India Edition

In My opinion:navin Chaddha, MD, MayGeld Fund

VC Talk:Vishal Mehta,Co-Founder, Lok Capital

In Conversation:Lars erik holmquist, Yahoo Labs!

BUSINESS OF TECHNOLOGY IN THE U.S. & INDIA NOVEMBER - 2012 SILICONINDIA.COM

sil iconindia

Deepak Bansal, CEO, Clearpath Technologies

Leveraging theLeveraging the

CLeaR PaThTeChnoLoGIes:CLeaR PaThTeChnoLoGIes:

Prowess of the InternetProwess of the Internet

DifferentiatingLeadershipWhatMightworkfor

managingGeneration

TheImportanceofincreasingoperationalizationin

BusinessInsights

True Mobility Trend:The Future of

Mobile Computers is Rugged

Director-HR, Citrix Systems

CEO, Clarabridge

CEO, Handheld Group

PUBLISHED FROM BANGALORE

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Recently when I walked into one of the world’s largest food chain stores inBangalore, I encountered a world class customer experience from a dif-ferently abled person in the store. This was not just my experience. He

servedmultiple customers in very less time, andwas very enthusiastic about his job.Today most enterprises need similar employees, who are excited about their job,where in they can provide their customers with world class customer experience.

“Someone’s weakness can be your strength.” Today most of the HR practicesin enterprises are realizing this fact, and are brainstorming on how to make theworkforce effective and monetize their weakness in favor of them. Here I am talk-ing about most of the IT corporations like IBM, Cisco and others who embrace thedifferently abled workforce in their enterprises. Currently it’s working perfectlyfine for most of them. But, these people should not just co-exist in the organizationas part of diversity or a CSR activity or a way to exhibit the company’s goodwillto the community, rather they should be looked at for business value.

It does not matter whether you are a slow starter, but if you stick around forsome time, the added value you bring in to the company should be exponential. Asper the observations by the HR folk in enterprises, the specially abled workforcehas niche skills and has outperformed the regular workforce. This is a golden op-portunity for the enterprises, as it will help them acquire quality talent at very nom-inal cost and retention is comparatively higher.

Probably this might sound bizarre and make no business sense, but India’sgrowth is going to outpace most of the developed countries. It is estimated thatIndia will create 400 million jobs in the coming decade, where 75 percent will beskilled workforce. In the coming years, we will witness a huge gap between sup-ply and demand and the training industry will face capacity constraints.

One out of 100 children born in India is specially challenged. Moreover as pertheWorld Health Organization 15 percent of the world is differently abled in someway or the other and most often they are good at something. The enterprises mustfigure out what is that unique strength and craft them. This is not to pay sympathyto the differently abled, but to groom their skills and align them with the businessgoals and also prepare them for their future needs. To be prepared for the skilledjob growth in the future, India must improve the skills of the existing and futureworkforce by increasing the capacity of skills provided by trainers. Simultaneouslytheymust make programsmore employer-driven to ensure higher quality andmoreappropriate training at scale.

Please do let us know what you think.

Christo JacobManaging [email protected]

siliconindiaVol 1 Issue 9 � November 2012

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[In My Opinion]

Rules of the Road for the era ofSimplicity, Mobile and the Social WebNavin Chaddha, Mayfield Fund

[Venture Beat]

BloomReach lifts `125 Crores inSeries C round of FundingDevkumar Gandhi’s Dobango nabs`30 Crores in Seed FundingSkyfire pulls `50 Crores in Series DFunding from Panorama CapitalSME marketplace Power2sme se-cures `10 Crore from Inventus Capi-tal Partners

Vizury grabs Rs.45 Crore in Series BFunding to strengthen global business

Contents November 2012

08 [VC Talk]How Can Social EnterprisesImpact the BoP SegmentVishal Mehta, Lok Capital

[CIO Insights]Virtualization is akin to placing allEggs in a Single BasketC R Narayanan, Tulip Telecom Ltd.

Staying Ahead of theTECHNOLOGY CURVEAmit Sethi, Yes Bank

[In Conversation]Aligning Academic and Industry Re-searchLars Erik Holmquist, Yahoo! Labs

[Leadership]Differentiating Leadership What Mightwork for managing GenerationDr. Pallab Bandyopadhyay, Citrix Systems

[Viewpoint]Transformation of Corporate Softwarefor a Connected WorldSanjay Dhawan, Symphony Teleca Corp.

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Achieving Active Archive AmbitionFloyd Christofferson, SGI

True Mobility Trend: The Future ofMobile Computers is RuggedJerker Hellstrom, Handheld Group

The Importance of increasingOperationalization in Business InsightsSid Banerjee, Clarabridge

PLM – Enabling Smarter Decisionsand Better ProductsVivek Marwaha, Siemens PLM SoftwareIndia

"Work to live. Do not live to work"A Success MantraDr. Kshama Singh, Istitute of ManagementSocial Sciences & Research

Do you have it in you to be a GreatLeader?Raj Reddy, Infosys BPO

Beyond Simple ReportingDheeraj Nallagatla, Nalgan Technologies

[Management]Wake Up the LEADER in YouAnkur Lal, Infozech Software Inc

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COVER STORYPage18

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Navin Chaddha

By Rachita Sharma

Leveraging theProwess of the InternetLeveraging theProwess of the Internet

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By Rachita Sharma

Ihave been involvedin the technologyindustry for 20years as a serial en-trepreneur, corpo-rate executive andinvestor. There are

some key rules of the roadthat have guided my journeyand these are especially rele-vant in the current era whenthe social Web is dominant,mobile platforms are ubiqui-tous and consumers are de-manding simplicity. As anentrepreneur, I believe that

living by some core beliefs is key toleading teams and building companiesthat last. Here are a few of my funda-mental beliefs, illustrated with exam-ples from the entrepreneurs that we areworking with.

The Customer is Queen:Actively listening to your customersand rapidly iterating to reflect cus-tomer needs has never been so impor-tant. From a vendor ofcloud-integrated storage appliances toa mobile fashion marketplace, May-field Fund entrepreneurs like UrsheetParikh and Guru Pangal of StorSimpleand Manish Chandra of Poshmark,who constantly listen, react and re-spond to customer feedback, are find-ing a quick path to customerengagement.

Discover innovation across the valuechain:Innovation extends across the value

chain beyond the technology level toproduct building, distribution and pric-ing. Entrepreneurs like John Newtonand John Powell of Alfresco are usingopen source models to build products,distributing them through frictionlessfree SaaS models like JeromeTernynck of SmartRecruiters, andusing break through utility pricing andpackaging models like leasing of solarpanels by Lyndon and Peter Rive ofSolarcity. Identify innovation pointsacross the value chain to rapidly andsuccessfully scale your company.

Focus - start-ups die of indigestion,not starvation:It’s really easy to lose focus as an en-trepreneur with a big vision (or an in-vestor who is presented with manygreat opportunities). Phil Fernandezhas built Marketo into a large and suc-cessful business by initially targetingthe marketer with a marketing au-tomation application, a category thatwas dismissed as being too narrowwhen they first started. Nailing thatneed first, allowed them to expand andoffer a comprehensive revenue per-formance management platform to themarketing and sales organizations.Sticking to your roots and core com-petencies will get you to your finaldestination quickly and with much lessheartburn.

surround yourself with excellence:As an IIT student in New Delhi, agraduate student at Stanford, a serialentrepreneur whose companies wereacquired by Microsoft or went public,

iinn mmyyopinion

By Navin Chaddha, Managing Director, Mayfield Fund

Navin Chaddha, entrepreneur, investorand leader of the Mayfield Fund investsin early-stage IT companies that lever-age the themes of mobile, cloud/SaaS,social, energytech and big data. Somerecent Mayfield investments include Ap-pcelerator, Branchout, Couchbase,Fab.com, Gigya, Marketo, Solarcity, andStorSimple. Navin has made over 35 in-vestments of which 11 have had IPOsand another nine have been acquired.Navin was founder and CTO of VXtremewhich was acquired by Microsoft to be-come Windows Media, and served invarious management roles at Microsoftafter the acquisition. He was also co-founder of iBeam Broadcasting (NAS-DAQ IPO), CEO and founder of Rivio(acquired by CPA2Biz). Mayfield Fundis a global venture capital firm with $3billion under management and a historyof investing in relationships. They investearly and globally in themes includingmobile, cloud/Saas, social, energy andbig data.

Rules of the Road for the era of sIMPLICITY, MoBILe anD The soCIaL


Navin Chaddha

as well as a venture investor over thelast decade, I have been lucky to besurrounded by brilliant, hungry, hard-working and persistent people. Learn-ing from them has been exciting andrewarding, as together, we have builtorganizations beyond our personal ex-pectations. Don’t fall into the trap ofhiring B people as they will hire Cpeople and you will soon find yourselfat the end of the alphabet.

Pain killers sell, vitamins do not:You have to ensure that your companyaddresses a real pain point of your tar-get customer. Sometimes it takes awhile to evolve your idea or evenpivot from the original one to nail thereal pain, as was the case with Gigya,which was founded as a social widgetand application distribution platformwith a media/advertising businessmodel. However, they evolved theirtechnology and pivoted to address themuch needed and cumbersome task ofenabling websites to become social.Their SaaS offering is used by over500 global businesses to leverage so-cial logins, social apps and game me-chanics that create loyalty andengagement with their customers andaudiences.

Delight the user:In an era of “appification” and “con-sumerization of the enterprise”, prod-ucts only have seconds in which tocaptivate and engage users. UX/UIdesign is playing a critical role in lead-ing social Web e-commerce compa-nies like Fab.com which are providingcurated experiences that will let them

grow into an Amazon-size platformfor design. Learn from these designleaders and do not be afraid to iterate,iterate and iterate until you get it right.

Capital efficiency is a must:In an era of Big Gulps and multi-bil-lion dollar valuations, it can be hard togo against the mega-trend mentality ofthe crowd. Do not be afraid to raisesmall amounts of capital and spend it

efficiently so you can prove the prod-uct-market fit and the go-to marketstrategy before raising a lot of capital.

adapt continuously, as dinosaurs donot survive:As Eric Ries outlines in his book, TheLean Start-up, the build-measure-learnfeedback loop is a new way of think-ing about product development and amust have mindset for entrepreneurstoday. Dinosaurs became extinct for areason, so free yourself from old mod-els and stay nimble and in touch withtoday’s times.And finally,

Remember that it is a marathon, nota sprint:One of our most successful enterpriseinfrastructure companies, 3PAR Data,took over a decade from founding todominating the category of utility-based storage and being acquired for$2.35 billion by Hewlett Packard.There were many twists and turnsalong the way, according to their CEODavid Scott, but the company stayedfocused and patient through them all. I hope these learnings will help in yourjourney from founding to fame. Goodluck building great companies. si

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The build-measure-learnfeedback loop is a new way of thinking about product development

and a must have mindsetfor entrepreneurs today

The developer of bigdata marketingapps company

BloomReach raises `125crores in series C round offunding. This round of in-vestment was led by NewEnterprise Associates(NEA). The previous in-vestors of the company,Lightspeed Venture Part-ners and Bain Capital Ven-tures also made investmentin the company. The com-pany plans to use the fundraised to expand sales andmarketing efforts and ex-tend R&D investment tocreate big data applicationsbeyond search for every

online marketing channel including mobile, social and video. Raj De Datta and Ashutosh Garg founded BloomReach in

2009 when they recognized the need for a more relevant webdue to the growing frustration with information discovery sharedby consumers and marketers. The company is headquartered inMountain View, California and emerged from its stealth modein February this year. With the current round of investment,BloomReach has raised a total of `205 crores in funding tilldate.

BloomReach created a Web Relevance Engine that analyseshundred crore customer interactions and semantically interpretsthe products and services on over hundred crore web pagesdaily.

With the Indian market growing exponentially, the companyis planning to tap this growth and enter the market within a year.Some of the international clienteles of BloomReach include re-tail biggies like Neiman Marcus, Williams-Sonoma and Crata &Barrell.

