Started in 1932 as Tata Airlines by J.R.D Tata, Air India was formed in 1953 when air transport industry was nationalised. Since then the Maharaja has been a household logo and a strong brand in itself. However since last decade a complete mismanagement of the organisation by its owner; government of India has led it begging for a ‘bailout’.
Some really foolish decision in the national carrier; Air India and Indian Airlines that would make even a layman raise eyebrow:
• There were 2 national carrier; Air India for international and Indian Airlines for domestic for more than 50 years, but we learnt about word called ‘synergies’ in 70s or 80s. Was there a need for distinction between domestic and international operators? Better late than never; finally there were some talks of merging both the national carriers which began sometime in 2000 which finally happened in 2007.
• In late 2005 a plan to re-brand Indian Airlines as India was rolled out. That is a big joke when one knows that we are going to merge both the national carriers and the identity of Indian Airlines is anyways going to be lost, why was there a need to re-brand. Further I travelled once in a rebranded Indian and the experience was no different from Indian Airlines. It was just a cosmetic change; something similar to what many public sector banks did a year ago (refer my post on re-branding public sector banks). I am sure that there was huge amount of money that was wasted in this process.
• The worth of new fleets ordered was more than the revenue of the entity. Now this is something that can never go well with any person. Though there has been big acquisition by large conglomerates in recent past; but they were exception than a rule. I am not sure if there was even a rough plan on how would the payment for these fleets by arranged?
These are just few examples that make us raise eyebrows on the governance structure of operations of national carriers which is now National Aviation Company of India Limited (NACIL); the parent company of Air India and Indian. There could be many more but these are enough to raise questions on the people managing the show. The minister who has been responsible has been continued for more than last half decade and now he is being asked to prepare a restructuring plan. Can someone tell me; what is the incentive that he gets by turning around this company? In fact the incentive is reverse; the poorer it performs the higher the bailout.
I am sure that we will see more losses than posted by any company historically in India unless we make it run like a private company and bring in some professional managers to turn it around.
The company has already posted Rs. 8,000 crores losses and there is some hue and cry in the parliament. However people in the parliament seem to be busier in protesting against some reality shows instead of focusing on thousands of crores of tax payer money going in drain.
Dear GOI, please bring in some person from industry like you did for Unique Identity Project; else only god can save our Maharaja.
Sunday 26 July 2009
Friday 24 July 2009
Should you do MBA? too after having corporate exposure for half a decade?
Frankly speaking it is catch twenty two situation. There are many good things that we here from people who have done MBA and also broadcasted by various media channels. Few of them are it broadens perspective (gas), bigger network (most abused term), better job (correlation vs. causation), etc. As I have been crisp in mentioning the meaning of each of these term in bracket let me explain some of them and put down my views:
• Broadens perspective: This is what I said when I wanted to get in, after coming out did it proved right? Yes, it did, but it is individualistic and cannot be true for all. You have to really work to do this and any B school will only provide environment to you but it is finally you who have to take advantage of that and broaden perspective. I would like to quote my favourite Prof. Sanjeev Das here who really helped me do this well. While having a chat with him I asked him what should one look for while deciding the electives. He was apt and clear, “select only those subjects that help you think differently. The problems in this world are same but the solutions could be different. Take subjects that help you think through different solutions”. Bullseye, this is what I think will help broaden perspective.
• Networking: This is the most abused term and a reason for B school. Though I was also one of those who gave this as one of the reason to do MBA, it is now that I realise it was so baseless. In the craziness of networking you will see people doing crazy things to get noticed and hence increase their network. Also with the current plethora of social networking site, I feel this reason has lost its importance whatever little it had. You do connect with few good people but saying that I would do MBA to increase my network seems too immature for me.
• Better Job: Well this was certainly not the reason for getting into MBA for me. But there is a confusion of correlation vs. causation as I have mentioned. There is a high correlation between doing MBA and getting good job, (by the way what is a good job) but good job is not a cause of MBA. People do get good jobs even without MBA. The reason for getting better jobs in the last decade was not MBA but the economic scenario that supported it. However as the tables turned and the scenario was not as good as it had been, things looked sad at all the B Schools. Hence B Schools would help you get a better job is a flawed argument.
Hey, wait there... though I have listed some reasons which I think are incorrect for doing an MBA, there are some reasons why I think MBA makes sense.
I will first put a quantitative reasoning for doing MBA, this would certainly make my economics professors happy.
• Reason 1: There would be more than 2 Lac CAs and more than 1 Lac MBAs (from premier B Schools) in India. However there would be less than 1000 people who are both. Now the choice is yours, whether you are happy being a part of 2 Lac CAs or a part of 1000 CA+MBA.
