MTC

KNOWLEDGE IN PRACTICE

E-bulletin: Volume- I Issue- 1 (Aug- Oct 2010)

Message from the Chief Editor

Volume 1, Issue 1
I am indeed very pleased to release the first issue of Management
Teachers Consortium’s quarterly e-bulletin “MTC- Knowledge in
Practice”.
ar I sincerely acknowledge the support, encouragement and
motivation extended by all the esteem members of the team who
contributed towards the growth of the consortium.

I am really grateful for the contribution made by all our team members. The restriction of page numbers
limited inclusion of all the articles. The articles submitted would definitely be placed in our subsequent issues.

Once again thanks a lot to all the team members of MTC for their continued support and encouragement.

Happy Knowledge Sharing.

Prof. Bholanath Dutta

Chief Editor: MTC- Knowledge in Practice
Founder & Convener: Management Teachers Consortium
An Initiative to share & enhance Kowledge for Management Fraternity
Cell: +91 96323 18178
Homepage: http://groups.google.com/group/join_mtc
Group email: join_mtc@googlegroups.com

Prof. Bholanath Dutta conducted a

Corporate Training for Raheja Group on
02.10.2010 on “Soft- Skills in Customer
Service to enhance sales productivity”.
Self-Managed Teams: An Experiential Learning The general disadvantages may be three.
on the changing Nature of Management
Institutes 1. The hurdles in implementing this concept in
By Management Institutes.
Dr. B Rose Kavitha
Professor, Department of MBA, CMRIT, Bangalore 2. The problems may arise in composition and
& selection of the team members.
Mr. Bharath Chandrasekhar
HR Manager, Aricent Technologies, Bangalore 3. Finally the uncertainty of the continuous
existence of the team.

In today’s competitive world one of the most Conclusion:

empowering interventions is Self-managing Teams.
Self-managing Teams are a new concept in
educational field though it has its roots in corporate Self-managed teams in Management Institutes may
business. So, what is self-managing teams? It is a be called as Natural work teams. A Natural work
small group where members plan and execute their team must be encouraged in Management Institutes
day-to –day activities and duties under reduced or for developing the creativity in delivering lectures,
no supervision. A self-managing team is that which presentations, project guidance and research
decisions are made faster. Literature review on this activities of a Management faculty.
concept by Goodman, Devadas and Hughson
(1998) and Pearce and Ravlin (1987) suggests that To conclude when a faculty is working in a Natural
self-managing teams lead to enhanced work team, they are empowered to set their own
organizational effectiveness. Pasmore (1978) goals and monitor their own progress. An interesting
elaborates in a study that self-managing teams factor is that the self-managed team members
introduced in one unit, and the tasks were enriched reward themselves for achieving their goals and
in the other unit at a food company thereby punish themselves for poor performance.
increasing the job satisfaction in both units. If this
concept is introduced in Management Institutes the
potential advantages include stronger commitment
of faculty, improved quality, enhanced efficiency,
improvised standards in materials preparation and
service development.

