This is why Tata is a Respected name in India - MUST READ

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October 10, 2009

Meeting with H N Srinivas – Senior Executive Vice President, Taj Group of Hotels

Last evening, I had a dinner meeting with HNS in Goa (I was there for a National Institute of Personnel Management conference – as a speaker).He narrated the 26th November 2008 terror attack on Taj Mumbai and there were some important points.

A. Terrorist entry

1. They entered from the Leopold Colaba hotel entrance and also from the northern entrance – spraying indiscriminate bullets on the Taj security personnel and guests in general.

2. Though Taj had a reasonable security – they were surely not equipped to deal with terrorists who were spraying 6 bullets per trigger.

3. The strategy of the terrorists was to throw chunks of RDX in an open area that will explode and burn – creating chaos so that the guests and staff run helter skelter so that the terrorists could kill them. The idea was to create maximum casualties.

4. There were several critical gatherings and functions happening in the hotel on that day – a Bohra wedding, global meet of Unilever CEOs and Board members and 2 other corporate meetings were being held in the hotel – besides the usual crowd.

5. The firing and chaos began at about 8.30 p.m. and the staff including employees on casual and contract basis displayed exemplary presence of mind, courage and sacrifice to protect the guests who were in various halls and conference rooms.

B. Stories of Staff Heroics

1. A young lady guest relation executive with the HLL gathering stopped any of the members going out and volunteered 3 times to go out and get stuff such as ice cubes for whiskey of the guests when the situation outside the hall was very explosives and she could have been easily the target of the bullets

2. Thomas George a captain escorted 54 guests from a backdoor staircase and when he was going down last he was shot by the terrorists

3. There were 500 emails from various guests narrating heroics of the staff and thanking them for saving their lives

4. In a subsequent function, Ratan Tata broke down in full public view and sobbed saying – “the company belongs to these people”. The wife of Thomas George who laid his life saving others said, she and the kids were proud of the man and that she did not know that for 25 years she lived with a man who was so courageous and brave

5. The episode happened on 26th November, a significant part of the hotel was burnt down and destroyed – the hotel was re-opened on 21st December and all the employees of the hotel were paraded in front of the guests

6. It was clearly a saga of extra-ordinary heroics by ordinary people for their organisation and in a way for their country. The sense of duty and service was unprecedented

7. The young lady who protected and looked after the HLL guests was a management trainee and we often speak of juniority and seniority in the organisation. She had no instructions from any supervisor to do what she dida. She took just 3 minutes to rescue the entire team through the kitchenb. Cars were organised outside the hotel as per seniority of the membersc. In the peak of the crisis, she stepped out and got the right wine glass for the guest

8. People who exhibited courage included janitors, waiters, directors, artisans and captains – all level of people

C. The Tata Gesture

1. All category of employees including those who had completed even 1 day as casuals were treated on duty during the time the hotel was closed

2. Relief and assistance to all those who were injured and killed

3. The relief and assistance was extended to all those who died at the railway station, surroundings including the “Pav-Bhaji” vendor and the pan shop owners

4. During the time the hotel was closed, the salaries were sent my money order

5. A psychiatric cell was established in collaboration with Tata Institute of Social Sciences to counsel those who needed such help

6. The thoughts and anxieties going on people’s mind was constantly tracked and where needed psychological help provided

7. Employee outreach centers were opened where all help, food, water, sanitation, first aid and counseling was provided. 1600 employees were covered by this facility

8. Every employee was assigned to one mentor and it was that person’s responsibility to act as a “single window” clearance for any help that the person required

9. Ratan Tata personally visited the families of all the 80 employees who in some manner – either through injury or getting killed – were affected.

10. The dependents of the employees were flown from outside Mumbai to Mumbai and taken care off in terms of ensuring mental assurance and peace. They were all accommodated in Hotel President for 3 weeks

11. Ratan Tata himself asked the families and dependents – as to what they wanted him to do. 12. In a record time of 20 days, a new trust was created by the Tatas for the purpose of relief of employees.

