1. With Indian BPO entering its third phase of evolution, do you think that a BPO career is evolving to become thing more than just a call centre? Why?
Of course the BPO career is much more than a call centre. One must notice that all BPO firms today; big/small do offer a proper hierarchical structure -right from an entry level employee to the top, no matter whether these fresh graduates/applicants ask for the same. The BPO industry is seeing a lot of growth not in terms of business/industry but more importantly growth in Value, be it customers, delivery, processes and employees. This growth in value also brings in better quality people and greater job challenges leading to have complex work to be addressed by well qualified manpower. And better qualified manpower would work in a career which has growth and learning in it.
What are the new kinds of opening in that are coming in?
BPO’s are either Voice based or Non Voice based. But off late BPO firms in India have added a host of new careers with expanding operations/roles and responsibilities. The new kind of openings would include increasing role on existing processes and ways to improve the same. Hence the role of Quality and Process, their inter-relations. Other new careers in BPO would be in Operations, Knowledge Management, Training skills, data Security etc.
3. Does this provide long term career prospective?
Today BPO firms are giving a lot of care in planning an employee’s career. This holds true for all levels of hierarchy. The industry is facing dual threats from an acute shortage of qualified manpower coupled with a very high rate of attrition. Hence employers are taking extra care to offer a proper career and hierarchy for the BPO employees. It is not limited to any particular BPO work. Many BPO firms have senior level executives, having started their career from entry level job. This is precisely BPO companies are looking for and would like to happen more. For the BPO industry in India, these are the right steps for further growth and consolidation.
If BPO of today has become more than just a customer care service, it means the expectations out of the BPO training institutes are also expanding in terms of the kind of manpower they prepare.
YOU’RE COMMENTS ON THE SAME.
Yes this is certainly an area to be tapped and expanded upon. There needs proper training company nexus more like we find in the software industry. Hence going forward we need to have training institutes which support the growing needs of the BPO industry on a proactive basis. In fact it would be good if the industry starts setting certain Training Best practices and the institutes follow the same to deliver Human Assets as future human capital. Training institutes need not just have mere expansion in terms of manpower or greater people but need to give more importance on Quality of the human capital and the processes it follows. I would go ahead and just a comprehensive ranking of the best training institutes for this industry on the basis of certain measurable parameters.
How do you plan to prepare the BPO manpower of tomorrow?
The BPO manpower should have thorough knowledge on the niche domain/vertical that each employee is working on. The trend in the BPO sector is a very gradual but constant move up the value chain. Hence in the longer term we will have to see more and more people transitioning from mere voice/non voice transactions to more complex tasks. This is a very good sign for everyone. Hence the manpower needs to have better knowledge/understanding of the existing/new processes; must me better equipped on Quality; have greater roles responsibilities/tasks. Hence the manpower of tomorrow for the industry need to be prepared to have constant skill up gradation with more maturity in task execution.
With non IT players, like BFSI, telecom, airlines etc. entering BPO, there is more and more need for domain expertise. How do you plan to catch up with this?
Precisely true is the above statement. The industry going forward need to be divided on the basis of verticals/domains and the value that these would generate, already firms are working on these criteria. We are on this track as far both our employees and client is concerned. Hence we have our hierarchy architecture drawn on the basis of domains/skills exhibited and try consolidating the same. Thus I have personally seen a lot of positives from the clients end as well as from the employees and greater clarity in our day to day work vis-à-vis the goals set.
Do you think that the demand from BPO players’ w.r.t the kind of manpower they are looking for has changed over the past one year? To what extent and HOW?
Yes this is one thing which has defiantly changed for the better. The BPO industry is choosier and is very importantly on the look out for the “right kind of employee”. This change has resulted due to various factors, more due to this demand – supply of manpower imbalance perception. But truly speaking, the BPO industry is bleeding with high attrition rates. Hence the industry is giving extra care in getting the “right fit”. The selection processes are getting more scientific with more usage/involvement of technology in hiring the right candidate. More thought is put on getting proper mix for a given job profile and greater role is being given to Human Resource Outsourcing firms, who are better able to adapt and implement such tasks for the industry.
How have you catched up with this change?
Yes we have and being in this industry and seeing the churns for sometime now we are geared up on this front.
What are the weak points with today's BPO trainers?
Today’s trainers give a lot more impetus on voice based training. The training also does not involve a lot on career planning but more on to cashing in this BPO industry growth wave. The trainers are more inclined on giving greater thrust on language but there are a host of other major factors which needs equal attention, if not more. These would be more on the work, etiquettes, ethics and data/information security – to mention a few
How do you plan to counter those?
We give a lot more importance on training ourselves. All the employees go through a mandatory training programme every quarter for given period of time, no matter how senior/junior one is. Also all new employees do go through compulsory induction training programme. More important the trainers are trained and assessed/monitored by the experts on a very regular basis. We encourage a lot of feedbacks and it has value as the employee sees genuine feedbacks getting implemented. Thus to me we are on the move in a very right direction.
Demand for foreign language skills, apart from English, is also rising. How are BPO trainers planning to catch up with this?
Foreign language skills are very much an important ingredient of the industry as we move to newer geographies and clients. We have a two pronged strategy to counter this. Off late we have a lot of foreigners coming and working with our employees, here in India. These foreigners are more preferred from those nations where we have our clients or we are prospecting for one. This helps the employees/trainers to better understand their culture and many other nuances. We are also giving preference, recruiting trainers having additional foreign language proficiency. BPO trainers need to have multiple foreign language skills to become more important for the job market and also to be better prepared for a job.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Recruitment Outsourcing (RPO) - An Indian perspective
Q1) what is the scenario of RPO in India in terms of growth and future projection?
The potential for RPO in India is immense as India is going to face a talent crunch to the tune of half million people in the next few years. Already there is extensive research/debate over the employability of the vast talent pool that India generates. It is quite clear all are not employable be it in engineering, pharmaceuticals, retailing or some other sunrise verticals. This scenario nicely sets up the need for focused players in recruiting as RPO service providers will be taking the burden out of the headhunting business of the corporate sector. There is an intense war for talent. The hiring projections for India are very rosy and the clients are demanding higher quality candidates with increased efficiency. Personally I feel RPO as an industry will grow 30 to 35 % annually for the next 5 years.
