Insights on Earth Day from Top MBA Colleges in Delhi NCR: The Economics of Global Climate Change

The top MBA Colleges in Delhi NCR are business schools with a difference. While it may be fashionable for MBA students to aim for placements, CEOs to aim for ESOPs and corporations to aim for shareholder value maximization and for business school academicians to engage in academic research, the authentic truth is that the habitat that shelters each of these stakeholder groups has been at the receiving end of things. On April22, 2016 Ishan Institute of Management & Technology takes a deep insightful look at the economics of climate change and the rationale behind this negligence of gargantuan proportions. On Earth Day the academicians, staff and students of the first business school of Greater Noida come together to present you this insight on the economics of global climate change.

The Free Rider Problem, Tragedy of Commons and Treating Environment as a Waste Sink

A vast majority of the literature available on the issue of environmental management and environmental economics is driven by the exclusive focus on private goods and invisible hand of the market. It makes enormous great sense to suggest that the environment on local, national and even the global levels falls into the domain of public goods and therefore cannot be streamlined by relying on the invisible hand of the market unless it is strengthened by the visible hand of the government. Public finance as an academic discipline is rarely ever taught or discussed by business schools. Most MBA Colleges in the world and India do not integrate this paper into the academic curriculum and academicians of the highest stature who have the intellectual capabilities to break open the shackles leave much to be desired in terms of serious academic efforts to bring the subject into mainstream business education. It is worthwhile to recall the famous essay of the legendary MIT academician Naom Chomsky –“The Responsibility of Intellectuals” and thus seriously demand an explanation from academicians of business schools on the colossal torpidity shown by them on something as important as climate change.

Coming back to the core issue of environment and its stature as a public good, we bring into focus the properties of public goods. These are as follows:

·        Non-rivalry

·        Non-excludability

  These two characteristics features are applicable to the global environment. Being characterized by non-rivalry implies that the consumption of the environment by few does not leave any less of it for consumption by other consumers. Being characterized by non-exclusivity implies that consumers who do not pay the price in lieu of consumption cannot be stopped from consumption. These two properties combine to give rise to the free rider problem and the tragedy of commons. In the context of welfare economics these two phenomena can be viewed as negative externalities that motivate business leaders, corporations, micro, small and medium enterprises and governments to dump pollutants into the environment without having to bother about paying the price. Of course this issue has been tackled by some governments in the form of imposition of carbon credits and mandatory disclosure of carbon emissions, water negativity and other forms of quantitative reporting in social audit reports. Some corporations have also embraced green accounting. The truth is that micro, small and medium enterprises that are the lesser mortals in the world of climate change bear the brunt of these government policies and bleed financially while the big fish are just too big to be caught in the net of regulators.

     Corporate Actions and International Inactions: Data on the Robber Barons and Knights in Shining Armour

    A research done by the Climate Accountability Institute shows conclusive evidence that half of the quantum of carbon emissions have taken place in the last 25 years and that more than 2/3^rd of the same has been a direct outcome of the carbon emissions by just 90 companies worldwide. According to the leading English daily from United Kingdom, The Guardian this list of 90 companies includes 50 investor owned companies, 31 of them being public sector companies from Saudi Arabia, Russia and Norway. There are 9 government-run industries producing coal in countries like China, the former Soviet Union, North Korea and Poland. There are also comments coming from Harvard academia like Prof. Naomi Oreskes, who assert that Mexico, Venezuela and other Latin American countries that are not uttered and hence get the benefits of doubt. Contrary to this statement, one is baffled at the silence of these esteemed institutions on the fact that Mexico, Venezuela and a host of other Latin American and African nations were enslaved and colonized by west European nations for mining and resource expropriation as suggested in the documentary The End of Poverty featuring economists Joseph Stiglitz, Amartya Sen and Raghuram Rajan. The consequence is that the robber barons play knights in shining armour while deploring the emerging economies.

     International Community and Climate Change

   All has not been lost and the paradise can be regained. Given that there has been international action on deliberations at the highest level within the framework of the United Nations Climate Change Conference suggests that there is light at the end of the tunnel. The sad part is that despite the existence of evidence and empirical data on corporate actions and colonial regimes of governments, there is no consensus on achieving inter-temporal equilibrium with regard to climate change. Despite the fact that most top MBA Colleges, business schools, governments, corporations and business leaders knowing the history of science and the inverted U-Hypothesis of Simon Kuznets, there is a lack of organizational will to turn the clock back and set the record straight. Here is the complete list of meetings that have taken place under the auspices of the United Nations Climate Change Conference.

