategic perspective of IT consulting in India,

the global competition and how Indian organizations can meet the

challenges.

Dr. Neeta Baporikar


Performance measurement systems in practice: A balanced scorecard perspective

The globalization and liberalization policies of the Indian economy has brought phenomenal changes in the business market in terms of the level of competition among organizations, manufacturing environment in which the organizations operate, cost structure of organizations and the increase in the number of players in the market, thereby paving way to the rapid development of advanced technologies. Measurement of performance has been of significant interest recently among both academics and practitioners. Organizations have been measuring and thereby managing their performance on the basis of financial measures using the traditional accounting methods. The performance measurement system that solely focusses on financial metrics would not facilitate the organizations in valuing their intangible and intellectual assets. Hence many organizations have begun to focus their attention on integrated strategic management tools that link performance measurements to organizational management and strategy. Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is one such management concept that has spread in worldwide business and consulting communities. BSC translates mission and vision statements into a comprehensive set of objectives and performance measures that can be quantified and appraised. Through a discussion of current literature on the topic and through illustrations, the article demonstrates the role of BSC in enabling strategic performance management and also highlights the limitations of balanced scorecard.

Key words: Balanced scorecard, performance measurement strategy

T.J. Kamalanabhan A. Suhanya


Second Green Revolution - Role of Corporates

India's agriculture is passing through a critical situation particularly in foodgrains production following near stagnant or even declining productivity. The self-sufficiency in foodgrains production which was achieved after the green revolution of the 1960's has petered out and the country was forced to import five and a half million tonnes of wheat during 2006-07. Various factors like the marginal decline in gross irrigated area despite creation of more potential through colossal investment, poor replacement of seeds, lopsided development in the application of fertilizers and insufficient research effort for attaining another breakthrough in agriculture are held responsible for such a dismal situation. Farm credit has no doubt expanded significantly in recent years, but outreach, particularly to small and marginal farmers, has not. A second green revolution following a different strategy is the need of the hour to overcome the gloomy situation. Accelerating technology transfer, rescheduling credit supply and timely availability of inputs for higher productivity are essential for the new strategy. Besides, there should be an inclusive policy for sustainable development covering land, water and pest management, nutrient supply and improved post-harvest technology. None of this is possible if it is left to the government machinery alone. Experience shows that the key to the second green revolution will be possible only by increasing private-public participation through contract or corporate farming. Simultaneously, there is a need for diversification of the rural economy so that small and marginal farmers and landless agricultural labourers get offfarm employment to

reduce their economic distress, Corporates can play a big role in this sphere.


Design of Longest Span Cable Stayed Bridge on Zuari River, India

Zuari is one of the big rivers in India and it is located near the western coast of the country close to the sea. The river separates the state capital town Panaji from the airport Dabolim which provides access to the tourist state of Goa from across the world. A two-lane prestressed concrete cantilever box girder bridge 807m long was built in 1983 across this river as a part of national highway no. 17 connecting both sides. Subsequently, the vehicular traffic on this corridor increased manifold and the existing bridge had shown signs of serious structural distress. This prompted the authorities to plan for a four-lane new bridge on the river adjacent to the existing one designed on the expressway standard.

There exists navigational requirement for the crossing and tourism being one of the most important activities of the State, the authorities have taken the decision to construct a landmark bridge at this location in the form of a long span cable stayed bridge.

Keywords : Pylon, GPS, wind tunnel, simulation, co-extruded, closing pour, rainbow effect.

S. Sengupta


Carbon dioxide: Matter of Pollution or Profit?

Carbon dioxide has taken a centre stage in the environmental arena in recent years. One of the most alarming global environmental problems of today is 'The Greenhouse Effect'. This problem is mainly caused by the increased atmospheric CO concentration due to the burning 2

of fossil fuels for power generation. A response strategy, to reduce the problem of a further increasing greenhouse effect, is to decrease the anthropogenic CO emissions, from fuel 2

and fuel gases produced in combustion and gasification processes in power plants, by efficiency improvement or CO 2

removal. The removal of CO from these gases is not a 2

major technological problem any more, because many technologies have been developed for this purpose. The real problem in the near future is thus not “In which way can CO 2

be removed”, but “What to do with the enormous quantity of CO produced?" This article is intended to examine the 2

possible strategies. While CO is certainly not something 2

that will solve the problems, yet, it possesses a number of characteristics that suggest that its use could provide both environmental and economic benefits.

Prof. B. Viswanathan

Dr. M. Aulice Scibioh


Incorporation of Fair Trade Principles in the Indian BPO sector

Indian BPO sector is a classical case of international services trade with its own specific basket of opportunities and employee related problems. Fair trade has been an organized social movement with a strategic intent to work with marginalized workers, farmers and producers in order to help them move from a position of vulnerability to security and economic self-sufficiency through promotion of standards for labour, environmentalism, social policy, transparency, fair payments and fair trade practices. The movement focusses in particular on exports of handicrafts, agricultural and food products from developing countries to developed countries. In recent times efforts have been made to extend the fair trade principles to service industry like tourism. There exists a need to apply fair trade principles to the Indian BPO sector too.

The views expressed in the article are solely his own and without any bias towards anybody. The author will appreciate feedback on this article.

