Success in my Habit

Monday, January 10, 2011

iGate acquires majority stake in Patni Computer for USD1.22 bn

Bangalore, Jan 10 (PTI) US-based iGate today said it has acquired nearly 63 per cent stake in country''s sixth largest IT firm Patni Computer Systems for USD 1. 22 billion.

iGate will buy 45.6 per cent of the shares of the three founders of Patni -- Narendra Patni, Gajendra Patni and Ashok Patni-- along with the 17.4 per cent stake of private equity firm General Atlantic, iGate CEO Phaneesh Murthy told reporters here.

The transaction is valued at approximately USD 1.22 billion, including the mandatory 20 per cent open offer to be made to the public shareholders of Patni, he added.

The deal is expected to be completed in the first half of 2011, after acquiring all the regulatory approvals.

Shares of Patni Computer were trading at about Rs 466.80, up 1.46 per cent on the Bombay Stock Exchange

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Happy and Healthy New Year T11 ( 2011 ) & Winning Formula

Dear Think Tank,

Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart ( The World's No.1 Retailer with Sales of $405.61 Billion per Year) grew up poor during the Great Depression(1930’s) , yet rose to start the biggest retail store Wal-Mart.

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Learn Sam Walton's winning formula :

Rule 1: Commit to your business / Job : Believe in it more than anybody else. I think I overcame every single one of my personal shortcomings by the sheer passion I brought to my work. I don't know if you're born with this kind of passion, or if you can learn it. But I do know you need it. If you love your work, you'll be out there every day trying to do it the best you possibly can, and pretty soon everybody around will catch the passion from you — like a fever.

Rule 2: Share your profits/Benefits with all your associates, and treat them as partners. In turn, they will treat you as a partner, and together you will all perform beyond your wildest expectations. Remain a corporation and retain control if you like, but behave as a servant leader in your partnership. Encourage your associates to hold a stake in the company. Offer discounted stock, and grant them stock for their retirement. It's the single best thing we ever did.

Rule 3: Motivate your all Your associates. Money and ownership alone aren't enough. Constantly, day by day, think of new and more interesting ways to motivate and challenge your associates. Set high goals, encourage competition, and then keep score. Make bets with outrageous payoffs. If things get stale, cross-pollinate; have managers switch jobs with one another to stay challenged. Keep everybody guessing as to what your next trick is going to be. Don't become too predictable.

Rule 4: Communicate everything you possibly can to your associates.. The more they know, the more they'll understand. The more they understand, the more they'll care. Once they care, there's no stopping them. If you don't trust your associates to know what's going on, they'll know you really don't consider them partners. Information is power, and the gain you get from empowering your associates more than offsets the risk of informing your competitors.

Rule 5: Appreciate everything your associates do for the business/Job. A paycheck and a stock option will buy one kind of loyalty. But all of us like to be told how much somebody appreciates what we do for them. We like to hear it often, and especially when we have done something we're really proud of. Nothing else can quite substitute for a few well-chosen, well-timed, sincere words of praise. They're absolutely free — and worth a fortune.

Rule 6: Celebrate your success. Find some humor in your failures. Don't take yourself so seriously. Loosen up, and everybody around you will loosen up. Have fun. Show enthusiasm — always. When all else fails, put on a costume and sing a silly song. Then make everybody else sing with you. Don't do a hula on Wall Street. It's been done. Think up your own stunt. All of this is more important, and more fun, than you think, and it really fools competition. "Why should we take those cornballs at Wal-Mart seriously?"

Rule 7: Listen to everyone in your company and figure out ways to get them talking. The folks on the front lines — the ones who actually talk to the customer — are the only ones who really know what's going on out there. You'd better find out what they know. This really is what total quality is all about. To push responsibility down in your organization, and to force good ideas to bubble up within it, you must listen to what your associates are trying to tell you.

