Forbes India

Will the capex cycle return in 2013?

Excluding the possibility of any cataclysmic event, I believe 2013 will see some revival in the capex cycle given that investment spending is so low. ...  

A lean production system is bad for workers

In 1936, Charlie Chaplin released his movie 'Modern Times'. The film starts with the shot of a herd of jostling pigs followed by a frame that captures a swarm of workers entering a steel factory. It makes a telling statement on the similarity in the behaviour of animals and humans. The movie then goes on to tell the story of Chaplin, whose job as a factory worker involves tightening nuts...  

Miele India's head on the art of selling high-end goods

Name: Dhananjay Chaturvedi Age: 48 Designation: Managing Director, Miele India The challenge: To define and create a market that didn't exist, and to convince customers who had the money to buy a luxury product but questioned spending it on something that would be hidden inside the kitchen How he Did It: Chaturvedi unlearned practices that he had mastered selling mass products for almost two decades, but brought in all his...  

London doesn't have enough security for the Olympics

For the record, I had no problems at immigration. The officer was pleasant, chatty, wanting to know if that five-time women's world champion boxer, MC Mary Kom, was as good as they say she is. I breezed through customs and then the Airport Olympic Accreditation centre, all in 25 minutes flat with my bags in tow. A pretty young girl, a lad and an elegant lady all approached me to...  

Letter from the editor: Surviving the perfect storm

In the last edition, I had raised the issue of how we, as a nation, need to nurture many more first-generation entrepreneurs. There is an absolute dearth of such role models in India. Which is why Flipkart, founded by two friends from IIT-D " Sachin and Binny Bansal " is the poster-boy of India's internet economy. With the exception of makemytrip.com, there aren't too many new entrepreneurial ventures in the...  

'Licence Raj still exists in education sector'

Anand Sudarshan Age: 52 years Designation: Vice chairman and managing director, Manipal Global Education Services (MaGE). Education: BE in E&C, NIT Trichy and PGDM IIM, Calcutta Career: Started with Nelco, then moved to a computer retail chain called Computer Point for four years; later co-founded Microland group and ran Planetasia.com as its CEO and then moved to NetKraft as CEO which was sold to Adea Solutions Interests: Sports watcher, reader...  

Battle ready: Advice from Colin Powell for startups

Adopt a winning attitude. Like any football or basketball coach, you always " always " believe you're going to win. Disappointments, failures and setbacks are a normal part of the life cycle of a unit or company. A leader has to constantly say, "We have a problem; let's go and get it" " and convey that attitude with passion and intensity. Take calculated risks I was with Mikhail Gorbachev as...  

Online groceries: Will it click?

K Ganesh, 50, the Energizer Bunny of Indian entrepreneurship, is either angry, annoyed or sarcastic. I can't tell. "VCs (venture capitalists) have a herd mentality. They don't mind funding the sixth baby products site or the eighth (discount) deals site. But one of the reasons we got into this business is because it isn't 'VC-able'. It means two pony-tailed youngsters out of college can't enter it. It's our competitive barrier...  

Food in the mouths of babes

There comes a time in most foodies lives when they lose interest in restaurant food. I recall when it happened to me and my wife: The third week of February, 2010. Thats when our son was born. But being the frequent eater-outers that we were, we didnt give in without a fight. We managed a few dinners when he was still just a few months old, carrying him into a...  

Compulsory licencing of Bayer's cancer drug is a triumph

Nata Menabde Age: 52 Designation: WHO Representative to India Education: MSc in Pharmacy, PhD in Pharmacology Career: Nearly 20 years at WHO; was deputy regional director for Europe before coming to India in 2010 Interests: Plays the piano and guitar. Likes classical music, jazz, water sports, history and Russian literature Q. What are the top three challenges in healthcare in India? Communicable diseases remain part of the unfinished agenda for...  