Rajni Kant Sharma


Learning from biovillages: A case study of medicinal and aromatic plants

The medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs) are emerging as the economically important industrial crops that require comparatively lower inputs and gives better returns to the growers. These crops fit well in the existing cropping system. Recent efforts made by the Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP) resulted in the establishment of biovillages in which an alliance of farm, science and business has acted as a driving force in improving the villagers economy. This concept of CIMAP has been found to be beneficial for the small farmers who do not have access to the latest technologies, regular technical guidance and marketing avenues. CIMAP's Artemisia biovillage involving established pharma companies has proved to be a unique partnership between farmers, pharma company and science. The spread up menthol mint to thousands of hectares of land in the Indo-Gangetic belt and geranium in Uttarakhand have resulted in agricultural based entrepreneurship in the respective production areas bringing about a marked transformation in socio-economic status of the people. The value chain from production to processing and marketing established right in the biovillages of the antimalarial drug plants Artemisia annua and rose scented geranium has not only provided the marketing avenues to the farmers but also paved the path for effective technology dissemination for commercial agriculture using improved plant varieties and linked patents (IP) to the overall advantage of the farming community.

Dr. S P S Khanuja Dr. A K Singh


Robotic Welding Systems - The Myths and the Realities

The need for efficiently manufacturing the product is the order of the day for cost competitiveness in today's global world. Automation in manufacturing is the word for survival. From 12% growth per annum in 2000, Arc Welding Robotic installation is posing for an impressive growth rate of 50% per annum in this year. But still there are lot of misconceptions about the introduction of Robotic Welding system for the first time in any Industry.

The issues like 1) Who will programme the robot, 2) Will the installation be able to justify the production volume, 3) Quality problems with welding, 4) How to get the qualified persons who will run the Robot, 5) How to justify the ROI for robotic installation, 6) The work holding fixture 7) Working capabilities of the robot 8) Can the system handle large parts, 9) Will the cheap system integrated robot meet the requirement, & 10) Suitability of electrical supply and the environmental condition, etc are the key issues, which are being addressed in this article. With the advent of solid-state electronics and computer software, most of the fitment problems of the job can be accommodated by the robotic system. The multilayer technique, the seam sensor technologies, point editor and similar software have eased the programming of the robot. High productive Tandem technology have also expanded the productivity through robot to meet the output quantity requirement. The customer awareness before buying a robot needs to be appraised and supported by the means for cost justification. The robotic system suppliers have to work hard in conjunction with their customer for mutual benefits.

S. Mukhopadhay Tanvi Agarwal


A Traditional Indian Garden in Thailand

Manu Bhatnagar

Culture is an instrument of foreign policy. As part of India’s look east policy the Government of India used the opportunity of Thailand’s royal celebrations to institute a traditional Indian garden in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai. With close to a million visitors, the Indian garden, which will remain a permanent exhibit, made within a tight budget and schedule, greatly strengthened India’s image.


Mr Mukesh Rohatgi, Chairman and Managing Director of Engineers India Limited gave an exclusive interview to Dr C S Venkata Ratnam, Director, International Management Institute, New Delhi and Chairman, Editorial Advisory Board, Consultancy Ahead. In this interview Mr Rohatgi shares his views on the major challenges and how EIL is gearing up to face them. Mr Rohatgi identifies talent crunch as the mother of all problems. He also feels that there is a shift away from engineering, procurement, construction supervision (EPCM) to Lump sum Turn key (LSTK) jobs.

Venkata Ratnam : How has liberalization affected Indian engineering consultancy profession/ organizations?

Rohatgi : It augurs well. We have more opportunities and larger businesses. Of course, competition has increased, both from within and outside the country. But it is good because customers are getting a wider choice towards obtaining best consultancy services.

Venkata Ratnam : There is much hype about sustained double digit growth. If that is a reality then what does it hold for the Indian engineering consultancy profession/organization?

Rohatgi : It is no more a hype. It is becoming a reality. With high growth rate in manufacturing across several sectors, opportunities are multiplying in newer and diversified areas of business. This is the best time to be in India and doing business.

Of course we have constraints in realizing the growth, especially in terms of manpower crunch for the public sector enterprises (PSEs). Besides exodus of talent to foreign shores, within the country a large number of multinational companies are poaching our talent with hefty remuneration packages.

Venkata Ratnam : How do Indian engineering consultancy organizations compare vis-à-vis foreign consultancy organisations in the sector in terms of (a) time; (b) cost; and (c) technology?


Global Competitiveness of Indian Engineering Consultancy Services Providers

Mr. Mukesh Rohatgi Chairman and Managing Director of

Engineers India Limited

An exclusive interview with


Rohatgi : Good engineering companies, the world over, including EIL, use same technology, same software and same processes. We can deliver on time as well as our foreign competitors, and on cost we can have an advantage. Problems sometimes arise when we are not able to access or import technology, equipment etc., on time. Our competitors from developed countries have both technology and engineering or atleast better access to technology which gives them a competitive edge. Even when we are able to import technologies, there may be restrictions on use. For example, a Company which initially agreed to supply us equipment backed out later on the apprehension that it may be used by our client country for nuclear reactors. In areas where we do not have our own, or access to foreign technology, we are, therefore, sometimes at a disadvantage.