Q2) why companies are preferring it?
In a recent survey conducted by Vati consulting for HR Managers of 50 IT companies in India, over 80% of the participating HR managers believed RPO plays an important role in recruitment and over 50 % have evaluated and used RPO in their companies. This is very true with a booming economy growing at break neck speed having a host of industries simultaneously showing double digit growth for many consecutive years. The HR managers have a tough task in hand to recruit large chunk of quality manpower to sustain business growth, find suitable replacements and also to manage the growing problems of attrition. Here the RPO providers come into picture as they will ensure speedy recruitment. Actually RPO firms act as specialized consulting firms for recruitments.
Q3) Can we have some facts and figure on RPO in the Indian context?
Some research projections put the entire Indian recruiting industry to be close to $ 1 billion. The RPO pie should not be more than 20 to 25% of this pie. But according to industry experts the potential for the Indian RPO industry will be to generate revenues of around $ 2 billion in the next 5 years. Of course if similar growth trends continue in Indian economy it has every reason to attain these projections.
Q4) what is awareness about RPO in the country?
The RPO sector in India is in its infancy stage with a lot of scope for making it big. The concept of RPO is very renowned and accepted in developed nations but in India there are a handful of firms working in this space. There has been a lot of awareness towards the need to involve RPO’s in the hiring process of firms especially in the IT sector. This definitely will ease the burden from HR operations of the company.
The potential for RPO in India is immense as India is going to face a talent crunch to the tune of half million people in the next few years. Already there is extensive research/debate over the employability of the vast talent pool that India generates. It is quite clear all are not employable be it in engineering, pharmaceuticals, retailing or some other sunrise verticals. This scenario nicely sets up the need for focused players in recruiting as RPO service providers will be taking the burden out of the headhunting business of the corporate sector. There is an intense war for talent. The hiring projections for India are very rosy and the clients are demanding higher quality candidates with increased efficiency. Personally I feel RPO as an industry will grow 30 to 35 % annually for the next 5 years.
Q2) why companies are preferring it?
In a recent survey conducted by Vati consulting for HR Managers of 50 IT companies in India, over 80% of the participating HR managers believed RPO plays an important role in recruitment and over 50 % have evaluated and used RPO in their companies. This is very true with a booming economy growing at break neck speed having a host of industries simultaneously showing double digit growth for many consecutive years. The HR managers have a tough task in hand to recruit large chunk of quality manpower to sustain business growth, find suitable replacements and also to manage the growing problems of attrition. Here the RPO providers come into picture as they will ensure speedy recruitment. Actually RPO firms act as specialized consulting firms for recruitments.
Q3) Can we have some facts and figure on RPO in the Indian context?
Some research projections put the entire Indian recruiting industry to be close to $ 1 billion. The RPO pie should not be more than 20 to 25% of this pie. But according to industry experts the potential for the Indian RPO industry will be to generate revenues of around $ 2 billion in the next 5 years. Of course if similar growth trends continue in Indian economy it has every reason to attain these projections.
Q4) what is awareness about RPO in the country?
The RPO sector in India is in its infancy stage with a lot of scope for making it big. The concept of RPO is very renowned and accepted in developed nations but in India there are a handful of firms working in this space. There has been a lot of awareness towards the need to involve RPO’s in the hiring process of firms especially in the IT sector. This definitely will ease the burden from HR operations of the company.
Recruiting/Staffing industry in India - write up for a newspaper article.
What are the problems that the recruitment and staffing solutions companies face in today's scenario?
Everybody knows the fact that it is a fast changing and dynamic world we live today. A world full of excitement and challenges; growth and it comes with its own trappings. The recruitment/staffing solutions industry do face similar troubles. Some of them being security (confidentiality) issues, lack of domain expertise, localization issues, cost factors, vendor management & the quality of vendors. Recruitment industry is beset with a proper lack of code of conduct. Since the industry has grown to become close to USD 1 bn, it urgently requires regulation. The lack of proper regulation results in poor quality vendors, poor/outdated selection methods, losing control over data security/privacy, and most important questions arise on ethics and lack of proper forum to negotiate with the government on the various ways to improve the industry.
What is the outlook for the next two years in these areas?
Well the outlook is very promising. India is facing acute talent crunch (to find the right candidate for the right job) and it is expected to be around half a million in the coming few years. India generates huge talent pool and all of them are not employable. Hence India is poised to cater to both the domestic and international demands. Domestically, the recruitment industry has its task cut with very ambitious hiring targets of many emerging and big firms in India. We have a booming IT/ITES, Retail, Biotech & Pharmaceutical sectors to name a few. Globally India is being seen as a good bet for HR related outsourcing (includes recruiting). While internationally the trend is to outsource recruitment processes to focused firms with deep understanding of the recruitment domain. India is one of the emerging economies with almost near double digit growth for the past few years. All these recruitment outsourcing companies have been setting there offices in India tapping our vast knowledge workforce. One can expect the Indian recruitment industry to grow at around 30 5 annually for the next 5 years.
Because a lot of HR personnel are engaged in recruitment process, most of the times they fail to focus on HR activities like training, staffing needs etc. What is the way out for this?
The way out is to outsource the HR function either fully or in parts to an HRO (Human Resource Outsourcer). HRO is a process where the company uses the services of a third party to take care of its HR function depending on the need to help realize and achieve standardization of processes/economies of scale. These include – payroll services, benefits administration, education & training, recruiting & staffing, personnel administration and other related HR functions. Companies can either outsource part of HR function like recruitment/staffing and concentrate on other key employee issues like training, compensation etc. or can outsource almost entire HR processes to ensure better service deliverables to employee’s satisfaction and give attention to on more relevant strategic issues. According to some research estimates the HR outsourcing industry is to become a USD 70 billion industry by 2010.
Everybody knows the fact that it is a fast changing and dynamic world we live today. A world full of excitement and challenges; growth and it comes with its own trappings. The recruitment/staffing solutions industry do face similar troubles. Some of them being security (confidentiality) issues, lack of domain expertise, localization issues, cost factors, vendor management & the quality of vendors. Recruitment industry is beset with a proper lack of code of conduct. Since the industry has grown to become close to USD 1 bn, it urgently requires regulation. The lack of proper regulation results in poor quality vendors, poor/outdated selection methods, losing control over data security/privacy, and most important questions arise on ethics and lack of proper forum to negotiate with the government on the various ways to improve the industry.