     What Have We Done as a Top MBA College in Delhi NCR?

    At Ishan Institute of Management & Technology, we have undertaken efforts to be a part of the climate change campaign in letter and spirit. As an MBA College in Greater Noida, we have included 3 case studies into the academic curriculum of the paper of strategic management and discussed the solutions to the cases on climate change and social audit report preparation. We have integrated 2 case studies on free rider problem and tragedy of commons in the paper of business environment. We have also streamlined and added 3 case studies on carbon emissions in the paper of business ethics and corporate governance. Beside this Ishan Institute of Management & Technology hosted the first Global Value and Ethics Convention that saw participation from150 delegates from more than 25 countries in the year 2014. As an education enterprise of the 21^st century we have made disciplined efforts towards reducing the usage of plastics and non-recyclable materials, reusing stationary items and recycling processes for higher energy efficiency and a lower carbon footprint. We have also taken up the cause of animal activism and expressed our support for the ethical treatment of animals.

   On a concluding note, as a top MBA College in Delhi NCR and the first graduate business school of Greater Noida, we would like to acknowledge the efforts of our students Himanshu Gurjar (Department of Arhcitecture), Sagar Singh Solanki and Bhim Prakash (Department of Management), Mansi Verma, Praveen Kashyap and Aril Wadia (Department of Commerce) for contributing their collage collections themed on climate change in Delhi NCR during Kshitiz 2016-the annual fest of Ishan. 

Mist on the Screen for Yahoo-Insights from Top MBA Colleges in Delhi NCR

Even the top MBA Colleges in Delhi NCR that are so far away from the hot spot of action are virtually awaiting tragic news. It is almost as if the writing is there on the wall for everyone to see and yet investors, bankers, stock brokers and media are just hoping against hope for a last minute miracle to salvage the fortunes of one of the earliest internet companies in Silicon Valley. At Ishan Institute of Management & Technology, one of the top MBA Colleges in Greater Noida, Delhi NCR the academicians and students have been watching at the turn of events with fingers crossed trying to soak in as much knowledge as we can. While the demise of the most ancient internet company is not exactly an opportune moment to learn, it makes enormous good sense to assert that analysis of business is required in order to prevent a recurrence of such phenomenon in India or anywhere else in the world.

A Brief History of Yahoo

Yahoo is indeed one of the most ancient companies in the internet industry. Having been established by two Stanford students Jerry Yang and David Filo, the company is headquartered in Sunnywale, California, U.S. Yahoo began its journey as an internet directory and soon became a valuable navigational tool for users searching for information on the internet. Even in the dotcom crash of the year 2000, the company managed to stay put and hold ground against adverse industry conditions. Some of the better known strategic business units (SBUs) of Yahoo are Yahoo Directory, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Groups, Yahoo Answers, Yahoo Advertising, Yahoo Online Mapping, Yahoo Video Sharing, Fantasy Sports, Tumblr and Flickr. While this makes for an interesting read in corporate history, there is more to the picture than meets the eye.

Industry Position of Yahoo

This time Yahoo’s earnings have been reported to be slightly above the estimates of analysts. The unfortunate part is that the reason behind this is that a string of bad financial performances that have been reported over the last ten years have forced analysts to revise their expectations. Revenue stood at $1.09 billion for most of the last quarter, down 11% from the year before and the net loss of the company stood at $99 million. Yahoo is expected to capture more than $2.6 billion in worldwide digital ad revenues. The absolute figures may just seem fine as long as one does not watch out for market share and industry data of competitors like Google and Microsoft.

What Went Wrong for Yahoo?

Given that Yahoo is now staring at the strategic alternative process; one does have to beg to ask for what went wrong for Yahoo? As with any other giant that falls flat on earth, there are not one but several reasons. Over the last ten years Yahoo has seen six CEOs pass through the doors. One of those CEOs was straight from Hollywood and led the company into acquiring Geocities for $4.6 billion, followed by the acquisition of Broadcast.com for $5.7 billion. Unlike Google and Facebook that evolved business models to branch out into the community based models of social media, Yahoo was stuck with content. Even Google focused a lot on getting digital ad revenue while Yahoo focused on creative business content. While Google went in for corporate restructuring last year and rechristened itself Alphabet, Yahoo failed to evolve in terms of corporate structure and design.

