Historical time line of PE secondary Market

Though the article is backdated as it does not include the PEFOX, it is a good chronology of the evolution of Secondary market.


Private_equity_secondary_market encyclopedia topics | Reference.com: "ere is a robust and maturing secondary market available for sellers of p"

Systematic Planning for Supply Chain

Perhaps the most misunderstood and most important thing for a company is its SCM. There are 3 levels of thinking about efficient supply chain

1. Corporate / Financial level - Think about what your real business, what are profit and cost drivers, more important what are growth drivers


2. Marketing Level - 4 Ps, how to take edge in market, how will this contribute growth of individual product line. Most important - Right Product portfolio - which product line to exit, which to reduce and which to add

3. Logistics / Operations Level - Operations cost/ Standardization (6 Sigma) / efficiency / safety security / outsourcing decisions / contracts with 3 party services / regulations / taxation and more importantly transportation taxes


Though supply chain is a very broad term, but if we focus our thinking to each of these levels individually and then in an integrated manner, SCM can become an effective edge over competitors.

Product Information - Equity filtered by International Profile View - iShares

Product Information - Equity filtered by International Profile View - iShares

Do these select few funds have capability to capture growth of emerging markets for US investors.

The answer is clearly - NO.

G-20 Meeting : What happens when politicians try to become economist

Politicians from all over the world do not want to loose one thing. You guess what - Vote Share.

Hence, everyone is shouting at top of their voice.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/22/AR2010102206672.html?hpid=topnews

Coal India IPO - Is Indian Govt. giving too much away

I was not surprised by the 17 times over-subscription of Coal India Ltd. Given by the reserves (Biggest reserves in the world), the valuation was bit of a tough task. Even the company had a huge cash in hand.

Some 2 months ago before the deal, I calculated that the cash in hand per share would be around Rs.40 per share. Though I was not sure about the exact valuations, but analyst were quoting around Rs. 300 in contrast to highest band price of Rs. 245

This brings a critical issue in privitisation of the PSU's in India. Is the Indian Govt giving away a lot of assets too cheap??

EIL and others were not so exciting as markets were not so buoyant in 2009. Next in line - IOC, PGCIL. I would place my bets for PGCIL - Power sector is going to have a good boost in coming years.

IOC will still suffer from existing price restrictions on retail fuel prices in India.

Volla! - IOC hiked fuel prices by 70p

Wait a min.....India was supposed to be under Psuedo-APM (well the real APM was not dismantled in 2004)

No man .....now the companies are free. Kudos to IOC for taking this bold step. Though my company (HPCL) still believes in licking Govt. Orders (true signs of a Government Department). It still kept the lowest rate (read the most loss making)

This will open the gate for private investments in Oil & Gas sector esp. fuel retailing. I hope Reliance, Shell and Essar will start again. I still do not understand why the Government should be controlling the pump prices. The Government should leave the pump prices to the market and let the Oil PSU's do their independent pricing.

I very well understand the issue of exploitation of customers esp in rural areas or monopolistic pockets, but I strongly believe that slowly and steadily the open markets will take care of everything.

MBA related books at UNC

Today I went to the Davis Library and started to search a couple of good books on strategy. I was amazed by the lack of variety of books. I believe one of the reason is that the MBA students do not use the library that often at UNC as compared to CEIBS. I remember most of the people devoting most of the time during the day in library at CEIBS.

At UNC, there is a different culture. Students rarely go to the library, which is around 1km away. Also, the only library relevant to Management is Davis and that too is a general library, with only 1 section devoted to MBA. Hence, there is lack of a Management subjects oriented library.

I was looking for the Mkinsey Engagement, a very famous book by UNC alum and Professor. Still, I found some good 4 nos of books on operational strategy. Hope Kenan Flagler will some day develop their own internal library.