What is the outlook for the next two years in these areas?
Well the outlook is very promising. India is facing acute talent crunch (to find the right candidate for the right job) and it is expected to be around half a million in the coming few years. India generates huge talent pool and all of them are not employable. Hence India is poised to cater to both the domestic and international demands. Domestically, the recruitment industry has its task cut with very ambitious hiring targets of many emerging and big firms in India. We have a booming IT/ITES, Retail, Biotech & Pharmaceutical sectors to name a few. Globally India is being seen as a good bet for HR related outsourcing (includes recruiting). While internationally the trend is to outsource recruitment processes to focused firms with deep understanding of the recruitment domain. India is one of the emerging economies with almost near double digit growth for the past few years. All these recruitment outsourcing companies have been setting there offices in India tapping our vast knowledge workforce. One can expect the Indian recruitment industry to grow at around 30 5 annually for the next 5 years.
Because a lot of HR personnel are engaged in recruitment process, most of the times they fail to focus on HR activities like training, staffing needs etc. What is the way out for this?
The way out is to outsource the HR function either fully or in parts to an HRO (Human Resource Outsourcer). HRO is a process where the company uses the services of a third party to take care of its HR function depending on the need to help realize and achieve standardization of processes/economies of scale. These include – payroll services, benefits administration, education & training, recruiting & staffing, personnel administration and other related HR functions. Companies can either outsource part of HR function like recruitment/staffing and concentrate on other key employee issues like training, compensation etc. or can outsource almost entire HR processes to ensure better service deliverables to employee’s satisfaction and give attention to on more relevant strategic issues. According to some research estimates the HR outsourcing industry is to become a USD 70 billion industry by 2010.
Future of recruitment outsourcing in India (written on behalf Kenexa senior executive)
Posted in MUMBAI MIRROR on Monday, May 07, 2007
www.mumbaimirror.com/net/mmpaper.aspx?page=article§id=5&contentid=200705070238553437a379ee4
New Delhi: With the country set to face a talent crunch of half million people in the next few years, Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) is posing a lot of opportunities. With emerging sectors like retailing and IT, the need for focused players in recruiting as RPO service providers will increase, according to human capital management company Kenexa Technologies.“There is an intense war for talent. The hiring projections for India are very rosy and the clients are demanding higher quality candidates with increased efficiency. I feel, RPO as an industry will grow 30 to 35 per cent annually for the next 5 years,” Kenexa Technologies Director Tarun Singh told Mumbai Mirror.It is estimated that within the Indian market, the total annual spend on recruitment is Rs 700-800 crore. This can theoretically be considered the potential size of the RPO business, a subset of human resource outsourcing (HRO), that can be generated from locally-based companies.“Hiring pressure is forcing companies outsource the entire recruitment cycle from needs assessment to sourcing, screening, and interviewing candidates, and hiring. In fact, 80 per cent of HR personnel are engaged in recruitment process and in between they fail to focus on other core HR activities, including training, staffing needs, ensuring performance. Here enters RPO that takes care of the entire recruitment headache and saves time and cost of companies too.” Kelly Services India Country General Manager Achal Khanna pointed out.A Nasscom-McKinsey report has projected that the Indian firms’ revenues from HRO will increase to $3.5 billion by 2008, while Gartner thinks India can expect to win 10-15 per cent of the US HRO services market; and finally, only 6 per cent of US HR spend is offshored, a figure that is certain to rise.Talking to this newspaper, talent management firm SITI Corporation President and CEO Veena Gundavelli said, “We have serviced about 100 RPO clients in SITI in the last couple of years and we expect to double the customer base with some long term-contracts. The types of customers that we have can broadly be classified into four verticals - IT, engineering, healthcare and financial services industry.”Gundavelli explained that RPO is primarily being embraced in two models – model one is pure sourcing and providing support services to on-shore US based recruiters to enhance their productivity and effectiveness, model two is full cycle recruiting from sourcing, screening and on-boarding for both temporary contract as well as permanent positions to reduce overall cost of recruiting operations and to improve efficiency at the same time.
www.mumbaimirror.com/net/mmpaper.aspx?page=article§id=5&contentid=200705070238553437a379ee4
New Delhi: With the country set to face a talent crunch of half million people in the next few years, Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) is posing a lot of opportunities. With emerging sectors like retailing and IT, the need for focused players in recruiting as RPO service providers will increase, according to human capital management company Kenexa Technologies.“There is an intense war for talent. The hiring projections for India are very rosy and the clients are demanding higher quality candidates with increased efficiency. I feel, RPO as an industry will grow 30 to 35 per cent annually for the next 5 years,” Kenexa Technologies Director Tarun Singh told Mumbai Mirror.It is estimated that within the Indian market, the total annual spend on recruitment is Rs 700-800 crore. This can theoretically be considered the potential size of the RPO business, a subset of human resource outsourcing (HRO), that can be generated from locally-based companies.“Hiring pressure is forcing companies outsource the entire recruitment cycle from needs assessment to sourcing, screening, and interviewing candidates, and hiring. In fact, 80 per cent of HR personnel are engaged in recruitment process and in between they fail to focus on other core HR activities, including training, staffing needs, ensuring performance. Here enters RPO that takes care of the entire recruitment headache and saves time and cost of companies too.” Kelly Services India Country General Manager Achal Khanna pointed out.A Nasscom-McKinsey report has projected that the Indian firms’ revenues from HRO will increase to $3.5 billion by 2008, while Gartner thinks India can expect to win 10-15 per cent of the US HRO services market; and finally, only 6 per cent of US HR spend is offshored, a figure that is certain to rise.Talking to this newspaper, talent management firm SITI Corporation President and CEO Veena Gundavelli said, “We have serviced about 100 RPO clients in SITI in the last couple of years and we expect to double the customer base with some long term-contracts. The types of customers that we have can broadly be classified into four verticals - IT, engineering, healthcare and financial services industry.”Gundavelli explained that RPO is primarily being embraced in two models – model one is pure sourcing and providing support services to on-shore US based recruiters to enhance their productivity and effectiveness, model two is full cycle recruiting from sourcing, screening and on-boarding for both temporary contract as well as permanent positions to reduce overall cost of recruiting operations and to improve efficiency at the same time.
