Rajat Gupta has hogged headlines over the past twenty odd years – he has championed that art. While his educational background without doubt has been exemplary, his consulting advisory was not necessarily so. McKinsey & Co.’s way of focus on core competency – and divesting from diversification strategies – necessarily has been one of the most debatable strategies that he represented during his tenure at the firm. Actually, it is one of those strategies that have given consultants the reputation of being people who take your watch and tell you the time; there is no strategy in this strategy. McKinsey’s consultants, of course, have championed such strategies and theories which are arguably of no great significance or research. I’m reminded of the book In Search of Excellence by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman – two McKinsey consultants – written on the basis of research that Tom Peters himself later admitted was concocted. Rajat’s stint post McKinsey has been clearly far more controversial due to the more obvious frauds. And now that he has been found guilty of insider trading, the Indian media in particular is hell-bent on portraying it as an example of a perfect ‘American Dream’ gone sour. The question is, is that so?

The key reasons behind the Rajat Gupta saga are endless greed and an endless chase for more – causes championed by the father of capitalism Adam Smith and post-Smith wannabe champions of capitalism’s cause like Ayn Rand and the likes; of courses, causes made famous much later by the character of Gordon Gekko in the movie Wall Street with his powerful line “Greed is good”. As long back as one looks, the causes of all American, as well as capitalism-related ills have been this endless greed and craving for more. In the 1630s, there was the first recorded case of greed related capitalist madness in the form of Tulipomania, when the Dutch thought that the whole world would be so impressed by their tulips that there would be an endless demand for tulips. At one point of time, a tulip bulb of no apparent worth could be exchanged for a “new carriage, two grey horses and a complete harness”, that is, $100,000 in terms of the contemporary value of money. Then was the 1849 ‘California Gold Rush’ which did develop California but killed more than a hundred thousand native Indians inhumanly. Obviously, people ended up losing money in the mad rush. Then there was the great Florida real estate boom in the 1920s when thousands were left homeless due to the mad rush for buying real estate in places which were simply not habitable and the subsequent asset crash. This was followed by the Great Depression of 1929. And yes, our generation saw the dot com bust and the massive recession of 2008. Capitalism has been full of such desperate situations because the ‘great dream’ of becoming rich overnight is always hanging like a carrot in front of us. But the reality is that only some people might make it while the majority will suffer and the bust is always round the corner.  Read More....

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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Yes, she has been in the news in the recent past for all the wrong reasons. It’s outright insecure and almost suicidal for a national leader of an intellectual and free-thinking state like West Bengal to target a professor for forwarding a cartoon! There are no two ways of looking at it. Leaders are supposed to let their work do the speaking and not their might. We aren’t living in the Hitlerian era. It’s also ridiculous to talk of turning Calcutta into London by painting the trees blue. London is about its democracy (freedom of forwarding cartoons), equality in access to health, education and justice, its high life expectancy, negligible infant mortality and a far more equitable society apart from its astounding standard of safety and cleanliness in comparison with Calcutta. In all these respects, West Bengal and Calcutta are at least 25 years away, assuming we get a government led by a sincere leader who works genuinely day and night for its people. Apart from arguably destroying the future of Indian Railways by compromising on possible safety upgradations by not increasing railway fares again and again at a Central level, Mamata has also not announced a budget for West Bengal and kept all finances at her whim and fancy; she has hardly done anything worthwhile for the state’s education, health or employment situation while continuing to work in a very autocratic highhanded manner. Thus, many would argue she indeed has rightly won the ire of intellectuals of Bengal who supported her so wholeheartedly, and are now deserting her one by one.

But in the middle of all this, one must not forget her achievements, which in a country of scamster & criminal politicians is reason enough for the nation to wait for at least another two years before passing a judgment on her. Her biggest achievement – for which alone she should be given a five-year free run – has been to rid Bengal of the dictatorial CPM.

mamata banerhjeeThe communists desperately needed to sit in the opposition to realize that good ideals simply on pen and paper are not good enough. Power corrupted their ideals beyond recognition and they had become a party of goons, riggers and fascists. And if removing them was not good enough, doing it without any bloodshed is Mamata’s biggest achievement. But it doesn’t end there. She has also done what Nitish in Bihar and Raman Singh in Chattisgarh have failed to do. She is the first and only leader in the country to have tamed the menace of the Maoists in the Junglemahal area of Bengal by genuinely giving access to food to the poor there. And she could do it all due to one reason – her determined will to do good for the poor in the Junglemahal area. And finally, she tamed the Gorkha problem in the hills of Bengal immediately after taking power. None of these two issues could be resolved by the CPM in their years of power. And these three things are landmark and historical. While the mainstream media focussed only on the CPM issue, that too without really highlighting the immense value of it, it completely has ignored her other two very, very crucial achievements. Read More....