BloomReach lifts `̀ 125 Croresin series C round of Funding

The Nexage founder Devkumar Gandhi foundedDobango in early 2011 as the first-ever social market-ing platform for Pinterest. And recently the startup

raised a whopping ̀ 30 Crores in seed funding from John Os-term, who has also made an investment in Nexage.

Gandhi has plans to use the fund to fully differentiate fromother early movers on Pinterest by focusing solely on mar-keting campaigns beyond analytics. Being among one of thefirst company to effectively monetize and run social market-ing campaigns for brands on Pinterest, Dobango has spent thepast six months creating a way for brands to build and meas-ure targeted social contests using pinboards.

Initially founded as a social gaming platform with casino-style games available on Facebook, iPhone, Android phonesand the web; but when Gandhi saw an opportunity in socialmarketing, he shifted his attention and planned to focus onthis platform for next one year.

“Pinterest is the greenfield opportunity in social mediamarketing right now, and brands have struggled to figure outhow to execute marketing campaigns at scale. We have finallycracked the code on this and have seen incredible results thatgo beyond anything I have worked on in my career. This iswhy we have decided to raise funds and go all in,” says De-vkumar Gandhi, Founder and CEO, Dobango.

The company has plans toexpand the service by introduc-ing content management toolsand analytics for brands. Cur-rently focused on this platform,Dobango creates a contest pagefor consumers to post user gen-erated content. Its social mar-keting platform automaticallypins users’ content to thebrand’s Pinterest page and syn-chronizes data from Pinterest totrack contest progress and no-tify winners of daily prizes.

Devkumar Gandhi’s Dobango nabs `̀30 Crores in seed Funding

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Raj De Datta

Devkumar Gandhi


Nitin Bhandari co-foundedSkyfire pulls in `50 crores infourth round of funding led

by a new investor, Panorama Capital.Existing investors Verizon Ventures,Matrix Partners, Trinity Ventures andLightspeed Venture Partners also par-ticipated in this round of funding. Thefund will be used to meet the de-mands of its growing list of wirelessoperator customers and to increase itsglobal sales and marketing resources,with further aggressive expansionwithin Europe and into Asia.

Headquartered in Moutain View,California, Skyfire is a provider ofmobile video optimization and cloudsolutions for mobility. The companyis dedicated to leveraging the power

of cloud computing to improve radi-cally the mobile internet experiencefor both Operators and Consumers.

Skyfire also plans to scale itsteam and hire staff to cover existingrelationships and new opportunitiesin Eastern Europe, Japan, SoutheastAsia and Australia, thereby adding toits London and Silicon Valley offices.

According to the company, datadeluge is crushing mobile operators,straining the user experience, andsqueezing operating margins. Skyfirecontinues to innovate on other cloud-powered products as well, with therecently launched Skyfire Horizonbrowser extension platform. This al-lows the users to customize their de-fault mobile browsers with

extensions, plug-ins, and toolbarssimilar to how consumers currentlypersonalize their desktop browsers.

skyfire pulls `̀50 Crores in series D Funding from Panorama Capital

Nithin Bhandari

Gurgaon based Power2sme, aneCommerce B2B portal focus-ing on the manufacturing SMEs,

procured ̀ 10 crore in their second roundof funding. This round of funding waslead by Inventus Capital Partners.Through this round of funding this buy-ing club for SMEs aims to expand itsproduct offerings and reach ̀ 1,000 crorein annual sales on its platform in three

years.Founded by R. Narayan with seed

capital of `2 crore, Power2sme is an on-line platform which simplifies procuringprocedures for SMEs. They work acrossindustries such as metal, polymer, textiles,automotive, construction and electrical byproviding information and tools whichenable SME's to both improve their effi-ciency and reduce their procurementcosts.

“We are strong believers in the po-tential of India's SME market, and our ob-jective is to expand our business with theability to cater to SMEs across multiplesectors. We have an aggressive outlookon growth, where we expect to end ourfirst year with annual sales of `50 crore,

growing to `1,000 crores over the nextthree years,” says R. Narayan.

Power2sme’s current base of SMEclients includes companies with annualrevenues at between ̀ 10 crore and ̀ 250crore including suppliers such as IOCL,Haldia Petrochemicals, GAIL and SreeCements.

With this investment Parag Dhol,Managing Director, Inventus CapitalPartners will join the company's board.

The purchase platform of the com-pany is available for free of charge to theircustomers. They focus on working withlarge, established and trusted suppliers sothat their customers are assured of thequality of the product that they buy fromthem.

sMe marketplace Power2sme secures `̀10 Crore from Inventus Capital Partners

Vizury grabs `̀45 Crore in series B Funding to strengthen global business

The digital marketing technologycompany, Vizury Interactive,raises close to ̀ 45 crore in series

B round of funding which was led byNokia Growth Partners. Existing in-vestors Ojas Ventures and Inventus Cap-ital Partners also participated in thisround of funding along with the seed in-vestors who continue to remain invested.Vizury plans to use the fund tostrengthen its presence across Asia, Aus-tralia and South America, set up R&Defforts and drive product innovations.

Established in 2008, Vizury is a dig-ital marketing technology provider en-abling e-commerce and online travelcompanies maximize the value of theirdigital data with a combination of cut-

ting-edge technology and impeccableservice. As a strategic partner, the com-pany combines its deep domain expert-ise, cutting edge technology andexceptional service to deliver stellar re-sults.

“We see this funding as an endorse-ment of our approach to strategicallypartner with our customers and helpthem drive revenue using a combinationof cutting edge technology and enter-prise class service. The capital infusionwill allow us to accelerate our invest-ments in R&D, bring new products tomarket and establish ourselves as clearleaders in the space. Having such in-vestors in our corner will be invaluableas we make the next big leap,” says

Chetan Kulkarni, Co-Founder and CEO,Vizury.

Chetan Kulkarni

R. Narayan

si

si

How Can Social Enterprises Impact the BoP SegmentBy Vishal Mehta, Co-founder and Partner, Lok Capital

Social enterprises thatwork towards inclusionof the BoP segmentwalk a tight rope be-tween balancing theirprofitability to sustainthemselves, and mak-

ing an impact on the socially backwardpopulation.

Entrepreneurs who work for inclu-sion of the BoP need to focus on deliv-ering impact to the communities andsegments they want to serve and rest willfall in place. As long as the value propo-sition of the service they are offering totheir customers is clear and the sticki-ness (relationship with customers) isbuilt into the business model, financialviability/profits will automatically fol-low. The whole social enterprise spaceis at its infancy, so opportunity to inno-vate is immense. There are many "lowhanging fruits" in this sector, so the bestthing which entrepreneurs can do, is tochoose any and drive it with 200 percentexecution focus.

Social entrepreneurs need to investgood time in articulating their idea. Thisis very important, because only then canthey communicate to stakeholders (cus-

tomers, investors, and others) what theystand for, with minimal mismatch in ex-pectations.

The imperative to set up social en-terprises impacting bottom of the pyra-mid population is felt now more thanever. Social enterprises are not just aboutfinancial inclusion anymore. It hasmoved to several other sectors. As in-vestors, we at Lok Capital believe in giv-ing a lift to social enterprises acrosssectors.

Lok Capital II will be focusing onfour key sectors - financial services, ed-ucation, healthcare, and employmentservices. The common thread is "inclu-sion" i.e. services that are targeted to-wards low-income, base of the pyramidsegments to drive inclusive economicgrowth in India.

One key aspect that will drive thesuccessful delivery of BoP businessmodels is technology. Most of them im-pact businesses, especially when theyare serving the BoP as "customer", aretrying to balance three things – a) Quality b) Accessibility, and c) Affordability

We feel technology for impact busi-

nesses is as important for any other busi-ness, but becomes significantly morerelevant from the accessibility and af-fordability aspect. How can we utilizetechnology for better reach and penetra-tion (accessibility), and in a cost effec-tive manner (affordability)?

Having said that, right technologyand application development will al-ways need the right, minimum scale,which is the other struggle for most im-pact businesses. So within the life cycleof Services Company the time to investin technology becomes important. In ourexperience, technology for most of theseBoP services companies is always an en-abler and not the key value propositionin itself. So the core product/service isthe key and only then technology canfurther help establish its reach and de-livery. Sometime people put too muchfocus on technology too soon.

We have carefully selected sectorswhere the "demand" for the services iswell established and proven. Therefore,in theory, impact and financially viabil-ity can co-exist. Achieving both, socialimpact and financial viability is key toproving Lok's social VC model.

Lok Capital is a Gurgaonbased venture capital firm. Itfocuses on high potential fi-nancial inclusion and broaderinclusion enterprises like edu-cation, healthcare and liveli-hood serving the bottom ofpyramid (BOP) segment.

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VVCC TTaallkk

Vishal Mehta

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Every single time one needs anopinion on a buying deci-sion; they refer to a searchengine. Be it buying a cellphone or selecting where youwill have dinner tonight, al-most all our decisions are af-

fected by the results that appear on searchengines. In fact almost 64.9 percent of internetusers use search engines to look for a productand 55 percent of the purchases made online arethrough the sites that are listed at the search en-gine with a higher ranking. The names that ap-pear as the top results win a large share of themarket pie. But how do some websites make itto the top while the others lose? The answer isSearch Engine Optimization or SEO whichtoday is an indispensable requirement for anybusiness.

This makes the SEO a highly sought afterindustry. However, the technology used for SEOis one that can be grasped easily by individuals.This gives rise to a host of freelancers who dointernet marketing individually thus making itan unorganized sector. In the year 2004, a youngBE student saw a vision of creating a substan-tially big business in this unorganized sector.

By Rachita Sharma

CCOOVVEERR STORY

Deepak Bansal is your quintessential 20something. He is polite, motivated andlooks like any other tech enthusiast. Butwhat sets him apart from the rest is thefact that he is the founder of a uniquecompany that is transforming the SEOindustry. He founded Clearpath Technol-ogy to help businesses leverage thepower of the internet. Along with histeam of professionals and experts whoare matchless to the other SEO serviceproviders they analyze and develop var-

ious strategies to enhance their clients’web presence and also help increase traf-fic to their website.

The seed was sown in Bansal’s mindwhen he realized that the internet was agrowing monster. With approximatelytwo billion people online, thousands ofbusinesses now have an online presence.But unless their websites appear promi-nently on major search engines, they can-not tap into this vast community ofnetizens. This is where Bansal positionedClearpath. He began doing SEO whichhelped search engines find and rank web-site higher than the millions of other sitesin response to a search query. The com-pany today has more than 3500 ‘happy’clients who have benefitted fromClearpath’s technology.

The initiationClearpath had a modest beginning

with as few as four employees but hasnow transformed into a market leaderand employs more than 600 employeesacross major Indian cities, Delhi, Gur-gaon, Noida, Mumbai and now Banga-lore too. Headquartered in New Delhi,the company was originally focused onSEO. With the advent of time they un-derstood the new demands of the indus-try and added other tools of internetmarketing to their repertoire.

The Internet Marketing industrywhich is a whopping $14 billion todaywitnessed a sudden spurt owing to thedrastic increase in use of internet. Searchengine marketing as a domain is mostdominating in internet marketing andgrasps a share of over 50 percent in thetotal business. Its ability to drive directtraffic and thus direct sales makes it allthe more important. Clearpath couldsense this change in trend and thussteered itself towards internet marketing,a wide-ranged phenomenon which usesSEO in addition to other web marketingtools to attract the attention of potentialcustomers and also search engines.Clearpath’s existing SEO expertisehelped them become game changers inthe field of Internet marketing as well.

They also moved with the times andunderstood the value of sites such asFacebook and Twitter which today are anintegral part of any internet marketingcampaign. Tapping into these new modesof marketing gave them the much needededge against their competitors. They nowoffer a bouquet of services right from payper click, social media, local listings andreputation management. Clearpath hasbeen able to harness the industry betterthan any other player in the market and isworking towards creating a substantiallybig business within its sector. The com-

Prowess of theInternet

CLeaR PaTh TeChnoLoGIes:

Deepak Bansal

The internet marketingindustry is clutteredwith a host of free-lancers or home basedbusinesses. The pres-ence of these smallplayers makes the in-dustry a rather unor-ganized sector

““

Leveraging the

pany has also deservingly won severallaurels in the sphere of online marketing.The recent honor awarded to them is the‘Internet Marketing Company of theYear’, 2012 by a prestigious publication.