Venkata Ratnam : Has WTO affected or will it affect engineering consultancy? If so, how?

Rohatgi : Globalisation, in general has been, I think, and will continue to be in our advantage as is the case across all service industries. As far as the direct impact of WTO is concerned, so far the effect on engineering consultancy is insignificant.

Venkata Ratnam : How hard is it to compete in India vis-à-vis the overseas markets? What is the role of economic diplomacy?

Rohatgi : It depends on the nature of the assignment and the country and the particular context. In the recent past China has outmaneuvered India in energy security, including oil and gas, through economic diplomacy supported by liberal aid packages. Here in India it is difficult for any single organization to match them. There is a need to work as a consortium and leverage direct and spin off benefits. We tried to do together with ONGC in one or two cases, but it did not get through.

Venkata Ratnam : Indian engineering consultancy organizations are small in size. Is there a case for M&A? If yes, then within the public sector who are the candidates and who/how one can go ahead? Is there a case for PPP in engineering consultancy? What kind of possibilities/range of collaborations are possible and which of them have already become a reality?

Rohatgi : Companies like Bechtel are multi-sector companies. In India we have separate consulting companies even within the public sector for each sector, viz., EIL for oil and gas, MECON for Steel, PDIL for fertilizer, etc. Now each is gradually diversifying to other sectors. Companies like EIL score not in terms of size, but in terms of experience. Hardly any other engineering consulting company has the kind of experience that we have.

M & A activity across companies is subject to several push and pull factors. It is easy to merge companies if both are in the same ministry than when they are under different ministries. We are working together wherever possible and desirable, not only with other public sector consulting organizations but also with multinationals in India and abroad. Such collaborations provide synergy and allow us to capitalize on each other's strengths.

Venkata Ratnam : Is there a manpower/talent crunch in this sector? How are organizations like yours dealing with the problem?

Rohatgi : It is a formidable challenge. When we had the 'so-called Hindu rate of growth' we had enough talent. When the rate of growth has picked up and when foreign countries and companies are looking to India for its engineering talent, we are facing a crunch. And, it is going to stay in the foreseeable future.


While compensation is not the only thing, everything else that motivates seems to be way behind. We have realized that beyond a point retention cannot be a reliable solution. Therefore, we are focusing attention on recruitment. For several years we did not recruit engineers. Last year we recruited over 300 engineers. This year we want to recruit at least 600 engineers. It is not enough to recruit. Because those we lose have at least 15 years experience while those we induct have virtually no experience. Therefore a massive thrust is being given to knowledge management and training.

Talent crunch is here to stay. We are shifting focus from retention to recruitment, knowledge management and training.

Venkata Ratnam : What are the additional challenges that a predominantly consultancy and inspection services organization faces if it wants to get into LSTK?

Rohatgi : In the past when we largely followed the EPCM approach, we used to break the equipment supplies and construction deliverables into 800 or 1000 contracts, assign them to different contractors and to manage them. Customers needed to have fairly large organizations. Today customers do not want to maintain such a large organization on a long term basis to take care of sporadic project activities. Instead, they would like to focus on their primary business of production and marketing.

They now often like to get the project done through one or a few LSTK contracts instead of the several hundred supply/services contracts used earlier. Consequently, many clients are looking for us to be a LSTK Contractor too. The expertise needed to do projects as a Consultant is largely adequate to do the same project on LSTK basis. Having the necessary financial muscle is of course an essential prerequisite and EIL is strong enough on this front. If we could add some manufacturing and/or construction muscle it would be a definite advantage but is not essential. One essential additional prerequisite is to have good risk management capabilities.

LSTK experience is beneficial. It helps us to understand the problems of vendors and suppliers and develop an integrated perspective about the business.

Venkata Ratnam : How do you assess the performance of EIL in terms of (a) its own vision and mission; (b) domestic competitors; (c) foreign competitors? What is the road map for continuous improvement for EIL?

Rohatgi : Our vision is to provide complete solutions to clients. Adding LSTK would be in line with our vision. Our competition is mainly with the MNCs. We are able to take them on because we have unique experience of doing a large number of low-cost revamp of refineries as well as working on greenfield refineries at the same time. There is no other MNC in the world with the kind of experience that we at EIL have.

Venkata Ratnam : What do you think are the three major problems in future? How are you preparing for it?

Rohatgi : The main problem is the talent crunch. I have already explained how we are addressing this problem. Second problem is to gear ourselves to successfully undertake LSTK jobs. For this we need, in addition to engineering excellence, skills in construction and manufacturing. We are gearing towards it. We tried, along with ONGC, to acquire BHPV. It did not come through. We are represented on the board of Bharat Pumps and Compressors and we leverage their excellent track record in making pumps and compressors which we need in our business. Third, is to sustain our brand image. We have achieved a reputation and niche in oil and gas business by setting international specifications and benchmarks. I am happy to share with you that Saudi Arabia would now say that if you are an EIL approved supplier we will automatically approve you. We need to preserve and further this.

Outsourcing as a business strategy has great potential to add significant value to a wide range of organizations, small, medium and large. This reference book on outsourcing is a compilation of articles contributed by academicians, practicing consultants, managers and thought leaders.