Fixed Income Result surprised me

I was taken by surprise that I got an H in Fixed Income. Honestly, I did not studied that hard. In fact I did not studied at all for Fixed Income as my time was consumed in other subjects and activities. After finals, I was sure I will get good marks as I did all the problems correct with full confidence. But still, I was not expecting H as their are a number of people from Wall Street in my class, who had done a lot of Fixed Income and proprietary trading in their career.

Though for me it does not matter which grade I get, as I am on exchange, it is a nice surprise. At least, I do not want to be a Fixed Income securities trader on Wall Street. That to me, it is a mindless number crunching job. Though I am good at number crunching, but i want to do some meaningful job. Corporate finance seems to be most attractive field to me. It is very well connected to PE/VC sector, both of which entice me a lot.

First week in US

I would say right on the very first week, I got to realize that
1. Why people call US to be greatest country in the world
2. Why economist say this country is going down.
and
3. Why I think USD will go down (below 42 INR/USD by December)
4. Why India and China is future of the world

Let me illustrate 1 by 1

1. People are really warm here. They are not only open, they are willing to lend you an extra hand. Infact I would say - After travelling so many countries around the world, I found people in US to be most cooperative. Though I am bit biased as I live in North Carolina which is known for friendly people. But this soft power is absent in India and China. In fact, I found China to be most unfriendly place till now. I think it is due to the culture that Chinese people do not want to cooperate and they are too mean and selfish in negotiations and relations. India is in between. But yes US is true soft power.

2. Lot of inefficiency and overcapacity all over the place. Lawyers earn more than engineers. Value destroyers (lawyers) are powerful enough. Taxes are really high. No incentive for creating value. Informal channels such as tips in restaurants. Free buses, which are mostly empty.
Hence, the economists seem to be right.

3. An overburdened economy can survive this for long. Broad unemployment (not net) is close to 20%. This means that 1 in every 5 person is facing blues. In absence of any expansion space, inducing inflation and hence, lowering the relative wages and taxes seems to be the only method of escaping the deflation spiral.

4. China/ India - Wage and taxes are low, Lawyers are not powerful, People want to become Engineers (read value creators). Though there is some BS going on in India, China seems to be spearing ahead with unprecedented pace.

RIICO Kishangarh

Site visit of Agarwal

DSO Bhilwara

New Norms - COCO

CEIBS v/s ISB

Now this is going to draw a bigger flak especially from the students community......People will try to prove me ight or wrong at some of the points......but I just want to start a frank evaluation of the two schools.....


Student Profile:-
Profile of students at ISB is much younger and hence have less work experience. Most of the students(59% as per their brochure) at ISB are from the IT sector and 40% of those have less than 4 years experience. CEIBS has a bit balanced profile. Finance is most relevant at CIEBS having some 24% of students. Most of the studnt

Also, ISB has only 6% of non-Indians, while CIEBS has about 40% non-Chinese. Hence, student profile is more diverse at CEIBS.


Faculty:-
Though ISB boasts of having all the doctrate faculty as doctractes, faculty at CEIBS is very well connected with the Faculty and had better experience and profile than CEIBS. Both the school focus on the visiting faculty model.



Industry Interaction:-
ISB has better connection with the industry in terms of nos of people in the Governing Body. Also the profile of the people in the executive board and the Governing board is really class apart at ISB. The governing body and the industry interaction is no match at CEIBS in comparison to ISB. CEIBS really need to work hard on this front.


Clubs :-

Clubs at ISB though not as numerous at CIEBS are really involved in lot of activities. On the other hand Clubs at CEIBS cover literally every aspects of business life but are bit shallow in their activities.


Projects :-

This is one area where ISB cleary scores over CEIBS in terms of both the nos and quality of projects. Projects are further strengthened by centres such as the Wadhwani centre. This is the reason why more no of students at ISB goes for their own venture. CEIBS is yet to come out with some highly involved project activities leading to entreprenuership ventures of students.