What Has Been the Role of Marissa Mayer?

The role of Marissa Mayer has come under close scrutiny from media, industry insiders and Wall Street. Marissa Mayer the present CEO of Yahoo is an alumnus of Stanford University who has specialized in symbolic systems. She was one of Google’s earliest employees and was one of the brightest and most successful product development managers in Google. In her stint as CEO of Yahoo, she did focus on high profile content acquisitions such as the blogging site Tumblr and high profile talent like David Pogue and Katie Couric. She did put in efforts to improve the search capabilities of Yahoo.

Suitors for Yahoo

With every passing day it is becoming increasingly clear that sooner or later this year Yahoo will have to opt for the strategic alternative process. Potential suitors for Yahoo include Verizon, AT&T, Comcast, Amazon and Softbank. Yahoo offers these suitors a chance at improving consumer relationship and loads of user data that has accumulated over the years. It has been seen that telecom companies usually have expressed interest in such acquisitions in the past for strategic reasons but not many of those attempts have been successful.

At Ishan Institute of Management & Technology, the best MBA College in Greater Noida, we are in the process of collecting data on the liquidation strategy of Yahoo for the purpose of an extensive case study on what may turn out to be the fall of yet another dotcom giant anytime now.

Retirement-The Curse of Long Life: Insights from Top MBA Colleges in Delhi NCR

At the top MBA Colleges in Delhi NCR, academicians and students are regularly engaged in learning, researching and implementing industry best practices. The search for optimization of resources for time, space and scale keeps going on and on. The search for the invisible hand of the market keeps going on and yet we do not recognize the facts that lie straight under the naked eye. We fail to take cognizance of the fact that for a free market economy that has achieved full employment equilibrium cannot move forward or grow without the destruction of at least few of the unproductive economic forces. Death and retirement are thus two very important factors that affect economic growth rates and take the world forward. Make no mistake no industry is as sustainable, as greatly repetitive, as destructive and as productive as death. Retirement is a brainchild of economists, policy makers and state but is born out of the problems of death and its antidote –long life span.

The Economics of Retirement

At Ishan Institute of Management & Technology, the academicians of the faculty of business administration have touched down upon the issues of death and retirement in the lectures of business environment and business ethics. The point here is not to romanticize death like a poet or get philosophical without mind over matter but to understand the trouble that is fomenting in the PIIGS (Portugal, Iceland, Italy, Greece and Spain) and to a certain extent in the United States of America as well (in the context of falling off the fiscal cliff). There are some unusually interesting statistics available. In the United States of America an individual at the age of 65 years needs $ 400,000 just to cover health care costs. This data comes straight from an article published in the Harvard Business Review by Neil Pasricha. The article further asserts that retirement itself increases the risk of depression by 40%. While these may refer to data on explicit and implicit costs of retirement, as Carlyle has said it is incorrect for an economist to interpret costs only on the negative side. It is crucial to know why retirement is a cost at all.

Choice of Techniques by Amartya Sen and Disguised Unemployment

Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen in his seminal work Choice of Techniques (Basil & Blackwell Publication, London, 1956) asserts that there are three aspects of employment: productivity aspect, income aspect and recognition aspect. Of these three aspects most people without any formal training in the profession of economics refer to income aspect as being singularly important in comparison to the other two factors. This is a gross mistake to say the least. The productivity aspect of employment determines the value component and hence also determines the bargaining power of labour as a factor of production. In the corporate sector where a clear line of distinction is drawn between blue collar and white collar labour, it may be said that managerial work that most business school graduates look forward to is an overlapping of labour in the classical sense of economics and intrapreneurship, a managerial form of entrepreneurship. Never the less the productivity aspect of an individual has been observed to decrease with aging and may also turn negative in terms of marginal productivity of labour. Recognition aspect of employment concerns the fulfilment of psychological and social attributes. The yearning for being accepted as a team member in social institutions like business enterprise, family, school, community and friends cannot be negated. Psychological attributes of the Freudian type of self, social self, ideal self and finally the ideal social self are highly important in determining the youthful aggression that any individual needs so very badly.

Sigmund Freud and Cultural Super Ego

Sigmund Freud, in his seminal work Civilization and Its Discontents (1930) has elaborately discussed his famous structural model of psychic attributes. The work explains the components of the self that have been hinted at above. It will not be entirely wrong to attempt to understand retirement in the area where Amartya Sen’s views on development economics overlap with the psychology based construct of Sigmund Freud.

