The Sweet Success!

One of the biggest industries in my part of the country is Sugar. In childhood I knew only two industries, sugar and milk industries. Co-operative sugar mills have been established and have been doing really well in producing the sugar there by creating wealth for thousands of farmers.

But recently, Sugar has been seen as a big corporate initiative and Renuka Sugars (www.renukasugars.com ) is making big inroads and recently made two big acquisitions in Brazil and thereby creating a big wave. It’s been seen as a global player now!

Mr. Narendra Murkumbi, an IIM Ahmadabad graduate has seen the vision of making it big in Sugar and he and his mother did wonderful things together in establishing the company. Narendra is the public face of the company and based out in Mumbai. And his mother has been a relationship person and keeps a very close association with farmers and she is based out in Belgum, Karnataka.

Narendra has been known for thinking outside the box and thinking big. (Narendra dissolved his earlier company which was having 50 crores of turn over saying that is small thinking) The kind of the culture they have built in the company is of innovation.

Sugar is predominantly non-predictable business where a lot depends on the external factors. Factors such as crop condition in countries like Brazil and Chili, condition of monsoon, India’s agriculture policies; all pay an important role in deciding the profit margins. But, what Renuka Sugar’s have proved that, innovative thinking, global presence and shear execution efficiency can change the rule of the game.

This is truly a rare picture of stability in a cyclical industry!

When Google Runs Your Life

Your day begins with a wake-up call with your Google Android phone. As you run to the shower, you hit Google News and check headlines, then Gmail. Your first appointment of the day is moved to a location, which you don’t know. No worries, Google Map would help you locate the exact place where you want to go. Quickly update your expense report- including the sales presentation, using Google Template. Your Boss wants to discuss the group’s contribution to a marketing idea being discussed; Google Groups would help you to consolidate the ideas.

Someone wants a documented to be updated; you will update the common document using Google Document. And in addition to this you can do many work related searches throughout the day, including checking the stock price, get some code, get some query answered, download games; all using Google’s search engine!

And a little creepy, perhaps. Google wants to own your every walking minute online- at home, while in transit, at your workplace, wherever you happen to be. It makes connectivity so easy, through desktop, laptop or mobile phone. How much easier the life would be using Google Application that allows us to instantly share Google calendar, spreadsheets, memos, reports, email, corporate blogs, presentations and much much more.

I happened to meet a senior executive at Microsoft, who shared what Google is trying to do with the information on the web and largely how it will shape up the way in which we are doing computing. Google is trying to a methodology where it will stream the entire operating system when we connect through cloud computing. A good connectivity would ensure you have a small universe of Google computing power downloaded to your Net Book.

With this, no longer would you get pestered with notices on your PC to download an operating system to upgrade or extend the subscription of your web security. You wouldn’t worry much if your computer get stolen or fell in the bathtub. These net books are just like office furniture, if you don’t like them anymore, throw them out and start using a new one.

How cool that would be?

Blue Ocean Strategy: Applied to IT Services in IONNOR

I tried to do a mapping of ‘Blue Ocean Strategy’ to IT Services Business Unit in IONNOR and presented to executive team during a weekend meeting.

Just to set the context;
• This is just an internal presentation, to do a SWOT analysis between the market leaders in Nordic region, TCS and Cap Gemini
• The comparison was focused on the strengths and weakness of each company.
• IONNOR has been clubbed with ErgoGroup in arriving at this strategy.

In and all, it helped us a lot in framing the strategy for this year and identifying the focus areas which we need to take care on urgent basis.

It is so powerful that, with-in few minutes the strategy shaped up and we were in discussion as how to create a new market place where we are playing on our strengths and mitigating the risks.

It gives a lot of confidence and feeling of big league.