Part I of the book deals with the nature of outsourcing and its present state, wherein authors have deliberated on the benefits of outsourcing as well as the costs associated with the process. Major theoretical perspectives that researchers have used in outsourcing process have been explained exhaustively. One of the chapters investigates the ways in which outsourcing has evolved including the changes in outsourcing from the traditional to transformation process covering off shoring and new technologies.

Part II of the book deals with the impact of outsourcing on organisational structure. This section deals with the ways in which outsourcing directly and indirectly influences the organisation. One of the chapters deal with how outsourcing has affected corporate competitiveness strategy, innovation, increase in efficiency and productivity. One of the chapters has examined the impact of outsourcing on the employees and their commitment to the organisation, concluding that the worker commitment tends to decrease consequent to the organisation taking up to outsourcing.

Part III of the book deals with the long term effects of outsourcing as an organisation driven process. This section highlights the ways in which outsourcing has impacted on the workplace and the changes that will continue to happen within the workplace due to the dynamic nature of the outsourcing process. One of the chapters is focussed on outsourcing in Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) sector and brings out the usefulness of outsourcing to the SME's and the barriers that may limit implementation of outsourcing in the SME's. With respect to the impact of the outsourcing on the wages and employment, it is concluded that outsourcing contributes to increased wage inequality and decreased labour demand.

Part IV of the book deals with legal issues, control and relationships in outsourcing. This section focusses on the relationship between the outsourcer and the outsourcee. The authors recommend taking appropriate steps to ensure smooth relationship between the organisation and those to whom the activities are outsourced. The components of a model contract between the organisation and the service provider have been detailed out for reference purposes.

The book ends with a section devoted to case studies on the outsourcing experiences.

TITLE : Global Outsourcing Strategy

EDITOR : Peter Barrar & Rescane Gervais

PUBLISHER : Gower Publishing Limited

REVIEWER : Dr. Sunil Abrol, Director General, CDC


The author with the help of actual case studies presented at "Rethinking Project Management" a research network based in the U.K., has analysed and explained the concepts of projects and project management. The book is structured into 16 chapters and is for the people who work in the world of projects and aim to provide insight and understanding that will support their ability to act effectively in that field.

Chapter-1 is tiled "Projects : the Opportunities and Shortfalls", Smith traces the development of project working practised in engineering and construction industry since the last few decades and the transition in the role of a project manager from merely looking after contractual relationship with clients in the past to the present where he is responsible for the delivery of the project. This gets further extended to the organisational and human aspects when applying new Information Technology systems in the projects related to organisational transformation. The author discusses the challenges in terms of performance deficit, alienation and theory-practice disconnect faced in the project management. The traditional project approach of work break down into activities, planning, procurement, construction, control and finally commissioning has been well documented, written into codes of standard practice and various commercial softwares are available to carry out project control and management. The book promises to go beyond the techniques which are deployed for the conventional project management and aims towards enhancing the understanding of the reader of the context in which the projects are created and performed based on the real time experience and handling by the practitioners in the field.

Chapter 2 is titled "Making Sense of Projects" and include the case studies presented at "Rethinking Project Management" research network, investigation and discussion which has led to understanding about the reality of projects as practised and challenge the current concepts presented in the standard textbooks, manuals and practices. Smith questions whether the methods prescribed in these documents are a realistic description of what people actually do in real time projects. The author coins the term projectcraft - capabilities of those who practice projects. Smith identifies projectcraft in the course of his discussions in the book and lists these comprehensively in chapter 15.

Chapter 3 is titled "Projects and Complexity". Projects have become complex in terms of dynamic change in technology, inter-connectivity between projects, organisations and deployment of various agencies including out-sourcing of various activities. Author thus terms 'projects' as human social endeavours which make them complex, ambiguous and uncertain. To handle these situations, every company develops its own practices, principles and approaches. In addition to these, the practitioners use perspectives related to social interaction between different social groups leading to the demand for creation of projects and value creation which is expected to be realised through projects. These two perspectives are dealt in detail later in the book.

Chapter 4 is titled "Tribalism and Rituals". Smith, in this chapter outlines basic principles of a social interaction model of projects. Whereas in mainstream thinking a project is treated as an

TITLE : Making Sense of Project Realities : Theory, Practice and the Pursuit of Performance

AUTHOR : Charles Smith (UK)

PUBLISHER : Gower Publishing Limited

REVIEWER : Mr. D.K. Gupta, Director, Engineers India Ltd, New Delhi


objective entity; the social interaction perspective departs from this thinking, viewing projects themselves as the product of collusion, spawned and delivered out of the intercourse between diverse tribes - groups with diverse interests. With the help of story he narrates various practice groups in the organisation and lucidly brings out their characteristics.

Chapter 5 is titled "The Tyranny of Projects" and discusses on adoption of 'project' approach of work - projectification in a broad band of business areas. He relates the development of project management function from being an operational exercise in the past with work break-down structure, critical paths and progress tracking to the present day function which is primarily concerned with the supply chain; sub-contractors and vendors, management of stake holders and interphase with owners. The author, through case studies, analyses and identifies the capabilities and skills required to handle the dynamics of complex situations faced in the project implementation.

