Me and my partner Samarjeet regularly discuss this...
I guess, upto a point it is diversification and beyond that it sounds like pure opportunism. It's like saying hey I have the money, I can win in anything. Are the rest of the players fools then, to loose to your 5% attention on 20 different businesses? ;-)
Point is, we feel business is not won because of the 20,000 employees working for you, but the top 4-5 main guys working for you and if you are doing too many things then the attention of the people who matter will be so much. So to counter it what do these ppl do? They buy people who matter. Problem with this is it is then they who run the company. Your value-add is limited. So if they are as good as you then all is fine. But if they were as good then in a capitalistic system, prey why are they not doing it themselves?
There's a difference ain't it? Between the Ambanis and these top people they buy? That's the point... :-) Saturday, June 30, 2007
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GDP growth and the caste conflict in India Two things have caught my attention recently.
One is the fact that India is growing ever more faster on GDP and market terms. We achieved 9.4% GDP growth, reached $1trillion in GDP and $1 trillion in combined stock exchange market caps! Phenomenal achievement. (Also read that Amartya Sen and team of others are going to put together an index of Happiness as opposed to GDP as a measure of stage of development a country is in. I am eagerly awaiting to read more on that front.)
The second portrays the other side of the reality in India. This occured when I opened up the Wall Street Journal at the Frankfurt Airport (was on my way back from San Jose after exhibiting for my company iksula at the IRCE 2007). The Top editorial was on the Gujjar violence in India. As I read it, it dawned on me that, interestingly, rarely has any community in India fought about not having enough schools or colleges nearby, leading to their children not getting the right institutions that could better their social status. Instead 60 years after Independence, we now have communities fighting to be included in a list that gives them the results of having better schools etc, straight away as a shortcut. I feel that this skewed incentive to communities needs to be corrected in some way, so that they fight for the fundamentals and not for the outcomes that come for free!!!
Meanwhile loads of things happening on the personal front and in my company iksula too. However I do not like opening up too much of my personal life through a blog and so as usual I continue to write about things in the domain of my non-personal thought.. :-) Sunday, June 10, 2007
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