A whole new foundation for business

Be careful. Very careful. "Bad management theories are destroying good management practices". That is what Sumantra Ghoshal, one of the most respected voices in the world on what management ought to be like, argued in a path breaking paper by the same name. It was published shortly after he died in 2004 and continues to hold resonance even today. It was written when a wave of devastating corporate scandals had...  

A pick of the best for health and home

Here's a Pick of the best, the latest, the greenest, the quirkiest, the most luxurious... that money can buy. Run Mister Run If all the exercise you get is the bit when you move your hands around to strike an imaginary tennis ball on your Wii, it is probably time you got running, sir. Run like the wind on Technogym's Jog Now while you're watching episodes of South Park and...  

'We continued to do well despite global crisis'

Neeraj Swaroop Age: 53 years Designation: Was regional chief executive, India & South Asia at Standard Chartered Bank. He is now the regional chief executive for South East Asia (excluding Singapore) Education: IIT, Delhi and MBA from IIM Career: Worked at Unilever, India, HDFC Bank and Bank of America Interests: Watching cricket, travelling, swimming Q. A lot of foreign banks have had issues in scaling up in India, but Standard...  

Sanjna Kapoor: Sheer madness kept Prithvi going

Sanjna Kapoor Age: 44 Education: Very little (O-levels) Designation: Co-founder and director of Junoon, ex-director, Prithvi Theatre Career: Worked 21 years at Prithvi, energising the venue with various initiatives, programmes and festivals Interests: The world of theatre, scuba diving and walking in the wild Tell us a little about the Prithvi story. What's kept it going? And what have you tried to achieve while you were running it? Sheer madness...  

Book Review : What makes business rock

You wouldn't associate someone who commanded three nuclear bases at the height of the Cold War in the 1970s with running the world's largest entertainment businesses. But that's exactly what Bill Roedy has done, and this book chronicles that journey. Roedy graduated from West Point (the US military academy) and served in Vietnam before commanding nuclear bases in North Italy. He left the army after 11 years to pursue an...  

A Himalayan trail on foreign shores

Ravi Prasad Age: 51 Designation: Executive Chairman, Himalaya Drug Company The Challenge: Take the companys range of therapeutic and personal care products to overseas markets How He Did It: He targeted doctors through articles in peer-reviewed journals and allowed customers to sample the products in supermarkets The Next Goal: Double the companys revenues riding on the strength of the international operations that is growing faster than India Himalaya started building...  

Nature's Basket: Double take

In October 2009, nine months after converting the floundering Nature's Basket into a gourmet food store, its team was pleasantly surprised. Its seven stores in Mumbai had seen sales grow at 70 per cent " a surprisingly quick validation of their change in strategy. Getting there, however, has been a rough ride. Two years earlier, Godrej's Nature's Basket business wasn't going as planned. The store, set up in 2006, had...  

Book review: Storming the World Stage

Part detective, part academic, part chronicler, Stephen Tankel provides what is arguably one of the finest and most detailed accounts of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the terrorist group that represents the greatest threat to India. The hook for the book is the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks when 10 trained LeT fighters wreaked havoc in South Mumbai. That was the turning point for LeT when it announced to the world that it had...  

Music festivals coming up

This spring, there is music in the air. Here are some music festivals that will leave you whistling a tune. Sulafest 2012 Location: Sula Vineyards, Nashik When: February 4-5 Artists: Nitin Sawhney, Blackstratblues, Papon & East India Company Damage: Rs. 1,800. The highlight this year is undoubtedly Nitin Sawhney. He is a huge favourite of Rajeev Samant, founder and CEO of Sula Vineyards. Area79 Music and Arts Festival Location: The...  

Electing hope in Punjab

While the Uttar Pradesh elections hog the lion's share of coverage in national media, the Punjab elections are proving to be the more colourful of the two. YouTube, Facebook, and other media platforms are full of the hilarious conversations between cartoon characters Jeeta and Jaggi created by the Congress, who take pot shots at the failings of the SAD"BJP (Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party) government. SAD has responded through their...