"I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework." -- Edith
Ann, [Lily Tomlin]
 Innovative Strategies to Finance SMEs
By
DR.S.N.Ghosal
Director: NICCO FINA
NCIAL Services Ltd., Kolkata
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are one
of the largest employment opportunity provider
next to basic industry i.e. agriculture. In India
it generates more than 40% of value addition to
the manufacturing industries and one third of
our exports. In developed countries it would be
interesting to note that its role is much higher
and rewarding. For example in USA and
Japan it provides 67% and 80% employment
opportunities and contributes 61% and 72% to
the manufacturing output in those countries
respectively. It would therefore be interesting
to make an in-depth analysis of funding these
institutions as these institutions are generally
promoted by individual and or family
entrepreneurs with limited financial resources
but endowed with rewarding innovative ideas
and initiatives and therefore need external
funding for survival and growth and
unfortunately in developing countries they
have very limited access to external funds and
therefore most of these enterprises suffer and
even close down due to high cost, inadequacy
and abnormal delay they usually suffer in
sourcing external funds.
It is not for nothing such neglect and hesitant
behavior has been developed by the funding
institutions for these enterprises. In fact these
have happened due to:
• Poor managerial and marketing skills
usually associated with these
enterprises;
• Unusual vulnerability to market risk
and consequent sudden mortality;
“No matter what your product is, you are ultimately in the education business. Your customers need to
be constantly educated about the many advantages of doing business with you, trained to use your
products more effectively, and taught how to make never-ending improvement in their lives. “--
Robert G
• Lack of data base with regard to their
operation, performance, strength and
weaknesses and market volatility on
regular basis;
• Heavy transaction costs due to
inability to access modern technology;
• Very low margin as supply chain is not
only inadequate but also exploit the
high degree of dependence of these
enterprises on middlemen operating
the supply chain;
• Most of them lack education and fund
to upgrade technology and volatility of
market.
Some Recent Innovations
It has therefore become imperative to address
the above issues to make funding of SMEs
attractive and user friendly. In recent years it
is interesting to note that both governments as
well as financial institutions of both developed
and developing countries have initiated some
positive and progressive measures to hold
hands of small and medium entrepreneurs’ to
access funds at a reasonable and affordable
costs and without any usual hurdles. In fact
these initiatives aimed at both reduction of cost
of funds and risks associated with such
funding. These initiatives could be summed up
as follows:
• Venture capital funding intuitions have
been floated, often called as P.E, funds
have been floated to induct fund at low
cost, share the risk and to provide
management and technology up
gradation support to these enterprises;
 • Credit guarantee and credit rating • Funding institutions are not prepared to
agencies have been floated to support assume the role of partners of these
and empower lending institutions to enterprises to share their risks and
shoulder the inherent risks provide much needed management
unhesitatingly in funding these support at least in their fund
enterprises adequately and timely; management if not for other areas of
management ;
• Innovative products and instruments • Non availability of database to study
have been introduced by the financial the inherent risk patterns of these
institutions to enable these enterprises enterprises and inadequate market
to source fund at low cost and intelligence that deters these
collaterals; and institutions to take timely steps and
strategies to offset the impact of market
• Improved training modules and lending volatility;
options have been constantly • Non availability of appropriate market
researched and introduced to make for these enterprises to source equity
these enterprises more viable and and debt funds at competitive price.
attractive to make these enterprises
more and more attractive and viable It is therefore obvious that there is need to
enterprises to lending institutions. bring out some radical changes both in
policies, practices and procedures as well as in
However despite such recent efforts an in strategies, structures and stimulus to be
depth analysis would reveal that SMEs still imbedded in the financial institutions and
need some more holding hands to be groomed financial markets to enable these enterprises to
as enterprises that would lead the financing have access to fund, management and market
institutions to compete with each other to fund support to achieve robust growth. In this regard
these enterprises as funding these institutions following innovative changes need to be
would enable them to earn revenue safely and adopted by the funding agencies of SMEs.
steadily. In this regard it would be interesting
to comprehend some of the existing gaps that • SMEs need to develop a partnership
have deterred the funding agencies to become with funding agencies like micro
aggressive and competitive funding institutions financing institutions, and or banks to
of SMEs. These gaps are as follows: share risk and participate in
management and marketing.
• Funding modules are not developed • A specialized capital market need to be
wherein delivery and amount of funds developed to help SMEs to float equity
are not linked with time of needs and and debt instruments;
growth of these enterprises; • Evolve a digital smart card to enable
SMEs to access fund as and when they
need;