With aging, decline in productivity and a realization that the self is eroding in terms of value to the economy and society set in. The Freudian concept of ideal social self is then an extension of Sen’s concept of recognition aspect. Imagine an individual who has spent more than 30 years of his life dressing in the C-suite and leading life on the fast track with more than an empire of connections on LinkedIn retiring from job and thus retiring into oblivion. Imagine that same individual being forced to change his status update as “retired” on LinkedIn. Will the next morning ever be the same? Will he be in a hurry to follow a routine? These are questions that will continue to haunt him as long as he is alive.

The Yerkes –Dodson Law

What does retirement have to do with age? How does the psychological construct of a man change with age and finally lead to the erosion of recognition aspect and the dissolving of the ideal social self. At the top MBA colleges in Delhi NCR, academicians and students have engaged in research on these questions. The Yerkes-Dodson Law is a vital tool that links the missing dots and thus probably enables academicians in business schools to understand the phenomenon of retirement. The Yerkes-Dodson Law asserts that there is proportionality between mental arousal and performance. In the initial stages there is direct proportionality between arousal and performance and this direct proportionality lasts till the inflexion point. Beyond the inflexion point the graph goes downhill. There is inverse proportionality between arousal and performance beyond the inflexion point. The bell shaped curve is shown below.

How Does the State Step Into The Picture?

In the year 1889, Otto von Bismarck, the then Chancellor of Germany coined the term “retirement.” He said “Those who are disabled from work by age and invalidity have a well-grounded claim to care from the state.” His objective was to address the problem of youth unemployment and streamline employment opportunities for the youth by removing the unproductive components from the workforce. The age limit for this was set at 70 and above. Other countries followed suit with retirement ages at 65 or 70.

The problem though is the way science and technology in medical sciences and health care have stepped in to increase the life span of mankind. The longer is the life span, longer is the time lived post retirement and hence greater the problem.

At Ishan Institute of Management & Technology, one of the top MBA Colleges in Greater Noida, we do 5 case studies on social and economic issues that concern problems that cannot be solved by the free market economy in its orthodox ways. 

Driving the Big Data Analytics Revolution in India: Insights from Top MBA Colleges in Delhi NCR

Top MBA Colleges in Delhi NCR and across India have a new fashion fad. While it may seem like a hyperbole to call big data analytics a mere fashion fad, it makes enormous good sense to assert that corporations in India are highly unwilling to jump onto an IT investment cycle bandwagon at the earliest. The tight rope walk that Indian companies prefer to do while balancing operating and financial risks, the imitation lag hypothesis, the currently existing bear phase of the global economy thanks to the slash in commodity pricing and a set of conservative people unwilling to accept even the change in position of office furniture add up to the effect of non-acceptance of the next big thing in IT. Needless to say business schools in Delhi NCR and across India are only slower to incorporate the emerging trends of business automation in their academic curriculum and follow the footprints of their corporate peers.

Achieving a Transformation in the Approach towards Digitization

Achieving a turnaround in the state of business process automation is a question of necessity. It is not a question of compulsion. At Ishan Institute of Management & Technology, the top MBA College in Delhi NCR, the academicians in their interactions with students and business executives emphasise on the assessment of opportunity costs of letting go the digitization paradigm. Most corporations have tremendous quantities of data locked in legacy IT systems and legacy applications. This untapped data that is unused and locked in hard copies of files, servers, personal computers and legacy software apps are goldmines of intrinsic knowledge that can be and should be used for faster, effective and most importantly efficient decision making. Yes, there is conclusive evidence on the fact that digitization in its very primitive incarnation of intrinsic knowledge management can pay rich dividends. A research publication from the business consulting giant McKinsey asserts that corporations drive up profitability and productivity by up to 6%.

An Agenda for the Top Management Team for a Digitization Drive

In our lecture sessions on strategic management we have done 5 case studies and supplemented that with an insight again published by McKinsey. Based on these cases studies and the research publication of McKinsey we have reaffirmed our faith in the following 6 point agenda for the top management team of corporations to follow:

·        Transform people towards a gradual adoption of big data analytics

·        Streamlining a data analytics strategy

·        Assessing what to build, borrow, rent or purchase

·        Securing big data analytics expertise

·        Mobilizing resources

·        Building frontline capabilities

Engineering a Big Data Analytics Plan for Beginners

Once the top management team of a corporation paves the way for the adoption of big data analytics it is crucial to have a strategic plan of action and identify the key requirements of the project while also defining the business goals that the project seeks to achieve and identifying metrics for the measurement of returns on investment across different stages of the IT project lifecycle. Putting in place an analytics plan for corporations that are about to start off the first time should ideally consist of three components: data, tools and analytics models.