• Reason 2: Doing an MBA after getting good under-grad degree and a decent work experience sends signal to the outside world that you are serious about your career and better of the lot. It’s like a guarantee / warranty that manufacturers give on their product to signal that their product is better.
Now some gas, which I am really not good at. I have never experienced a campus life and hence doing MBA gave me a taste of campus life where you interact with people from difference background. I enjoyed my stay and learnt a lot from peers and professors whom I would have never met otherwise. I feel this is very important, but difficult to describe why at this stage, maybe once I work for few more years I would be in a position to mention the reason.
Coming to another question of ISB vs IIM, well my view would be its up to you. It is important to select a good B school whichever it may be will not have material impact on the objective.
Few professors from whom I learnt a lot and would certainly remember for life were Prof. Sanjeev Das, Prof. Prashant Kale, Prof. Dishan Kamdar, Prof. Henry Moon, Prof. Shamika Ravi and Prof. Subra.
Few colleagues that were great peers to have at ISB; Amit Uncle and Dilpreet Singh my study group mates and our dear neighbours and block mates Suketu Shah, Sandeep Gupta and Vikram Garg.
This post would be incomplete without mentioning the name of one important person who was my pillar, she is none other than Jinal; my friend and also my wife who put her career at stake and supported me all the time. I owe a lot to her.
• Broadens perspective: This is what I said when I wanted to get in, after coming out did it proved right? Yes, it did, but it is individualistic and cannot be true for all. You have to really work to do this and any B school will only provide environment to you but it is finally you who have to take advantage of that and broaden perspective. I would like to quote my favourite Prof. Sanjeev Das here who really helped me do this well. While having a chat with him I asked him what should one look for while deciding the electives. He was apt and clear, “select only those subjects that help you think differently. The problems in this world are same but the solutions could be different. Take subjects that help you think through different solutions”. Bullseye, this is what I think will help broaden perspective.
• Networking: This is the most abused term and a reason for B school. Though I was also one of those who gave this as one of the reason to do MBA, it is now that I realise it was so baseless. In the craziness of networking you will see people doing crazy things to get noticed and hence increase their network. Also with the current plethora of social networking site, I feel this reason has lost its importance whatever little it had. You do connect with few good people but saying that I would do MBA to increase my network seems too immature for me.
• Better Job: Well this was certainly not the reason for getting into MBA for me. But there is a confusion of correlation vs. causation as I have mentioned. There is a high correlation between doing MBA and getting good job, (by the way what is a good job) but good job is not a cause of MBA. People do get good jobs even without MBA. The reason for getting better jobs in the last decade was not MBA but the economic scenario that supported it. However as the tables turned and the scenario was not as good as it had been, things looked sad at all the B Schools. Hence B Schools would help you get a better job is a flawed argument.
Hey, wait there... though I have listed some reasons which I think are incorrect for doing an MBA, there are some reasons why I think MBA makes sense.
I will first put a quantitative reasoning for doing MBA, this would certainly make my economics professors happy.
• Reason 1: There would be more than 2 Lac CAs and more than 1 Lac MBAs (from premier B Schools) in India. However there would be less than 1000 people who are both. Now the choice is yours, whether you are happy being a part of 2 Lac CAs or a part of 1000 CA+MBA.
• Reason 2: Doing an MBA after getting good under-grad degree and a decent work experience sends signal to the outside world that you are serious about your career and better of the lot. It’s like a guarantee / warranty that manufacturers give on their product to signal that their product is better.
Now some gas, which I am really not good at. I have never experienced a campus life and hence doing MBA gave me a taste of campus life where you interact with people from difference background. I enjoyed my stay and learnt a lot from peers and professors whom I would have never met otherwise. I feel this is very important, but difficult to describe why at this stage, maybe once I work for few more years I would be in a position to mention the reason.
Coming to another question of ISB vs IIM, well my view would be its up to you. It is important to select a good B school whichever it may be will not have material impact on the objective.
Few professors from whom I learnt a lot and would certainly remember for life were Prof. Sanjeev Das, Prof. Prashant Kale, Prof. Dishan Kamdar, Prof. Henry Moon, Prof. Shamika Ravi and Prof. Subra.
Few colleagues that were great peers to have at ISB; Amit Uncle and Dilpreet Singh my study group mates and our dear neighbours and block mates Suketu Shah, Sandeep Gupta and Vikram Garg.
This post would be incomplete without mentioning the name of one important person who was my pillar, she is none other than Jinal; my friend and also my wife who put her career at stake and supported me all the time. I owe a lot to her.
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