Friday, June 08, 2007
Railways in india need a major push..
Railways in india need a major push..
I think India lags with some bold proactive instincts as far as showing the urgency to immediatly improve its basic infrastructure. Being an Indian and one who has never travelled abroad (except Nepal) till date and one who keeps seeing/reading/listening to news about the advancements in rail transport, I feel we are losing a major plus to getting greater amounts of investments into the country by missing on some bold infrastructure initiatives. If one were to look at motivation then we need to just peep at our immediate neighbours - China. It is giving a massive push to better infrastructure. Although to the rest of the world the official word is the impending Olympic games in Beijing next year but it is serving its purpose to shortening the travel times and it is perfect for an investor.
I was recently reading couple of contrasting articles from Businessline and Rediff.com on the Chinese Railways and the Indian Roads. China is in the midst of launching a slew of fast train services(bullet trains) linking some of its major business hubs. They are suppose to clock speeds close to or ine xcess of 250 kmph ushering in an era of high speed train travel across the booming Chinese economy. China is expecting to launch 500 high speed train services by the end of 2007. This is a massive transition considerign that China had coal based steam engines in early 1990's and had trains running on an average speed of 50 kmph as late as 1997. This definetly has lead to increasing interest and usage of rail transport and can be seen from the data whereby China as of 2006 accounted for a quarter of the world's total railway transport volume, while its total rail lines is only 6% of the world's total length.
Now map this growth with India's rail growth. We have been trying to electrigy and convert our meter gauge system to brad gauge for the last 4 decades. This has been riddled with massive roadblocks like political obstructions based on region, land acquisitions bottlenecks, lack of desire, pending legal cases, emergence of other thrust areas and due to all these escalating costs.
Indian railways although was doing poorely in the late 1990's but has somewhat being revamped with a new emphasis given on cost cutting and better utilization of existing resources, has clearly lost the plot. Indian Railways being the 4th largest network is very slow. It has lead it to loose of precious business both frieght and passenger volumes. The formation of the NHAI (National Highway Authority of India) in early 2000 was a clear setback and the opening of the Indian skies to private air carriers lead to a massive spurt of passenger traffic through airlines. NHAI had a clear agenda and embarked on an ambitious drive to build world class roads, ensuring big advantages of using road traffic for both passengers and freight carriers.
The existing track speeds of around 100 kmph (at many places it is less also) is clearly historical. Passengers need quick and quality transit. Hence when i read a recent news article about Indian Railways conducting feasibilty studies on about 6 corridors for Bullet Trains, I felt the need to act fast. It should be done under a separate sub committie with lot of powers/freedom and definite target to achieve. It will then be able to see the light of the day int he near future otherwise bythe time it decides to build bullet trains at 200 or 200 kmph, the world must be travelling at above 750 kmph on an average and it will be redundant.
India need to imbibe the capability to think big and act big.That is the only sure shot answer to our Rail Infrastructure problems. Mr. Lalu Prasad/Railway Board - listening......
I think India lags with some bold proactive instincts as far as showing the urgency to immediatly improve its basic infrastructure. Being an Indian and one who has never travelled abroad (except Nepal) till date and one who keeps seeing/reading/listening to news about the advancements in rail transport, I feel we are losing a major plus to getting greater amounts of investments into the country by missing on some bold infrastructure initiatives. If one were to look at motivation then we need to just peep at our immediate neighbours - China. It is giving a massive push to better infrastructure. Although to the rest of the world the official word is the impending Olympic games in Beijing next year but it is serving its purpose to shortening the travel times and it is perfect for an investor.
I was recently reading couple of contrasting articles from Businessline and Rediff.com on the Chinese Railways and the Indian Roads. China is in the midst of launching a slew of fast train services(bullet trains) linking some of its major business hubs. They are suppose to clock speeds close to or ine xcess of 250 kmph ushering in an era of high speed train travel across the booming Chinese economy. China is expecting to launch 500 high speed train services by the end of 2007. This is a massive transition considerign that China had coal based steam engines in early 1990's and had trains running on an average speed of 50 kmph as late as 1997. This definetly has lead to increasing interest and usage of rail transport and can be seen from the data whereby China as of 2006 accounted for a quarter of the world's total railway transport volume, while its total rail lines is only 6% of the world's total length.
Now map this growth with India's rail growth. We have been trying to electrigy and convert our meter gauge system to brad gauge for the last 4 decades. This has been riddled with massive roadblocks like political obstructions based on region, land acquisitions bottlenecks, lack of desire, pending legal cases, emergence of other thrust areas and due to all these escalating costs.
Indian railways although was doing poorely in the late 1990's but has somewhat being revamped with a new emphasis given on cost cutting and better utilization of existing resources, has clearly lost the plot. Indian Railways being the 4th largest network is very slow. It has lead it to loose of precious business both frieght and passenger volumes. The formation of the NHAI (National Highway Authority of India) in early 2000 was a clear setback and the opening of the Indian skies to private air carriers lead to a massive spurt of passenger traffic through airlines. NHAI had a clear agenda and embarked on an ambitious drive to build world class roads, ensuring big advantages of using road traffic for both passengers and freight carriers.
The existing track speeds of around 100 kmph (at many places it is less also) is clearly historical. Passengers need quick and quality transit. Hence when i read a recent news article about Indian Railways conducting feasibilty studies on about 6 corridors for Bullet Trains, I felt the need to act fast. It should be done under a separate sub committie with lot of powers/freedom and definite target to achieve. It will then be able to see the light of the day int he near future otherwise bythe time it decides to build bullet trains at 200 or 200 kmph, the world must be travelling at above 750 kmph on an average and it will be redundant.
India need to imbibe the capability to think big and act big.That is the only sure shot answer to our Rail Infrastructure problems. Mr. Lalu Prasad/Railway Board - listening......