13. What is unique is that even the other people, the railway employees, the police staff, the pedestrians who had nothing to do with Tatas were covered by compensation. Each one of them was provided subsistence allowance of Rs. 10,000 per month for all these people for 6 months. 14. A 4 year old granddaughter of a vendor got 4 bullets in her and only one was removed in the Government hospital. She was taken to Bombay hospital and several lacs were spent by the Tatas on her to fully recover her

15. New hand carts were provided to several vendors who lost their carts

16. Tata will take responsibility of life education of 46 children of the victims of the terror

17. This was the most trying period in the life of the organisation. Senior managers including Ratan Tata were visiting funeral to funeral over the 3 days that were most horrible

18. The settlement for every deceased member ranged from Rs. 36 to 85 lacs in addition to the following benefits:

a. Full last salary for life for the family and dependents

b. Complete responsibility of education of children and dependents – anywhere in the world

c. Full Medical facility for the whole family and dependents for rest of their life

d. All loans and advances were waived off – irrespective of the amount

e. Counselor for life for each person

D. Epilogue

1. How was such passion created among the employees? How and why did they behave the way they did?

2. The organisation is clear that it is not something that someone can take credit for. It is not some training and development that created such behaviour. If someone suggests that – everyone laughs

3. It has to do with the DNA of the organisation, with the way Tata culture exists and above all with the situation that prevailed that time. The organisation has always been telling that customers and guests are #1 priority

4. The hotel business was started by Jamshedji Tata when he was insulted in one of the British hotels and not allowed to stay there.

5. He created several institutions which later became icons of progress, culture and modernity. IISc is one such institute. He was told by the rulers that time that he can acquire land for IISc to the extent he could fence the same. He could afford fencing only 400 acres.

6. When the HR function hesitatingly made a very rich proposal to Ratan – he said – do you think we are doing enough?

7. The whole approach was that the organisation would spend several hundred crore in re-building the property – why not spend equally on the employees who gave their life?

Minuted by Dileep Ranjekar------------------------------------------------------ (R.Kini)

Indian General Election 2009 - My Predictions

The 15th general elections will be finally over tomorrow.
Elections, campaigning and most importantly fooling around with the voters will be over by 13th May. The parties will get into some serious business. Yeah real serious, horse trading.

Here go my predictions on what can happen on 16th May.
1> BJP will emerge as the single largest party. But they will not be able to or rather allowed to form the government. Because they are not secular.
2> The so called (Pseudo) secular forces will join hands.
3> This election will bring few surprises. One of them is Mr. Lalu's RJD will be almost wiped out. Lalu may lose his Chapra seat. So Lalu becomes almost invisible force and shouldn't be taken seriously.
4> Another surprise in waiting is Left will be routed from West Bengal. (Hope they don't resort to rigging at least this time). I feel LEFT parties are the most confused parties in India. They themselves do not know what they want, which direction they want to go. And what they really want in life. (Other than stopping BJP from coming to power).
5> Left will forget all ideologies. (Doubt if they have any). They will extend the Olive branch to Congress. Sweet excuse will be to keep the communal forces out of power.
6> Mayawati will garner somewhere around 30 seats. Yes, Elephant will grow bigger this time.
7> Samajwadi Party will get somewhere around 25 seats. Rampur will be lost to Congress for sure.
8> Jayalalitha is the dark horse in this election. Once the results are out Jaya will be the most sought after political leader. She will have around 30 seats with her.
9> Mr. Sharad Pawar who can utter few words such as 'Marathi Manoos', 'PM', 'Pantpradhan', 'Prime Minister' will have to continue daydreaming for a real long long time.
10>TDP will gain inroads to Andhra, but will fall short of stopping the congress from coming to Power in Andhra.
I feel UPA will garner all the required support, but it will have to give it’s claim on the PM Gaddi.
It sounds completely weird that SP and Maya will share the platform.
Left and TMC will be part of the same government,
Jayalalitha and Karunanidhi part of the same government,
Left supporting the same congress, whose support was withdrawn merely 6 months ago.

But appears like this is what is called politics. Yaha kuch bhi ho sakata hai.

The UPA numbers will somewhat look like the one given below.

Congress - 160
SP - 25
RJD - 5
DMK - 10
AIDMK - 30
BJD - 7
NCP - 11
TDP - 18
BSP - 30
Left - 30
TMC - 6
UPA - 332
NDA - 211

Other Interesting predictions

1> Manmohan will have to vacate the 7th Race course residence. I strongly feel Jayalalitha will become the PM.
2> Mr. Advani will have to retire from active politics as promised. Sorry, sir. PM chair was never meant for you.
3> Azam Khan will be expelled from SP.
4> Lalu prasad will be reduced to rabbles, back to his cow yard, so that he can spend more time with cows/buffalos.
5> and more importantly the government will not complete its full 5 year term. They somehow managed last time, but no one will have that much patience.