Chapters 6 and 7 are titled "Managing Multiple Projects" and "Fraudulent Projects". The author highlights a number of approaches to select the right projects by the organisation and recommends 'stage' and 'gate' technique for evaluation, review and clearance of projects at various identified stages of work. This provides exercising control by the higher management on commitments and risks. Implementation of projects through development of internal resources and buy-in of the projects, implementation of standards and exercising controls helps not only selection and implementation of the right projects but also brings in transparency in the organisation working and minimises the possibility of taking up unviable projects which Smith terms as fraudulent projects.

Chapter 8 is titled "The Knowledge of Projects" and deals with control and organic model of project diversity. Smith defines a project as a collective endeavour to accomplish specific objectives through a set of well-defined tasks by a specified date and within a specified budget. The author calls this as a mainstream project. Whereas mainstream projects are concerned with planning

and control to achieve a tightly specified end point, community projects related to the society at large are organic, they grow and develop in an unstructured way to achieve aims which are unclear and negotiable. These organic projects could be split into a series of zones of control where they are clear in their scope and the balance could be termed as sea of creativity and ambiguity wherein the conventional project approach of work break-down, planning and control does not apply in project perfect sense.

'Creating Project Sense' deals with the question of how people handle the experience gained on the project, in areas other than their normal work, in the project environment and how the project develops through its life. This approach is different from the mainstream thinking wherein the documented plans forming the overt definition of the project are a very limited description of the actuality of life on that project devoid of social interactions, dynamics, dramatic turns or individual ambition.

Chapter 10 deals with 'Personal Engagement' in the projects. Smith mentions that identity construction is the primary form of this engagement and goes on to define identify determination as a way in which the people participate in social groups and in social practices. In the process of people creating their identity, their overzeal may result in overshadowing the genuine contribution of others. Smith details out personal strategies and oligarchy also in this chapter.

Earlier in Chapter 3, Smith had stated social interactions and value creation perspective in the context of organisational complexity. This chapter on 'Delivering Value' looks at the connection between the performance of the projects and the creation of value. The value chain of a project is split into output, outcome and impact. Whereas the output is in terms of goods, the outcome is in terms of operating project, the last consequence - impact is on the lives of people. The project scope thus extends beyond the delivery of tangible goods/services and should be conceived in terms of delivery of value and its creation must engage with


Book Review

the social world and its consequential impact in changing the world.

C h a p t e r 1 2 i s t i t l e d " B u s i n e s s Transformation". The business transformation projects encompass a complex mix of tangible hardware deliverables, enhanced capabilities of users and visionary hope for the future of the organisation. Such projects could be split into two distinct stages; the first being the mainstream project management dealing with setting the requirement, designing the system, planning the work and organising the delivery of the new IT system; the second stage deals with the continuous improvement and is a part of the continuing transformation. The chapter identifies the role of project management through the design groups, consultants and IT project teams. This phase helps in introduction of new processes and technology effectively. The second phase of continuing transformation includes working through the implementation team drawn from the user groups exposing disputes and facilitating resolution, coordinating the work at corporate and local levels. Standard project management tools has little to contribute in this stage of working. For business transformation projects Smith states that we should expect a journey of change to emerge in response to the production of tangible outputs. Value chain maps can be drawn based on deliverables, operational outputs and benefits.

Chapter 13 is titled "Value with Uncertainty". Smith points out that projects are foggy, messy and ambiguous. We stride along with on the edge of chaos, creating stories of order that can guide us forward. We face obstacles as we move on, casting doubts on our chosen direction and putting us off our stride. The risk register - standard risk management tool approach is advocated. Whereas risk management is designed to help us deal with the known, the benign, the predictable, uncertainty concern the things we don't know. The author details tasks and social uncertainties.

Smith concludes that if we carry the right equipment and have a good map and a compass we will find a way forward or round the hazard and will reach our destination, or somewhere like it, in due course.

Chapter 14 addresses the issues concerning 'Quests for Value and Accountability' in the context of project realities namely - project management working on complex works, performance of project being a social activity and projects being driven to create value.

Chapter 15 - "Projectcraft" lists the capabilities required of the people associated with projects. This is a summary of discussion on project management capabilities based on the realities faced by the practitioners and is a extremely useful reference.

In the concluding chapter on 'The Business of Project Management", Smith describes the institutions and discusses their activity and role. He includes association - training and accrediting professionals for the field of project management; Standards Organisations - national and international bodies producing and documenting standards for the performance of project management; government, corporates and universities. The expert knowledge on development of effective practitioners must be captured for which Smith recommends corporate - university joint working to impart the knowledge to professionals on projectcraft.

The author through case studies has analysed and identified the capabilities and skills required to handle dynamics of complex situations faced in the real time project implementation. The book offers insight into the project management and capabilities which are required by the practising project managers. The chapters on delivering value, business transformation and projectcraft are particularly very interesting and offer a new perspective to the practitioners in the field of project management.

Book Review


The book essentially deals with the three broad principles or strategies covering strategy formulation, strategy implementation and strategy evaluation. The complex concepts of strategic principles, issues, theories and models have been beautifully explained and written in a very simple style and language in order to ensure an easy understanding of the difficult concepts which will be useful to the students of strategic management. As the competition intensifies and technology advances, strategic issues become more and more important for managing the complexities of business.