Placements :-

CEIBS is the clear winner in this arena. Just compare the nos of jobs per student is the Highest at CEIBS (close to 5 jobs per students. Salary package at CEIBS are the same as that of ISB. Also, the profile of the firms visiting CEIBS is more diverse and strong.

At the same time ISB had some good connections with the firms such as Mkinsey, through their god father such as Rajat Gupta. CEIBS does not have any such God fathers. But they still manage to have placements far better than any other B-School on earth. Much of this had to do with the numero uno position of CEIBS in china, while ISB has to struggle with IIMS and other local indian B-Schools.


Curriculum :-
CIEBS has more industry oriented curriculum, while the curriculum of ISB is very sanwiched due to short duration of the program.


Non MBA Programs:-

ISB focuses much on short term programs such as the 3 days, 1 month sort of. CEIBS is more focused on executive education. But still the level of contact is much more at ISB than CEIBS.


Conclusion :-

ISB has much younger profile and more focussed on General Management. CEIBS has bit mature student profile and focuses a bit more on specialisations.

Now I want a frank evaluation of the schools from the points discussed above......

Baggage Limits

Airlines esp.........the international ones are smart enough.......

China Eastern charges Rs. 920 per extra Kg of baggage....and all the international flights have limits of 20 Kg for baggage and 8 Kg for cabin ...

Thats a fair method of earning extra bucks by the airlines.

Maruti to launch CNG vehicle :- Ananlysis of Indian CNG Markets

Maruti is going to launch a CNG variant of the famous ALTO, the people's car..............

On the other hand IGL ( Indraprastha GAs ltd.) had increased the prices of CNG by Rs. 2.10 in New Delhi.....

Obviously, the demand is fuelling increases in the price of LNG. But there's another factor at work as well: the chronic gas shortages and the uncertainties related to international pipeline gas projects- Iran-Pakistan-India and the Myanmar-Bangladesh-India pipelines are still in the air.


ONGC and IOC had planned their Import terminals........At Dabhol, NTPC and Gail, which own the power plant and the attached LNG facilities, are planning to sell the plant to an LNG operator such as Petronet LNG.........this makes economic sense as Petronet has got good contracts for LNG supply abroad ................

In turn, Petronet is considering doubling the plant's capacity from 5 MMTPA to 10 MMTPA and is involving Qatar gas for a stake in turn for supplies.......


One big supurise is Africa (mainly Nigeria, Algeria, Angola and Egypt) could also become a major source of LNG. CEIBS seems to have placed their bets on Ghana rightly by opening a campus there.

Biggest advantage with LNG - its SCM- it can be transported from any where to anywhere........

Indian CNG market is growing by 50-70 % annually a robust growth by any standard.........and is poised to touch 4 times in next 4 years.......

Though power and fertilizers will be having robust growth......the real addition will be from the nascent sectors such as the Automobile fueling and industrial heatings......

KG basin and GSPCL will be the new additions to the Indian Kitty.....and other such additions could make the country a less deficient destination.......

The first demand driving factor for LNG was the replacement of Naptha and other Carbon chains from the Fertilizer manufacturing plants..........I remember Naptha was blackmarketed in remote places like Dhule and Nandurbar in northern Maharastra........

There were so many local heavy weights in that business of Naptha and solvents plants of Nandurbar........and rest is history........

There are lot of global factors which are going to have stains on the Indian Market in terms of the price escalation......

For Example the Drama over the cancellation of the Shell Environment contract in Shakhalin II project in Russia have significant effect over the Futures of the LNG contracts..........


Conclusion :-
1. Indian demand for CNG is here to stay and increase furhter
2. Supply is not showign any major development in near future of 5 years.
3. Sectors other than Fertilizers and Power are going to real growth drivers.

Hence, Marketiers and suppliers should engage in long term contracts.....to get a price advantaage and stable supplies in future.......

How To Write A Great Business Plan Berkeley

Check out this SlideShare Presentation: Found a very good presentation on net

How To Write A Great Business Plan Berkeley

View more OpenOffice presentations from reynolds.