Love thy clientThe company understood that a 50

year old businessman who runs a rathertraditional business will not know thevalue of internet. Also, a small startupwill suffers if its website is not picked upby search engines. It is the work of anSEO provider to assist their clients byleveraging the power of the internet.Clearpath does exactly this. Focusing onSmall and MediumBusinesses or SMBs,the company helpsclients spread acrossthe U.S., United King-dom, South Asia, India,Canada, Europe andAustralia to make useof the vastness of theinternet.

Bansal, a passionate entrepreneur,convinces his clients about the use ofSEO and online marketing techniques.Several of his clients who were unawareand unsure about SEOs have benefittedimmensely from the technology andtoday do not shy away from recom-mending the company to others.Raghvendra Agarwal, director of IRGWorld, a corporate leasing company ex-claims that he was not very sure of the re-sults that Clearpath Technology couldbring to his company. But he was pleas-antly surprised when Deepak’s ideashelped his company. This is not an iso-lated case. Clearpath replicates it with al-most all of its clients.

The company’s tendency to retain theclients by providing the best of serviceshas been the key in its success. With theservices extended in complete internetmarketing domain, Clearpath is a onestop solution for any internet based busi-ness.

To build a successful company likeClearpath is no ordinary task and their

approach needs to be unique. Since amajority of their clients are based outsideIndia, the round the clock work becomesall the more important. The company isdedicated towards its customers and donot give them a chance to complain. Onthe contrary their clients praises about theway Clerapath’s team interacts with itscients. Rebekah Fensome, a UK basedlife coach and a long time Clearpathclient says that the team keeps her up-dated all the time. She also adds that hermails are answered almost immediately.

Making 3500 clients happy is not aneasy task for any organization. But a per-sonal connect with their clients makes

this target attainable.Clearpath focusesheavily on buildinghealthy customer re-lationships to bettercomprehend theirneeds and expecta-tions. “We startedwith small scale

companies, worked together, communi-cated on a daily basis and in a sense grewtogether,” says Bansal.

People centric company A company can grow only when its corestrength, its people truly believe in it. Intoday’s professional world, switchingcompanies within the same industry hasbecome a norm. But Clearpath boasts ofseveral of its original team members stillbeing with the company. Their dedicationseven years back has not waivered andhas now transformed to confidence in thecompany. The company values its em-ployees and works towards creating apositive environment for them to workin.

Clearpath also believes that a com-pany is only as strong as its weakest em-ployee and thus gives importance tohiring the right talent. To work in the in-ternet domain, you require the perfectskill set. The company has worked hardtowards recruiting talented people towork for them. After having tasted suc-cess in the NCR region they have moved

their quest for quality to Mumbai andBangalore where they opened offices inMarch and September 2012 respectively.They believed that every region has itsown culture and it would work better tohave region specific employees whowould connect better with the clients.

Most of their back end work is donefrom their head office in Delhi and thenew offices in Mumbai and Bangalorecomprising mainly of sales teams. Thecompany also has plans to expand toChennai next. With major business de-velopments on their roadmap ahead, thecompany still has a long way to go ac-cording to Bansal.

Company with a heart of goldBefore you pin down Clearpath as an ag-gressive business focused only on mon-etary growth, think again. The humblecompany understands that it owes its suc-cess to the society and thus wants to giveback to it. They are big on Corporate So-cial Responsibility. They have set up var-ious eye and diabetes camps. But a trulyunique achievement of the companywhich cannot be lauded enough is theireffort to enrich the lives of physically dis-abled individuals. The company em-ployed three such special people and hastrained them with the necessary domainknowledge. Clearpath believes that phys-ical disability is only a minor setback and

not a major deal breaker for them as em-ployers. They want to train such peopleto give them a fair chance at living a lifewith dignity and financial security.

The company aims at leveraging thepower of technology to help its employ-ees provide more accurate and effectiveoutput. They are also planning to forayinto mobile SEO which according to thecompany is going to grow into an impor-tant domain in the next few years. Thecompany is also set to expand its busi-

ness to other countries such as Dubai andSingapore within the next year sincethese are extraordinary business cities.

With a motivated team, plans of ex-pansion in sight, loyal customers andtheir heart in the right place, ClearpathTechnology can only pave its way up-wards. Bansal’s vision of helping busi-nesses gain high visibility on the internetis growing by the day and working to-wards paving a road to its clients success,thus justifying its name.

CCuussttoommeerr tteessttiimmoonniiaallss ::

“I have been dealing with Clearpath Technology for almost four years &during this time have found them to be extremely reliable & professional.They have been the backbone of our business promotion across four separatebusinesses & they continue to deliver on their promise. I was skeptical at firstbeing that I am located in Australia, however their commitment to ensuringour businesses have ranked well on the key search engines has negated anyborders. Thanks again and I would have no hesitation recommendingClearpath Technologies to anyone interested in their services.”

Andrew Lawson, Owner of Sign A Rama Salisbury a collection of hundreds of full-service sign stores worldwide.

"The results have exceeded my expectations. Whereas before I was de-pendent on being found through a web portal featuring my competition aswell, my clients can now get in touch with me directly. I am very pleased."

Rebekah Fensome, Owner of RebekahFensomelifecoah.coma life coaching service that also provides Yoga Camps in Ibiza and U.K

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Clearpath believes that a company is only as strong as its weak-est employee


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It is important that the higher au-thorities in the company are directly in-volved in the purchase requisition thusavoiding any compliance made by thesecretaries while placing the order.Portable devices and Mobile applica-tions have ensured that the top man-agement gets relevant information ontheir mobile so as to allow faster accessfor approval. This is an example ofproper knowledge management systemwhich is an extensively important im-plementation in the current scenario.

The magic of Virtualization:Virtualization is akin to placing alleggs in a single basket. It has alwaysplayed an important role in reducingthe cost of operation, and little didTulip realize this until Narayanantransformed the company to a virtual-ized version and led to a whopping 70percent deduction in power consump-tion. This equates to a return of invest-ment (ROI) time for virtualizationwithin a year.

Today’s CIos: a technocrat or businessexpert?With the sand clock turning upsidedown, it is time for the CIOs to changetheir roles from just being technocratsto that of business experts as technol-ogy can be explained by vendors orproduct specialists in the industry.

Spending more time with sales, prod-uct development and the financial teamis of paramount importance and thereare some activities which compulsorilyneed the attention of the CIO. Someprocesses have nothing to do with tech-nology but are more inclined towardscareful planning and standardization inthe organization.

For example, it usually takes about25 days from billing to delivery of theproduct to the customers. If the CIO is

capable of reducing the time frame to18 days, then it can lead to positiverevenue growth.

Mastering the art of adaption:The more than 36 years of experiencein the industry has taught me that youneed to be the master in adapting thechanging environment. Initially everymanagement believed in microman-agement of the employees rather thandeveloping faith and assigning respon-sibility to them. Normally every person who begins a

role in an organization starts as a tech-nocrat. As the individual moves up inthe hierarchy, he has to go up in thedelegate and impose trust with the co-workers. Emphasizing on microman-agement will not lend enough time forstrategy and creative innovation.Showing faith in employees’ abilitiescan make them more perfect and inde-pendent. This strategy has saved timeand helped me in discussion with thevarious stakeholders in the organiza-tion.

Technology is continuouslychanging making it important for thecompany to be flexible, scalable andupgradable. This would enable the fu-ture needs of the organization as flex-ibility and scalability are bigchallenge in the IT infrastructure in-dustry. (As told to Vignesh.A) si

Role and current priorities:With multiple responsibilities within the organization, I wearseveral hats. But three of my resposibilities are more impor-tant. In my role as a CIO, I am responsible for internal IT, ITstrategy, alignment and compliance with regards to overallIT aspects of the organization.

Roles vary within the organization depending upon theneed of the moment. Thus, I also act as the product develop-ment manager. The overall experience of more than 36 yearswithin the industry at large has helped immensely in imple-menting new initiatives within Tulip. The normal problemsfaced, the pinpoints and how can they be addressed are someof the issues solved within the organization.

The third cap is managing the network of professionalemployees in the team and their projects

Current trends in the industry:Tulip is a managed services and connectivity player. Rarely,some of the entities may not be working to the satisfaction ofthe end user; hence the trend is to give a deal for every trans-action that the end user is going to do. This will eventuallylessen the possibility of dissatisfaction for the customer.

Normally there is a database administrator who looks intothe database structure. The applications manager, network-ing consultant and web server manager analyze the systemas a whole. Together there are no discrepancies that can es-cape the eye of the team members. Thus the second trend isusing multiple individuals within the firm to pinpoint faultsrather than a single individual.

C R Narayanan initialized the virtualization of TulipTelecom eventually leading to 70 percent reductionof power consumption by the company. Narayanan isthe CIO of Tulip Telecom Limited (BSE/NSE:TULIP), a data telecom service and IT solutionsprovider that offers innovative IP based infrastruc-tural solutions.With a market cap of Rs 563.33 Croreemploying more than 2,500 employees, Tulip isIndia’s largest MPLS VPN player. In a chat with Narayanan, he gives us prominent de-scriptions on how the industry has changed and newtrends which are changing the course of IT.

Virtualization isakin toplacing all eggsin a single Basket

C R Narayanan

C R Narayanan, CIO, Tulip Telecom Ltd.

emphasizing on micromanagementwill not lend enoughtime for strategyand creative innova-tion. showing faithin employees’ abili-ties can make themmore perfect and in-dependent

“

“



Founded in 2004, Yes Bank (BSE: 532648) isa private sector bank with a Market Cap ofRs 14,733.12 Crore and employs over 5,642employees as on March 31st, 2012. Todayits is on the cusp of a major transformation.In a candid conversation with Amit Sethi,the CIO of Yes Bank, he emphasizes on the

importance of an innovative mindset. We also hear his viewsabout the transitioning role of a CIO and the absolute ne-cessity for the IT team to transform to a business IT team.Excerpts from the interview.

Charting the growth graphYes Bank began rapid expansion a year and a half back andhas reached a different stage in its maturity cycle where weare on an upwards growth trajectory. Our aim is to obtainretail liabilities and assets and build an entire retail franchisefor the bank from scratch. The atmosphere is exciting andfilled with enthusiasm.

The insights and learningfrom our past experiences lead toright choices today. This chal-lenging environment needs us tocome up with innovative solu-tions which will ultimately im-pact the quality, cost efficiencyand also customer execution.Being at the eye of growth is themost satisfying point for any pro-fessional.

But the frontrunner is alwaysinnovation. Yes Bank is a ‘tech-nology bank’ with technology asan enabler and also a differentiator. Our sole purpose is tokeep Yes Bank ahead of the technology curve.

‘Customer’-driver of transformationsA customer’s expectation from a bank has changed drasti-cally because of the way technology empowers them. Inter-net solutions are not enough and they want solutions on theirmobile and on social media. Customers’ expectation in re-spect to customer service has also transformed. They requireinstant gratification of needs. Banks today are transformingusing technology to keep pace with the customers.

Apart from external customers the bank staff and peopleworking in the back office also expect sophisticated tech-nology to aid their functioning. Nobody wants to log into10 different systems to complete one transaction. They wantall their work to be done on a single screen.

The entire technology landscape has evolved where wehave cloud based deliverables both on private and publiccloud. We are enabled to increase and enhance scale as thecustomer wants. The entire process has become extremelyagile and fast.

Changing role of ITThere was a time when banksused to own everything, buttoday we function on partner-ships. Banks maintain the coreoperations and product and salesinfrastructure, but when it comesto technology servicing, the or-ganization forges partnerships tohelp maintain the infrastructureand enable a smooth function-ing.

