Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Crunched to death!

The financial crisis brought the world to its feet!

The foundation stone of the current financial crisis was definitely laid during the prior boom period, which lasted between 1996 to early 2005. Financial institutions like Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch et al, were enthusiastic enough to run after the lucrative sub-prime market and create an artificial buying power for borrowers. Giving no importance to financial due diligence, the lenders were quick to introduce new, riskier products with insufficient asset value as collateral. As a matter of fact, the total amount of mortgage-backed security issued tripled to $7.3 trillion and the securitised share of sub-prime mortgages increased from 54% to 75%; all thanks to the booming ‘credit derivative market’ which made risk transfer easy. The low interest rate further encouraged Americans to opt for housing loans or mortgages. But when home prices in the US began to decline in 2006-07, mortgage delinquencies rose and securities backed by sub-prime mortgages (which were widely-held by financial institutions), lost most of their value. Later on, when this housing bubble busted, three out of the five largest investment banks (once the cynosures of Wall Street) of US, failed, triggering instability in the global financial system. This resulted in a decline of capital for many banks, thus creating a credit crunch.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

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Monday, December 10, 2012

The Afghan quagmire continues

Iran may be involved if the US opted for drone attacks in Balochistan and this is bad news for Pakistan

The 'war on terror' may or may not eliminate Al-Qaeda and the Taliban in the tribal areas of Pakistan but it seems it would cost dearly to a state that is already headed towards fragmentation. Now that the 100-days-old Obama government has decided to expand the American covert war in Pakistan, far beyond the unruly tribal areas to strike at a different centre of Taliban power in Balochistan, where top Taliban leaders are orchestrating attacks in southern Afghanistan. “Mullah Muhammad Omar, who led the Taliban government that was ousted in the American-led invasion in 2001, has operated with near impunity out of the region for years, along with many of his deputies,” the New York Times reported. Citing American intelligence officials, it further said many top Taliban commanders remain in hiding in and around the provincial headquarters in Balochistan, while some Afghan officials claim that other senior Taliban leaders have fled to Pakistan.

What does this mean? If the US administration goes for drone attacks in and around Quetta, it would lead to collateral damage in the largely Pashtun belt of Balochistan. “For the last 62 years, Baloch people are displaced. Now if the Americans opt for drone attacks in and around Quetta, Pashtuns will be displaced,” Nawab Khair Bux Marri, veteran Baloch leader told B&E.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

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Saturday, December 08, 2012

Oracles be damned!

Do their M&A predictions really work? And is there some ‘secret learning’ even they know nothing about? STEVEN PHILIP WARNER takes a closer look...

Despite fears of making it sound more like a sadistically-inclined moronic panic attack, let us get straight to the point here: which one of the following is most fatal – SARS, tuberculosis, typhoid, severe malaria, dengue, and… marriage (oink?!)? Let us go by the numbers. As per prior medical and social studies, dengue has a fatality rate of just 3%, severe malaria – 9%, typhoid – 10%, tuberculosis – 11%, SARS – 15%; and divorces – 38%! [Oh! Couples in love never knew this, did they?] Now allow us to marginally change course here: from social marriage to business marriages [and in the process reveal facts that CEOs in love with the idea of business matrimonies have perhaps missed out on]. Business marriage if put in that list above would walk away with honours glorified, in the name of the Queen. Period! And what makes us so non-sanguinely presumptuous? Well, the failure rate of M&As is anywhere between 75-78% (as per researches by HBS, KPMG, Booz Allen, et al), and it has earned shameful recognition for stripping-down shareholders to their bones, such that even the ruthless piranhas of the Amazonian rivers would pack a mournful retreat over the crime.

So here we are, in the midst of another downturn… six long years of prosperity at the bourses, and suddenly the shareholders are crying out for mercy. And what do the pundits say? Well, first they claimed that there was no downturn in sight, and that it was simply a ‘slight’ correction at the stock market. Then the real estate diamond turned cheap carbon. This was followed up with some major financial entities finding survival a next life dream. Then the virus spread to the manufacturing and other services businesses and the bourses crashed. And yet, we never learnt!!! We undertook panic discounts. Wrong! We cut back on our advertisements. Wrong! [But hey, aren’t corporations supposed to cut down on expenses during a downturn?] And finally, the dirt: we still believe those ‘gas-ball of Oracles’, that perhaps don’t even remember their respective birthdays; forget about predicting the ‘right’ future! Research proves it, and there’s no white-chalk teaching needed to reassure you that deal-making is too dangerous and fruitless during downturns. We undertook some primary research & digged deeper into some exemplary past researches and events... all of which we present in the following paragraphs. When you get to the last line of this article, you would have figured out why the whole argument began in the first place… and why there’s so much to learn for those demented ‘self-proclaimed’ Oracles!