The Great Election Tamasha

It's election time. With 2 phases already down, almost 50% fates have already been sealed.
From the overall mood, doesn't look like any political party will have a clear majority this time as well. Obviously with 30+ regional/national parties, doesn't look like ever in future we will have a government formed by a single party. I guess those days are history.
In this election, I haven’t seen any single and concrete national issue. Barring few allegations here and there, there is no concrete issue on which the elections are being fought.

It's not that we do not have any issue. But I feel the problem is that we have plenty of them.
We have seen enough of terrorist attacks during last 4 years. We are going through severe recession. The economy is not doing great at all. Unemployment is rising. But we are still stuck with 1984 Sikh Riots, 2002 Gujarat riots. These issues are at centre stage. People are busy blaming each others for what happened in 1993 Babri Demolition. Parties are busy making statements against each other communities. And system is busy monitoring who has said what and then applying NSA for these statements. (ha ha ha - really funny to see Varun Gandi getting booked for hate speech, but Mr. Kasab is busy proving his age and may be innocence, NSA on Kasab???)

It's surprising to see that National security, internal security is not an issue a tall. No body talks about improving the overall standard of leavings. Development doesn't seem to be on anybody's agenda. People still take pride in distributing 2 kg rice and free television sets. And they are asking Votes for making a dalit’s beti as a prime minister of India, and the reason – to take UP and India to the global map.

Sri Lanka, a totally different country which is fighting with LTTE for well being of their own country and their own internal issues. But looks like we are concerned a. We seems to be worrying more about situation of their people than our own who are suffering right here in India. No one cares about the people who are suffering because of militancy.

Not even a single party has a concrete plan about economy revival (Just heard few hours about Dr. Manmohan Singh Talking about doing some magic in 100 days). No one talks about safeguarding our industries to overcome and pass through the worst economic crisis, employment creation, agricultural improvement etc. I didn't hear anyone talking about improving our education system and taking it to the next level. No vision of taking India from developing to Developed countries. May be I am expecting too much here. But Sixty years have already passed discussing the same issues. Will India ever improve? I really wonder, will we ever reach to that stage?

Now I really think. Whom shall I vote? And what shall I vote for?

Interesting Facts about Formula One Racing

1. F1 car is made up of 80,000 components, if it were assembled 99.9% correctly, it would still start the race with 80 things wrong!


2. When an F1 driver hits the brakes on his car he experiences retardation or deceleration comparable to a regular car driving through a BRICK wall at 300kmph!!!


3. F1 car can go from 0 to 160 kph AND back to 0 in FOUR seconds!!!!!!!


4. F1 car engines last only for about 2 hours of racing mostly before blowing up on the other hand we expect our engines to last us for a decent 20yrs on an average and they quite faithfully DO....thats the extent to which the engines r pushed to perform...


5. An average F1 driver looses about 4kgs of weight after just one race due to the prolonged exposure to high G forces and temperatures for little over an hour (Yeah thats right!!!)


6. At 550kg a F1 car is less than half the weight of a Mini.


7. To give you an idea of just how important aerodynamic design and added down force can be, small planes can take off at slower speeds than F1 cars travel on the track.


8. Without aerodynamic down force, high-performance racing cars have sufficient power to produce wheel spin and loss of control at 160 kph. They usually race at over 300 kph.


9. In a street course race like the Monaco grand prix, the down force provides enough suction to lift manhole covers. Before the race all of the manhole covers on the streets have to be welded down to prevent this from happening!


10. The refuelers used in F1 can supply 12 liters of fuel per second. This means it would take just 4 seconds to fill the tank of an average 50 liter family car. They use the same refueling rigs used on US military helicopters today.


11. TOP F1 pit crews can refuel and change tyres in around 3 seconds. It took me 8 sec to read above point.


12. During the race the tyres lose weight! Each tyre loses about 0.5 kg in weight due to wear.


13. Normal tyres last 60 000 - 100 000 km. Racing tyres are designed to last 90 - 120 km.


14. A dry-weather F1 tyre reaches peak operating performance (best 20grip) when tread temperature is between 900C and 1200C.(Water boils at 100C remember) At top speed, F1 tyres rotate 50 times a second.

Note: Data compiled from available internet sources. Uploading the same to my blog for my reference. :-)

Wipro: Ex-World Bank CIO denies wrongdoing

Disclaimer - This article is not authored by me. It appeared in the 16th January edition of Rediff.

