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In 2002, the Kerala Government appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), as consultants to help organize the first Global Investors Meet (GIM) in Kochi in January 18 and 19th 2003. The idea was the brain-child of a dynamic bureaucrat Shri Jiji Thomson who was then the Managing Director of Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC). PwC was requested…
Great Eastern Hotel, an icon in Calcutta, was called the Jewel of the East. It opened for business in 1840. It was originally called the Auckland Hotel—named after George Eden, 1st Earl of Auckland, then the Governor General of India who lived literally next door. The owner of the hotel was David Wilson. One more…
The two firms, Price Waterhouse and Lovelock & Lewes, which merged to form PwC India were born nearly 140 years ago in Calcutta. Both had a timid and mild ‘bhadralok’ culture. There was no cut-throat competition. Succession of the CEO and the leadership team were planned well ahead. There was no tradition of contested elections…
In the spring of 2007, I went to study the Advanced Management Program (AMP) at Harvard Business School (HBS) in Boston. There I met Danny Halutz. I used to wake up pretty early. Before breakfast, Danny, my Living Group member Yudi (who was also from Israel) and I used to walk to Harvard Square and…
Sri Lanka is a small country with barely 20 million people. Its per capita GDP is in excess of $11,000 (on a PPP basis) which is higher than India’s per capita GDP of $6,600. It thrives on tourism, tea, textiles, gems and jewellery, spices, sea-food, shipping and IT services. It has a GDP pushing $250…
Raving Dave: the software industry’s eternal teenager Around 1997, PeopleSoft was the hottest Human Resources Management System (HRMS) on the planet. SAP HR had not yet established itself in the global market. Many of our clients were implementing SAP as an enterprise solution but buying PeopleSoft for their HR application. Apart from its HRMS, PeopleSoft….
In 1998 the public accounting world was shaken by the news of a merger of two global firms Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand. The firms were of similar size. Price Waterhouse had more blue chip clients and a larger global consulting practice but their global footprints were similar. Whenever there is a merger between…
It was January 1997. I was flying from Washington D.C. to London. The person sitting next to me was Dewang Mehta, Executive Director of Nasscom. Dewang informed me that the founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates was coming to India in a couple of months. Nasscom was planning a big event that I definitely should not…
“The rain is falling … Now I am staring … Deep in my heart I would like to find a place for love and all this time, all the time we've lost Just to follow a dream” Bob Marley At the time it made a decision to diversify into Information Technology, the firm was a…
Creating shareholder value is a good thing This morning I would like to talk about the merits of creating shareholder value in a market-based economy. I will take two examples: the Ambanis and the Tatas. In Reliance Industries (RIL)— Shareholding: Promoter & Promoter Group (Ambani family + trusts + holding companies): ~50.4% Public shareholders (institutions,…