The role of technology ischanging to ‘business technol-

ogy’ today. It has become increasingly important for thetechnology team to understand the business domain and

quarterly priorities. They must workclosely with partners who will be ableto deliver the right solutions. This pro-vides more flexibility in terms of pric-ing, and also helps in increasing agility.

IT is now measured in terms of de-liverable values. Today, we do not talkabout uptime or project timeline only;we talk about how IT has created busi-ness value by delivering a particularproject. IT matrices are converting tobusiness matrices.

enabling interoperability and scaling operationsIn India, the volume of customers isgrowing exponentially. The transactionvolumes and the scale of growth have

increased manifold. To cope with thesevolumes we maintain a private cloudenvironment where we can scale up asrequired.

In terms of software, we have al-ready got into a grid architecture whichmeans there is no glance or a single ap-plication server to cater to everything.And as you scale up, it simply keeps upadding that to the application server sothat you can take the load and scale up.

There is a huge amount of unstruc-tured data which is outside the corebanking environment which could beresiding on the web. Using variouspartnership models that do all the ana-lytics that we require, we define whatkind of big data analytics, and struc-tured and unstructured data we want.

They also help us to get data related tocustomer sentiment or lead manage-ment or getting feedback on how par-ticular product is performing in themarket or co-creation of the product inthe market.

We have started virtualizing ourend desktop. Due to the inherent secu-rity features which virtual desktop en-vironment lets you put, you canactually put a board of restriction. Youhave to patch up or the end user devicehas to come at a particular level beforeyou can login into an infrastructure.Since everything rests in the centralservers and nothing on local deviceswe are able to tackle any security issuesurrounding BYOD.

strategies to battle challengesIT leaders face a plethora of challengesboth internally and externally. Ourtechnical man force cannot do onlywith technical skill set. They must alsopossess soft skills such as leadershipand communication skills along withmarketing and sales skills. Our biggestchallenge lies in transforming themindset of our technical workforce.They need to have a business outlook.

The IT team is expected to not justreduce cost but also to increase profit.To bring forth the value from IT, weclosely work with the business teamsto showcase to them the business ben-efits that any IT project is bringing tothe organization. This lends a hand toget funding for the whole project andalso builds a good perception of the ITteam. Convincing the managementforms one of the biggest challenges.

It is very important for the technol-ogy team to have an innovative mind-set to come up with solutions that helpus deliver better to the customer. Wemust keep an open eye to identifytrends that will work for the benefit ofour organization and ultimately fulfillour vision to become the ‘Best QualityBank of the World in India’.(As told to Rachita Sharma)

Amit Sethi aids Yes Bank in expanding innovation exponentially in the tech-nology and infrastructure segment of the industry.

Amit Sethi, Sr. President and Chief Information Officer, Yes Bank

It has become increasinglyimportant for the technol-

ogy team to understandthe business domain and

quarterly priorities

staying ahead of theTeChnoLoGY CURVestaying ahead of theTeChnoLoGY CURVe

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Amit Sethi

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RANK INSTITUTE NAME CITY, STATE COLLEGE SCORE

1 Sikkim Manipal University Manipal, KA 347

2 ICFAI University Hyderabad, AP 333

3 IGNOU New Delhi, DL 327

4 Symbiosis Centre for Distance Learning Pune, MH 321

5 Annamalai University Annamalainagar, TN 319

6 Osmania University Hyderabad, AP 303

7 Anna University Chennai, TN 296

8 Yashwantrao C. Maharashtra Open University Nasik, MH 289

9 University of Mumbai Mumbai,MH 273

10 Dr. B.R.Ambedkar Open University Hyderabad, AP 259

11 Maulana Azad National Urdu University Hyderabad,AP 240

12 Netaji Subhas Open University Kolkata, WB 237

13 Delhi University New Delhi, DL 232

14 Shivaji University Kolhapur, MH 229

15 Maharishi Dayanand University Rohtak, HR 221

16 Andhra University Visakhapatnam, AP 217

17 Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Open University Ahmedabad, GJ 203

18 SNDT – Women’s University Mumbai,MH 200

19 Alagappa University Karaikudi, TN 197

20 M.P. Bhoj (Open) University Bhopal, MP 180

Note: The above ranked colleges are exclusive participants who responded to questionnaire.

On the education floor, an MBA reigns supreme. The management education sectorin India is booming and today there are 3,900 management schools with close to 3.5lakh seats. Even with a host of management colleges closing shop, the demand forgood quality management education is still high. Amongst this crowd of MBA, hope-fuls are hordes of professionals who are unable to leave their current jobs but stillnurse a desire to peruse an MBA degree. To aid the growth of such professionals, siliconindia presents the first edition of

‘Top 20 Colleges/ Universities offering Distance MBA in India’ 2012. Our objective isto arm professionals with extensive information that will facilitate their quest of iden-tifying the best college/university to pursue distance management education from. Colleges have been ranked based on stringent parameters such as number of in-takes, pass outs, quality of course materials, course duration and E-learning plat-forms among others. Mentioned ahead is the list of Top 20 MBA colleges withcomposite score based on weightage of parameters analyzed by our research teamwhich conducted an online poll for students who have completed their distance man-agement education. We sincerely hope that our initiative will assist the future MBA aspirants’ educa-

tional journey.

aligning academic and Industry Research

Current Initiatives for innovation atYahoo labs:Mobile users are doubling every year. Itis not a stationary device and followsyou wherever you go. My current focusat Yahoo! is to see how we can take ad-vantage of the different situations thatusers go through on a daily basis, like lo-cations, their company (who they arewith), and what they are doing. Our areaof focus is to device ways to leverage allthis mobile data and users that Yahoo! isgathering. We must be able to shift andcreate an experience for users that goesacross all screens from the desktop to thetablet to the mobile.

Yahoo! has over 700 million users

and we have witnessed them shift to themobile at a very fast pace. We are at apoint where we can start leveraging allthe data that we get from mobile andhelp users get new experiences.

aligning academic and industry re-search:Yahoo! Labs is one of the few labswhich fall between academic researchand the product R&D. At Yahoo! we canhave a theoretical result that will be pub-lished at an academic conference but theresult might also be taken to the productleaders who could turn it into a milliondollar product.

A middle path between academic

and industry research helps a companybecause it can help map out the future. Itcan help companies understand whereusers are at present and where the shiftwill be in a few years.

In case of research we consider theconsequences of scaling. When a millionpeople begin to use a new service, a dif-ferent behavioral set comes up. We canbuild applications around this behaviorset.

A lot of research has been done inthe field of mobile. For instance, re-search on location based services is veryrelevant to how we design servicestoday. Such research can aid young start-ups who build small scale social apps.

Lars Erik Holmquist, Principal Research Scientist, Yahoo! Labs

They have no idea about all the researchthat has been done before that and for thesame reason their products are not verygood. So while you are building a prod-uct, if you go back to see all the researchthat has been done, you can apply that toyour product.

Research aiding products:We did a research on location basedservices such as ‘Foursquare’. Interest-ingly, early research projects and prod-ucts in location, tried to track the user atall the time which was kind of creepyand also technically very difficult to do.It drained out the phone batteries and thelocations were not exact and had anom-alies.

Foursquare’s concept was verysmart. They allowed users to tell wherethey were, be it a café, or a bar or home.This does not give a particular line but itgives a particular expression of the userat a place. When we interviewedFoursquare users, location was not justa line on the map but was actually an ex-pression. Location went from being aproperty to being an expression. If de-velopers can understand the social im-plications of services, they can influenceservices that will appeal to a bigger partof the population.

Before developing an app they mustthink deeper. For instance, apps whichintroduce you to people who share thesame interests in your vicinity is a com-mon idea. But how do you go about afteryou receive the information? Develop-ers must think about the social implica-tions of such applications.

Ubiquitous computing: a visionUbiquitous computing is a 20-year oldvision and has been very influential. 20years ago, we had the main frame whichwas the big computer and then came thepersonal computers. The smartphoneand the tablet are influenced by the ubiq-uitous computing heavily.

The cloud was not originally a partof the ubicomputing vision but we haveactually turned towards it. It enables mil-

lions of people to use the same com-puter, so we are back to the main framemodel. We have a down terminal be-cause they just connected the system tothe main frame.

Increasingly mobile phones are be-coming like that. If you talk to your ownphone, like using Siri , it senses thesound and sends to the main framewhere it gets processed and comes back.Computers now are ubiquitous but theinformation is moving to a distant loca-tion which makes the products poten-tially much more powerful. Byconnecting smart products to the cloudwe multiply the intelligence in a differ-ent way.

Grounded innovationWith grounded innovation, I try to bal-ance the two axes of inquiry - under-standing how the world works; andinvention - coming up with somethingnew. You do not just want to have some-thing new because it might not be real-istic or practical but you want tounderstand the world and do your in-quiry.

Innovation according to me is notjust inventing something new but it hasto be something that can be used. Opensource is a big innovation in how wethink of software. It has had an enor-mous effect.

For instance, we worked to makedigital photographs more interesting byintroducing an element of surprise. Weadded some filters and the results werevery different from conventional im-ages. The images looked very much likeInstagram pictures which is now a mul-timillion dollar business. This is an ex-ample of grounded innovation.

My current priority is to take Yahoo!‘Mobile’. It is very clear that with all thedeep understanding about mobile, wecan take existing products mobile andalso how we create entirely new prod-ucts.

We are also studying how people usethe tablet at home which is a new prod-uct category.

Yahoo! Labs is the perfect place forme to be because after having done allthe dreaming, theoretical work and stud-ies; I have come to a stage where we canbuild products on a large scale. (As toldto Rachita Sharma)

Lars Erik Holmquist is the Principal Re-search Scientist at Yahoo! Labs and headsthe Mobile Innovations group. Yahoo! Labsis a division of Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO)responsible for research into the science ofthe Internet and creating the next generationof businesses for the company. Headquar-tered in Sunnyvale, CA, Yahoo! Labs deliversboth fundamental and applied scientificleadership, publish research and create newtechnologies that power Yahoo!’s products.

Prior to joining Yahoo! Lars was a profes-sor in Media Technology at Södertörn Uni-versity and was a co-founder and researchleader at the Mobile Life Centre, a joint re-search venture between academia and in-dustry hosted at Stockholm University, withmajor partners including Ericsson, Mi-crosoft, Nokia, TeliaSonera and the City ofStockholm.

In a candid conversation with Lars, he opensup about various researches and how it helpsYahoo! build products for the masses

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Lars Erik Holmquist


that can be used by leaders to influ-ence them. The traditional yearly an-nual appraisal might not work forthem.

Gen Y in India favors equity asopposed to equality and thereforewants to get recognized by being paidcompetitively. Finally everybodywants to be a part of a winning team.Kouzes and Posner described them as"Creating Small Wins". Leaders needto create opportunities for many andalso plan them in such a way that byachieving them they feel more ac-complished and thereby feeling moresignificant. For managing Gen Y thatis the mantra for effective leaders. Iam trying to put forward some simpleactions that I believe can help today’sleaders in effectively managing GenY teams. These simple yet profoundactions will help them to excel inwhat they do and distinguish them-selves from others.

1) having a shared Purpose to mo-bilize others and work together forachieving it:Most of the effective leaders havetheir personal purpose. However, atthe same time they realize that it ismuch easier to achieve a "Shared Pur-pose" rather than one’s own. This isthe process where they manifestedtheir leadership capabilities in termsof articulating their purpose in such away that the people start seeingmeaning into it and accept it as theirown. Leadership researcher Ram-narayan, while studying successfulIndian leaders called them "DreamMerchants".

2) Using personal network to seekinsight into organization problems:Building a strategic personal networkand successfully using it, as a rela-tively safe way to expose organiza-tional problems and seek insight intosolutions is a hallmark of effectiveleaders. Personal networks are largelyexternal, made up of discretionary

links to people with whom leadershave something in common. In mod-ern day business it serves as a safesounding board for a leader to use asan internal learning network. Whatmakes a personal network powerful isits power to provide a safety net whilelearning by introspecting, reflectingand observing from others aboutunique organizational problems.