The author has devoted almost fifty percent (384 pages) of the book on theories building core concepts on strategies and balance fifty percent (391 pages) to discuss the cases to explain the application of the theories. The book is thus broadly divided into two sections- Concepts and Cases to provide a clear understanding of the formulation and implementation of strategies.

The theories to clarify concepts have been covered in five parts (Part I to Part V) consisting of nine chapters. Part I provides an overview of the strategic management and chapter I deals with the nature of strategic management which includes a case of Google Inc. Part II deals with the strategy formulation consisting of four chapters on business vision and mission, external assessment of business environment, internal assessment of capabilities and resources, strategies in action and strategic analysis and strategic choices. Part III deals with strategy implementation covered in two broad chapters namely, implementing strategic management and operations issues and implementation of strategies in various business functions like marketing, finance, accounting, Research and Development (R&D) and Management Information system (MIS). Part IV deals

with strategy evaluation in one chapter covering strategy review process, evaluation and control. And finally, Part V of the book covers strategic management case analysis. This chapter discusses the approach on how to prepare and present a case analysis which will be very useful for teachers of strategic management as it clarifies and explains the key issues that need to be addressed in a manner so to understand the core concepts in a live business case. The book provides guidelines as to how to prepare a case with oral case analysis of Google Inc. Each chapter includes experiential exercises to clarify the concepts of strategy. Teachers will find it very much helpful to introduce and explain each concept.

The second part of the book deals with thirty eight real life cases written by various authors covering well-known and successful corporations from a wide spectrum of domain including service sectors and non profit organizations .For example, for beverage sector PepsiCo case, in food category Hershey and Kellogg , in pharma sector Pfizer and Merck , in retail sector Wal-Mart, Mexico were discussed by well-known researchers of strategic management . Other cases included in this section are Proctor & Gamble, General Motors and Apple Computers. These cases will provide excellent learning on how globally successful corporations in diverse fields formulate and implement strategies in their businesses. The book would have been much better if some Indian cases were given in it.

The logical flow of concepts, style of presentation and simple cases to explain the concepts will make the book very useful for the students, teachers and practitioners of strategic management. The eleventh Eastern Economic Edition has been priced at Rs 525, which is affordable.

TITLE : Strategic Management Concepts and Cases

AUTHOR : Fred R. David

PUBLISHER : Prentice Hall of India (Eastern Economic Edition 11th)

REVIEWER : Prof Rajat K. Baisya, Professor of Marketing & Strategic Management &Chairman-Marketing Management Group, Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi


Contributors' ProfileContributors' Profile

Ashok PuriAshok Puri is a renowned consultant and is presently working as Regional Director of Kaizen Institute.

He is also a faculty at CDC & other premier Management institutes.

Navin TalwarNavin Talwar is presently working as Director in Railways and is doing the MS course in CDC.

Ramesh S. TyagiRamesh S. Tyagi is a certified industrial and management consultant. At present he is the Vice

Chairman of the Institute of Management Consultants of India (Delhi Chapter).

Raghu SharmaRaghu Sharma is a Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering from Delhi College of Engineering.

Subsequently he joined Indian Navy. He also underwent post graduation marine engineering training in India and at Royal Naval Engineering College, Plymouth (UK) securing first position in both the places. He was awarded Herbert Lott Award for excellence in courses by British Ministry of Defence. He also has degrees of MBA (Finance), M.Sc (Ecology & Environmental Management) and PG Diploma in HR Management to his credit and is a Fellow of Institution of Engineers (India).

Neeta BaporikarNeeta Baporikar, a Doctorate in Management from Pune University is currently working as Professor-

2MBA Programmes with I IT, Pune. She also holds a MBA and Law degree and is an Accredited Management Teacher (AIMA). To her credit, Ms. Baporikar has more than two decades experience in industry, consultancy and research both at national and international levels.

A. SuhanyaA. Suhanya is presently pursuing her research work in the area of Human Resources Management at

the Department of Management Studies of Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India.

T. J. KamalnabhanT. J. Kamalnabhan is a Professor of Department of Management studies, Indian Institute of

Technology Madras, Chennai, India. His research interests are in the areas of HR, psychology and entrepreneurship. He has published several papers in Indian and International journals. Mr. Kamalanabhan has a few projects to his credit and also conducts training programs for executives of industry. He has been a Fulbright scholar to Washington State University in 2002.


P. C. BansilP. C. Bansil is a Doctorate in Agricultural Economics and has about 50 years of experience in the

consulting profession. Dr. Bansil has done projects on export potential of horticulture crop for ICAR and socio-economic impact of T.B. on patients and their families and Poverty mapping in Rajasthan.

S. SenguptaS. Sengupta is a Bachelor in Civil Engineering from University of Calcutta and M.Tech (Structural)

from IIT Kanpur. He has more than 35 years professional experience in bridges and structures viz. steel, composite, RCC & PSC with innovative features. Mr. Sengupta has undergone training in bridge engineering in Switzerland, Germany and Singapore. In his long career, he has handled large number of bridge projects of varying complexities. Mr. Sengupta is presently with Span Consultants, Bangalore as Director and is handling several major infrastructure projects. He was earlier the Vice President of BBR (India) Ltd., a bridge construction firm with innovative designs with its headquarter in Zurich.