Rule 8: Exceed your customer's expectations. If you do, they'll come back over and over. Give them what they want — and a little more. Let them know you appreciate them. Make good on all your mistakes, and don't make excuses — apologize. Stand behind everything you do. The two most important words I ever wrote were on that first Wal-Mart sign: "Satisfaction Guaranteed." They're still up there, and they have made all the difference.

Rule 9: Control your expenses better than your competition. This is where you can always find the competitive advantage. For twenty-five years running — long before Wal-Mart was known as the nation's largest retailer — we've ranked No. 1 in our industry for the lowest ratio of expenses to sales. You can make a lot of different mistakes and still recover if you run an efficient operation. Or you can be brilliant and still go out of business if you're too inefficient.

Rule 10: Swim upstream. Go the other way. Ignore the conventional wisdom. If everybody else is doing it one way, there's a good chance you can find your niche by going in exactly the opposite direction. But be prepared for a lot of folks to wave you down and tell you you're headed the wrong way. I guess in all my years, what I heard more often than anything was: a town of less than 50,000 population cannot support a discount store for very long.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Tata Motors sales rise 31% in December, sells 5784 units of Nano


NEW DELHI: Automaker Tata Motors today reported 30.63 per cent increase in its December sales last year at 67,441 units sold as compared to 51,627 units sold in the same month in 2009.

The homegrown firm's total passenger vehicles sales in the domestic market in December 2010 stood at 19,706 units, which is a jump of 34.48 per cent from the same month previous year, the company said in a statement.

The company's latest offering Nano's sales during the month stood at 5,784 units, up by 60 per cent.

'Indica' reported sales of 5,923 units, which is 40 per cent up from the units sold in December 2009, Tata Motors said.

'Indigo' family recorded sales of 5,234 units, a rise of 3 per cent over the same month in the previous year. Sales of 'Sumo' and 'Safari' increased by 62 per cent to 2,765 units.

In the domestic commercial vehicles segment, the company sales increased by 25.08 per cent, as it sold 41,926 units last month compared with 33,519 units sold in December during 2009.

Light commercial vehicles' sales during the month were at 24,558 units, a growth of 35 per cent over the previous year, while medium and heavy commercial vehicle sales stood at 17,368 units, a growth of 14 per cent compared with the year-ago period.

The company exports grew by 69.18 per cent to 5,809 units sold last month compared to 3,454 units sold in December 2009.

Govt collects Rs 73.73 cr as penalty from new telcos

NEW DELHI: The government has collected Rs 73.73 crore as penalty from new telecom operators for missing the network roll-out deadline, but is still keeping open the option of cancelling the licences.

"Total penalty is about Rs 219 crore for missing roll-out obligations. We had generated demand for over Rs 78 crore of which the operators have submitted Rs 73.73 crore," Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal told reporters here.

Etisalat DB, Loop Telecom, Uninor, Sistema-Shyam and Aircel are among the operators who have submitted the liquidated damages (penalty), the minister said, adding that more notices are going to operators.

Asked whether the matter would end with the payment of penalty or licences could still be cancelled, Sibal said: "A decision will be taken after due consideration."

Etisalat DB Telecom, a Joint Venture between realty major Swan and UAE-based Etisalat, has paid Rs 9.9 crore for missing roll-out deadline in four circles. The company, however, stated that it was paying the penalty "under protest."

Uninor, a joint venture between another realty player Unitech and Telenor of Norway, has also made payment but did not disclose the amount of penalty.

Uninor had said that various factors, including delay in clearances required for each site, new last minute pre-launch testing requirements and new equipment security clearance processes, came in the way of roll-out and were beyond the company's control.

Sistema-Shyam, a CDMA mobile operator, has also paid about Rs 11 crore to the Department of Telecom (DoT) towards missing the roll-out obligations.

All operators are given 15-days time to respond to DoT's notice for paying penalty. The DoT is hoping to get more money in the next few days when the 15-day period would lapse in the case of other service providers.