3)Institutionalizing innovative sys-tems and processes:One of the roles played by the lead-ers that make them differentiated aretheir ability to introduce innovativesystems and processes in their re-spective organizations. But more im-

portantly, over time theyinstitutionalize them to make it a partand parcel of the organizational life.High Tech strategy experts AnnabelleGawer and Michal A Cusumano re-vealed in their bestselling book "Plat-form Leadership" how Intel,Microsoft an Cisco leaders creatednumber of innovative systems andprocesses involving external vendorsto remain competitive.

4) empowering people - helpingthem to move from a sense of pow-erlessness to discover their ownsense of efficacy and power:Believe in people’s ability is whatsustains extra ordinary team efforts.The effective leaders are those whonurture self- esteem in others. Theymake others feel strong, capable andmove them from a sense of power-lessness to a state where they start be-lieving their own capability.

Leadership researchers believed thatthe effective leaders become institu-tion builder by carrying people withthem even when they seem to feelpowerless.

5)Leaving beyond organizationIdentity:One of the biggest problems with alot of leaders is the deep insecurityabout their own identity. Leadersoften get so hooked up with organi-zational functions that they literallyfeel out of life when those functionsare taken away from them. As aleader one should not live in constantapprehension at the thought of whatwill happen if their institutional iden-tity were ever to disappear. JackWelch successfully transitioned hiscareer into business writing, speakingand consulting after his eventfultransformational journey at GE.

So what are you thinking? Lead-ership is all about influencing, and weall have an inherent capacity tochoose to build a new vision for our-selves, to start following a differentcourse, to let go something which wethought we will never do, embracesomething which we probably wasnever comfortable with. But when wedo these things, which are guided bya purpose we all excel and metamor-phose ourselves from an individualcontributor to a true leader, perhapsthat is what Gen Y are looking for?

The effective leadersare those who nur-ture self- esteem inothers

““

The process of lead-ing is something be-yond managing.While writing aboutleadership chal-lenges, leadershipresearchers Kouzes

and Posner wrote, "If there is a cleardistinction between the process ofmanaging and the process of leading,it is between getting others to do andgetting others to want to do. Man-agers get other people to do but lead-ers get other people to want to do".This definition assumes greater sig-nificance in the context of today’sIndia where effective leaders arethose who can inspire and motivateyounger generation by helping themto find a "Purpose". At the core of theleadership effectiveness in today’s or-ganizations, therefore, the emphasisis not what you can achieve yourselfin an organization but help others toachieve breakthrough results and ben-

efit the entire ecosystem. Anna Haz-are’s popularity with Gen Y Indiansis a case in point where he was able toconnect with millions of young Indi-ans by giving them a purpose and anidentity.

Gen Y today wants to feel signif-icant. They are ready to work veryhard, provided they see an avenue toreach their goals in life. In somesense they are all knowledge workers.It means that they want to get an op-portunity to put their knowledge intouse in their day-to-day job function.It is in this context the leaders intoday’s organizations must under-stand what drives these GEN Y

knowledge workers. One of the keydrivers for them is opportunity tolearn new skills in actual job situa-tions. Therefore they would wantleaders who can facilitate them tolearn, while working with them.Whatelse drives them? They are more IT-Savvy and therefore want access toinformation, especially those whichcan enable them to not only networkwith fellow professionals more effi-ciently but to acquire knowledge thatcan help them to contribute more sig-nificantly in solving business prob-lems. Challenging assignmentscoupled with meaningful and databased feedback are some of the tools

Differentiating Leadership LLeeaaddeerrsshhiipp

Pallab Bandyopadhyay

By Dr. Pallab Bandyopadhyay, Director-HR, Citrix Systems

What Might work formanaging Generation

Citrix Systems, Inc. (NasdaqGS:CTXS) delivers virtualization,networking and cloud solutions.With a market capital of $11.80Billion, Citrix employs over 6001employees.

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Nearly 2 in 5 U.S. tablet owners readnewspapers and/or magazines ontheir device while 1 in 10 readingpublications almost daily. 37.1 per-cent of tablet owners read a newspa-per on their device at least onceduring the month, with 11.5 percentof tablet owners reading newspapersalmost every day.Courtesy: Comscore


sitioning them as more cost-effective andas a way to counter the effects of eco-nomic belt tightening”. Evolving to this model is highly complexand a multi-stage process with a signifi-cant number of technology decisions tomake, but clearly a must do to remainrelevant in the modern world of software.

Capitalizing on the power of real-timeanalytics:One of the most powerful competitiveweapons in the software industry todayis analytics. For many organizations, pil-ing terabytes of structured and unstruc-tured data that changes at rapid velocityneeds to be managed and analyzed real-time in a secure environment. Accord-ing to market research firm IDC, thebusiness analytics software market grewby 14.1 percent in 2011 and will con-tinue to grow at a 9.8 percent annualrate, to reach $50.7 billion in 2016,driven by the focus on big data. ISVsmust have a clear plan to capture, ana-lyze and create actionable, predictive in-telligence in real time. This areacontinues to evolve very quickly and islikely to remain a key area of softwaretransformation for years to come.

Monetizing new market opportuni-ties:Software transformation has the poten-tial to open new markets and newsources of significant revenue for ISVs.Simply mobilizing software can helpISVs take their solutions in new marketsor geographies. Gartner states “SaaS andcloud-based services help vendors to ex-pand revenue growth by making it eas-ier for end users to test and evaluate newtypes of software, provision new users tocurrent technologies, and migrate usersoff older versions to newer versions ofsoftware.”In some industries, client analytics can

also be significantly monetized. A goalof any transformation plan should be topand bottom line growth and mining newmarkets is the shortest path to success.

Refreshing core software developmentpractices:Modernizing traditional software devel-opment practices such as agile multi-sitedevelopment processes, quality, automa-tion and outsourcing of non-core productlines to free-up R&D budgets, resourcesfor transformational initiatives are justthe beginning of core practices that mayneed a refresh. Some of these can alsoyield the biggest gains in terms of imme-diate return on investment. According toVoke Research “In the post-global finan-cial crisis environment, software andplatforms continue to increase in com-plexity and demand, and high profilesoftware failures are occurring at analarming rate. Software failures nowequal business failures, and as such, test-ing has moved from obscurity to promi-nence. The inextricable link of softwareand the brand has made business leadersaware of the need for quality softwarewith minimal business risk. The testingof software at every stage of the lifecyclewith all aspects of the supply chain is astandard and required practice, and con-tinues to grow in importance.”

Summary:The software market is undergoing a dra-matic change. New technologies, solu-tions and business model are not justredefining the ISV landscape, but alsoprovide tremendous opportunities to in-novate and create next generation solu-tions. Symphony Teleca is the leadingsoftware development partner in theworld today as recognized by Zinnov,Global Services, Gartner and more.

The $120 billion a yearglobal enterprise softwareindustry is in a period ofrapid transition, with moreand more companies and

industries being run on software and de-livered as an online service to a wideningrange of connected devices. Advances inprocessing, mobile devices, wireless net-working, the Internet and other tech-nologies have fundamentally eliminatedthe defenses of established industries,and software companies face unprece-dented opportunities in the years ahead.But to thrive, independent software ven-dors (ISVs) must fundamentally trans-form their traditional design,development and commercializationstrategies and processes to be successfulin today’s highly connected world. Thereare many dimensions to this requiredtransformation, however six are clearlythe most common today.

Incorporating New User Interface De-sign and Technology:The staggering growth of Smartphones,tablets and other connected devices cre-

ate a range of new usability challengesfor a consistent, cross-platform experi-ence while providing complete enterpriseapplication functionality to the end useracross devices. Differences in screensize, processing, power, wireless per-formance, gesture and new user inter-faces (UIs) such as advanced haptics andmore create a clear competitive need toleverage the latest in UI design and us-ability best practices. This area is sure toget more interesting as companies likeApple have filed patents that wouldallow a device’s display to physicallychange shapes. This could provide aconsumer with a raised button for exam-ple or a 3D map that pops right out of thescreen.

Delivering Software to All Kinds ofDevices – including Autos and Em-ployees’ Personal Devices (BYOD):According to NPD In-Stat, the connecteddevice base will increase from 256 mil-lion devices (2011) to at least 1.34 billionby 2016. That is a 56 percent combinedannual growth rate. Connected devicesinclude tablets and Smartphones as wellas connected television and satellite sets,video game consoles and Blu-ray play-

ers/recorders. Two of the hottest areas ofthe mobile ecosystem today are the Au-tomotive sector, where in-vehicle info-tainment (IVI) has become of theprimary areas of competitive differenti-ation among auto manufacturers, and thebring-your-own-device phenomenon inthe enterprise. Creating complete functionality in a mo-bile environment along with optimizingapplication performance over variouswireless networks - including cross- plat-form delivery to mobile devices - can bedaunting. Testing alone all the variouscombinations of devices, operating sys-tems and wireless networks however is amust for transforming software for theconnected world.

Addressing Client Demand for Soft-ware “as a Service”: Shifting from traditional software anddelivery models to software as a service(SaaS) is fundamentally changing theeconomics of software. It also can opennew markets, significantly reducing cap-ital and operational costs, and enablingISVs to dramatically improve their over-all business model. Gartner predicts SaaSrevenue will reach $14.5 billion this year,a 17.9 percent increase from 2011 of$12.3 billion, with strong growth pre-dicted through 2015 when the market isexpected to be $22.1 billion. Also, ac-cording to Gartner, “An increasing num-ber of organizations are demandingsoftware functionality as a service (infra-structure as a service [IaaS], platform asa service [PaaS] and SaaS) or via cloud-based services rather than on-premises.As a result, vendors are offering moretechnology as subscription-based solu-tions and "pay as you go" offerings, po-

Transformation of Corporate softwarefor a Connected World

The inextricable link ofsoftware and the brandhas made business lead-ers aware of the need forquality software withminimal business risk

By Sanjay Dhawan, President and CEO, Symphony Teleca Corporation

Sanjay Dhawan

Headquartered in Palo Alto, Symphony Teleca Corporation delivers products combined with con-temporary product development, systems integration, analytics and managed services to severalorganizations globally. With 35 offices worldwide, the company employs over 6,100 employees.

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SGI (Nasdaq:SGI) develops, markets and sells abroad line of mid-range and high-end scale-out andscale-up servers plus data storage solutions and dif-ferentiating software. With a Market Cap of $ 246.32Million they approximately employ over 1,500 em-ployees ending March 31st, 2012.

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By Floyd Christofferson, Director of Storage Product Marketing, SGI

tems automatically index content inmultiple ways as it is created and mod-ified. Using this meta data users cansearch for data, and administrators caneasily set policies to automatically de-termine which data should remain onproduction disk drives and which canmigrate to lower cost, higher effi-ciency second or third tier storage.

• Hierarchical Storage Management(Tier Virtualisation):Another cost-effective technique thatcan aid in developing an active archiveis to virtualise tiers of storage throughthe use of a hierarchical storage man-agement solution. These enable multi-ple tiers of disk and tape to appear tousers as one large aggregated volumeeven though the data is actually dis-tributed across multiple storage types.

The beauty of this system is that allthe data appears to the user to be on-line in the high speed, expensive, pro-duction disk at all times. But in reality,even though the file appears to be rightwhere the user put it in the file system,

it has actually migrated to lower coststorage. This approach delivers dra-matic overall cost savings without theneed for users to learn and followwhere their content is located.

• Low power mass storage usingMAID:A MAID system is another significanttool in creating a lower cost activearchive. By selectively poweringdown whole sections of the disk arrayuntil the data is needed, MAID sig-nificantly reduces the power and cool-ing requirements of the data centre,much like tape libraries do, but withthe added advantage of much higherperformance and proactive data pro-tection.

