Death and Taxes !!!

"Nothing is certain but death and taxes"
Whoever said that, was spot on. ( Was it Benjamin franklin or another line from 'Meet Joe Black' ! )

death: too early to talk about
taxes: i am forced to blog on
Why,because every tuesday is the 'taxing' day at spjain ,we have an exam on some freakin tax : CST,VAT,CENVAT,Service tax etc and a marathon session by one of our industry faculty, again on taxes.
I sincerely hope that one day India will have just single value added taxe system - VAT, and the plight of students is eased.That would be a great news for corporates and even greater news for future MBA students with just one exam.But i guess till then , its our burden to carry on the counter attacks tuesday after tuesday after tuesday ...

There is always another option ,just do your MBA from SP Jain,Dubai campus ,hola !,Welcome to mid-east ,no taxes :)))

Bunch of 1 liners

Some one-liners i've been collecting:

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
--Mahatma Gandhi

"Nothing in the affairs of men is worthy of great anxiety." - Plato

Keynes didn't say that.

"Nobody can hurt me without my permission."
-M.K. Gandhi

The government was set to protect man from criminals and the Constitution was
written to protect man from government." Ayn Rand
Chelsea Coach Jose Mourinho on semi final champions league vs Liverpool for european
soccer fans) : "I have never lost a semi final" = result Chelsea lost tonight! bravo
Liverpool

When citizens fear the government we have a dictatorship; when the government fears the
people we have liberty." Thomas Jefferson

"In a democracy, the majority of the people are able to enforce the most cruel
repression against the minority." Edmund Burke

"A communist is a socialist who is in a hurry." G.W. Gouch

"Our primary purpose in life is to help other people. Or at least not hurt them." - the Dalai Lama

War against time : How do the dabbahwalahs do it ?

Individual Dabbahwalhs Workload

Collect tiffins from home

Belief : Work is worship
Tiffin Basket's weight : 55- 60 kg

Dabbawlahs us the good compartment of train
Our lifeline is the local train network
0% fuel
0% investment
0% tech
100 % cust satisfaction
0% disputes
99.999999 % performance


CODING SYSTEM
Say, VLP 9 EX12 E3 Dsouza on the box

VLP: Vile Parle ,a Suburh name in Mumbai
9EX12: Destination Code
EX : Express towers - building name
12: floor no
E: Code for dabbahwalah at residnetial station
3: code for destiantion station
Dsouza: Name of customer

Each grp is given a color code

Dabbawalahs on Campus : Logistics innovation for enhancing supply chain effectiveness

"I got call saying that 'Prince of London' wants to meet you,we told the phone caller with respect, if he can meet us at the churchgate railways station at 11:30 AM ,for us our customer is the prince ,we can meet him if he comes there..."

That was the president of Dabbah walah speaking

Am sure we all know of the famed Dabbahwalahs of Mumbai.Here am blogging from a guest lecture by Mr.Raghunath Medge , President of Dubbawaala Association.
The topic "Logistics innovation for enhancing supply chain effectiveness "
The lecture is must-attend for Operations majors ,but looks like i see more of Info Mgmt and Marketing majors around.

Their claim to fame
Name in Guiness books of world records
Best time mgmt with Six Sigma rating
Regd with " Ripley's believe it or not"
Prince Charles visit to Dabbahwallas of Mumbai
Richard branson travelled in the luggage compartment
Dozens of documentaries made by : BBC ,UTV, MTV, ZEE TV, AAJ TAK, TV TODAY, SAHARA SAMAY, STAR TV, CNBC TV 18, CNN, SONY TV, TV TOKYO, NDTV
Case studies by: ICFAI Press Hyderabad & Banglore,Richard Ivey School of Business - Canada

Some qwik infobits translated:
Name: Mumbai Jeevan Dabbe Bahatruk Mandal / Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Aassociation
History: Started in 1890
Trust: regd in 1956
Avg literacy rate: 8th grade schooling
Total Area covered: Upto 70 Sqkm lengthwise
Nof Of Tiffin boxes delivered: 2,00,000 tiffin boxes
i.e 4,00,000 transactions every day
No of employees: 5000
Time taken for entire operation : 3hrs per day


Mr Megde enters the room and everyone welcomes him in a thumping welcome.The last time i heard such an applause was for Kiran Bedi.He speaks in hindi.