As per the conditions of licence, the licencees are required to roll out the services in 90 per cent of the service area in metros and 10 per cent in district headquarters within 12 months from the date of award of licences.

Total penalty cannot exceed Rs 7 crore per licensing area and the telecom companies get 52 weeks before their licences are cancelled

Carrefour enters India; opens first cash-and-carry store


NEW DELHI: The world's second-largest retailer, Carrefour, today announced that it has opened its first 'cash-and-carry' outlet in the country in New Delhi.

"The opening of this first store marks Carrefour's entry into the Indian market and will be followed shortly by the opening of other cash-and-carry stores," Carrefour CEO Lars Olofsson said in a statement.

Carrefour has made its intent to enter the multi-brand retail segment in the country known and is understood to be at an advanced stage of talks with home-grown retail giant, Future Group .

However, the existing policy of the Indian government does not permit FDI in multi-brand retail, as it is feared that traditional kirana ('mom-and-pop') outlets would be wiped out.

Nevertheless, it is understood the two companies could sign a deal as early as next year for a partnership in India.

Olafsson said opening of the first store was essential to allow Carrefour's teams to fully understand the modalities of doing business in the India market before building the company's presence in other formats. The company however, did not disclose investment details.

The new store -- Carrefour Wholesale Cash&Carry -- in Seelampur area of New Delhi is spread across 5,200 square meter and will house over 10,000 stock-keeping units to cater to professional businesses, institutions, restaurants and local retailers.

Since the FDI policy in India does not allow foreign companies to open multi-brand retail stores in the country, global retailers have opted for the cash-and-carry route to establish their presence here.

India currently allows 51 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in single-brand retail and 100 per cent in the cash-and-carry segment, but none in multi-brand retail.

The world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart, announced a joint venture with Bharti Enterprises in 2007 and set up the 'Best Price Modern Wholesale' cash-and-carry store in Amritsar in May, 2009.

The Bharti Wal-Mart joint venture operates four such stores in Amritsar, Zirakpur, Jalandhar and Kota and is expected to open up to 15 more wholesale cash-and-carry stores over the next three years.

German company Metro made an entry into the India market even earlier, in 2003. It currently operates six cash-and-carry stores in Hyderabad, Bangalore, Mumbai and Koltata.

Even Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd's retail arm, Reliance Retail , is understood to be chalking out plans to enter the cash-and-carry business by opening at least three outlets next year

Sibal announces additional 200,000 engineering seats

NEW DELHI: In a pleasant surprise for students, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal Thursday announced an increase of almost 200,000 seats in engineering courses in India.

As part of reforms in All India Council for Technical Education ( AICTE )) norms, the minister also announced additional 80,000 seats in management and 2,200 seats in architecture courses.

The norms for land requirement for engineering colleges were also liberalised, with Sibal saying that lesser space will be needed for establishing technical institutes.

While an engineering college in rural India will need 10 acres of land, just 2.5 acres of land will be needed in urban areas.

FICCI demands delay in implementation of IFRS


NEW DELHI: Industry body FICCI has asked the government to delay implementation of international accounting norms, IFRS, beyond April 2011, saying the deadline is "highly unworkable" and "unfair".

In a representation to the Corporate Affairs Ministry , FICCI has said that the transition should be brought in when companies are better equipped to deal with the new envisaged accounting concepts and standards.

"Industry (should) be provided at least one year's preparatory time from the date when the harmonised, notified and legislated converged accounting standards and other related matters are in place," FICCI said.

It pointed out that at the current juncture, global standards themselves are up for revision.

Listing the changes, FICCI said that financial instruments, like derivatives, loans, and investments, accounting and reporting framework, accounting for income taxes, revenue recognition, and accounting for employee benefits, are undergoing a major revamp.

FICCI noted that the new Companies Bill is pending finalisation, and so is the Draft Tax Code.

Further, it said that there seems to be some thinking on asking companies to prepare dual set of financial statements, one as per erstwhile Indian GAAP and another as per IFRS.

