AN OPPORTUNITY TO EXPERIENCE A REPLICA OF THE UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY! (MODEL UNITED NATIONS ASSEMBLY, ROTRACT CLUB OF MUMBAI GREEN CITY)

A rare exposure to an authentic simulation of the United Nations General Assembly!
It was group of about 90 students which were teams from various B-Schools and colleges across Mumbai, each team being given a country to represent. Two teams from MBS constituting two delegates and a counsellor each were Malaysia and South Africa. We took on roles as diplomats and participated in this simulated session of an UN General Assembly. We researched, investigated international issues, debated, deliberated, consulted and developed solutions to world problems. We had to represent our country in every possible aspect.
 As a South African lady I was dressed in braided hair, colourful beaded necklace, and formal attire with the traditional tinge of animal hide in the costume with the two gentlemen who completed the South African team Mr.Anurag.Chatterjee and Mr.Ajay.Gole dressed in suits. The resolution we were debating against was the trade of conflict diamonds. I spent nights before the event trying to learn and practice the accent with which the South Africans speak English, which was the one distinguishing factor that was noticed by the panel of judges after my speech and flooded us with compliments that just made the day though we were not really expecting a prize.

The experience was so new and the environment so formal yet fun. We referred to the delegates of other countries as “The honourable delegates of (Country name)”, the chairperson as “The honourable Chairperson”. We were taught signs to be used while making a point. For making a point of information we had to join our hands as making a triangle and raise them. If we needed some facility like the a/c would get too cold or an electric socket for laptop charging it was referred to as “a point of personal privilege”. To make a point of order we were taught to make a “T” with our hands and raise them. It was an experience of a lifetime. We thoroughly enjoyed it and learnt so much.

The day ended with the announcement of the Best Individual Performance Award to the South African lady, Parmeet .Dhillon. And there went the MBSites to cloud9 bagging home a certificate of Merit.

Hearty Thanks to Rotary Club for the opportunity and my team mates for the effort.  

I am looking forward to participating in many such events, above all learning experiences! 


-Parmeet

SEBI changes the technology game..

Offlately SEBI has announced the below changes it has agreed to..

• Mobile Trading
• Smart Order Routing
• Call Auctions at market open
• Private treaties to be disclosed

so how can these changes improve the way we invest, well lets first look at mobile trading...already widely used in US, SEBI now has brought it here, Mobile Trading technology give you the freedom to trade directly from your mobile phone. I believe this is useful for people that travel a lot in the day. Mobile trading may be possible using “mini” sites like Sharekhan has recently provided, but the functionality is limited (can’t easily see order book changes, modify orders etc.). A mobile app will be more useful and can easily piggy back the current layers that brokers use online (SSL, web service layer). Plus mobile charting, screeners etc. are useful in that you can use them to actually place trades. The mobile operators, though, are of no use brokers don’t even need them other than if they will cut costs dramatically.

Now lets look at smart order routing, When you place your order it has to go on a specific exchange. With Smart Order Routing the broker can check the pricing on different exchanges (currently BSE/NSE but MCX-SX is coming soon) and place the order appropriately. Divided into chunks, this makes a lot of sense for automated order routing for which complex algorithms have already been designed; institutions like mutual funds or pension funds can use such a facility to auto-route orders appropriately.

Call Auctions, Brokers allow investors to place orders outside market hours, and these are placed into the exchange at 9 AM during hte market open. If there are a lot of orders at “market” there is a problem, the “market” hasn’t yet been discovered for the day, and prices can go haywire (they indeed do, as noted in many stocks, and brokers/punters take undue advantage). Call auctions help streamline the price discovery process.

and finally perhaps a very controversial topic, Many press entities like Times of India own stake in certain businesses as part of “Private Treaties”, in return for (partly) advertising real estate and coverage. This skews incentives in that sometimes negative news about the entity is held back or is spun around because the equity ownership may otherwise be in danger of losing value. In India selling editorial space is considered okay that is, you buy an ad, and they’ll write a column about your company. SEBI along with the Press Council has decided that such private equity ownership must be revealed on the media web sites


alumni
w

No Money - More Honey

Could you save a constant amount today to try and reach an inflated adjusted goal tomorrow? "yawn"... lets take a example.. lets just say Mama - who needs to meet a 20 year goal to plan for his daughter’s education, which would cost 4 lakhs today, but 8% inflation would cost him Rs. 18.64 lakh after 20 years.