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Manchester United will win three titles this season
Although I am big fan of Arsenal Football club and pretty occupied(read - disturbed) with the recent boardroom battle in Arsenal but since the club is realistically out of all titles, have no chance but to turn attention on the other big news - Will Chelsea do the incredible of winning quadruple titles? It does not seem to happen. If they do, it is a huge achievement something to beat what United did in 1999. I both love and hate Jose Mourinho. I like him as a coach , for a sense of belief/togetherness he brings amongst his players, no nonsense attitude he cultivates amongst his players, for his tactics but hate him for his brashness(for the riches he possesses,the swipes at his colleagues),overconfidence etc. I personally think if United keep their cool they may end up with three titles. The only stumbling block on them is their list of injured players. This is the time to play for all int he season and the time when you require the maximum back up support. I do have a crunching feeling that Liverpool will upstage Chelsea int eh champions league semis and that will take a toll on chelsea's other title ambition.
I am a little surprised why people are not talking about chelsea travelling to arsenal on May6th and thinking ahead of the ManU game at Stamford Bridge on May9th. If Arsenal beat Chelsea on May 6th, it is all over for Chelsea in premiership 2006-07. They have already lost a great chance at Newcastle.
Being a die hard arsenal fan, I hope Wenger will be astute in getting some world class profiles into the club for the new season. I personally thought the decision to let Viera go was a bad one and he was one of the Arsenal favourites and had a great physical influence int eh midfield. Arsenal will also do good to give their midfielders more license to aim shots at goal from long range, which I thought was lacking after Reyes and Pires had left the club.
All in all it will be a fantastic three weeks of football action for the viewers.
Happy viewing.
I am a little surprised why people are not talking about chelsea travelling to arsenal on May6th and thinking ahead of the ManU game at Stamford Bridge on May9th. If Arsenal beat Chelsea on May 6th, it is all over for Chelsea in premiership 2006-07. They have already lost a great chance at Newcastle.
Being a die hard arsenal fan, I hope Wenger will be astute in getting some world class profiles into the club for the new season. I personally thought the decision to let Viera go was a bad one and he was one of the Arsenal favourites and had a great physical influence int eh midfield. Arsenal will also do good to give their midfielders more license to aim shots at goal from long range, which I thought was lacking after Reyes and Pires had left the club.
All in all it will be a fantastic three weeks of football action for the viewers.
Happy viewing.
Thursday, September 14, 2006
why do the sensex crash?
Why am I writing on this topic?
Well, I was just trying to help my friend with his innocent query as to how the stock markets work and why does the word Sensex crashing by X or Y points is being repeated whenever the market losses some good number of points int he recent past.
Well when you open up the economy (like India has) there are many good things but the open economy tag comes with some disclaimers also and these events form part of the latter.
What is a sensex?
It is nothing byt Sensitive Index and forms the heart of the eprformance of an economy as it takes into account 24 sectors in an economy(roughly covering everything in an Indian economy).So you normally have players like Reliance, Infosys,Tata, Birla(or their group firms), leading players in each industry being part of this sensex. Sensex in its true meaning is the pulse of Indian economy and those are the reasons precisely why we have so much close attention being paid to it day in and day out.
why do the sensex crash?
Yes we have a long and chequered history of our stock markets crashing and sometime for the dumbest of the reasons. Anyways for me these are the resons for the ensex to ahve crashed -
1. People are pessimistic about stock markets. The reason - Economy may be going through a recession and nothing is going right in the economy.Hence the bearish sentiment
2. Insider Trading incidents - people are very smart or rather greedy and do not want to miss an opportunity to make quick cash. There have been lots of incidents involving people being tipped about company information which is supposed to be very critical in nature. Say for example - A Company has acquired B company and this according to the amrket regulator should be strictly confidential but the parties involved in the deal/negotiations may be tempted to go ahead and buy the shares of the A company or the B company knowing/anticipating very well how the market willt ake this news byte.This is nothing different than rigging the system.
3. Political/economic reasons (I famously call it SLEPT - Social,Legal,Economic, Political,Technological reasons)- The markets also move a great deal based ont he future forecasts of the country. Examplle - the strained relations between India and Pakistan are always a factor in the day to day operations of the Sensex. If today some Political unrest happens in india the markets will nosedive getiing into a very negative sentiment.In the same manner the economic,technological factors impact the market.
4.Global events - Today we often come across comments liek "The world is one small place" etc. Yes events happening around the world also become important factors inthe behaviour of the stock market.This has far more implications today than ever before as India is an open economy with a lot of investments/stakes from firms around the world. Hence when the 9/11 incident happened in US the markets world over including in india went southbound as USA is the most powerfull nation int he world and the largest economy in the world.
5. Negative media bytes/events from one of the sensex heavyweights companies - The markets can also go on a rally with negative sound bytes.The analysts can hear some rumours and start taking positions accordingly. I think Enron was one such incident where it could rally huge valuations through shrewd media publications and thus over a period of time jacking up its price.And when it all got bared the markets fell like a pack of cards.
6.Due to tough regulations which are or may not be well accepted by the market from
the Regulator(SEBI)-
7.The Union Budget/Govt. Policies
8.The confidence of the foriegn investors in India (If the FII or the foriegn investment takes a sudden/rapid beating).
Well, I was just trying to help my friend with his innocent query as to how the stock markets work and why does the word Sensex crashing by X or Y points is being repeated whenever the market losses some good number of points int he recent past.
Well when you open up the economy (like India has) there are many good things but the open economy tag comes with some disclaimers also and these events form part of the latter.
What is a sensex?
It is nothing byt Sensitive Index and forms the heart of the eprformance of an economy as it takes into account 24 sectors in an economy(roughly covering everything in an Indian economy).So you normally have players like Reliance, Infosys,Tata, Birla(or their group firms), leading players in each industry being part of this sensex. Sensex in its true meaning is the pulse of Indian economy and those are the reasons precisely why we have so much close attention being paid to it day in and day out.
why do the sensex crash?