M. Aulice ScibiohM. Aulice Scibioh is currently with Fuel Cell Research Center, Korea Institute of Science and

Technology (KIST), Seoul as a Visiting Scientist. Prior to moving to KIST she was with Indian Institute of Technology Madras, as a Senior Research Associate. She has obtained her Ph.D from the University of Madras in the area of Molecular Catalysis and Electrochemistry. Her fields of interest include Fuel cells, Electrocatalysis, Nanomaterials, Chemical & Electrochemical Energy Systems. She has ample post- doctoral research experiences and has several publications to her credit. Dr. Aulice has been actively engaged in chemistry education.

B. ViswanathanB. Viswanathan, a renowned scientist and a distinguished teacher, is presently heading the National

Center for Catalysis Research, Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Madras. His research contributions are in the fields of Heterogeneous Catalysis, Materials Science, Theoretical chemistry, Energy, Nanotechnology and Information science. Prof. Viswanathan has been consistently publishing research papers and books and also has won several awards and fellowships in national and international levels.

R. K. SharmaR. K. Sharma is an Adjunct Faculty with Maastricht School of Management, Netherlands for MBA in

Marketing and Entrepreneurship and a Visiting Lecturer with International Academy of Business, Kazakhstan. He is also a Retainer Consultant with Fair Trade Original, Netherlands besides other freelance business consulting endeavors.



S. P. S. KhanujaS. P. S. Khanuja is the Director of Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP),

Lucknow. He is a Ph.D in Genetics from IARI, New Delhi and specialized in Molecular and General Genetics, Biotechnology, Plant Genetics and Breeding. Dr. Khanuja's present activities include Bioprospection of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants for Novel Drugs and Agrochemicals, Variety Development, DNA Fingerprinting Genomics and Plant Molecular Biology; IPR Management; Quality Management. Societal Mission Programmes for Rural Technologies; Technology Licensing to Industry;. He is also Editor of various scientific journals and magazines.

Anil Kumar SinghAnil Kumar Singh is a Doctorate in Botany from Lucknow University and has about 25 years of

experience in medicinal and aromatic plants related technology Transfer know how marketing, extension/ training & demonstration, publicity & publications with Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP), Lucknow. Presently he is heading the Technology and Business Development (TBD) in CIMAP.

S. MukhopadhayS. Mukhopadhyay is an Electrical Engineer and is currently associated with M/s WeldIndia

Consultancy (P) Ltd as Director-After Care. He being a member of IEEE (USA) and AWS (USA) has published many articles on Robotic welding systems in many leading technical journals in India.

Tanvi AgarwalTanvi Agarwal is an electrical engineer and is associated with M/s WeldIndia Consultancy (P) Ltd as

Director Technical. She is a member of IEEE (USA) and has published articles on Welding Power sources in leading technical journals in India.

Manu BhatnagarManu Bhatnagar is a well-trained Architect and subsequently as an urban, regional and environmental

planner at Cornell University. He has been heading the Natural Heritage Division at INTACH since 1996. He has a wide portfolio of works with significant contributions to hill architecture, urban and environment planning and heritage conservation. He has authored several policy papers and carried out successful projects in the areas of lake management, macro water harvesting, and urban environmental planning.



Invitation to Contributors

Consultancy Development Centre (CDC) is an autonomous body of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India, working for the promotion and development of consultancy profession in the country.

CDC invites papers from leading professionals in consultancy, management, academics and industry for the next issue of “Consulting Ahead”.

The objective of “Consulting Ahead” is to become a source of new ideas, knowledge and information of relevance to consultants, clients of consultants and other stakeholders namely policy makers, academicians and professionals in various disciplines. It also aims at sharing of professional achievements, professional concerns and providing a global perspective to consulting profession.

Our readership will comprise of consultants, clients of consultants in India and abroad, managers in public, private and non-profit organizations, academicians and students of technical and management schools in India and abroad.

Authors may consult the “Notes for Contributors” before sending material to us.

The papers may be sent to the Editor, “Consulting Ahead”, Consultancy Development Centre, Core IV B, India Habitat Centre, Lodi Road, New Delhi 110003. India. Papers may be sent by e-mail to [email protected]


Notes for Contributors

1. Articles should be typed in Times New Roman font size 12 with generous margins on all four sides. An abstract of 200 words should accompany the article. The text, abstract, notes, references and all other matter should be typed in double-space. Articles should not exceed 5,000 words. All material and editorial correspondence should be addressed to: The Editor, Consulting Ahead, Consultancy Development Centre, Core IVB, India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi - 110003, Tel.: 011- 24603424 (D) 011 - 24602915, 24601533, 24601533, Fax: 011 24602602; e-mail: [email protected] Contributors must provide their affiliations, a brief writeup of around 50 words about him/her, complete mailing addresses (both postal and e-mail), and phone and fax numbers.

2. Limit the levels of headings within an article to two, or at the most three. Avoid lengthy headings, and do not number them.