"This would lead to immense confusion and increase the hardship and cost for these companies," it said.

According to the roadmap laid out by the MCA , companies with a networth of over Rs 1,000 crore will have to prepare their account books as per the IFRS by April 2011.

Further, while scheduled commercial banks and urban cooperative banks will adopt it from April 1, 2013, all insurance companies will convert their opening balance sheets with IFRS from April 2012, while large listed non-banking finance companies (NBFCs), will converge their opening books of accounts with IFRS norms from April 1, 2013.

Lakshya Media bags ad rights at Delhi Airport's T3

NEW DELHI: A private media organisation, which owns exclusive advertising rights at airports in Colombo and Hyderabad , has been awarded these rights at the new Terminal-3 at Delhi airport .

Laqshya Media has been granted rights for promotions at T3, which is the eighth largest airport terminal of the world, a company statement said here.

It quoted company CEO Indrajit Sen as saying that the Laqshya Media understood how flyers move through airport networks and the advertising they engage with.

"Having profiled distinct flyer groups to identify mood, mindset, activities, dwell time and media engagement, we will provide advertisers with highly targeted opportunities".

The marketing campaigns will primarily target business travellers and professionals by engaging them at a time and place where they have the time to truly experience the product, Sen said.

T3 has outlets of most of the leading global luxury brands in its 20,000 square feet duty-free area, selling a wide range of items -- from chocolates and confectionery to liquor, tobacco, confectionery, perfumes, cosmetics and destination products.

Laqshya owns exclusive advertising rights at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad) and the Bandaranaike International Airport at Colombo, the statement added.

BHEL eyes overseas markets for exports


TIRUCHIRAPALLI: PSU power equipment manufacturer BHEL is eyeing overseas markets for exports, a top company official today said.

"BHEL is looking at the markets of South Africa, Zambia, Belarus, Indonesia, Libya and Bangladesh", Executive Director of BHEL Trichy Complex A V Krishnan told reporters here.

"We have participated in the tenders," he said, adding that Indonesia was a big market.

To a query, he said that BHEL was looking at inorganic and organic growth.

"We do not want to enter into any JV with any other company for boiler manufacturing," he said.

Krishnan said that the Trichy complex of BHEL, which manufactures boilers, was eyeing a turnover of Rs 12,765 crore during the current fiscal, and Rs 16,000 crore by 2011-12.

He said that BHEL's Trichy complex was currently undergoing a capital expenditure of Rs 750 crore.

Krishnan said that the third boiler unit would be ready by March 2012, adding that annual capacity would rise to 15,000 MW at Trichy from 10,000 MW at present.

Overall, BHEL's total annual capacity would rise to 20,000 MW by 2012, the balance 5000 MW of which would come from solar, hydel, and nuclear. Besides this, BHEL was also coming up with a new piping plant at Thirumiyam near Trichy and upgrading its steel tube manufacturing plant.

Krishnan said that BHEL was also outsourcing some components to reduce costs and importing non-critical items from China

L&T's subsidiary bags Rs.2,503 crore-worth orders


NEW DELHI: Construction and engineering major Larsen & Toubro's (L&T) subsidiary Electrical and Gulf Projects Operating Company has bagged orders worth Rs.2,503 crore for transmission, substation and railway construction projects during the third quarter of 2010-11.

"Electrical & Gulf Projects Operating Company (E&GP OC) has secured orders aggregating to Rs.2,503 crore from transmission, substation and railway construction projects in the domestic and international markets during the third quarter of 2010-11," the company said in a regulatory filling.

According to the filling, the company secured orders worth Rs.1,516 crore in the domestic markets, which included projects for laying down of transmission lines, manufacturing of electrical equipment used in energy generation and railway construction activity.

The company's international segment bagged Rs.987 crore in the middle east region for seven substation projects and 153 km of transmission line projects.

The company's shares closed at Rs.1,979.05 at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), 0.35 per cent higher than Thursday