Protecting the Data That Is Your Busi-nessAn active archive strategy requires ef-fective planning and deployment ofmanagement tools. When imple-mented effectively it can considerablyreduce the overall cost of managing agrowing pool of digital data. Individ-ual components can be upgraded orchanged without impacting the userexperience. In this scenario, scalabil-ity becomes an asset, and not aheadache. si

The mainstream adoptionof HD, 3D, mobile andstreaming services pres-ents an archiving chal-lenge for the digital media

industry, in scaling storage and sup-port systems cost effectively, andtherefore providing sufficient capacityand speed of information retrieval re-quired.

Even though more and more digi-tal media files are filling up ever-largerdisk silos, propelled by the prolifera-tion of mediums, the amount of data isgrowing quicker than the need to ac-cess it. For the digital media sector,specific files are rarely accessed, butthe key is for that access to be imme-diate and fast; business users and con-sumers want them available at alltimes.For some businesses, this challengewould be addressed through betterdata management, but translated to thedigital media and production sectorthe challenge becomes astounding.The problem is more critical than therealm of personal preference whereonline media is accessible instantly,such as services like BBC iPlayer orSpotify, instead the issue is a businessnecessity. The business needs to haveaccess to the full range of data at alltimes.

always-on and accessible

An active archivemeans data is al-ways available inan ‘online’ state. Inthe context of anactive archive, ‘on-line’ means that thedata is available inan environmentthat is immediatelyand easily accessi-ble to users, that isnot drawing poweror taking up unnec-essary space, andone in which thedata is protectedfor a long time.

An activearchive strategy, when properly ap-plied, significantly reduces overallstorage and data management costswhilst improving efficiencies and theability for users to access all data.

In essence, the data should livewhere it is most efficient. For exam-ple, inactive data, WHICH IS BLA,which has retention value can bemoved into an archive tier storage that,although ‘online’ and visible to theuser, is typically in a powered-downstate using Massive Array of IdleDisks (MAID) technology that com-pletely removes power from the array.These archives, while still available tousers, can be managed with very dif-

ferent disaster recovery techniquesthat require less investment, and at afraction of the operational costs ofconventional disk-based file stores.

This is a vast contrast to a tradi-tional archiving approach, where dataoften ends up residing in an off-sitedata tape store that required hours ifnot days for data retrieval.

Implementing an active archiveThere are numerous tools that can sim-plify the implementation of an activearchive strategy. These can be cate-gorised as:

• Digital Asset Management:Leading digital asset management sys-

achieving active archive ambition

Enterprises are expected tospend $28 billion on BigData this year and thespending is expected to hit$34 billion next year. How-ever the buzzword willphase out by 2020 whenBig Data will have becomethe new normal.

Courtesy: Gartner

Floyd Christofferson


We are going througha radical shift in theway people workand use computers.Increasing avail-

ability and affordability of wirelessbroadband is giving the global work-force true mobility, for the first time inhistory. Many of them will use smartlydesigned mobile rugged computers fortheir everyday computing and commu-nication needs, instead of traditionallaptops.

"We live in interesting times," saidRobert Kennedy in 1966. I am prone toagree, although Bob and I surely referto vastly different developments andscenarios. I would like to suggest thatwe are presently going through a real,

radical shift in the way in which peoplework and use computers. It is about truemobility, for the first time in history.

With increasing availability and af-fordability of wireless broadband, peo-ple are no longer confined to thetraditional office environment. Soon wewill all be connected, everywhere andalways. Mobile operators are expandingnetworks and increasing capacity tohandle the explosion of data trafficstemming from the increasing use ofsmartphones (that are in reality morecomputers than phones).

Working from home or closer to thecustomers can have several positive ef-fects: it may make staff more contentand also more productive. It may makethe organization slimmer by reducing

the need for office space. And the soci-ety as a whole may reap great environ-mental rewards if this newly found truemobility leads to fewer trips by car, bus,train or plane to and from the office.

Another strong trend that drives truemobility is the availability of much im-proved so-called rugged, or ruggedized,computers. As opposed to traditional, orcommercial computers, these comput-ers are specifically designed to operatereliably in harsh usage environmentsand conditions, such as strong vibra-tions, extreme temperatures and wet ordusty conditions.

Standard computers are simply notsuitable for use in outdoor environ-ments. They have poor battery life andcannot withstand shock, dust and water.

They break too easily and too often,thus making the price-benefit analysisinferior to that of rugged computers (al-though the latter are more expensive topurchase). The total cost of ownershipis much lower, as much as 65 percentlower per year, for rugged computers,mainly because their durability mini-mizes or eliminates the loss of produc-tivity that is the result of computersbreaking down.

ordinary office workers embracerugged devicesTraditionally, rugged computers havebeen used by field workers operating intough and 'naturally mobile' environ-ments such as logistics, geomatics,forestry, public transportation, con-struction, mining, public safety and mil-itary. But a strong parallel trend is thateven 'ordinary' office workers are nowalso starting to use rugged computersfor a life 'on the go' to avoid having toreplace commercial laptops or handhelddevices or even smartphones so often.Many blue collar workers, like garbagecollectors and train staff, have alsostarted using rugged computers andhandheld devices to make their workmore effective and productive.

But what is a rugged computer?There are two main standards for clas-sifying rugged computers:

The American military standard forequipment, MIL-STD-810. This is abroad range of environmental condi-

tions that include: low pressure for alti-tude testing; exposure to high and lowtemperatures plus temperature shock;rain; humidity, fungus, salt fog; sand

and dust exposure; leakage; shock andvibration. The standard is comprised of24 laboratory test methods. Generallyspeaking, the more methods tested (andpassed), the more rugged the unit. So arugged computer would on one level beclassified by how many test methods ithas passed.

The IP scale, not to be confusedwith Intellectual Property or IP address,IP in this case stands for Ingress Protec-tion and the ratings are displayed as atwo digit number. The first digit reflectsthe level of protection against dust. Thesecond digit reflects the level of protec-tion against liquids (water). So an IP67-rated unit is totally dust proof and iscapable of immersion in water for atleast 30 minutes to a depth of one meter.As everybody knows Apple has been

hugely successful with the iPhone andthe iPad. This success has also spreadinto the ruggedized market where someenterprises who traditionally wouldhave bought rugged devices have optedfor an iPhone or iPad as their enterprisemobility hardware. The tremendoussuccess of Apple has more than any-thing taught the broad masses that us-ability is important, that design mattersand that the essence of mobility lays inthe size and weight (or lack thereof) ina device. The manufacturers of ruggedequipment are learning quickly and arenow launching rugged smartphones andother user-friendly and smartly designeddevices.

Rugged computers have becomemuch more sophisticated and advancedin the last few years. They now havefaster processors to offer better andbroader use, and the ability to bringdesktop functionality out into the field.Their batteries can work for eight hourson a single charge – a full work day.They may work on any choice of wire-less frequency anywhere in the world.They have high quality cameras that al-lows in field image capture.

Rugged is coolRugged mobile computers have also be-come much lighter and have much bet-ter functionality overall, including betterdisplays and improved ergonomic de-sign – all contributing to an improveduser experience. New screen technologyprovides spectacular screen clarity andbrightness in any outdoor condition,even direct sunlight.

They also look better – it has be-come cool to own a rugged computer(also because many famous athletes andadventurers use them). Design andfunctionality are two strong reasonswhy the rugged computer segment isgrowing faster than other computer seg-ments.

Working from home or closer to thecustomers can have several positiveeffects: it may make staff more con-

tent and also more productive

““

Jerkre Hellstrom

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Handheld is a manufacturer and lead-ing supplier of rugged mobile comput-ers employing over 44 people.

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True Mobility Trend: The Future ofMobile Computers isRugged

True Mobility Trend: The Future ofMobile Computers isRuggedBy Jerker Hellstrom, CEO, Handheld Group


It is no secret that customers aretalking, telling you exactlywhat they like, or do not like,about your brand, the latestproduct they purchased, or

even their bad service experience.Whether this feedback comes throughemail, survey, chat, or particularlynow-a-days social media, as theowner of that brand, it is up to you tolisten to your customers. Listeningand then acting on insights gleanedthrough customer feedback drivesproduct innovation, improves cus-tomer service, bolsters customer loy-alty, and produces measurable ROI.But what are the trends in the Cus-tomer Experience Management(CEM) industry today? As technol-ogy advances, where is this spaceheaded, and what challenges face en-trepreneurs vying to build a businessin this growing marketplace?

In order to overcome the chal-lenges of handling Big Data, such asefficiently analyzing vast quantitiesof unstructured content that comesfrom multiple feedback sources, or-ganizations need to invest in a scala-ble text and sentiment analyticsplatform to automate the analysisprocess. Through such types of tech-nology, organizations can intelli-

The Importance of increasing Operationalization in Business Insights

Sid Banerjee

By Sid Banerjee, CEO & Co-Founder, Clarabridge

Clarabridge is a provider of sentiment and text analytical software. Institutedin 2006 in Reston, VA, the firm strives to provide software solutions idiosyn-cratically to utilize sentiment analysis and text analytics to automatically col-lect, categorize and report on structured and unstructured data.

gently tag customer feedback for cat-egorization and sentiment in order toglean action-able in-sights. Itused to beenough forbus inessesto just ana-lyze thedata, hearwhat cus-tomers aresaying, and then react internally.However, the trend in CEM today isto not just listen to consumers, but toengage with them.

Organizations need to prove tocustomers that they are actively mak-ing the customer a valued stakeholderin business decisions by maintainingan open dialogue with consumers.Through social channels such asFacebook, Twitter, and online com-munities, organi-

zations need torespond directly to customer com-ments, answer questions, or follow upwith an unhappy customer. Compa-nies are increasingly operationalizingbusiness insights as well. For manyorganizations, any feedback collected

on products or services is generallynot routed to the operational depart-

ment best able to respond. This is ahuge untapped opportunity. Organi-zations will only truly benefit fromsocial media when social interactionsare efficiently and quickly deliveredto the right people who use the feed-back to take action.

As a company interacts and ana-lyzes customer experiences overtime, they can build out a more com-prehensive and nuanced profile of

customer interests, influ-ences, and drivers of

loyalty, prof-i tabi l -

i t y ,a n d

promotion.Organizations need

to expand their customer en-gagement beyond social media plat-forms and build out the most holisticview of their customers. After all, atweet may only say that a customer isunhappy with the latest line of oat-meal, but an email elaborates onwhy—and tells you how to change it.

The challenges facing entrepre-

neurs looking to exploit opportunitiesin the social and CEM space todayare not much different from the chal-lenges for any entrepreneur. StartingClarabridge in 2006, we first soughtout creative, risk taking employeeswho had a passion for coming up withand translating new ideas into newproducts. We raised capital when werealized that our ideas needed to befunded beyond our own ability to in-vest. And as our business has grownacross the U.S. and now internation-ally, we have created scalable sales,marketing, support, and technologyorganizations with the talent and abil-ity to build ever more sophisticated,market responsive solutions.Through the entire process, we havesought to do, as a company, what oursolutions do for our customers – lis-ten. Our customers are our inspira-tion, our source of creative ideas, andultimately, our partners. By listeningto them and translating their insightsinto improvements in our businessand offerings, we are successful.

organizations will beneGt from social media when interactions

are efficiently and quickly delivered to the right people

India’s cloud services marketis expected to grow 32.4 per-cent in 2012 to reach $326.2million. Software as a service(SaaS) is the largest segmentand is forecast to increase to$115.6 million in 2012, whileinfrastructure as a service(IaaS) is estimated to reach to$42.7 million in 2012.

Courtesy: Gartner

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These are challeng-ing times for themanufacturing in-dustry in India.With global eco-nomic uncertain-ties, manufacturers

are under a lot of pressure to cut costsand increase revenue. The last time In-dian manufacturing faced a similar crisiswas in the early nineties, after economicliberalization in India opened up a pre-viously protected market to global com-petitors. A lot of people back then,including many manufacturers them-selves, thought that more efficient for-eign manufacturers providing higherquality products would completely wipeout manufacturing in India.