That will take a monthly investment of Rs. 2,046 per month, assuming you can get a 12% return per year.

But if Mama starts after 10 years, he’ll have to invest Rs. 8,400 per month. Much higher, you think? Yet, with 8% inflation, that is worth just 3,890 worth of today’s money. Not quite as much higher – and probably just as affordable

But then, you are likely to get salary hikes, at least to the same level as inflation. If you don’t, you’re retired  in which case you’re not saving. So let’s assume that you save a constant percentage of your income even though nowadays, you save a much higher percentage of your salary as you grow older. So the amount you save per month increases every year, by about 8%, the inflation rate you assume your expenses grow by.

That means to achieve this goal of 18.64 lakhs in 20 years, with an average increase per year of 8%, you need to invest just Rs. 1,100 per month.
And then you may decide that heck, I’ll pay in only for 10 years, and let the funds grow for the remaining 10 years. For that, you only need Rs. 1,826 per month.

Your burden increases every year, but so does inflation, and in that sense, your income. The question, rightfully, is: how can you calculate the total money you need to invest for a certain goal, with an “inflation linked investment” pattern?

alumni
w

Hold those floating rate plans

The Reserve Bank of India in its quarterly credit policy meet raised repo rates to 5.75% and reverse repo rates to 4.5%.

Repo is what banks pay to borrow from the RBI and Reverse repo is what they get when they park excess funds at the RBI.

Over the last two years we have only seen money parked with the RBI, meaning the system was flush with money and banks weren’t quite lending. From May this year, after the 3G and BWA auctions, banks have started to borrow from the RBI instead, an order of 60,000 crores every day. (Repo means they have to place high quality securities with the RBI which they buy back – or “repurchase” – the next day or in a short period.)




The differential of 0.25% costs the entire banking system a miniscule 35 lakhs a day (0.25% of an average 50,000 crores) which is a sort of rounding error, but it’s not what they do anymore, it’s what they intend to do.

Even though liquidity is tight, bank margins are wide,so there is a cushion. But the interesting question is: at what point does the credit system break the back of inflation? RBI says it expects 6% inflation by year end.
 
At a time when inflation’s gone through the roof, so to speak, we try to assuage ourselves saying that things will get better because, look at 2008. But oil prices were at $140 then, versus $80 today. Inflation fell because oil prices fell to $30, and alongside we did see corporate growth come down (but India’s growth didn’t fall too much, remember)
 
I don’t think it’s a supply issue that’s driving inflation. Supply problems would affect availability and literally everything, from fuel to CNG to tomatoes is available. If this is a demand problem – too much demand – then this piddly 0.25% is not going to help. In that case, I expect another policy rate increase as early as end August – bigger than 0.25%.
 
Inflation indexes will change. The WPI will have a different series with the base year as 2004-05, but we don’t know from when. Food’s weight should go down, so inflation must moderate just looking at things that way.
 
alumni
w

So much to learn from World(cup)!!!!

I really enjoyed following Soccer’10, not to watch my favorite stars on the field instead to take note of surprises that every match offered right from beginning of the league
First, the likes of England, Portugal and France walking out of the league followed by hot fav Brazil, on the contrary, teams- Uruguay, Netherlands finding a place in the quarters in something commendable.


