October 9th, 2009 § § permalink
Here I am, LIVE blogging Mr. To Peters, Management Guru and Author at The Leaders In India 2009.
We said somethings 25 years ago about basics and we are in this mess today. I said to a MIT graduate, that shut down MIT and we can go a long way in bettering. Since 1996 of my time, I have focused on the issue on women in leadership and women in management. Now it is not an issue of social justice, but its that woman buy things!
I am pretty much able to give a guarantee that I will dissapoint you this morning
If you have reached the age of 66, you know for sure that the only secret is there are no secrets! Tom starts by giving an example of Conrad Hilton’s answer to “what was the most important lesson you’ve learned in your long and distinguished career” and he said, remember to tuck the shower curtain inside the bath tub!
The art of war does not require complicated maneuvers; the simplest are the best and common sense in fundamental. From which one might wonder that how it is that generals make blunders; it is because they try to be clever – Napolean
Interestingly Tom shares how he has learned from his life and the neighborhood talking about one of the issues that India faces today with its growth, which is continuing the growth.
I am often asked by would be entrepreneurs seeking escape from life within hgue corporate strcutures, How do I build a small firm for myself? The answer is: Buy a very large one and WAIT – Paul Ormered
If you are not pursuing incredibly aggressive strategy, your days are numbered. And Tom shares his experience of working with Mckenzie with one of his colleagues. Interestingly Tom shares some very amazing statistics from the US and how companies have failed over years. if you look at the world’s largest exporters:
- No.4 is Japan
- Tie for 2nd and 3rd : American and chinese
- No 1: Germans
I am a strong strong strong believer of middle sized companies. I believe that medium sized enterprises are the future for us. I think if you look at the US economy, which continues to have a significant productivity lead than the rest of the world, fundamentally every automobile plan has the same productivity!
Everything in existence tends to Deteriorate – Norberto Odebrecht
If you have to make a sizeable company, you have to go to war against yourself. The only thing that beats a company is ITSELF PERIOD! I have read Tom before, and I feel this is an absolute truth, which was also supported by Mr. Subroto Bagchi yesterday at NASSCOM.
Giant mergers destroy value. PERIOD
Execution IS strategy – Fred malek
The three magical words that are crucial for an enterprise. And Tom is giving this perfect example referring to the Blue Ocean! I am impressed Tom 
What’s the point of looking outside if you can’t do anything with your assets?!
Two point strategy by Tom in life:
- Execution is strategy
- You only find OIL if you drill wells
**My apologies for not being able to blog the entire session by Tom, due to an urgent call by the Co-founder of my company!
But here I am again covering the question and answer round with Tom.Tom just spoke about the lessening of the cultural differences and how we should be working towards getting the systems right! The CEO is NOT teh best strategist, but he is the guy who would get the best Strategist on board to do the right work.
Tom very strongly puts how the best of the projects fail due to lousy execution specs in the proposal. The Chrysler Americans and the Daimler Germans may not be the best strategist in the history! It is the little stuff that matters with significant multiplier effects, says Tom, giving a very interesting example of surgeons.
A professional listener is as same as a professional pilot
Business schools are a scurge of the world! Many of you went to Bschools and so did I, but I like thinking of the fact that I outgrew it!
In my perfect world you should have someone on Board your company under the age of 25! Things are changing and you I can challenge, dont realize it! You are as good as the people you spend your time with.
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October 9th, 2009 § § permalink
Listening to Steve Tappin from Yorkshire, and he pushes the ambitions of CEO’s to be the best and be more inspirational which is his day job and his night job is the book he is writing, which is secrets of CEO’s.
Interestingly, Steve says that two thirds of Global leaders that we have at the moment are not big enough, two thirds are managers at best and they don’t have the leader’s qualities. Steve gives areas for CEO’s:
1. Business performance
2. Business leadership
3. Personal performance
4. Personal leadership
5. Talent
And after a good networking energy filled opportunity, we have Peter Rigby, Chief Executive of Informa Group plc, Non-Executive Chairman of Electric Word plc. Peter starts the day with introducing the Leaders In India and how the contribution of such platforms can make a meaningful difference to the communities we serve and as the community as a whole.
We now have Steve again talking about the TRUMP group and here we have Donald Trump. And Donald starts with the resilience of the Indian marketplace and Donald will be talking about the emerging markets in specific the Real Estate Market. WSJ has dubbed Real Estate as India’s new Tech.