The creation of a sustainable and accurate data repository calls for systems analysis and design to streamline the flow and funnelling of data through different layers and reengineering the data architecture. Data governance standards may be required to be put in place with implementation of margins of error in data creation, maintenance and collection. More over it is wise to distil transactions from analytical reports.

The second part of the plan is to identify the relevant analytics models and assess the merits of each of the analytics models before being out to use. An analytics modelling factory may play a crucial role here by diagnosing which data analytics model works best for optimization of data so that it may be scaled for different business functions and units across the company.

The third part of the plan consists of tools meant for integrating the complex outputs of data modelling into the business processes that are being carried out in a routine basis. Tools that offer an interface between the output generated by data analytics modelling and business practices of managers complete the link between data scientists and analysts on one hand and managers and employees on the other hand. Many companies fail to institutionalize the big data analytics revolution because they fail to integrate the last two steps.

Three Big Data Analytics ROI Patterns

There are three clear investment patterns that are likely to emerge from a big data analytics project that is undertaken. These three patterns are as follows.

·        First, early bird catches the worm. There is crystal clear evidence that corporations that start early get the time cushion to learn by trial and error and thus adapt to the digitization strategy faster. 

·        Second, investment in IT and big data analytics expertise offers a better payoff than just investment in the technology. The coordination between IT skills and IT infrastructure creation is decisive in improving productivity and profitability.

·        Third, investing in big data analytics talent at scale holds the key. Big data analytics professionals are the ultimate knowledge workers of the 21^st century and are beyond an iota of doubt in short supply. It is critical for the HR department to build a large talent pool for driving the big data analytics project. There has to be an investment in hiring top IT talent at scale.

At Ishan Institute of Management & Technology, the top MBA College in Delhi NCR and the first graduate business school in Greater Noida, we have incorporated big data analytics into the academic curriculum of strategic management and have in the last year itself done 5 case studies in lecture sessions

Doing Well by Doing Good Against Cancer: Insights from Top MBA Colleges in Delhi NCR

Top MBA Colleges in Delhi NCR like Ishan Institute of Management & Technology are consistently reinventing the academic curriculum and pedagogy for PGDM and MBA courses by institutionalizing industry best practices where ever possible or by inculcating them as add-ons in the form of case studies, research papers and business research projects. The first graduate business school of Greater Noida, Ishan Institute of Management & Technology has to this extent integrated case studies on CSR and sustainable business models in papers of strategic management, rural and industrial management and business ethics. An area of academic interest that the academicians of the business school have been pursuing off late is the development of business and revenue models that are based on bottom of the pyramid markets and are based on people, planet and profit. Our academic endeavours in this direction have been streamlined by the classification of such business models into new business development, new product development and new market development for bottom of the pyramid people. One such very exciting piece of business news that is still a work in progress is the involvement of Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates in the fight against cancer.

Venture Capital Investments in the Fight against Cancer

In the last week while participating in an off-the classroom question and answer session with PGDM students the faculty of business administration came across a knowledge resource from Bloomberg. It shows the spree in VC investments in the fight against cancer along with the details of the start-up companies that are engaging in the development of liquid biopsy for the effective diagnosis and treatment of cancer. A summary of the information is shared here with along with the expression of intellectual gratitude and indebtedness to Bloomberg for sharing this information publicly.

Given that the healthcare sector is highly dependent on research and development, it becomes a challenge to develop a business model that has experiments as the guarantor of the bread and butter stream. This is where the participation of angel investors, private equity funds and mezzanine capital sources becomes critical to the survival of these start-ups that are engaging in the development of cutting edge technology to fight cancer. The role of VCs as investors is a heartening sign and shows that at least corporations and corporate philanthropists across the world care about contributing to the fight against cancer in a way they understand best-business.