In his own words
"
The employees are mostly illiterate ,forget ven english.
The only way we can make the system ticking is through coordination and unity
The trouble with educated people is they waste time on "what is this" & "what is that"
Each employee carries 40 boxes ,so total 5000 x 40 = 2,00,000
The pickup is as important as delivery,the empty box should come back home
Each employee is given identity card

Org Structure - every org should have it
President
VP
Gen Sec
Treasurer
Director(s)
MUKADAM(Supervisors)
Members ( 5000 employees)


Error Rate: 1 in 16 million transactions
Six Sigma Performance ( 99.999999 % )

Technology Backup : Nil
Cost of service : Rs 300/month
Std price for all ( weight,dist,space)
Rs 36,0,00,000 per annum = 6000x12x5000
"No strike" record as each one a shareholder
Earnings / employee : Rs 5000 - 6000 p.m.
Diwali(festival) Bonus: 1 month's from Customer

It all started with some people visited me in 2001,they mentioned am from Delhi from CK Prahlad
I asked them i dont know him ,who is he ?
They replied ,he is a guru.
I said "oh!"

We've come to do research on your operations
Each one of the research students were allowed to accompany an employee ,morning from 8:30 AM til the end of day,for four days

Couple of days later ,Times Of India carried anews item showing Indian president and CK Prahlad mentioned the uniqueness of the service

The students came back and took us to Delhi and we were given a certificate saying that we got six-sigma
Now what is six-sigma we asked ourselves

I asked them who else got this 6-sigma.They replied "motorola","wipro" etc

We haven't used any technology ,some corporate gave us two PC's ,they are lying in a corner

We verify if the tiffin box is enough for a person i.e. is it too heavy

My principle is ,never beg from anyone,just live happily with whatever you can earn

Discipline is important : if you are educated or uneducated like us

80 % of us are vegetaians ,most of us don't drink
A fine of 100o Rs if employee drinks ,3 times and he is removed from service
One person spoils the entire group
Not a single police case on any of our members
Rs 25 fine for not sticking to dress code

Additional serivce we offer : we distribute pamphlets along with the "Dabba"


Jai Hind! Jai Maharashtra !
"
what can i say : humble,honest,frank

Sensex blues hits campus

We have a medium sized investor gang in campus (including myself) and the mood swings of this group is usually linked to the sensex movement. One day sensex hits high and everyone's happy,sharing tips ,comparing profits,buying penny stocks and the next day there is a plunge ,and the group is in a daze with a touch of disbelief on faces.Its funny that all those sessions on Eff. market hypothesis don't matter once the bombay stock exchange bell rings.Its all down to trading,churning and burning fingers :)

It probably started off with a very small group who were investing before they came to bschool ,while they were still working in previous companies.After one year the tribe has increased ,the complexity of the transactions too with guys jumping into futures and options trading.

donkeys dont eat mangoes !!!

Its been a season of mangoes for me ,right from choice of summer project to 'solar dried mango bar ' business plan for livelihood program in my summer project and the quantities of ratnagiri alphonsos i devour every day in bombay.

Lets say the driving reasons to do my summers at byrraju foundation were : the unique rural transformation strategy of the foundation ,stay@home,happening highderabad and chance to eat some of the best mangoes.My last four summers were spent outside hyderabad and here was my chance to cover up .

One of my summer projects was a business plan on making mango bars in an energy-efficient way using forced circulation solar dryer technology.

Am back in bombay after my summer project ,but looks like the mango madness continues ,i just re-discovered the ratngiri alphonso ,considered the best variety among mangoes.

and yes i owe you guys some explanation on the title ;well, the story goes like this:
One of Mirza Ghalib’s friends Hakim Razi did not share mirza's fondness for the mango. One day Razi ud-Din was sitting in the verandah of mirza’s house when razi passed by in the lane driving a donkey. There were some mango skins lying in the road, but the donkey just sniffed at them and passed on. “u see” said Razi “even donkeys dont eat mangoes”. “Of course” replied Ghalib “donkeys dont eat them!”

Trendz 2010

Our prof for enterprise system arch, shared some of the findings from Gartner's business trends 2010

By 2010 the number of IT staff in the profession will drop by 15 percent

IT pros need expertise in multiple domains

Versataiity, cultural issues, regulatory env are some of the issues IS pros will grapple with

6/10 people affiliated with the IS organisation will assume business-facing roles.

IS professionals and leaders will have to choose between careers as technologists, technical managers and business professionals.

Choice of three potential routes before IS leaders / CIOs

Business Change Agent

IT Services Broker

IT Utility

Four domains for IT Pros

1. Tech
2. Info
3. Process
4. Relationship

The future IT landscape comprises of

• Consumer IT
• Biz Process Reconfig
• Automation
• Global Sourcing