3. Notes should be on separate sheets, numbered serially and appended at the end of the article. They should contain more than a mere reference.

4. Where alternative forms exist, use 'z' in '-ize', '-ization' words. Use British spellings rather than American. Thus 'programme' is preferred instead of program.

5. Use single quotation marks, reserving double quotes for quoted words within a quotation. Quotations in excess of 45 words should be set off from the text. Do not change the spellings of words in quotations from the original.

6. Avoid excessive italicization for emphasis. Italicize titles of books and journals, and all non-English words where these are likely to be unfamiliar to the average reader of Consulting Ahead. Do not italicize proper nouns in foreign languages. Use Roman type for common terms like 'ibid.', 'status-quo' and 'et al.'.

7. Consistency should be observed in hyphenation. For example, either 'psycho-social' or 'psychosocial' should be used throughout the article. Distinguish between noun and attributive adjective, e.g., 'the middle class' but 'middle-class ethics'.

8. Capitalization should be kept to the minimum and applied consistently.

9. Include a final stop in abbreviations (p., vol., ed.) but not in contractions (Dr, Mr, edn, eds). Acronyms should be spelt out on first occurrence. Do not use stops between capitals (e.g., USA, IIM).

10. Figures below 10 should be spelt out in words. Use figures (and not words) for exact measurements and percentages. Use thousands, millions, billions not lakhs and crores.


11. Use 'the eighties' and 'the twentieth century'.

12. Tables and Figures should be indicated by numbers '(Table 1)' not location '(as in the Table below)'. Figures and tables should be presented on separate sheets and gathered at the end of the article, with their locations in the text clearly indicated. Sources and units of measurement should be stated.

13. References should be embedded in the text in the anthropological stylefor example, 'Moon (1994)' or '(Moon 1994: 95)'. Citations should appear alphabeticallyfor example '(Moon 1994; Sandee 1995, 1997; Zander 1993).' The detailed style for referencing is : Korten, David. 1995. When Cooperations Rule the World. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Kochler. Spears, Larry (ed.) 1996. Reflections on Leadership. New York: John Wiley.

Moon, C. 1994. 'Changing Patterns of BusinessGovernment Relations in South Korea', in A. MacIntyre (ed.), Business and Government in Industrialising Asia, pp. 22246. St. Leonards, NSW: Allen and Unwin.

Parkee, Barbara, Yoram Zeira and Tarek Hatem. 1996. 'International Joint Venture Managers', Journal of International Management, 2(1): 19.

Sandee, H. 1995. 'Innovations in Production', unpublished Ph.D. thesis. Amsterdam; Free University.

14. Book reviews must contain the name of the author, title / sub-title of the book reviewed, place of publication, publisher, date of publication, number of pages and price.

EditorConsulting Ahead,

Consultancy Development Centre, Core IVB, East Court, India Habitat Centre,

Lodhi Road, New Delhi - 110003, Tel.: 011 - 24602915, 24601533, 24601533, Fax: 011 24602602

E-mail: [email protected]


Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS), Pilani

in collaboration with Consultancy Development Centre

(CDC), offers working professionals a unique

opportunity to attain higher degree in M.S. Consultancy

Management. This four semester degree caters to the

requirements of consulting professionals and aims to

help them tap the immense market potential in

consulting business.

The programme is designed for working professional in

business and organizations who:

Provide consulting services to a client

organization on a contract or project basis.

Are individual entrepreneurial consultants

Aspire to work as internal consultants.

Wish to make a career in consulting

The programme will be conducted at New Delhi by

BITS, Pilani in collaboration with CDC. Regular contact

classes will be held every Saturday and Sunday at CDC

premises (located at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi),

which has excellent library and computer facilities. All

candidates will be enrolled as students of BITS and

successful students will be awarded the M.S.

(Consultancy Management) degree of BITS, Pilani.

This is perhaps the only program of its kind in the

country. It gives the great benefit to practicing

consultants/managers as it helps to impart analytical

approach for problem solving, better communication

skills and interactive methods.

Experienced professionals having an Integrated First Degree of BITS or its equivalent e.g. B.E/B.Tech.,M.Sc., M.B.A., M.C.A., M.Com., A.C.A., and A.C.S. or equivalent with aptitude for quantitative methods. Candidates sponsored by their employing organizations will be given preference.

11th Batch has started in June, 2007 with the intake of 56 student.

Duration : 2 yrs (4 semesters)

Fee : Rs. 80,000 for total course (4 semester)

For more information, please contact

Programme Coordinator (MSCM)Consultancy Development Centre

2nd Floor, Core IV-B, India Habitat CentreLodhi Road, New Delhi – 110 003

Phone: 011- 24682055 (D), 9811367775, 9891239723,24602601, 24601533, 24602915

Fax: 011- 24602602, e-mail: [email protected]

ELIGIBILITY

CDC is an autonomous institution of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India. This programme is being offered under the off-Campus Collaborative

Programmes of BITS, Pilani.

Birla Institute of Technology & Science

Documents

Consulting Ahead - CDC › UserFiles › CA July 2007 Web edition(1).pdf · Consulting Ahead is a bi-annual in-house journal of Consultancy Development Centre, New Delhi. All editorial