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

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Friday, December 07, 2012

Ask the right questions, of yourself!

If you’re not the apple of your boss’s eye, don’t sulk! Ask the right questions, of yourself!

If it’s the latter, solution could be simply trying to know your boss better and show some friendliness (not to be mistaken as sucking up). And, if it’s for real, then you need some introspection before reaction! “If someone comes to me with a problem, I always first tell him to introspect and see if the boss is really prejudiced or is there a method in the madness i.e. the person he favours actually has certain admirable strengths,” says B. Shankar, GM-HR, BHEL. It’s perhaps time to examine your own efforts (Are you as good as you think you are?!).

Just because you haven’t been told, doesn’t imply there’s no problem. Being less friendly could be his way of expressing disapproval. Talk it out and be open to criticism. Figure out the traits he really values. It could be these traits, in someone else, which make you call him unfair and biased… If this doesn’t help, you need to re-look at your work. If you like what you do and such preferential behaviour doesn’t affect your job potential, then putting up with such a boss by merely overlooking isn’t that bad an idea. Charging your boss with it would only lead to tension at work.

Managing your work is definitely a stated objective, but managing your boss is a primary unstated favour that you owe to yourself. So, if he’s low on EI, you might as well think a little on his behalf. Since he would rarely realise the impact of his decisions on your life, you may set the limit by making him realise it the next time he throws work at you when the day is about to get over! And, if your work is awaiting his approval, you may give him direction and structure, instead of silently getting angry at him.

By virtue of becoming a boss, a person comes under scrutiny, even when it’s not due. Maybe it is time to act and not judge him, for it’s likely that you may not be doing your ‘job’ i.e. thinking for him.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

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Thursday, December 06, 2012

Caneel bay, a rosewood resort

This exclusive hideaway turned low-key luxurious resort, encircled by the beauty of the Virgin Island National Park, was established by financier and conservationist, Laurance Rockefeller, over 50 years ago. The essence of its virginity is mirrored by the dearth of room phones and TVs. However, you'll be doing anything but just sitting in one of the 160+ guest rooms, outfitted in soothing untamed nature with slick contemporary furniture and personal patios or balconies, spread over 170 acres. With a Sunset Cocktail Cruise, healing volcanic stone massages, weddings-on-board and a mind-body-spirit rejuvenating centre overlooking the retreat, it is a paradise which craves to be explored, but is still determined not to be exploited.

THE VIEW: Idyllic Caribbean beaches with stark-clear water and sand as white and fine as grinded sugar; not one, not two, but Caneel Bay boasts of seven of such private heavens. Heady rum-tasting, underwater slide show, tennis, fitness centre, windsurfing, scuba clinic, Sunfish sailboats and kayaks; there are enough activities to help you completely forget about your monotonous lives.

ARCHI TYPE: Just a short stroll from the beach, are the pleasantly strewn rooms throughout the resort. Natural wood and native stone form the structures while hand-crafted furniture and richly woven fabrics lend more warmth to the ambience. Celebrities wishing to escape the paparazzi (including Brangelina, Angelina Jolie-Brad Pitt) often book Rockefeller's private beach house, Cottage 7. Air-conditioning and ceiling fans are standard for all rooms, but are free from telephones, televisions and other modern-day diversions.

BON APPÉTIT: Surrender to innovative American cuisine against a breathtaking view at Caneel’s classy Turtle Bay Estate House, or a fixed, seven-course menu highlighting selections from their wine collection in the Wine Room. A more laid back place, called the Equator restaurant, is situated amongst the stone and coral ruins of an 18th-century sugar mill, which specialises in fresh seafood and grilled meats.
 

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

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Tuesday, December 04, 2012

MNCS: INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS, POLLUTION, AND MONEY POWER

MNCs are hailed as national treasures in some countries; but their devil-may-care attitude results in many tragedies – both industrial and health – making them reasons for global shame

And when some 200 women protested against Dow for its meagre response and for not really taking any proactive mechanisms to clean up the area stacked with dangerous toxic waste which spreads many gas related diseases in the small town Bhopal, Dow sued them in return for raising voice against the company using it’s political, monetary and muscle power. When an explosion and fire ruined a fireworks factory belonging to Bright Sparkles Sdn.

Bhd. at Sungai Buloh, Malaysia in 1991, causing 22 deaths and injuring 103, Bright Sparkles remained lukewarm in helping victims and their families and compensating the environmental damages it has caused. The lethal leak of phosgene gas in a Thai petrochemical company, Thai Polycarbonate Co., which killed only one but injured over hundreds, evoked almost no unified response, despite shocking proof being there of repeated calls earlier on warning of a possible leak. And the fiery explosion at one of the largest oil refineries of British Petroleum in Texas City in 2005, is another example of such unabashed irresponsibility. Well, BP has had a sparkling record of fatal accidents for the last few decades. Honourably so, it is the eighth largest polluter in the US, releasing over 5.1 million tonnes of pollutants with many harmful toxic gases like carcinogens, causing serious health ill-effects to 30,000 people living within three mile radius of its units. But while FBI investigation and imposition of new laws and fines continues, BP operates mercifully at worse levels.