Yes we have a long and chequered history of our stock markets crashing and sometime for the dumbest of the reasons. Anyways for me these are the resons for the ensex to ahve crashed -
1. People are pessimistic about stock markets. The reason - Economy may be going through a recession and nothing is going right in the economy.Hence the bearish sentiment
2. Insider Trading incidents - people are very smart or rather greedy and do not want to miss an opportunity to make quick cash. There have been lots of incidents involving people being tipped about company information which is supposed to be very critical in nature. Say for example - A Company has acquired B company and this according to the amrket regulator should be strictly confidential but the parties involved in the deal/negotiations may be tempted to go ahead and buy the shares of the A company or the B company knowing/anticipating very well how the market willt ake this news byte.This is nothing different than rigging the system.
3. Political/economic reasons (I famously call it SLEPT - Social,Legal,Economic, Political,Technological reasons)- The markets also move a great deal based ont he future forecasts of the country. Examplle - the strained relations between India and Pakistan are always a factor in the day to day operations of the Sensex. If today some Political unrest happens in india the markets will nosedive getiing into a very negative sentiment.In the same manner the economic,technological factors impact the market.
4.Global events - Today we often come across comments liek "The world is one small place" etc. Yes events happening around the world also become important factors inthe behaviour of the stock market.This has far more implications today than ever before as India is an open economy with a lot of investments/stakes from firms around the world. Hence when the 9/11 incident happened in US the markets world over including in india went southbound as USA is the most powerfull nation int he world and the largest economy in the world.
5. Negative media bytes/events from one of the sensex heavyweights companies - The markets can also go on a rally with negative sound bytes.The analysts can hear some rumours and start taking positions accordingly. I think Enron was one such incident where it could rally huge valuations through shrewd media publications and thus over a period of time jacking up its price.And when it all got bared the markets fell like a pack of cards.
6.Due to tough regulations which are or may not be well accepted by the market from
the Regulator(SEBI)-
7.The Union Budget/Govt. Policies
8.The confidence of the foriegn investors in India (If the FII or the foriegn investment takes a sudden/rapid beating).
Friday, August 18, 2006
english premier league and the football in india.
We have again reached the time when the EPL(English Premier League) begins. It is indeed the most fascinating/exciting and happening football league in the world today. At the same time we have our new national coach for the Indian national Football team.Although i am a big fan of the Arsenal football club but i am an equally excited Indian football fan waiting impatiently for our football system to turn around.
The other day was watching a very healthy debate on Indian Football in one of our leading news channels, where in the Indian football governing body was going ga ga over their project 2010. According to this project India is supposed to qualify for the next world cup. Realistically speaking i do not see it happening in 2014 world cup also.
We have a basic lacunae where in our system does not throw out enough young talents and we only have pockets of Football following. If you were to go to some European countries or even in many Asian football nations it is spread quite evenly within the whole country and it helps(something similar to our cricket system). Football in india has a huge potential but it needs to be properly nurtured and must be above all politics. We need also sufficient talent schools/scouts nurturing/tapping the right talent and being always on the look out for the right player.
In this regard the newly appointed Indian coach's idea to tap Indian Footballers playing outside India in different leagues is a great idea to cut short this(his)learnign cycle and give/blood some Quality into the system quickly.
Coming back to the English premier League - Being an ardent Arsenal fan i want them to win the Premier League and the champions league this season. But the coach needs to invest more in the transfer market and get some quality especially in the defence. The premier league for sure is going to be a four cornered fight if not more especially between chelsea, manchester united, liverpool and arsenal. But Newcastle United and Toteham Hotspur have the ability and the desire to spring some exciting surprises. Thus Chelsea beware.
I am very excited and waitng impatiently for the match between Arsenal and Aston Villa in their new Emirates Stadium.
Let us all wait and see how this mega sporting event - the premiership unfolds.
Till then Bye Bye.
The other day was watching a very healthy debate on Indian Football in one of our leading news channels, where in the Indian football governing body was going ga ga over their project 2010. According to this project India is supposed to qualify for the next world cup. Realistically speaking i do not see it happening in 2014 world cup also.
We have a basic lacunae where in our system does not throw out enough young talents and we only have pockets of Football following. If you were to go to some European countries or even in many Asian football nations it is spread quite evenly within the whole country and it helps(something similar to our cricket system). Football in india has a huge potential but it needs to be properly nurtured and must be above all politics. We need also sufficient talent schools/scouts nurturing/tapping the right talent and being always on the look out for the right player.
In this regard the newly appointed Indian coach's idea to tap Indian Footballers playing outside India in different leagues is a great idea to cut short this(his)learnign cycle and give/blood some Quality into the system quickly.
Coming back to the English premier League - Being an ardent Arsenal fan i want them to win the Premier League and the champions league this season. But the coach needs to invest more in the transfer market and get some quality especially in the defence. The premier league for sure is going to be a four cornered fight if not more especially between chelsea, manchester united, liverpool and arsenal. But Newcastle United and Toteham Hotspur have the ability and the desire to spring some exciting surprises. Thus Chelsea beware.
I am very excited and waitng impatiently for the match between Arsenal and Aston Villa in their new Emirates Stadium.
Let us all wait and see how this mega sporting event - the premiership unfolds.
Till then Bye Bye.
Thursday, July 27, 2006
This is my career graph - I am sharing
AJIT. P. NAIR Flat 731, 8th Block,
Mansarovar Heights II,
ajitpnair@yahoo.co.in Secunderabad - 500072
http://ajitpnair.blogspot.com Phone: 9949358862
Perceived Role-playing in an organization: To learn and improve always. Thus would like to contribute something good to my surrounding environment.
Employment Details in Reverse Chronology:
1) I am working as Manager – Market Research/Projects in Kenexa Technologies India (NASDAQ:KNXA) – (A Human Resource Outsourcing (HRO) and software (HCM) company). (Since March 2004 – till date).
My work at Kenexa -
I joined Kenexa as an International Recruiter handling the data mining/phone calling support functions to our US office/clients. I got promoted later as Assistant Manager Pre Sales Research supporting sales/market research activities for our US office. At present I am Manager – Market Research/Projects with the responsibility to handle market research and additionally projects in Insurance/Engineering domain.
Responsibilities -
Market Research
Support Business Development team in planning relevant opportunities, Identify new markets, make/devise sourcing strategies for new projects for Kenexa worldwide , RFP (proposal writing), Implementing domain specific strategies for the projects (Project Implementation/Transition, project work flow).Analyze the competitive environment and future trends (competitive intelligence gathering), research and analysis of BPO markets/segments, understand and derive the org. hierarchy structure for sales team, Industry/Domain related research. Analytics would involve calculating the productivity metrics of teams calculate Time to hire /Cost to hire metrics etc.
