Learn to sell WHAT THEY DON`T TEACH YOU AT B-SCHOOL

Let me preface this column by saying that B-school education is extremely useful and important for people wanting to succeed at business in these competitive times. However, there are a number of essential skills and topics that I believe are not taught at B-school, but are critical in making a person succeed at the highest level.

First, the most basic but immensely practical subject is that of “administration”. Much of the young graduate managers that pass out of B-schools are not taught the basics of good administration. In the initial part of their careers, the lack of administration skills cause them to stumble and take hard knocks where none were necessary.

I am amazed how smart, intelligent graduates falter at basics like time management, filing, the simple yet effective art of “follow-ups”, taking notes for research and presenting crisp, complete memos and “bulletin” or a “scoreboard” of the task at hand. Many of these may be thought of as old-fashioned, but I think our fathers and grandfathers were more effective at these and did better with paper and pencil than today’s B-school grads with their laptops.

The second thing that I find most B-schools don’t teach is that one thing that makes or breaks a business or takes an already running business to the next level — “selling”! It is seen to be infra dig and almost looked down upon with contempt. I think that is deplorable because businesses thrive on cash-flows generated by selling products and services.

Nothing is more injurious to the financial health and morale of the company than poor sales. Other subjects are given far more importance than sales. But in reality, selling is an essential skill for all people wanting to run a business.

B-schools encourage competition and don’t teach young, aspiring leaders on how to collaborate rather than compete. In the real world, the people who collaborate with their team-members and outside stakeholders (clients, partners and distributors) do much better than highly intelligent and capable managers who are seen to be “selfish” and/or “solo-performers”.

Last, the more senior one gets in the company, what matters is “who you want to become” rather than “what you will do”. Let me explain — people are not clear whether they want to be great marketers, great systems analyst or maybe even start-up specialists.

That is where one should be honing their skills and art. Instead, people’s decision-making is more reliant on what others are saying or doing, what is currently a “hot” industry or trend, or a lot of times — what pays more. That approach can carry you to some extent, but ultimately to be “great” at anything, you need clarity of who you want to become and what you will be known for, that is, your legacy. That is the ultimate question.

Rajiv Jamkhedkar graduated from Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University

India in $1bn Lockheed jet buy

India has agreed to buy six Lockheed Martin C-130J military transport planes in a breakthrough deal with the US worth about $1bn that opens a door to closer strategic ties, US officials said on Tuesday.

India and the US signed an agreement on January 31 for Lockheed to start delivering the four-engine Super Hercules turboprop aircraft in 2011, said Bruce Lemkin, who handles US Air Force international affairs.

EDITOR’S CHOICE
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The US has been eager to boost strategic ties with India as a hedge against China’s military clout.

Nicholas Burns, the third-highest ranking US State Department official whose retirement was announced last month, wrote late last year that in reaching out to India, the US was betting the planet’s future lay in democracy and market economics rather than “despotism and state planning,” an apparent swipe at communist-ruled China.

“It really provides the centerpiece of a growing relationship between our two air forces,” Mr Lemkin, a deputy undersecretary of the Air Force who had been working on the matter for almost two years, said.

James Clad, deputy assistant US secretary of defense for south and southeast Asia, said the deal dwarfed all US defense sales to New Delhi since Indian independence from Britain in 1947.

“This kind of puts us in a new environment,” he said. “With this sale, India is telling us it’s ready to buy top-quality US equipment on its merits.”

“It positions us to be in the Indian defense market for years to come,” he said.

Mr Lemkin said the agreement provided for US logistics support, training and spare parts as well as the aircraft.

Indian airmen would start training in the US, probably in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 2010, the year before deliveries start, he said.

The Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which handles government-to-government arms sales, notified Congress of the possible sale last May, putting its potential value at $1.06bn if all options were exercised.

Lockheed, the Pentagon’s No. 1 supplier by sales, and Boeing , its next-biggest supplier, are bidding against Russian and European rivals for a potential $10.2bn deal to sell the Indian air force 126 new multirole fighter aircraft.

Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed said it was pleased to see the acquisition process moving forward in India.