On another front, Nigeria has redefined corporate social irresponsibility. Companies like Shell, ExxonMobil and Chevron are reaping off the nation’s oil industry but continue showing deliberate negligence to protecting the environment, human life and the locality which have been affected by the gas leakage and flares in their plants or refineries.

Protocols like the Kyoto one are more stupidly chivalrous rather than being autocratically (and logically) regulatory. International agencies have to necessarily regulate MNCs with an iron hand, than play to the lobby gallery.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

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Monday, December 03, 2012

ECONOMIC CRISIS: CEOS

US CEOs face uncertain times, & it's not just their companies that worry them

Tumultuous economic conditions in US and across the globe (including Japan, Italy & Germany) have forced leaders to face tough questions on their companies. More alarmingly, there are questions that also relate to themselves that need answers today. Do they really deserve to be the chieftains of the drivers of world economy? And most importantly, do they deserve humongous compensations for ruining, oops, running their companies?

There is another hammer coming their way after Sarbanes Oxley. The $700 billion federal bailout recently passed by the US Senate put light on executive pays various company heads were receiving. And responding to the protests and angst of investors and tax payers, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson was forced to attach the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act 2008, to the bailout plan, which puts limits on the compensations that company heads have been getting for all this while. And now the top-honchos better watch out, for if they don’t perform, their compensations can definitely fall down. Add to this the backing and support from President-elect Barack Obama on the ‘Say-on-pay’ bill; top American corporate leaders have all the reasons to get jittery.

Let''s take the case of Citigroup. Vikram Pandit recently exploded by announcing a lay-off of 52,000 employees. Did Pandit have no other option in hand while dealing with the issue? Bart Narter, Senior VP, Banking Group, Celent told B&E, “Citi, faced with growing losses and declining confidence in the future of the bank, had few choices: take money from the government, shrink, cut dividends, cut heads, et al; their answer was all of the above.” Narter goes on to add, “(At the back of the economic downturn), compensation will go down at the top level and everywhere else too. It will be more closely tied to performance. Also stock options in a down market have little value.” Pundit, who currently draws a compensation of $250,000 along with other long term compensation of $323,813 (Business Week), is now facing the wrath of stake holders (see related story on Page 36). The question being asked is, "What is the point in getting such a hefty package if you cannot lead a company ably?"

Another perfect example of a leader who brought his company to the docks is Jerry Yang of Yahoo! (ironically also one of the founders). After cruelly crumbling the hopes of the company by failing to seal a deal with both Google and Microsoft, Yang, ''fazed'' by criticism, decided to step down. And during his reign at the online major, he drew a total compensation of $688,242 (Forbes). Such is the condition of Yahoo! that now that the Yang has quit the company, the board at Yahoo! will again go back to Microsoft, who will now lay its own terms and conditions.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

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Saturday, December 01, 2012

India's Calling

With movies like The Darjeeling Limited and Slumdog Millionaire acknowledging India as a subject for international cinema, is India the next Africa for Hollywood?

For generations, Bollywood was considered as the humble cousin of Hollywood, with nothing original about it. Scripts, dialogues, scenes – everything would be ‘inspired’ from English movies frame by frame. However, not many know that the Hindi film industry came into existence with a short film in 1899, some 11 years before Hollywood’s first biography melodrama in 1910. Raja Harishchandra, the first silent feature film, directed by Dadabhai Phalke, followed in the year 1913. The first Indian musical talkie Alam Ara was released in 1931 and from those days till today in 2008, the Hindi film industry has grown from releasing a mere 200 films per year to around 1,000 films, and has now a worldwide audience of three billion. Hollywood, meanwhile, still produces 500 films per annum and has an audience of 2.6 billion around the world. So, could anyone consider the Hindi film industry a poor cousin of Hollywood even to this day?

Times surely have changed, and movies symbolic of this shift includes the film winning great reviews at international film festivals these days, Slumdog Millionaire. Directed by English director Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire has Indian actors and also has India as the backdrop. India, often referred to as the land of the snake charmers, has charmed and intrigued international audiences not only for the ‘Indian rope trick’ but even for its lifestyle and culture. Despite having a mass reach and being the largest film producer in India and one of the largest in the world, the Hindi film industry was not acknowledged only until recently. Hollywood, which is known to have people from different ethnicities and cultures, didn’t have too many Indians in their movies.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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