Tools – Zoom Info, Hoovers, Airs Oxygen, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Groups, Forbes, EDGAR, Kompass, Google etc., for the market research activities.
Geographical Regions – US, UK, China, Taiwan, Malaysia markets. I have recruited five of my team members from Taiwan (To work from India) to assist me in Business Development (Back office recruitment support for our client in Taiwan) from India.
ISO Quality – Adherence to Quality manual, introduce new processes, SLA adherence, project metrics management, escalation mechanisms on deviations, managing non conformity (NC), to closely work with my senior management and the lead assessor for any process deviation and quarterly process evaluations. Attend/represent my department for the regular management review meets.
Projects – I also handle projects in Insurance/Engineering domain supporting the EPO back office operations from here. My key responsibility includes – client interaction/escalation, meeting service delivery, hiring, training& development. Utilize tools like Monster, career builder, abstract search from the internet.
Achievements
1. Pre sales activities have resulted in important client acquisitions like Unum Provident, MetLife, Blue Linx, Beckman Coulter etc.,
2. I was nominated from the ACE (back office support dept.) division to the ISO 9001:2000 implementation initiatives in Kenexa. I am accountable to the ISO processes for my dept.
3. Won the best innovation and customer service award in Kenexa for my Contribution (innovation of Exit Interview), which Kenexa worldwide is currently implementing to make an Exit Interview Hiring software product.
4. I was also associated with the editorial team of Kenexa internal newsletter called INDIA INK. As part of this, published articles in leading newspapers of Kenexa on behalf of Kenexa India. I was featured in the Kenexa Global newsletter.
2) BITs Pilani - FPM leading to a PhD programme. (Experience – One year and four months) – Stopped pursuing the same for better career prospects.
To develop courseware, case studies, MDPs, and publications. The programme was divided into six semesters to develop research article, which should attain the quality of a publishable article. Henceforth, was able to produce and publish three journal articles. I was also nominated to attend three conferences (Attended two). (Details furnished in the subsequent page).
3) Way2 Wealth Securities (a financial services brokerage firm having a pan India presence), Cochin Branch as Officer- Client Relations (Experience- one year).
Responsibilities - Generate new business via sales promotions, presentations and in-branch contacts. Achieve allocated business targets and actively cross - sell all financial products (third party products). Participate actively in branch sales planning to generate action plans for meeting targets.
As a team achieved a financial instrument placement sale of Rs. 4 crores with Karur Vysya Bank
Educational Qualification:
Qualifications Year of passing College\institute
P.G.D.B.A
(Marketing) 1999-2001 ICFAI Business School,
Bangalore.
Bachelor in Business Administration (B.B.A) 1995-1998
University Institute of Technology, Alleppey (Kerala University)
Additional Qualifications:
Certificate of Proficiency in Information & System Management (CPISM; Aptech-1998).
Pursuing Masters in Marketing Management (distance mode).
Research Papers undertaken as part of FPM:
1) Co-operative Management – An Insight into Indian Cooperatives. (February 2003)
2) Demand for Electricity and Petroleum Products in Kerala: An Econometric Analysis (May 2003)
3) Consumption in India (June 2003 – Published).
4) MNCs and Human Capital Accretion: A Study of Indian Software Industry (July 2003 – Published).
5) Corporate Governance Reporting by Indian Companies: A Content Analysis Study (September 2003 – Published).
6) Understanding Children’s Consumer Behavior Patterns – Analyzing Children as Consumers (November, 2003).
Conferences (Attended/ To Attend):
• 15th AIMS international conference with the theme on “Corporate Governance” conducted at XIMB (Paper presented).
• 3rd COSMAR conference conducted by IISc, Bangalore (Paper presented).
• 1st AIMS International conference at IIM B (Paper accepted for presentation).
PROJECTS UNDERTAKEN: (Post Graduation - PGDBA)
Management Research Project -Full Time (2 Days a week):
Company: BuyAsOne.com (An ICICI Venture) - 9 months.
Project: Dipstick Study &B2B feasibility study.
Summer Internship Project - Full Time:
Company: bplnet.com, an ISP (Internet Service Provider) - 4months
A Project on Consumer Behaviour:
Company: Tenet Telecom & Rediff.com - 2 months.
Research Projects:
Company: HughesTele.com- Private telephony (15 days).
Topic: The State of E-Retailing 2000 (1 month).
Topic: Branding on the Net (15 days).
Topic: A study on Indian Television industry (1 month).
Graduation: (B.B.A) - Projects Undertaken:
Company: HMT KALAMASSERY - 1 month; Bokaro Steel Plant - 2 months.
Hobbies: Interested to participate and conduct Quiz programs, writing article - have written and published articles on behalf of Kenexa India (myself as well as ghost written articles for the top management in Kenexa India).Watch and play cricket, football(I am a big fan of the Arsenal football club) and other sports. Extensive travelling to explore and understand people, Blogging (I have my blog mentioned in the top of this resume).
Activities:
I have won the Hyderabad round of corporate quiz conducted by PSG group representing Kenexa in January 2005. I have also conducted various in house quizzes for Kenexa India including the first in-house Kenexa Quiz branded as KQ in August 2005. Managed Euphoria 2000, a management fest amongst IBS B- Schools. Won quiz competitions at different levels. Coordinated the Marketing Forum activities during MBA.
Languages Known: English, Hindi, and Malayalam (Written & Spoken).
Mansarovar Heights II,
ajitpnair@yahoo.co.in Secunderabad - 500072
http://ajitpnair.blogspot.com Phone: 9949358862
Perceived Role-playing in an organization: To learn and improve always. Thus would like to contribute something good to my surrounding environment.
Employment Details in Reverse Chronology:
1) I am working as Manager – Market Research/Projects in Kenexa Technologies India (NASDAQ:KNXA) – (A Human Resource Outsourcing (HRO) and software (HCM) company). (Since March 2004 – till date).