“The C-130J Super Hercules will provide the Indian Air Force with a highly advanced, flexible platform that will meet the range of missions unique to India,” the defence contractor said.

Officials at the Indian embassy in Washington did not return phone calls seeking comment.

IT stocks lead 593 point surge in Sensex

A strong surge in information technology (IT) stocks, which had taken a hit due to the strengthening rupee, saw the key benchmark stock indices close above 18,000, ending its four-day losing streak.

The IT index of the 30-share Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) was the top gainer (5.77 per cent) among sectoral indices. While the BSE Sensex rose by 3.36 per cent, or 593.87 points, to close at 18,242, the broader 50-share index CNX S&P Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) too gained 3.50 per cent, or 179 points, to close at 5,317.

Among the Asian markets, Hang Seng was up 2.85 per cent. Taiwan Weighted gained 2.03 per cent and Seoul Composite advanced 0.61 per cent. Nikkei, however, was down 0.70 per cent and Shanghai Composite 1.43 per cent.

Explaining the buying interest in IT stocks, market players said most IT stocks were available at a price-to-earnings ratio that is lower than that of the Sensex.

Anita Gandhi, head of institutional business at Arihant Capital, said: “The recent move by IT companies to curb expenses has gone down well with investors. Moreover, the rupee too seems to be stabilising at the current levels. Both these factors plus the fact that stocks were highly undervalued are attracting investor attention.”

Satyam Computers was the top gainer among index pivotals. The stock rose 8.18 per cent and was last traded at Rs 421. Infosys Technologies rose 5.80 per cent to Rs 1,591. Wipro was up 5.79 per cent at Rs 437 and TCS gained 6.17 per cent at Rs 992.

Some of the other top gainers, including Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Hindalco Industries, ONGC and HDFC, gained 5 to 6 per cent.

Internet services to be restored by evening

Internet services in the country, which were disrupted following a major international cable breakdown, would be restored by this evening.

"Only 2% of the links are down today and we expect all the links to be restored by the evening," Rajesh Chharia of Internet Service Providers Association of India told PTI.

The internet services were disrupted on Wednesday night due to damage to two international undersea cables off Egypt coast.

About 50-60% of the capacity was affected due to the rupture in the cables, which connect India to Western Europe, due to anchoring of ships near Alexandria.

He said big BPO firms and companies were not affected as they had their back-up plan but the fault might have affected small BPOs which operate only through a single route.

Majority of the firms are trying to restore their connections through a different route. International long distance and Internet traffic to Europe and the US got affected due to the breakdown.

The Department of Telecom had yesterday reviewed the situation with senior officials and service providers, and said the link would be restored by the ILD operators within 10 days by expediting the repair.

Service providers VSNL, Reliance and Bharti Airtel are in constant touch with Telecom Egypt to ensure speedy repair of the two submarine cables SEMEWE-4 Cable (SMW-4) and FLAG Cable. The circuits working on these cables are being shifted by the three firms to other cables such as SMW-3 cable and pacific route cables to restore the telecommunication links.

Aditya Birla Retail to invest Rs10,000cr

Aditya Birla Retail (ABRL), the retail arm of the Aditya Birla Group, would be investing Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 crore in expanding its operations across the country over a period of five years.

The company, which aims to emerge as one of the leading retail players in India, plans to have nearly 1,500 supermarket and 100 hypermarket stores in the next five years. It is also investing in backend infrastructure to develop a robust supply chain, Sumant Sinha, chief executive officer, ABRL said.

ABRL, which launched its first store in May 2007 at Pune, currently has nearly 400 supermarket stores and one hypermarket store. Its retail footprint in South India extended to 275 stores following the acquisition of Trinethra Super Retail stores last year. The company is setting up a hypermarket in Baroda by this month-end. At present, it has one such store in Mysore.

Announcing the rebranding of the Trinethra stores to 'More' here today, Sinha said the company is looking at all options, including coming out with an initial public offering, to raise funds to finance its expansion programme.

Andrew Denby, chief executive officer (supermarkets), ABRL, said the company's retail stores served 2 million customers last month.