It takes an outsiders perspective to look at the things that can change
Donald is sharing his experience of a conference he attended at Dubai and well how the buying patterns are evolving.
To move things forward we really have to get things back to basics.
My father was teaching me abotu business and about focus and he told a story in the early nineties which explained to Donald what focus really is. you can’t be all things to all people. One of the biggest pitfalls every one has seen over the last few years is that all are going the same direction, but in my view we have to understand the subtleties. We hence lost track of basis, we lost track of cost, margins shrunk. Its time to ge trealistic!
Why India today?
interestingly, Donald is talking about the India story and what things can you do differently and what new things can you do to move forward. In 27 years India has only had 1 year of negative growth.
Fluency in English in India is a great advantage, which I see as a great potential, as it still is the language of business
There is a level of aspirational wealth here, that you don’t see anywhere else in the world. The desire here is so much stronger that I have not seen anywhere lse in the world! People here really love try and do things. And you have to love what you do to be successful. You never will out-perform anyone else in the company if you don’t love what you do.
Urbanisation is another thing which is very rapidly growing and is a mind boggling statistic which has applications everywhere
I have always heard of the American Dream, even in Obama’s speech, but today listening to Donald Trump, creating the amazingly HUGE Indian DREAM! I am a proud Indian (as always) !
Opportunities:
- People wanna know what they are buying
- They wanna know who they are dealing with
- Creating a risk adjusted level playing field
The biggest issue in my mind in investing into any emerging market, is the lack of transparency
Certainty creates value. Without transparency its going to be difficult to create continued investment. When my own backyard is getting interesting, it creates good competition for not just the emerging markets but for everyone.
The TRUMP organization has developed a model over the last few years to do business across the globe. We dont assume that we know all things about all markets. The first emerging market which cracks the transparency code will WIN – Donald Trump Jr.
I just love the so much home grown talent in India, but that doesn’t still mean that you dont want to attract foreign talent.
You don’t get anything that you don’t ask for. And this is one of the biggest lessons I have learnt in life, which took me three years. Transfer of knowledge creates clarity. International players have not been able to get in touch with the legal system in India.
Donald Trump Jr. is now talking about Infrastructure and I agree to him on this, as an emerging market, we do need infrastructure, not just in terms of rail and roads, but also agriculture, education etc. Someone has to bite the bullet and it has to be done says Donald.
Cultural Differences
Donald Trump talks about talks about business and how it is done globally. And how people do need to understand that there has to be a common understanding in doing business. A times I go losing 3 hours on a business call which should effectively get closed in 5 minutes for me. Trump talks about creating a level play, a level playing field and I agree no less to himi on this. Business in India has to become this.
Donald, closes with his remark the potential for this country is amazing if some of these things are changed and now we are in the Q&A mode.
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July 3rd, 2009 § § permalink
The Leaders In India – Business Forum 2009 one of the biggest extravaganzas in the history of India Inc. happening for the first time in India. October 8th-10th in Mumbai. This is an exclusive sneek peek into what you can expect at the event and with who all would you be sharing the space at LII!
The Leaders In India – Business Forum 2009, is the inaugural Indian chapter of the world’s largest series of business leadership events to which thousands of CXOs make an annual pilgrimage. With recent speakers including Sir Richard Branson, Kofi Annan, Al Gore, Philip Kotler, Edward De Bono and Ricardo Semler speaking in cities including London & Dubai, “Leaders” command audiences of 1000s of CXO’s every year and has built an indisputable track record of providing the most meaningful, timely and balanced information.
With whom shall you be sharing space at the Leaders In India?
Leaders in India Business Forum brings the ideas, thoughts and inspirations of many iconic international business leaders of the 21st century, and infuses them with India’s best and brightest. Discussions will range from MandA to HR and attractive investment destinations to corporate governance.
With a great speaker and delegate lineup, the event surely is one of the biggest extravaganza’s in India Inc’s history. The participant list boasts of the best of the breed achievers who have created opportunities which have defined our times.
An exclusive sneek peek into the event
The Indo International Business Achievement Awards
The Biggest Awards Ceremony, Celebrating exceptional entrepreneurial and innovative talent, effective and responsible leadership and management, and the setting of new standards within Indian and global business.
Be there to hear from the horse’s mouth and be inspired
Early Bird Offer for the first few
REGISTER for LII Now to avail the Early Bird
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