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For most companies, people costs would be the single largest expense. No amount of automation or systems can remove the need for people in any organization – it can reduce but not remove completely. Why does a person in a similar role outperform the others? Why are some people good team players and some individual contributors? How do organizations decide what makes good managers and further on good leaders? How well do organizations truly understand what drives performance? Why certain leaders thrive and others flame out? Can we accurately predict whether a candidate will really do well in our organization? The answer to most of these questions is ‘don’t know’. Most recruitment, performance and rewards decisions are made qualitatively – through a combination of gut feel, personal experience, and corporate belief systems. The time has come to reduce the subjectivity. This calls for scientifically designed systems and processes backed by information & knowledge. In today’s

At around $350 billion, India is in the top grocery markets of the world.  This is approximately 70% of the Indian retail business which is around $500 billion. Modern retail accounts for 10 - 20% of this pie.  E-commerce or hyperlocals are obviously a tiny part of the pie just yet. Most companies, therefore, are still at a stage where they have to prove their business models and change consumer behaviour. These type of businesses are expected to reach around 2% of the grocery market by 2020, creating a potential market size of around $10 billion (Rs 60,000 crore). The hyperlocal on demand grocery has mainly two models - a) A large player like Big Basket offering localised services. Inventory is carried by the company. b) An aggregator using the local retailers to source products and handling the delivery c) An aggregator using local retailers to stock and deliver It is a no-brainer that an aggregation model, as it is asset-light, is less capital-intensive than the inventory-

The 'hot' business till a year ago is seemingly ' hot to handle' now. There is a pervading sense of fear exacerbated by the closure some famous start ups in food delivery business. However, the naysayers will not question the potential in food delivery- The organised food business in India is worth $48 billion, or Rs 3 lakh crore, of which food delivery is valued at $15 billion (Rs 94,755 crore). In developed nations, takeaway and home delivery contributes to about 35% of the food business. In India only about 10% of the orders are for takeaway and home delivery. Furthermore, 80% of the orders are made through phone calls.  Eateries like Dominos, Pizza Hut etc. alone get 50-60% of their sales through eCommerce.  At last count there were around 120 start ups in this space, all jostling for the same customer in the same areas.  Given the low entry barriers and healthy wallets of investors start ups have mushroomed. That is reason enough to

There has been a lot off buzz when India Post collected Rs 280 crores through Cash On Delivery (COD) for e-commerce firms in the last year. While this surely something to crow about, this is just a small drop in the ocean. However this perhaps assumes much more significance on the way forward for the organization. To give an introduction - India Post has about 1.55+ lakh post offices of which 90% are in the rural areas, making it the world's largest postal network. On an average, a post office serves 21.21 sq. km area and about 7,175 people. It also has cash handling services like core banking solutions, money transfer and a robust account system. Apart from this it has insurance and other services. India is at the cusp of the ecommerce wave.  The e-commerce business in India was about $ 6 billion (approx. Rs. 37,344 crores) in 2012 and is expected to touch $76 billion (roughly Rs. 4,73,024 crores) by 2021 of which distribution, delivery and logistics constitutes around 12 per

This note was a very personal one when we completed a milestone of completing 20 years of our married life together. 7300 days ago, we had a traditional Malayali wedding in Trichur, Kerala. My grandmother (bless her), till her death insisted till that it was only because of her that we got married – (she got her thrills from it) – after all I was a favourite grandson (did I say only too?) and Latha was her only grand-daughter in law. Latha is the scheming sort. Pretty soon she warmed her way into the h earts of my relatives. Infact she knew more of them than I did. They would rather talk to her than me. Forget relatives, she managed to swing my father her way. He actually thought that he had a great daughter in law much better than his own son! Poor me! We are very different persons. I am the impatient one and Latha is just the opposite. My idea of a great time is to relax and chill, her idea of a great time is some action. She loves to party and I love to be at home and

An $8.8 billion write-down of its latest acquisition - Autonomy seems to be the latest mishap in the HP saga. And with it comes proof that HP has been following a path which is heading south. From the exciting times of Lewis Platt and John Young to the bleaker times started by Carly Fiorina, HP has lurched from disaster to disaster. And the list looks endless. Fiorina decided to move to reorient the company to a marketer of computer equipment and enterprise systems. Her acquisition of Compaq Computer so that HP- Compaq would be the leader in low-cost personal computers was a disaster.  She tried to focus simultaneously on high-end enterprise systems. Luckily or unluckily she had bid for the business consulting practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers, but lost to IBM.  NCR's Mark Hurd followed her and appeared to appeal to the stock market. The efficiency expert, he focused on short term sales growth and cost reduction, doubling the company’s earnings and stock price. Hi