This world cup has made me to think, think and think. One of the observation, which I could derive is that the teams which played as a 'TEAM' succeeded. There was so much expectation from Lionel messi; unfortunately, even he couldn’t turn around the match against German’s. They (Germans) strategized their game, played to their strengths and most importantly played in unison and end result; 4-0. This is just an anecdote of many such matches which had so many unprecedent outcomes.


What so special in this? …if watched as a game then nothing great about this, but if we go a step further and introspect, there are definitely some lessons, lesson’s about benefits of performing in a team, for MBA grad’s like us, who would get into the corporate world in few months and perform not as individuals but as members of teams, whose goal is to perform and deliver towards the corporate mission.


Off late, there has so much emphasis on this 4 letter word “TEAM” by corporate at large, right from Richard Branson to Steve jobs; N.R. Murthy to Azim premji, all are speaking of this 4 letter word. Is it really so powerful; I believe, it is!!...what do you think guys???


While you ponder, let me leave you with a quote from Michael Jordan ‘Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships’


Mervyn

W-I-P (inventory)

Propagator

Apple’s chain

There has been lot spoken about Apple’s innovative products reaching marketplace and making its competition redundant. I too agree and respect the product line it offers its customers and one of them being the recent launch of iPhone4.

It’s been reported that the company and its wireless carrier, AT&T, booked more than 600,000 pre-orders on June 15 alone, causing a suspension of sales because of the sheer volume of activity. The number is the largest Apple has taken in a single day, ten times higher than the previous iPhone3 launch last year, causing a sellout of all designated product allocation.

This kind of overwhelming response is something every company would love to achieve. Here I start to ponder over a dilemma; whether innovation and technology can only be sufficient to serve the target customers.

In my opinion, it’s, NO. The company should also focus on itself as well as it's suppliers supply chain. In Apple’s case, suppliers/ contract manufacturers are based in Asia, especially in China where there is now severe labor issues that are surfacing, and since Apple has limited supplier base, has it introduced too much risk in too few value-chain partners?

I believe Apple has, and I predict more snafus to come. The signs are unmistakable, and the pressures are building. Good process and the best technology can only take you so far. The rest comes down to the combined supply chain capability of partners. In the coming weeks Apple will have to demonstrate what being number one really means


Mervyn

W-I-P (inventory)

Propagator

Innovation as a competitive advantage

Without new ideas, businesses and individuals will never succeed. How many times have you had the Eureka moment only to find that the idea has slipped away? It’s amazingly annoying to find that your brain just can pull back that idea, and you will always feel that was the idea that will make you money.

Demands for organizational innovation and technological advantage are increasingly crucial for the firms to remain competitive. Most firms face serious competitive challenges due to the rapid pace and unpredictability of technology change. Global strategies are dependent in large part on accelerating the speed at which innovation reach the market place. These conditions have led management theorists and practitioners alike to call for more creativity in management practices, products, and production processes that a firm employs.

Several common themes emerge repeatedly across studies to suggest that the link between innovation activities and competitive advantage rests primarily on four factors.

- One, Innovations that are hard to imitate

- Two, innovations that accurately reflect market realities

- Three, innovations that enable a firm to exploit the timing characteristics of the relevant industry

- Lastly, innovations that rely on capabilities and technologies which are readily accessible to the firm

As the global playing field becomes increasingly level; Logic, linear thinking and rule-based analysis-- will remain important, but are no longer sufficient to succeed in the global economy.

One of the biggest impediments to innovation continues to be the "constraints of the product development lifecycle". Recognizing that product development cycles are longer than recessionary periods, and any opportunity to shorten the development life cycle could mean real rewards.

My take: Innovation is gradually moving from an occasionally interesting sideshow that is not focused and not strategic, to becoming a key focus of senior executives as they realize that only innovation can help the firms continually grow and differentiate. Innovation is rapidly becoming a capability or enabler that strengthens and focuses the corporate strategies, and should over time become a key enabler to many corporate goals and strategies

God Speed..!!!

Mervyn Lewis

W-I-P inventory

Propagator