What unfolded over the next twentyyears was something very different; In-dian manufacturers not only overcamethe crisis, but emerged stronger than everbefore. They became efficient and highquality manufacturers. The rapid expan-

sion in manufacturing overthe last two decades alongwith several prestigious qual-ity awards bagged by Indianmanufacturers bear testament

to this fact. So, what is the next step for Indian

manufacturing? Before we answer thisquestion, let us look at some of the chal-lenges manufacturers face today. Let us

start with the need for speed. Withshrinking product lifecycles and ex-panding choices available to consumers,manufacturers have to bring their inno-vations to the market faster than theircompetitors to stay in the race. Further,

with increasingly complex products, noone manufacturer can possess all theskills and competencies required tobring a product to market. Manufactur-ers are increasingly forced to work withsuppliers and partners across the worldproviding key sub-systems and compe-tencies. This brings us to our next chal-lenge, globalization. Indianmanufacturershave to target global markets to achieveeconomies of scale. They also have towork with global partners who may beproviding key competencies that are crit-ical to product success. In this increas-ingly globalized value chain, one facesthe next challenge of optimization. Howcan manufacturers get the most out oftheir resources and competencies thatare now spread across the world? Howdo they achieve this while maintainingflexibility to respond quickly to marketdemands? And how do they do thiswhile paying close attention to the nextmajor challenge, sustainability. With in-creasing concern for the environment,governments around the world are en-acting regulation to control the use ofharmful materials in the product and theproduction process. Manufacturers arealso being made accountable for the safe

By Vivek Marwaha, Director Marketing, Siemens PLM Software India

Siemens PLM Software, a business unit of the Siemens In-dustry Automation Division, is a leading global provider ofproduct lifecycle management (PLM) software and serviceswith seven million licensed seats and more than 71,000 cus-tomers worldwide. Headquartered in Plano, Texas, SiemensPLM Software works collaboratively with companies, de-livering open solutions to help them make smarter decisionsthat result in better products.

PLM – enaBLInG sMaRTeR DeCIsIonsanD BeTTeR PRoDUCTs

disposal of their products at the end oflife. In summary, manufacturers todayface unprecedented challenges and acomplex business environment. Justbeing an efficient manufacturer is nolonger sufficient to achieve long termsuccess.

That brings us back to the question:what is next for Indian manufacturing?The answer lies in the practice of prod-uct lifecycle management (PLM). PLMis rapidly emerging as a critical enter-prise application for manufacturers.While PLM is a vast domain with sev-eral solution sets, one could classifythem into three broad areas: digital prod-uct development, digital lifecycle man-agement, and digital manufacturing.

However, please bear in mind thatPLM is, first and foremost, a businessstrategy. Products are the life blood ofany manufacturing organization, and adisciplined approach to decision makingacross the product lifecycle can unlocktremendous value for manufacturers.PLM software has evolved over theyears, from simple CAD tools, to inte-grated information systems that containintelligent product and process informa-tion, thus supporting effective decisionmaking across the lifecycle. Smarter de-cisions would logically lead to betterproducts, providing long term growthand profitability to manufacturers.

When Maruti Suzuki India Limited

(MSIL) experienced increasing marketpressures to introduce new product mod-els in a shorter timeframe, they decidedto automate their die design process withthe help of digital product developmenttools. This helped MSIL bring down thedie design time and costs, while enhanc-ing the quality of dies.

For Avantha Power & InfrastructureLimited (Avantha Power), it was a ques-tion of reducing project delivery and ex-ecution time for commissioning new

power plants. With the help of a digitallifecycle management system, AvanthaPower was able to manage and share ac-

curate project information among em-ployees and vendors in a secure envi-ronment, thus achieving their overallproject objectives.

When Mahindra Vehicle Manufac-turers Limited (Mahindra Vehicles) de-cided to setup a new manufacturingplant at Chakan to cater to the rising de-mand for medium and heavy commer-cial vehicles, they turned to digitalmanufacturing technologies to helpthem plan and simulate the entire plantvirtually before they started construc-tion. This helped Mahindra Vehiclesbring down vehicle lead times and costssignificantly, as well as eliminate non-value adding activities early in theprocess, thus supporting their “first timeright” philosophy.

These examples should not giveone the impression that PLM is suitedonly to large enterprises. Small andmid-sized manufacturers face the samechallenges, and are increasingly turningto PLM to help them deal with the com-plexity of today’s business environ-ment.

In summary, we are on the cusp ofwhat promises to be an exciting periodfor manufacturing in India. Challengesabound, but so do opportunities. Inno-vative manufacturers who makesmarter decisions and build better prod-ucts are sure to achieve success in theyears to come.

Vivek Marwaha

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With increasingly complex products,no one manufacturer can possess allthe skills and competencies required

to bring a product to market

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sible... and dont be afraid of hard work!"Work-life balance is a person’s controlover the conditions in their workplace. Itis accomplished when an individual feelsdually satisfied about their personal lifeand their paid occu-pation. It mutuallybenefits the individ-ual, business andsociety when a per-son’s personal life isbalanced with his orher own job. Thework-life balancestrategy offers a va-riety of means to re-duce stress levelsand increase job sat-isfaction in the em-ployee while enhancing business benefitsfor the employer. In our increasingly hec-tic world, the work-life strategy seeks tofind a balance between work and play. Asentence that brings the idea of work lifebalance to the point is: "Work to live.Don’t live to work."

People are successful when theyhave the flexibility to meet the demandsof their professional lives and accom-plish personal goals outside their offices.Our goal is to create a flexible work en-vironment, where we can respond to thedemands of client service and at the sametime provide enough support to our pro-fessionals so that can have control overtheir personal lives.

Our profession is a demanding one,and we cannot change that. But we canprovide more flexibility in both the indi-vidual careers and the personal lives ofthe people who make up our organiza-

tion. We are con-stantly trying toincrease flexibil-ity into the waywe work and thethings we do.Flexibility is be-coming moreand more a partof our environ-ment everyday.

strategies tokeep work life

balance :1. Do not overbookThis may seem unusual to people whotry to crowbar as much as possible intoevery workday. The problem is: Thingsrarely go according to a prearrangedagenda. That means a lot of time fallingthrough the cracks chasing down ap-pointments, unreturned phone calls andother items that simply arent going tohappen. "Do not try to plan on doing toomany things. Assume that only 50 per-cent of the things you plan on doingtoday will actually get done.2. Prioritize ruthlesslyThe secret to booking your time effec-tively boils down to knowing what is im-

portant and what can wait. But its criticalto use the sharpest knife possible in trim-ming the essential from the secondary.3. Learn how to say ‘no’One of the biggest land mines to effec-tive time management is recognizing youdo not have to agree to everything andwith everyone. Use your priority criteriato identify requests that simply are notworth your time.4. OrganizeBringing your time into line isnt just amatter of scheduling. The mechanics ofhow you operate can be every bit as im-portant. That means organizing mostevery element to allow as smooth aworkflow as possible.5. Use technologyAlthough personal habits and practicescan do wonders for time management,do not overlook technology as yet an-other weapon to make the most effectiveuse of your workday.6. But do not over do itMany business people are gun shy aboutusing technology out of fear that theywill remain too much in touch—thattheir time will be consumed by intrusivee-mails and cell phone calls. Fair enough.Part of effective time managementknows when to shut things down. Turn-ing off a cell phone or other wirelessmeans of communication establishesboundaries. In short, it helps you balanceyour personal and professional time.7. Know it would not always be perfectTry as we all may, time management isnot an exact science. Do not stress out—and waste time in the process—by ob-sessing over every second of time. Dowhat you can and enjoy whatever timeyou spend more pleasantly or produc-tively.


"Work to live. Do not live to work" a success Mantra

While all aspectsof our life areimportant, with-out a balanceyou become ad-dicted and like

all addictions you lose" - Catherine Pul-sifer.

In the early days of world trade,goods would be produced in the localcountries, at earthly hours, and would betransported by ship to faraway destina-tions. Globalization today is more taxing.Businesses are more complex. As theservices component of global trade in-creases, so does the need for more com-munication and interaction.

We need to recalibrate our time andtravel. Cost and ecological considera-tions are encouraging companies likeours to reduce travel and adopt video-conferencing instead. In addition, com-panies are recognizing they need to setboundaries around working hours, per-sonal time and holidays.

We need to encourage corporate cul-tures that separate work and home, andhold family time sacrosanct. We alsoneed to be "modularize" work so thatlocal teams, working in close physicalproximity, take on specific projects andtasks in "packages" that make geographicsense. Interface standards, across workpackages, will minimize the need for ex-tensive communication and interaction.

As a world, we are still learning howto deal with globalization at an individualand family level. We need to strike theright balance, in terms of distribution ofwork and output, between globalization

and localization. Do share your own ex-periences and perspectives with regardsto globalization and family life.

Monitor implementation and putfeedback systems into place. In India,there is a starting point in the organiza-tions which have recognized the need forand value of Work-Life Balance policies.An integral part of our lives is our pro-fession. Just as there is responsibility andopportunity in life, our careers are alsoguided by opportunities and responsibil-ities. We must ensure that these two fac-tors dont work at cross purposes. Qualityof life is something we all covet, everyprofession affects life in general andevery profession has a duty towards life.

Surprisingly, the literature does notcontain one clear definition or measureof work-life balance that has demon-strated acceptable construct validity onthe criteria discussed above. Instead, anarray of definitions and measures popu-late the literature. We suggest that this va-riety of work-life definitions andmeasures provide limited value for boththe theoretical advancement of the con-struct and for practical human resource(HR) interventions. We provide here abrief review of the more common work-life balance definitions, with the inten-tion of highlighting this variety andstimulating discussions towards a con-sensus.

Why Work Life Balance is Importantto Women? Today’s career women arecontinually challenged by the demandsof full-time work and when the day isdone at the office, they carry more of theresponsibilities and commitments to

home. The majority of women are work-ing 40-45 hours per week and 53 percentare struggling to achieve work/life bal-ance. Women reported that their liveswere a juggling act that included multipleresponsibilities at work, heavy meetingschedules, business trips, on top of man-aging the daily routine responsibilities oflife and home."Successfully achievingwork/life balance will ultimately create amore satisfied workforce that contributesto productivity and success in the work-place." Employers can facilitate WLBwith many schemes that can attractwomen employees and satisfy theirneeds.Some of these are:• Facilities for child care• Financial planning services for employees who need them• Flexi-timings • Work sharing • Part time employment • Leave plans - both paid and unpaid -to suit employees needs

• Subsidized food plans• Insurance plans • Counseling services for problems likemanaging work and the home• Rest rooms, food preparation services• Jobs with autonomy and flexibility • Realistic work loads

In case of working women, gettingcaught in the work/life balance trap willcontinue to be an ongoing challenge.Careful planning and personal effort isthe advice from those who have foundbalance in both career and home life. Asone respondent summarized, "Plan, pri-oritize and schedule as efficiently as pos-

By Dr. Kshama Singh, Director, Institute of Management Social Sciences & Research, Pune

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successfully achievingwork/life balance will ulti-mately create a more satis-Ged workforce thatcontributes to productivityand success in the work-place

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With 10 years of experience in academicsand the industry,Dr. Kshama Singhspecializes in the fieldof HR, Entrepreneur-ship and Strategic Management.

“

Dr. Kshama Singh


By Raj Reddy, Associate Vice President – HR Business Leader & Head – Talent Planning, Infosys BPO

Basic ingredients of leader-ship include the ability tohave a vision and drive thesame passionately withtrust and integrity. A leader

must also be curious to learn new thingsand fearlessly implement the same. Ex-cellence in implementation coupled withwillingness to take new responsibilities,ability to motivate and win the trust of itsworkforce is of utmost importance. Per-sonal traits such as Confidence, Adapt-ability and Flexibility along-with aspirited balanced life that aims towardscontinuous learning is also important. Ina nutshell, a leader is an endless list ofqualities. Having said that, some of thekey traits according to me can be de-scribed as below :

Leaders do not Blame Circumstances:A leader needs to take responsibility forhis/her own behavior, without blamingcircumstances, conditions, or condition-ing for his behavior. One needs to choosethe response to any situation and any per-son.

