Abhay Bhattad

Well, I am always amazed by these 1 room, roadside banks in France…. This is a branch (agency; as they call it) of LCL (Le credit lyonnais: if I got it right) bank just down the road from my place. Accepted that it’s in a residential area, but still how lean can it be? And despite that, you can do almost everything in the branch may it be International wire transfers or opening an IBAN. To my amazement there are only 2 people working there and one of them is the branch manager. The other guy is a one stop shop for everything starting from exchanging Forex to learn signing a French chequebook (Yes, it’s different).  If you drop in to take a look into the branch manager’s area, she will offer you some chocolates and some help if you want....!  Atleast the branches I visited till now   have a bowl on the employees table’s filled with candies & chocolates and you can help yourself while the guy is stamping your tc’s.  I had heard a lot about French bure...

Offlate, has 'strategy' just become a synonym for 'important'? Why use the word everywhere? Is strategy a ' strategic' concept? The last question from the above 3 is the best example to show the kind of abuse the word 'strategy' is going through. If there would have been an award for 'most abused word on the globe', it must go to this word. The top boss in the corner office uses it because he is planning to expand in 'strategic' locations such as China & India. At the same time, his assistant uses it because he is fetching coffee for him at a ' strategic' time and from the new coffee house which recently opened at a ' strategic' location near the old cafeteria! Heck, why only in office-settings, but in other places as well where you don't expect this word to be used at all....! Last summer, during a visit to India, I noticed that people were discussing a hot topic in the small town :- A nearby Kiraana Stor...

I was just reflecting on some of my experiences of working with people of different nationalities. In the past few years during my employment, I got a chance to work with various people from around the world. I must have worked closely with atleast 15 nationalities until now. And this has been a real eye opener to the kind of cross cultural team issues which might face an organization. Even in daily life, its just so exciting to see the reactions of people from different nationalities & cultures on the same issue..... You can be almost sure that in a case team of 6 people with 6 nationalities; you will get radically different reactions on the same issue being handled. That's when we realise that 'Diversity' is not just a buzzword; you have to experience it to know its power. If you want to be a global organization, you need to have a diverse and global workforce: It's as simple as that! Just compiling a brief summary of what I observed. Some of...

The title sounds strange enough, but when you are subjected to a long movie, you ought to think of strange things. 3 hours gone but an important analogy made: Between Benjamin Button & the process of creating operational plans from strategic plans in order to execute your strategy! The film shows Brad Pitt being born as an old man and living his life growing younger. He relates events which for him had already happened. Now imagine you, as an org anization, are standing at the end of a long time line - you have already achieved your strategy. Imagine, how did you do it? What actions did you take? What resources did you secure and how you deployed them? Which products/markets/segments did you serve? How did you secure finance? What was the reaction of the market & shareholders? And many such questions depending on the industry. Ask these questions in a stepwise fashion starting from the end. What was the last significant thing you had to do just before reaching the goal. Put ...

Watched 'Swades' once more today.... What a movie..... what sensibilities... sheer heart-warmer! .... 'Yeh taara woh taara' , 'Yeh jo des hai tera....' These songs in particular are masterpieces. It's so touching..... Love it...!

McKinesy on Strategic Planning: 1° Creating prepared minds 2° Enabling creative accidents - Bottom up strategy experimentation - Top down strategic initiatives

Private equity firms will focus on turnarounds by buying distressed debt, file for protection from creditors under insolvency law, and lead a restructuring. Venture capitalists will historically invest in seed stage fundamentally strong businesses. PE's will change the existing management and hire either a consulting firm or their own team to act as top management in the interim. On the other hand, VC's obviously believe in the entrepreneurs whom they funded and hence they dont alter with the operating management but they generally sit on the boards of such firms. For the PE, an exit will generally mean appointing a permanent top management and either sell it completely or partially to achieve a target of anywhere from 15 to 80 percent returns. For the VC, an exit generally means taking the firm to a successful IPO and venture out with similar returns.

The day I landed in Paris was a very hectic one. I had a morning 6 o' clock flight from Mumbai and I hadnt slept almost the whole night before. Infact the situation was not too different from the time of the GMAT....... The exam preparation, exam, the app' ing, the calls, interviews, conversions, scholarships, edu loans, packing, forced shopping, resigning from TCS..... The process was already taking a toll on me. After finalising the packing until 3 AM, I still had an hour before I had to leave. I decided to use it productively by sleeping. I was also counting on the time during the journey to fullfill my quota of sleep. But I could barely sleep and the clock moved on. It was 04:30 already. In between cursing myself for careless-ness & checking the luggage for the last time, I hurried towards the airport. It was a boring flight with people asking for an exchange of seat citing the reason of their kids. The sight of a lady with 2/3 kids looking furiously for a potential hun...

Few years ago and until last year, it was the time of software engineers. Every Ram, Shyam and Ghanshyam in the neighourhood wanted to be a software engineer because of the attraction of high bucks  and trips abroad. These  Ghanshyams  didn’t know where their own mind or strength lies. They just felt happy to follow the aspirations of the herd. They spoke excitedly about latest trends in open source, neural networks and artificial intelligence. The wave was so intense in the period of 1998 that software engineers were seen as demigods. This phenomenon lasted quite long until 2005/06. Then the herd collectively changed its mind and thought that oh, actually finance is also a good profession, isn’t it? Now the same Ghanshyam in the neighbourhood started talking about balance sheets, hedge funds & private equity. He still didn’t know where his own mind or strength lies. He was again following the herd. It became muted after the GFC. Then it was the turn of Medicine ...