“This is the nature of genius, to be able to grasp the knowable even when no one else recognizes
that it is present.” -Deepak Chopra
 • Build market intelligence kiosks at
convenient places to assist SMEs to
update their market intelligence and
accordingly regulate production, price
and product supply chain including up
gradation of technology to match the
changes perceived in design and
fashions etc.;
• Creating institutions and products to
enable securitization of SMEs debts
and enhancing their capabilities to
have access to liquidity as and when
needed;
• Developing derivative markets to hedge
their price and currency risks.
In recent years some initiatives have already
been taken by government of India and
commercial banks to facilitate funding SMEs
by creating credit rating facilities to classify
these enterprises on the basis of risk and
thereby enabling banks to assess risk in such
funding in advance and accordingly fix more
flexible terms and conditions for lending these
enterprises. Similarly VENTURE CAPITAL
funding institutions have also been floated to
assist SMEs to assume risk with their support.
Further commercial banks have been
encouraged to lend to SMEs on the basis of the
feasibility and viability of projects rather than
appraising them on the basis of collaterals
offered for such loans. These are obviously
healthy move but much more needed to be
done particularly in re-engineering lending
strategy. It would be necessary to
• Introduce transaction lending
technology;
• Develop relationship lending
methodology; and
• Adopt sharing and partnering policy
with borrowers.
“This is the nature of genius, to be able to grasp the knowable even when no one else recognizes
that it is present” - Deepak Chopra
It is true that these innovative strategies could
be introduced gradually as it would need to
build appropriate financial, production and
marketing environment for enabling SMEs to
develop more sustainable model to grow and
develop management and marketing expertise
and introduce upgraded technology to become
more productive with improved quality and
enhanced competitive strength. In this regard it
would be needless to say that Indian
government and financial institutions have to
traverse miles to reach the desired goal as has
been enumerated above.
In fact in this regard it would be helpful to
undertake a study of a very illustrative and
educative model developed by JAPAN. In fact
much could be learnt from JAPAN as it has
been able to respond to the needs of SMEs
very successfully and therefore SMEs have
grown over there over the years with vision
and profit. The policy that has been adopted
by JAPAN to give boost to SMEs could be
summed up as follows:
• It has helped financial institutions to
adopt a lending policy on partnership
model with additional support of
providing the facility of securitization
to maintain their liquidity intact and to
transfer a part of their risk to other
institution;
• It has also developed database to assist
SMEs to assess both financial and
market risks and do away with the
present practice of depending on
asymmetrical data available from
diverse sources; and
• It has made arrangement to assess on
regular basis the impact of policy
changes and also to comprehend
problems faced by SMEs from time to
time. These studies reveal some of the
hard facts that need to be addressed by
policy makers to facilitate financing
institutions to develop appropriate
strategies to counter such issues that are
found hindering the growth of SMEs.
For example one such studies revealed
that SMEs in JAPAN with low return
on assets and poor equity ratios have
been paying high rate of interest and
consequently defaulting and ultimately
languishing, these studies have also
revealed that adaptation of change in
policies as has been highlighted above
have impacted well as these have
enabled them to source fund at
competitive rates and sharing and
transferring risks with the financial
institutions as and when considered
necessary to improve their liquidity and
reduce their risks. In fact it has now a
proven fact that lending based on
collaterals and personal guarantees of
entrepreneurs are more risky and
therefore need to be replaced by the
newly developed strategy that takes
into consideration the viability,
feasibility, competence and market
accessibility of the venture rather than
collaterals and personal guarantees as
per conventional method of lending. In
fact policy emphasis now is to develop
relationship banking instead of seeking
collaterals and guarantees.
• Further in JAPAN the credit guarantees
offered to SMEs have worked wonder
to give boost to financing of SMEs.
These studies have also revealed that
entrepreneurs need to be assisted in
developing viable business enterprises
keeping in view their capability and
vision as well as passion. Most of the
entrepreneurs have the capacity and
vision to develop innovative business
but in general they lack the capability
to translate and implement these as
feasible and viable projects. It would be
therefore imperative for financial
institutions to assume the role of a
development bank and assist the
entrepreneurs in developing feasible
and sustainable project.
This would necessarily need to develop
partnership model that would create virtually a
partnership of entrepreneurs and banks. The
partnership concept would take care of sharing
of risks in proportion to their respective
financial involvement. Further if it is extended
further it would help borrower to source fund
at competitive rate if not concessional rate. In
fact such partnership would do away ultimately
the practice of charging interest on loan as
there could be an arrangement of sharing of
revenue. In fact this is already in vogue in
Islamic banking.
It is obvious therefore that there is dire need to
create constant value addition in delivery
model of capital and equity to SMEs. The
innovations adopted by JAPAN are worth
emulating by India and all other countries that
heavily lean on SMEs for their export and
GDP growth. In fact banks have no other
alternative but to develop innovative models
for inclusive growth as recent global financial
crisis has mirrored the misery of globalization
without inclusive growth.
 Retail: Retain and Sustain
By
Prof. Rupali Kumar
Asst. Professor, Bharati Vidyapeeth institute
of Management and Research
&
Mr. Manish Bestia and Ms. Ashima Kapoor
(Student- BVIMR)
The paper on the Indian Retail Industry was
carried out with the objective to find out the
relevance of the terms “Retain’’ and “Sustain’’
for retailing and to formulate a model for the
retailers to help them Retain their customers
and Sustain in the market. 20 retailers were
randomly selected for the survey and they were
put questions through direct interview and
questionnaire. Percentage analysis method was
used to analyse the data. The research paper
suggested that in future:
Ø Focus on consumer by providing him
with value products at a convenient and
well designed retail store.
Ø Mass customization is the way of the
future.
Ø Focus on differentiating with other
competitors by providing a complete
shopping experience.
Ø Use innovative techniques and store
formats like pop-up retail, to target
consumers who lead hectic lives and
need an outlet for high-speed retail.
“I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught” - Winston Churchill
Indian retail on the fast-track
• The Indian retail market is the fifth-
largest retail destination globally. It is
estimated to grow US$ 637 billion by
2015.
• Retail contributes to 10 per cent of
India’s Gross Domestic Product and
provides employment to 8 per cent of
India’s working population.
• Higher disposable incomes, easy
availability of credit and high exposure
to media and brands has considerably
increased the average propensity to
consume over the years.
Importance of “Retaining Customers’’ in
Retail Industry
• Customer’s loyalty leads to greater
sales and revenue, better prediction of
sales, requires minimal marketing
efforts, and creates customers who are
less sensitive to the marketing efforts of
competitors.
• Gaining customer loyalty is also a key
corporate challenge today especially in
this increasingly competitive and
crowded marketplace because of the
eventual profitability it will provide.
Based upon the findings of research the
following model was formulated:
 • Geographic
• Demographic
• Psychographic
• Behavioralistic
(II) Buying their Interest:

In this step the retailers need to

attract their potential customers
and eventually buying their
interest to make the purchase. The
customer’s interest can be
generated by implementing
following strategies:
• Price Strategy
• Promotional Strategy
• Program Retention
Programs (sampling,
discount coupons, rebates,
(I) Determining the Customers:
price-off, bonus packs,
The first step of the model is to identify the Customers sample packs, special
Base. It includes: packs, premiums, free
• New Customers: - These are the customers from the trial, warranty, prizes,
untapped market. They are the customers from the patronage card/reward)
potential market whom the retailer are not catering
but can plan to cater and offer its goods and services. (III) Utilizing the prospects:

• Existing Customers: - These are the customers that The last step of the cycle is to
efficiently utilize the existing
the retailer is already catering to.
loyal customers in generating
• Competitor’s Customers: - These are the customers more sales for the retailer and
of the competitors of the retailers. The retailers need bringing new leads (customers) to
to identify their competitor’s customers and should the retailer. This can be attained
target to convert them into its own customers. by good Customer Relationship
Management by the retailer.
(II) Organizing the Potential Customers: It was concluded that:
The next step is to divide the entire customer base “In the retail industry, the
identified in the first step into different segments. It can success mantra is to retain its
be segmented on the basis of the following customer’s customer for its survival in the
characteristics: market.”

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most
responsive to change”- Charles Darwin
FORMATION OF MANAGEMENT TEACHERS CONSORTIUM (MTC)

BACKGROUND & MOTIVATION

Management Teachers Consortium (MTC) is a voluntary non- profit group of individual as well as
organisation have been created as a Google Group. The stake holders are Management Teachers and B-
Schools. The group was formed on 29 Jun 2010. As of now 270 management educators/corporate
executives from across the world have voluntarily joined this group and share their thoughts and views on
various issues related to management education.

OBJECTIVES

The group is created with a view to provide a common platform to all management teachers across the
world to share/exchange/express their opinion and develop knowledge and social capital which ultimately
go down to classrooms. The ultimate benefits propel to management students, management institutions,
policy makers, corporate and other interested parties. This leads to an effective, efficient and productive
management education system. This is a consortium based on ethics and value system.

The objectives of this consortium are:

(a) To share views and opinion about challenges in management education.

(b) To discuss various teaching pedagogies with respect to management education.
(c) To develop an effective teaching-learning process.
(d) To build an efficient “input-throughput-output- outcome” model.
(e) To express opinion on various policy decisions and its impact on management education.
(f) Free transfer of knowledge across geographical boundaries.
(g) To bring-out various shortfalls in present practices.
(h) To encourage research and publication activities.
(i) Open up opportunities for educational consultancy.
(j) To develop knowledge and social capital.
(k) To work as a TEAM and create synergy.
(l) To make suggestions to various policy makers.
(m) To encourage faculty/student exchange programme.
(n) Uncover the potential for collaboration.
(o) To meet any future challenges emerging out of corporate expectations, changing socio-
economic conditions, policy decisions and various other environmental forces.