Leaders Visualize the Future: A leader needs to visualize the future thathe wants to achieve. A leader will have aclear vision of where he wants to go andwhat he wants to accomplish. This comesfrom vast experiential knowledge in deal-ing with uncertainty and ability to con-nect the dots of today to build a Contextfor future.

Leaders are led by Principles:A leader needs to live a disciplined life.

He leads life according to deeply held be-liefs, principles, or fundamental truths. Hehas to focus on highly important thingssuch as building relationships, future ori-ented planning, exercising, and prepara-tion – all those things we know we needto do, but somehow seldom do them, maybe because they are not urgent.

Leaders believe in abundance: A leader should have an abundance men-tality and belief that there is plenty foreverybody. A leader does not believe thatone person’s success requires another per-son’s failure. A leader looks for synergeticsolutions to problems that benefit all par-ties. He listens with the strong intent tofully, deeply understand the other personboth emotionally and intellectually. It islike diagnosing before prescription.

Leaders value differences in People: A leader believes the whole is greater thanthe sum of its parts. He values differencesbetween people and try to build uponthose differences.

Leaders look for third alternative: When presented with two conflicting al-ternatives, they seek third, more creativeresponse.

To sum up, a leader always looks forbetter than the best. A leader seeks con-tinuous improvement, innovation, and re-finement and believes in continuouslearning.

In order to create a unidirectional col-lective momentum, it is very importantfor us to focus our thoughts towards theMission (why do we exist), Values (what

we believe in), Vision (what we want tobe), strategy (what is the game plan to at-tain vision), Business Score Card (focusand implementation), Strategic actions(what we need to do), and Personal ob-jectives (what I need to do).

By systematically working throughthese fundamental concepts, we will beable to transform ourselves into greatleaders of tomorrow.

With 18 years rich experience, RajReddy has been instrumental in con-ceptualization, design and implemen-tation of Talent strategies, to buildhigher productivity people processesthrough Corporate & Regional lead-ership roles.

Raj Reddy

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Do you have it in you to be aGreat Leader?

Investment on software and technol-ogy in India:India is a strong and emerging marketwith a strong GDP growth rate. It is im-portant for small and medium busi-nesses to invest on software to run theiroperations. With “mobile” and “cloudcomputing”in play, there are even bet-ter opportunities for businesses to build

automated processes using softwareslike EPR, CRM, and others, at low cost.Over the past few years, many Indianbusinesses have invested on softwares,and have migrated to “digital” opera-tions from “papers”. This is a greatmove and this will enhance the invest-ments towards the segment by Indiancompanies.

The Cloud and Mobile Reveloution:Cloud and Mobile are changing the waypeople deal with infrastructure, soft-wares, data, and other aspects of life. It’snow easier, faster and cheaper to buildbusiness applications. This promotesautomation giving more options forcompanies, still at low cost.

Revolution in the BI segment:From small businesses to the giants likeGoogle, everyone is into analyzing theirbusiness. It is just that the practice is dif-ferent. Depending on the various factorslike size, industry, volume, and more,the way companies use their own datavaries. I have seen companies who tryto use every small piece of data that theygenerate, to analyze and make better de-cisions. On the other hand, there arecompanies who do not look at theirbusiness data as an asset. More andmore Indian businesses are looking at“spending on software” as an “invest-ment” rather than “expense”, which isGOOD. SMBs are also using softwaresfrom companies like SAP and Oracle torun their operations, this is helping themto digitalize their content. When theirbusiness data is digitalized (rather thanon papers and non-interactive applica-tions), the next step they would do is,analyze their business data or convertdata into useful information. Herecomes “Business Intelligence” into thegame, helping businesses with better

decision making and with new businessopportunities. Number of Indian busi-ness getting into this space has beengrowing rapidly.

Understanding Customer - BI:With the growing competition, it is im-portant for every business to go beyondsimple reporting to provide metrics thatcan be used to adjust operations and tounderstand more about their customers,products, services, and other aspects ofthe business. Businesses are collectingmore data than they know what to dowith. To turn this data into competitivegold, they will need new skills, softwareand new approach - “BI” - which en-ables advanced data visualizations,what-if data analysis, self service andmobile reporting equipping the user totake advantage of the mechanism.

Quality-Cost factor:We are BI experts who understand busi-ness processes and data flow within theorganization.This helps us in loweringour development cycles. We also un-derstand technology - adoption of “mo-bile” is huge in Indian market. BIsolutions that we build take advantageof cloud and mobile. This helps us tosave time and cost on hardware andsoftware. Hence, we tend to offer ourquality solutions at low cost.

India vs. U.s. :There is a difference between India andthe U.S. markets in the way businessesoperate or people work. Selling prod-ucts or services in both the countries isdifferent and need different methodolo-gies. Last two years has been a greatlearning curve for us. We have sharp-ened our knowledge about the need ofthe Indian market and have developedcustomized solutions for our clients. si

By Dheeraj Nallagatla, CEO, Nalgan Technologies

Beyond simple Reporting

Dheeraj Nallagatla

With the growing competition, every en-terprise is critical about its business dataand these days business intelligence isgetting into the DNA of many of enter-prises. Nalgan Technologies is a tech-nology firm which specializes indesigning BI solutions for businesses inAsia Pacific and North America, chang-ing the way they look at their data.Founded by Dheeraj Nallagatla in 2009,the California based firm is focused ondelivering unique, client-centric, end-to-end Data Warehousing/Business Intelli-gence solutions and specializes in BI,Cloud BI, Mobile BI and Offshore BI.Dheeraj Nallagatla shares his views andtalks about how business intelligencemarket is transforming.

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With the increasedprevalence ofGoogle, Facebook,Twitter and othersocial networks,

the total messages we receive everydayhave grown exponentially – be it statusupdates, text messages, emails, phonecalls, the web has become overwhelm-ing. Finding out what really matters is anachievement in today’s world of ringingphones, blaring televisions and Farmvillenotifications.

There is so much noise around us,that the mayhem deprives us of our abil-ity to pay attention to what is actually im-portant. It is like saying that you aretrying to go from Mumbai to Pune for ameeting, but all the attractions on the waykeep hindering you. Ultimately, you areso delayed, that you miss the meeting. Incontext of the business world, these ap-pealing distractions keep us entrepre-neurs from executing the ideas thatprimarily matter and make the difference.

All the distractions that you face onthe way to the top may seem importantand very appealing, but attending to themonly keeps you from reaching your ulti-mate goal. Some of these distractionsmay be so appealing, that they changeyour direction altogether. For example,while trying to build a cell phone app,

you may get so many suggestions andopinions, that in the end, you may mod-ify your business idea to such an extent,that your purpose is lost and you findyourself making a game for Facebook.

Needless to say, every entrepreneurhas a leader in him. But leaders also needdirection. And it is more important forthem than for anyone else, because be-hind these leaders is the rest of the world.For the most part, leaders make their ownpaths, they discover their own roads andthey pave the way for the others to fol-low.

But the increasingly loud noisearound us can very easily take us on thewrong path. As the world becomes moreand more complex, the choices becomeharder to make and decision making be-comes one of the hardest jobs we have todo. This tends to make the leader in us‘dormant’. He has so many ideas, somuch advice and so many possible roadsto travel, that the execution aspect takesa back seat while he ponders over hisnew options, that by the way, come flow-ing in on a daily basis. Also, the turns onthe way are so numerous, that entrepre-neurs tend to make wrong decisionsbased on poor judgment.

We need to simplify our lives by con-quering complexity and waking up theleader in us. I urge you to conquer the

madness and wake up the leader in you.There are constraints or distractions

which prevent us from achieving ourgoals. Some of them are fairly common.However, there are some ways by whichyou can stay far from the trap.

1. awareness of facts - a leader will delveand Gnd out real facts of the situation:On July 31, India saw the biggest powerbreakdowns in the world. 600 millionpeople in India were without power. Air-ports, hospitals, Railways were im-pacted. However, there was one essentialservice that kept working through thiscrisis – the Telecom network. It kept run-ning despite the fact that telecom towersrequire a huge amount of electricity tokeep working.

This is because the leaders runningTelecom have long realized the problemregarding availability of reliable power.In response to this, they have createdbackup mechanisms by using BatteryBackups, Diesel Generators and the like.

Their omnipresence and awarenessis what kept the telecom industry fromfalling with the others. At this time of cri-sis, they knew what they had to do. Theywere prepared. When it comes to entre-preneurship, risk taking is what we do ona daily basis. Uncertainty is our middlename. We do not know what is going to

MMaannaaggeemmeenntt

By Ankur Lal, CEO, Infozech Software Inc.

LeaDeR in YouWake Up the Wake Up the LeaDeR in You


happen next. In such circumstances,being aware is the most we can do. Thetelecom industry knew that they couldnot depend on the power supply. That iswhy they built a robust back up systemthat would keep them going in their timeof need.

As expected, when the time came,they had a contingency plan built out andready to execute. The disorder and noisedid not distract them from doing whatthey had to.

2. Keeping Focus – The many things totake care of :There are just so many things to worryabout that there is no real end to it. Solv-ing one problem will create another. Nor-mally there are so many problems tosolve, that trying to solve all of them to-gether ends up solving none.

The Telecom networks rely on a con-stant and large supply of Diesel to ensurean uninterrupted, impeccable network.Over the years the cost to ensure constantpower through diesel supply has goneup. Today, the industry annually spendsnearly $2 billion on it.

However, the reason the Telecom in-dustry’s leaders were able to achievetheir goal of setting up an uninterruptednetwork is that they solved the more im-portant problem first. The Telecom in-dustry’s first priority, till recently, wasonly to ensure 100 percent network time.Having achieved their first goal, theyhave now started focusing on the prob-lem of managing the costs of diesel,which was their second priority.

Prioritize your problems. Then solvethem one by one. Save yourself the trou-ble of attempting to solve a million prob-lems at once. The bottom line is that isnot going to happen.

3. acting on shortcomings :Just being aware and keeping focus is notenough. Taking action is an integral partas well.

A leader who is aware and focusedmust not fail to take action accordingly.Even at this point of time, there will be alot of noise which will threaten to distracthim and make him doubt his decision. Inthese situations, remember that it is justnoise. Most of the times, it has no sub-

stance to it. Often, leaders are given very little

time to execute. Noise around them candelay action. One eminent example thatI can recall at the moment is of Titanic.If you have seen the movie, you wouldrecall that when the crew saw the ice-

berg, they had to turn the ship in a matterof seconds. The decision had to be takenand put into action rapidly for the ship tosurvive the hit. But after they failed toavoid the hit and they knew that the shipwould sink, they had to come up with astrategy to save as many lives as possible.This led to another round of rapid deci-sion making and simultaneous imple-mentation.

What I am trying to convey by tellingyou this story is that once you have takenthe decision to execute, do not fail to doso. Ignore the noise and ‘just do it’.

here is a small testAre you 100 percent into reading thisarticle? Or are you thinking about to-morrow’s meeting, or whether your newprospect will close? Are you quicklyreading through this article so that youcan check your email for the secondtime in 10 minutes? All this is noisewhich takes away your attention anddistracts you from your immediate goalof reading and learning. In case you areable to silence your mind from thisnoise, you will be able to accomplishyour purpose of reading this magazineand learning from it.

In whatever you do, focus on yourgoal undeterred by self-consciousnessand distractions.

Do this for the next two weeks andsee the results. I promise you that thechange will be phenomenal and its ef-fect will change your lifestyle in moreways than you can imagine. However this is one of the things thatonly ‘you’ can do for yourself. Only youcan ‘wake up the leader in you’.The only ques-tion is: “Willyou do it?”

once you have takenthe decision to exe-cute, do not fail to doso. Ignore the noiseand ‘just do it’

Infozech is a provider of products and solutions for the global Telecomindustry helping Next Gen Service Providers towards Cost Optimization andRevenue Management. Headquartered in New Delhi, India with a subsidiaryin the U.S., Infozech was founded in 1999 and today is an ISO 9001:2008certified company with an expansive product portfolio. Ankur Lal

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