Wipro: Ex-World Bank official denies wrongdoing, Aziz Haniffa in Washington, DC , January 16, 2009
It is bringing out certain facts about the way World Bank is going behind the debarring business. As far as Wipro was concenred, appears like it was a complete transparent deal and everything was being revealed. Even the WB CIO had declared the shares he purchased. He had paid out of his pocket. You read and decide.

Former World Bank Chief Information Officer Mohamed Vazir Muhsin, who is at the centre of the controversy that led to the Bank barring Indian IT majors Satyam [Get Quote] and Wipro [Get Quote] from bank contracts for eight and four years respectively, says he had no role in the awarding of multi-million dollar contracts to Satyam or the smaller contracts to Wipro.
The records, however, reveal that Mushin, 64, availed of these companies's shares at their Initial Public Offerings that led to the nearly seven-year investigation and conflict of interest charges.
Mushin's attorney Joshua Hochberg, in a statement provided to rediff India Abroad, said, 'At the time of his planned retirement in 2005, the World Bank began a review of Mr Mushsin concerning matters which are now more than eight years old.'
'Ultimately, no findings were made that Mr Muhsin interfered with Bank contracting. At all times, the Bank's comprehensive procurement policies and controls were followed. Mr Muhsin did not determine which companies were awarded contracts. Contracts were awarded through the independent central procurement department,' the statement said.
Hochberg also pointed out that, 'In addition, the Bank has stated that it "did not make any findings regarding abuse of position," and went on to state that 'Mr Muhsin made all financial disclosures required by him by the Bank which had a full opportunity to scrutinise his transactions.'
'He paid for all shares he purchased and reported them in line with the Bank disclosure policy,' Hochberg added in his statement.
The Bank, which barred Satyam in December, came out publicly on January 11, to state that it 'has decided to make public the names of all companies that have been debarred from receiving direct contracts from the Bank Group under its corporate procurement programme.'
It said 'the change was made in the interest of fairness and transparency,' and noted that 'this change aligns the disclosure practice for companies that provide goods and services directly to the Bank with the current policy governing procurement on Bank financed projects in developing countries.'
'In parallel with the Bank's disclosure of the names of companies and individuals debarred on Bank financed projects from now on, the Bank Group will publicly list the names of companies debarred from its corporate procurement,' the Bank said.
It said Satyam was barred for eight years from September 2008 for 'providing improper benefits to Bank staff and failing to maintain documentation to support fees charged for its subcontractors.'
Wipro was barred for four years from June 2007 for 'providing improper benefits to Bank staff.'
A third Indian IT firm, Megasoft Consultants Ltd, was also barred for four years from December 2007, for 'participating in a joint venture with Bank staff while also conducting business with the Bank.'
Mushin, a Sri Lankan national, declined to be interviewed for this report, saying he was constrained because he is in litigation with the Bank and the basis of his challenge is that there have been leaks to the press by the Bank's investigation department in violation of Bank rules, and whatever he says publicly could prejudice his case.
Sources told rediff India Abroad that at the time the investigation was launched in 2005 against Mushin, during the tenure of then Bank president Paul Wolfowitz, the charge was about irregularities on procurement, and that Mushin in his capacity as CIO had issued sole source contracts to Satyam and as a result benefited from it as had other staff in his department.
Subsequently, allegations had also been leveled that he had bought Satyam and Wipro shares at the time they were seeking to do business with the Bank, and hence there was a conflict of interest. Aggravating this issue was apparently the belief that Mushin had not disclosed his stock holdings to the Bank.
Even though the Bank, which had held Mushin's retirement benefits and other reimbursements due to him in abeyance, returned all of this in 2007, it held that there was an appearance of conflict of interest because Mushin had bought shares from these companies. At this time, Mushin challenged the Bank's determination, saying that he had disclosed his shares.
Although the Bank first took the position that there had been no such disclosure, it later discovered that there indeed had been such a disclosure.
Sources close to Mushin have said he regrets the indiscretion of purchasing the shares that he did, and even though it was perfectly legal, it gave the perception of conflict of interest, that his buying them under the Friends and Family IPOs seemed as it was a quid pro quo by the two companies that had secured handsome Bank contracts.
The sources, however, asserted that Satyam's contracts worth nearly $100 million over a eight-year period with the Bank were publicly bid upon and that Satyam had come out tops among 13 participants.
Wipro's contracts were a fraction of Satyam's contracts -- about $900,000. Megasoft, which first conducted a study for the Bank worth $150,000, then had essentially done 'body shopping' for the Bank where it did staff augmentation for a total value of $14 million over a three-year period.
Wipro has said its representatives had offered the World Bank, through the Bank's CIO and staff, shares in Wipro's IPO in 2000, and that three World Bank staffers had purchased a total of 1,750 shares for about $72,000.
The company said the stock was part of what is called a directed share programme, which allowed Wipro employees and clients to purchase its American Depository Shares, which trade in the US stock exchange.
Wipro Chief Financial Officer Suresh Senapaty was quoted as saying that 'if we knew (about the Bank's debarment policies) we wouldn't have done it.'
Company co-Chief Executive Officer Girish Paranjpe was quoted as saying that the alleged 'improper benefits' were not any form of illegal inducement and were in keeping with US law.
Satyam's and Wipro's ADRs were allocated by their US underwriters, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley respectively, under the Securities Exchange Commission's rules. Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley allocated the shares to Mushin and other Bank staffers.