OPENING THE FORUM FOR CORPORATE WORLD

Management Education cannot be isolated/detached from corporate as corporate plays a major role and
the main stake-holder. Based on corporate requirements management education has been undergoing
continuous changes over the years. Globalisation has given a new twist and course like MBA
(International Business), MBA (IHRM) etc are in good demand.

Most of the B-Schools have Industry- Institute- Partnership-Cell, to work closely with Corporate and it
has really helped colleges to fine tune their courses, start different certification programme, personality
development programme and various other co-curricular activities, which finally helped colleges to place
their students in good companies.

Keeping this wide perspective in mind, MTC has opened up the forum, in the month of July’2010, for
corporate executive to share their views on management education, throughput and their expectations
from students/B-schools. Surely, this will further give momentum to this Consortium and will create
synergy leading to Win-Win situation.

Ethical Practices In Work Places • Efficiency

Prof. Chithralekha B.S,
Faculty, Dept of Commerce& Management,
Amrita Viswa Vidya peetham,
Amritapur Campus,Kollam,Kerala
Workplace Ethics is a subject that we have all
heard of. What most people don’t realize,
however, is that there is no such thing as
workplace ethics; ethics are the same, whether Guidelines for managing ethical practices in
in the workplace or in personal life. Ethics are work place
about making choices that may not always feel
good or seem like they benefit you but are the
“right” choices to make. They are the choices
that are examples of “model citizens” and
examples of the golden rules. Workplace ethics
will differ from one employment location to
another. However, there are some ground
similarities that can be observed. There are
some 'safe' rules that would work of almost
every work ambiance. Ethics are of special
importance to practicing professionals, as they
have a greater responsibility to the society, One
important finding is that spiritual institutions
display better work place ethical practices and
spirituality contributes more on ethical values
in individuals.
Good Work Ethics
• Honesty
• Dependability
• Positive Work Habits
• Initiative
• Humility
• Positive Attitude
• Teamwork
Ø The bottom line of an ethics
program is accomplishing preferred
behaviors in the workplace.
Ø The best way to handle ethical
dilemmas is to avoid their
occurrence in the first place.
Ø Make ethics decisions in groups.
Ø Integrate ethics management with
other management practices.
Ø Value forgiveness.
Ø Making a few mistakes is better
than not trying at all.
It is concluded that, every person will be
faced with an ethical dilemma sometimes
during his career. Organizations which
follow a strong code of ethics and work
culture can create better ethical practices.
 One should seek to promote public good in their
Ethics in Technical Writing activities and dedicate themselves to conciseness,
By clarity, coherence and creativity, striving to meet
Paramita Chaudhuri the needs of those who use the products and
Email: paramita3000@yahoo.com services. The clients and employers should be made
cell: +91 980077414 aware when it is believed that the materials are
Freelance Trainer: Soft-Skills ambiguous. Moreover permission is obtained from
a person for using their work and authorship for
materials and ideas to those who make original and
Every profession has a code of ethics for its substantive contributions.
members. In the same way the technical writers
ought to follow certain guidelines to do full justice The confidentiality of the clients, employers and
to their noble profession. The technical writer has professional organizations should be given due
an ethical responsibility to convey only the truth respect and business sensitive informations should
and it is against the law to include any false not be disclosed without their consent or when
statement in the technical document. The legally required to do so.
organsiation becomes legally liable for the
statements, it makes in its technical document. Cultural variety and other aspects of diversity in
client, employers, development teams and
For instance if a caution notice is not included in a audiences are observed and conflict of interest in
manual of a gas cylinder, the gas company will face fulfilling one’s professional responsibilities and
the legal action in case any accidents occur because activities are avoided.
of the defect in the product. Technical documents
should properly reveal informations about dangers , Therefore, the communication products and
cautions, warnings etc. of the products in question services are evaluated constructively and tactfully
and should not contains statements that lead to false to seek definitive assessment of one’s professional
impressions. performance and excellence in performing each
task that is undertaken.
One should observe the laws and regulations
governing the profession and need the terms of
contract under taken which should be consistent
locally and globally, as applicable with STC (The
Society for Technical Communication) principles.

Teacher’s Day Celebration on 05.09.2010

+91 9632
Stay Connected
Prof. Bholanath Dutta
Founder & Convener: Management Teachers Consortium (MTC)
Cell: +91 96323 18178: Google Group: http://groups.google.co.in/group/join_mtc
3 1817