Sunday Posts

Argos - the leading British retailer - has now decided to exit India. Argos had a limited presence in India, six shops in Mumbai suburbs. In fact, many people did not even know that Argos had a presence in India, and their decision to exit will go largely unnoticed. However, there is some significance of this announcement for the British businesses looking to go into India. The conventional wisdom is that Argos is following the path of other British retailers, who are closing down underperforming operations abroad to focus on home operations in this troubled times. Tesco has decided to go slow on its United States expansion and Marks & Spencer is having trouble in China. DSG is pulling the plug on its slow moving Italian operation and trying to concentrate back at home. Argos' decision to exit India, which will mean 'single digit' million pound loss for the chain's owner, Home Retail group, will largely be seen in the light of these experiences. However, with a clos...

I have not seen Slumdog Millionaire, but I am already being compelled to comment on it. This is because it seems to be such a decent movie, but the critics are after it already. It seems to have shown India as a Third World Underbelly - which Amitabh Bachchan quoted , unquestioningly as he does, on his blog. This is already making a quite a bit of noise everywhere, and as you can see, I picked this up on facebook. This post isn't about the movie, obviously. I haven't even seen it. But this is about this particular line of criticism, which we have heard before - almost every time a good movie was made about India. What we seem to love is Ghajini, obviously, one that allows us to keep forgetting things. We love the fantasy of Lagaan, the comedy of Singh is King and all the impossible sets and incredible dresses. We love those soaps where people have sanskritized names, sleep with party dresses on and behave like animals as far as their conjugal lives are concerned. I saw Indians ...

I am still struggling - there are far too many things to complete before I go again, and it is only 36 hours away. My fault, surely - I am trying to live as normal a life as possible, when I am travelling three weeks a month. When today the electrical connections went down, I thought I sort of reached a nadir - but then that's the time you start picking yourself up and see what you can do. That's what I have done yet again - the last 10 days was extremely difficult, my car's frozen, all the regular payments due, my expense claims not filed, my computer crashing, my email account out, and now electricity - but then I think that's all and wondering what else can go wrong. The bottom, is the correct expression, so I am feeling optimistic yet again. I am still working on the Mumbai agreement. This is one thing about India, negotiations never stop. I am sure some people believe that this is the best way to get value, but definitely not in my view. I am actually getting an in...

I got used to the greeting - Happy Republic Day. This is a new trend, I would not recall being greeted with this ten years back, but something has caught on since then. I would be tempted to think that we Indians have become more conscious about the republic, but may not be so - it is more like Happy Diwali and Happy New Year perhaps. However, as we return again to our Happy Republic Day, it is important to look back to ourselves, and also our constitution, that unusally long document which wanted to say what we ought to be. It was adopted by our leaders full of hope, who wanted to govern India as a modern country. They were ambitious, otherwise who will talk about universal adult suffarage in a country of millions of poor, landless and illiterate; they spoke about secularism in an ancient land, where daily lives are governed by traditions and beliefs; and they believed in socialism while the riches of the country was mostly concentrated. They wanted to forge an united identity, above ...

Jim Collins is researching how companies respond to downturns, and he speaks his mind in the current issue of Fortune . He is obviously researching great companies and he is looking at this with the perspective of History. Bad times? Jim Collins says this is going to stay, this is going to be the normal life. He points to Post-War period and wonders how the face-off between two nuclear empires actually gave us stability and a period of continuous prosperity. 'Danger, yes, but stability', to quote him. Surely it looks like that now - with the perspective of science - though it is funny to think what makes Cold War look like springtime. However, the key point is what, in Collins' opinion, makes great companies tick in a downturn. He points to two things - values and having great people on board. He talked about the examples of P&G, which never thought about cutting corners and undermined quality and customer service even in a downturn, and H&P, which never let go the ...

I spent the day - which was rainy and depressing - planning my trips and getting my bags packed, somewhat. This is a bit of an improvement, that I am thinking ahead about my travel plans and getting the bags ready. Usually, I always pack the bag last moment, often on the day of travel, and the travel plan remains up in the air. It still is, indeed. Though I have now put this neatly on Excel and got at least one round of air tickets, my travel plans have so many dependencies that it can change any time. I am increasingly aware that I need to have greater visibility of my work plans, and days like this, I solely attempt to achieve that. But I do think that I have spread myself too thin - and the fault is all mine - and paying the price for that. Steep price, I must add. My health is one. Besides, I, like other people, would love to stay home and know what I do tomorrow. Often, I don't. It feels like being up against the wall all the time. Once I am over with this current task, I shal...

My Saturday started as usual - late start, no breakfast, resolutions to complete but no progress and a purposeless visit to library - and at 5pm, looks like it will end as usual if I don't do something soon to change it. But, still, I shall pause for a moment to reflect on what's up next. I had a busy week, which ended somewhat satisfactorily. But I have been here before and took a break, only to see all the gains fritter away. So, not again, and work starts now, etc. But the most nagging thing is that I have to travel soon [which is not that bad] and I have mountains of work to complete, not least turning in my tax returns. The Inland Revenue seemed to have gone crazy and mandated that anyone filing their tax returns after 31st October will have to do so online. While they told me this clearly in advance and I can somewhat understand their logic of driving people to online filing, they have kept the process as complicated as before. Now I have to go and apply for an activation...