Satyam Fiasco - The Indian IT Tsunami.

I don’t need to drag here to set the context for my opening of the blog. We have the memories of the Tsunami still fresh in our minds, which swept us back in 2005 (If I am correct). Here I see around 50,000 + employees and thousands of Shareholders being swept away by the Raju’s Asatyam tide. I am discussing below what all should be done immediately on priority to project the thousands of Satyam employees whom I see as my colleagues next door.

Satyam was no fly by Night Company. It has a brand name and it took years for Raju to build the brand. Today Satyam is facing all sorts of irregularities and may be short of cash, but one of the biggest assets it has even today is the huge cost conscience customer base and highly talented employees. With my limited knowledge of Satyam business, I am aware of Satyam's low cost business model and the GE saga. Among the Indian IT providers, Satyam is one of the strongest SAP players in EAS (Enterprise Applications Solution) domain. Without basic level of quality it’s very difficult to retain the customers. I am convinced that all this can’t be a fraud. The laws will take it's own course of action against the management, but rehabilitation (yes rehabilitation) of the employees should be the top most priority for the government and other responsible corporate citizens. Raju had strong political connections. I am sure all must have reaped rich benefits from it as well. This is the opportunity to give it back to the society. Today everybody has some liabilities. Forget the long term liabilities; I am thinking if I don't get one month's salary what will happen. I just don’t want to think.

Today there is utter chaos not only among Satyam but overall IT industry. This should not have happened at worst time than this. For all of us the situation is not at all good as these are the times of worst ever slowdown. Customer has already tightened the noose. They are not investing in new initiatives, all existing investments are looked into and cuts are made wherever possible. We are literally struggling to hold on our existing projects and contracts.

I have heard about stories of customers just squeezing Satyam employees about everything. The employees are morally down and I don't think anybody will be in the best mood to search or get a job. May be 50% of the Junata may find another equal job or may even go with salary cuts. How about the rest? Even 15,000 – 20, 000 is a no small number. They have dependent families and have dreams over the shoulders. The layoffs and wind up is kind of new to India. We are not used to it like the America’s where companies get dwindled likes the Enron’s, Lehman’s etc. I guess they have well defined policies to handle and manage the unemployment. In India unemployment is still treated as matter of social shame.

This should not be treated as issue of only Satyam or it's employees. I may be overreacting, but is it not less than a national disaster?

Few things which come to my mind which are possible and should be tried.
1> All big corporate (Infosys, TCS, Wipro, HCL, CTS) should immediately get into action and distribute and move the business units to their respective organizations. But everyone would like to have the bigger pie. They will treat this as a business opportunity. Not sure how much practical it is.
2> Stalwarts like Anil Ambani, Mukesh Ambani and others should take over Satyam. This will enhance the portfolio and give breadth to the business. The board of directors should be revamped. Ram Mynampati does not have big credentials today. He was the man behind World Bank disaster, all his investment strategies for Satyam failed. E should be kept away. New set of directors with totally fresh ideas need to be brought in. Rather than selling Satyam to foreign companies, it should remain with Indians.
3>If nothing works out, finally AP government or Central Government should just step in and take over Satyam immediately. Atleast they can do this to protect its citizens.
4>Nasscom should definitely step in and drive this.
Yes we should and they will get into the roots of this Satyam fiasco. It will take ages.