How To Write A Great Business Plan Berkeley

Check out this SlideShare Presentation: Found a very good presentation on net

How To Write A Great Business Plan Berkeley

View more OpenOffice presentations from reynolds.

CEIBS campus in Ghana

Capitalising on the campaign of the chinese Govt for the Chinese companies to look at Africa as future Market for Growth, CEIBS has opened the Ghana Campus..

Main focus will def be the companies looking forward to expand sourcing and markets in Africa.

Delhi Police

I was nabbed by the Delhi Traffic Police Patrol Car near the Kashmiri gate turn. This was a full team else they would have negotiated. My Rs. 1000 fine is really pinching me much for the strictnes of the rules. But then there is a story for Delhi Police to be that strict. Fed up with having to keep their eyes perpetually trained on vehicles through the speed guns, and exasperated with the growing number of traffic pile-ups on the city roads, the traffic police has recommended a Traffic Restriction Technique to the government.

Its agenda: get as many vehicles as possible off the road, push up traffic fines manifold and increase parking rates. In short, anything to ensure that the number of vehicles on the choked roads goes down and the traffic offenders face problems in dishing out fines.

Next time I better keep my self away from my mobile while driving. 1000 Rupees is really a handsome amount to keep me disciplined.

Speed of www

Well the unfortunate event with Air France Plane happened today and there is a page on wikipedia today itself and it is still being updated..........this is really fast.....


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_Flight_447

Why is it difficult to do business in China. ??

Why is it difficult to do business in China. ??


I came across a very interesting discussions on a forum on linked in

http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&gid=46978&discussionID=2882900&commentID=3991220#commentID_3991220


One gentleman new to china gave the following obsertvations ...........


am new in this country, however as a retailer i have experienced the following
a) people working and interacting habits are different. the chinese expect a direct and a simple direction.
b) unlike the western world multi tasking is a strict no no.
c) they get involved in what ever they do, thus moving into a different sphere of though and action is difficult.
d) marketing to consumers is a challenge - as media is scattered and prohibitively expensive for sme's.
e) HR issues for a foreign company gain a lot of importance, as the working culture is very different.
f) people pose a challenge in terms of delivery and capabilities to perform a role.
g) they never say no, making ideation difficult.

though not relevant to the online scene, but i feel this affects business and its capability in decision making.


Following are my views in reference to his observations.


Very well insight into the real time experience.....If I go one by one the experience are mainly related to the culture and language ...........Let me analyse them one by one......


a) people working and interacting habits are different. the chinese expect a direct and a simple direction.
Though I disagree with this statement a bit........If you are profiencient enough in mandarin, you will realise that chinese are more indirect...

b) unlike the western world multi tasking is a strict no no. .........Yeah they believe in life time career with one company and master........that comes from Loyalty towards the master in the past in chinese culture.......


c) they get involved in what ever they do, thus moving into a different sphere of though and action is difficult.
Same as in (b) .......they are oriented and focussed.


d) marketing to consumers is a challenge - as media is scattered and prohibitively expensive for sme's.

I disagree with this.........may be you could find some value for money soon

e) HR issues for a foreign company gain a lot of importance, as the working culture is very different.

Yeah since the culture is different ...........Just imagine a rabbit and tortoise in a stable.......

f) people pose a challenge in terms of delivery and capabilities to perform a role.

I disagree with this........Chinese are very hard working .......so delievery should never be a problem.........How can they build such a huge manufacturing base with out good delievery........

g) they never say no, making ideation difficult................Here comes ther asserstion to support my views in (a)..........they are indirect. .........when it comes to arguments.......

Well I think there is always a misconception till a foreigner is mingled into the chinese culture ..........till then its a mystery.........

The real question are
1. How much is the time required to mingle ??
2. What are the alternatives.??
3. Why JV's dont work out in China ??

Any answers..........????