My work at Kenexa -
I joined Kenexa as an International Recruiter handling the data mining/phone calling support functions to our US office/clients. I got promoted later as Assistant Manager Pre Sales Research supporting sales/market research activities for our US office. At present I am Manager – Market Research/Projects with the responsibility to handle market research and additionally projects in Insurance/Engineering domain.
Responsibilities -
Market Research
Support Business Development team in planning relevant opportunities, Identify new markets, make/devise sourcing strategies for new projects for Kenexa worldwide , RFP (proposal writing), Implementing domain specific strategies for the projects (Project Implementation/Transition, project work flow).Analyze the competitive environment and future trends (competitive intelligence gathering), research and analysis of BPO markets/segments, understand and derive the org. hierarchy structure for sales team, Industry/Domain related research. Analytics would involve calculating the productivity metrics of teams calculate Time to hire /Cost to hire metrics etc.
Tools – Zoom Info, Hoovers, Airs Oxygen, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Groups, Forbes, EDGAR, Kompass, Google etc., for the market research activities.
Geographical Regions – US, UK, China, Taiwan, Malaysia markets. I have recruited five of my team members from Taiwan (To work from India) to assist me in Business Development (Back office recruitment support for our client in Taiwan) from India.
ISO Quality – Adherence to Quality manual, introduce new processes, SLA adherence, project metrics management, escalation mechanisms on deviations, managing non conformity (NC), to closely work with my senior management and the lead assessor for any process deviation and quarterly process evaluations. Attend/represent my department for the regular management review meets.
Projects – I also handle projects in Insurance/Engineering domain supporting the EPO back office operations from here. My key responsibility includes – client interaction/escalation, meeting service delivery, hiring, training& development. Utilize tools like Monster, career builder, abstract search from the internet.
Achievements
1. Pre sales activities have resulted in important client acquisitions like Unum Provident, MetLife, Blue Linx, Beckman Coulter etc.,
2. I was nominated from the ACE (back office support dept.) division to the ISO 9001:2000 implementation initiatives in Kenexa. I am accountable to the ISO processes for my dept.
3. Won the best innovation and customer service award in Kenexa for my Contribution (innovation of Exit Interview), which Kenexa worldwide is currently implementing to make an Exit Interview Hiring software product.
4. I was also associated with the editorial team of Kenexa internal newsletter called INDIA INK. As part of this, published articles in leading newspapers of Kenexa on behalf of Kenexa India. I was featured in the Kenexa Global newsletter.
2) BITs Pilani - FPM leading to a PhD programme. (Experience – One year and four months) – Stopped pursuing the same for better career prospects.
To develop courseware, case studies, MDPs, and publications. The programme was divided into six semesters to develop research article, which should attain the quality of a publishable article. Henceforth, was able to produce and publish three journal articles. I was also nominated to attend three conferences (Attended two). (Details furnished in the subsequent page).
3) Way2 Wealth Securities (a financial services brokerage firm having a pan India presence), Cochin Branch as Officer- Client Relations (Experience- one year).
Responsibilities - Generate new business via sales promotions, presentations and in-branch contacts. Achieve allocated business targets and actively cross - sell all financial products (third party products). Participate actively in branch sales planning to generate action plans for meeting targets.
As a team achieved a financial instrument placement sale of Rs. 4 crores with Karur Vysya Bank
Educational Qualification:
Qualifications Year of passing College\institute
P.G.D.B.A
(Marketing) 1999-2001 ICFAI Business School,
Bangalore.
Bachelor in Business Administration (B.B.A) 1995-1998
University Institute of Technology, Alleppey (Kerala University)
Additional Qualifications:
Certificate of Proficiency in Information & System Management (CPISM; Aptech-1998).
Pursuing Masters in Marketing Management (distance mode).
Research Papers undertaken as part of FPM:
1) Co-operative Management – An Insight into Indian Cooperatives. (February 2003)
2) Demand for Electricity and Petroleum Products in Kerala: An Econometric Analysis (May 2003)
3) Consumption in India (June 2003 – Published).
4) MNCs and Human Capital Accretion: A Study of Indian Software Industry (July 2003 – Published).
5) Corporate Governance Reporting by Indian Companies: A Content Analysis Study (September 2003 – Published).
6) Understanding Children’s Consumer Behavior Patterns – Analyzing Children as Consumers (November, 2003).
Conferences (Attended/ To Attend):
• 15th AIMS international conference with the theme on “Corporate Governance” conducted at XIMB (Paper presented).
• 3rd COSMAR conference conducted by IISc, Bangalore (Paper presented).
• 1st AIMS International conference at IIM B (Paper accepted for presentation).
PROJECTS UNDERTAKEN: (Post Graduation - PGDBA)
Management Research Project -Full Time (2 Days a week):
Company: BuyAsOne.com (An ICICI Venture) - 9 months.
Project: Dipstick Study &B2B feasibility study.
Summer Internship Project - Full Time:
Company: bplnet.com, an ISP (Internet Service Provider) - 4months
A Project on Consumer Behaviour:
Company: Tenet Telecom & Rediff.com - 2 months.
Research Projects:
Company: HughesTele.com- Private telephony (15 days).
Topic: The State of E-Retailing 2000 (1 month).
Topic: Branding on the Net (15 days).
Topic: A study on Indian Television industry (1 month).
Graduation: (B.B.A) - Projects Undertaken:
Company: HMT KALAMASSERY - 1 month; Bokaro Steel Plant - 2 months.
Hobbies: Interested to participate and conduct Quiz programs, writing article - have written and published articles on behalf of Kenexa India (myself as well as ghost written articles for the top management in Kenexa India).Watch and play cricket, football(I am a big fan of the Arsenal football club) and other sports. Extensive travelling to explore and understand people, Blogging (I have my blog mentioned in the top of this resume).
Activities:
I have won the Hyderabad round of corporate quiz conducted by PSG group representing Kenexa in January 2005. I have also conducted various in house quizzes for Kenexa India including the first in-house Kenexa Quiz branded as KQ in August 2005. Managed Euphoria 2000, a management fest amongst IBS B- Schools. Won quiz competitions at different levels. Coordinated the Marketing Forum activities during MBA.
Languages Known: English, Hindi, and Malayalam (Written & Spoken).
Monday, June 12, 2006
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