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist). For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall

Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
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IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
 
Doctors are angry! Why? Aamir Khan has targeted them in two of his first four shows! And why not? After all, the show is called Satyamev Jayate! And the first and most important responsibility of a civilized society towards its citizens is that of giving them a good healthcare system (followed by education, employment and judiciary, in order to make a good democracy), that too in a country like India where an estimated 17% of the population die before the age of 40. The reality however is shockingly quite worse. The reality is that in this country, medicines for treatment of cancer patients – in one of the cases, 550,000 Morphine and 5,200,000 Morcontin tablets sent by the World Health Organization – that were supposed to be distributed free at all the hospitals in India, were dumped in the stores of hospitals beyond their expiry dates. These were costly medicines and Morphine is typically meant to relieve patients from intensive pain. It basically meant that in this particular case, patients who could not afford to buy such costly medicines from the market must have suffered immense pain with some of them dying too without proper treatment. WHO, of course, demanded an explanation. But what is more important for the masses is that the medical mafia keeps doing such acts to enhance the profits of pharmaceutical establishments.

I can easily cite scores of such examples from reports on miserable conditions existing in hospitals all over India. Although examples of the opposite nature are becoming rarer by the day, there are sparkling exceptions; and it gives me immense pleasure to write about one such example – the Shramjibi Hospital in Belur, West Bengal. When they admit a patient, they never ask him/her to deposit any money. Patients are almost always surprised to receive a very low bill (almost always one-fifth of the amount charged in other hospitals) when the treatment is over. For example, a coronary bypass surgery for heart costs Rs.25,000 at the hospital, inclusive of pre-and post-treatment charges. In the unfortunate case of the patient expiring during treatment, the management of this hospital never presents any bill to the relatives of the patient. Elsewhere, a bypass surgery may cost upwards of Rs.100,000 to Rs.350,000. Honestly speaking, since the surgery in a hospital and other services are not burdened with any transport and distribution costs, charges to be paid by patients for such surgeries should not exceed 100% of basic costs. But charges these days on operations are unfortunately 500% to 1000% of basic costs, and patients also can easily be blackmailed because of the prevailing threat of death. I am aware and proud of Shramjibi Hospital. Yet, on the other hand, services rendered by many private doctors and by private/public hospitals are of such miserable standards that one can even label them with the choicest of invectives; one reason I get the impression that these places are infested with ‘merchants of death’.     Read More.....

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When he sees elderly idealistic looking people in the audience, he himself says that he knows he is blamed as the symbol of a decadent culture! In fact I almost jumped with surprise when he said that in one of our IIPM shows, for those were the exact words I heard from my dad just a few hours before entering the venue! Later, he laughed it off saying he knows that’s how parents often look at him!! Actually that’s what sets him apart.. While most stars in Bollywood wouldn’t have ever used the word decadence in their lifetime, SRK can use it upon himself and laugh!

That’s the intellect and spirit that sets the King Khan apart from all his contemporaries. While it often seems he is torn between going the Amitabh way of completely dignified existence or the Salman way of brashness, the fact is that he is just himself! As his supporters vehemently tweeted after the Wankhade stadium incident that he is most caring and soft spoken, specially towards children.. He most certainly is. Till he is poked and irked for no reason, he really is the symbol of dignity. His words, like Amitabh’s, are most articulate, well chosen and educated – proof of his education and continuous reading. The way he cares for his kids only people close to him know and others would have got an idea in the way he had his daughter next to him throughout the tournament and not just post Wankhade.

But then, don’t poke him. Apart from his polite and dignified ways and the fact that he is the only other genuine Superstar India has ever produced since Amitabh; there is no similarity between him and Big B. They belong to two different generations. ‘Waise toh Delhi wala hoon aur logon ko ek mukka deke theek karna bhi aata hai’, Shah Rukh had said in jest another time, yet making a point during the launch of our book Thorns To Competition while elaborating on how he did feel like hitting a lot of people when he entered the industry. And candidly admitting he still does! But he can’t, thanks to where he has reached! Or perhaps I should rephrase his words and say he tries his best not to! But truthfully with the number of people trying to pull him down I am sure at times he is human enough to lose it! However, the fact is that the urge is rare. For he knows how to hit back differently. He himself says that to hit back hard, he decided to change the game. He decided to go on a route that no one had travelled before. He even took up bad-guy roles. And that’s how he hits back hard. He plays a game that others are not into and changes the rules of the game – something that anyone studying his career will vouch for! And that’s been his way to hit back this time to his detractors too! The IPL crown! Not at all a fluke. Very intelligently and passionately drawn up victory. Beginning with the choice of Wasim Akram as the bowling coach to the careful selection of the team, its captain to the calculated risk of angering Kolkata fans by dropping the completely finished Sourav Ganguly.   Read More.....

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM makes business education truly global
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm - Planman Consulting
Arindam Chaudhuri (IIPM Dean) – ‘Every human being is a diamond’
IIPM ranked No 1 B-School in India
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs
IIPM: Management Education India
Prof. Rajita Chaudhuri's Website


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