The New Product Development Paradigm for Cancer

It is common knowledge that cancer is an intruder that sheds bits of DNA and spreads them across the blood stream of the human being affected. These bits of DNA are the gold pots of knowledge that doctors and medical technologists are betting on. Given that we have the technology for genetic sequencing; it is possible to develop techniques of liquid biopsies that are less expensive and less invasive in comparison to tissue samples. The objective is to develop an all encompassing and all pervasive blood test that would examine for traces of cancer in the blood sample of a human being long before any visible symptom and sign of cancer becomes visible to the naked eye of the doctor. It shall be a simple to administer blood test and this is exactly the point that VCs like Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates are eyeing.

The Challenges and the Opportunities

The above stated stuff may amount to tall talk in the absence of any scorching evidence on the time duration that it may take to develop such a blood test based on liquid biopsy. Assuming that it may take ten years at least for the entire cycle of experiments, consistency in results and clinical trials before the medical community across the globe takes it seriously, it is a Himalayan task to accomplish. Of course the fact that FIIs are participating will provide scale to these efforts.

The efforts though are worth the returns. The liquid biopsy offers prospects of early detection that can save lives and initiate treatment at the earliest and thus increase the life span of a cancer patient.

New Market Development and Current Business Activity

The market opportunity for the liquid biopsy super screening test that shall examine traced of all forms of cancer may hit annual sales of USD 200 billion in the formative years itself. As of now there are 38 companies across the world that are selling or developing some form of liquid biopsy. The mean pricing of the new product being developed by companies is at $1000 per test. The head count of people who can be saved stands at 7.4 billion. Illumina’s CEO Jay Flatey opines that the first commercial version of the liquid biopsy shall be ready to be launched in the market worldwide by the year 2019.

Why this is Important to Top MBA Colleges in Delhi NCR?

According to the National Cancer Registry Programme of the Indian Council of Medical Research more than 1300 Indians die every day due to cancer. Between the years 2012 and 2014 the mortality rate due to cancer in India increased by 6%. The mortality rate is the highest in the North East wit most cases of cancer belonging to the type of stomach cancer followed closely by breast and lung cancer. At Ishan Institute of Management & Technology, the first MBA college in Greater Nodia, Delhi NCR we aim to incorporate the latest and cutting edge technology and business models on cancer treatment as a case study for sustainable business development for bottom of the pyramid markets. There are ambitious plans of extending the case study into a fully fledged business research project on the development of cost effective and efficient solutions to health care problems by putting them into the templates of Gandhian engineering.

Globalization Then and Now: Insights from the Top MBA Colleges in Delhi NCR

Top MBA Colleges in Delhi NCR have been a part of the journey called globalization. The academicians engaged in teaching, mentoring students and researching on business in top MBA Colleges in Delhi NCR have seen the city come off age in terms of its urban infrastructure, values and lifestyles,  retail landscape and fashion trends. These factors can hardly be called metrics of globalization by any serious academic but it makes enormous good sense to refer to these as the most visible signs of change. Probably a substantial proportion of the Indian population came to terms with the term “globalization” and its tangible impact on their lives in the year 1991 when the then Finance Minister and now Ex-Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh presented the Union Budget that announced India’s arrival on the big stage amid the chaos and cacophony emerging from Eastern Europe on one hand and the collapse of the Berlin Wall in the West. This is a story that has now become the stuff of legends and has been shared by most parents with their children. It seem subversive if not paradoxical that a country that has been at the centre stage of globalization for more than 3,000 years now has had to wait for so many years to know the clinical terminology of the phenomenon.

Where Does Globalization Belong?

A lot of water has passed since then under the Tower Bridge and hopefully business leaders, entrepreneurs and policy makers are no more busy debating if the world is flat or not. At Ishan Institute of Management & Technology, the top MBA College in Greater Noida, we academicians face the recurring question: “What is Globalization?” We get to face this question in primarily in the lectures of papers like business environment which is a combination of macroeconomics, Indian economy, international trade and political economy. The other paper that finds active and intellectually stimulating debates on globalization is strategic management. In reality we academicians assert and believe that the question on globalization and its discontents ought to be asked in lectures of business communication. Globalization is the integration of different nations by means of building of economic, financial, social, linguistic and political interfaces. While the interfaces may differ in form and content, the building or development of the interface is essentially a part of system design for communication. Globalization is communication at the highest level in aggregated form where by people, corporations and governments of the two or more nations are senders and receivers and there is constant feedback that allows the system to keep perpetuating the next levels of conversation. Each cycle of communication generates a feedback, gets embedded in the history of the world and sets the stage for the next level. Globalization is a dialogue among corporations and governments of different nations with people at the centre stage.

Globalization Then: In the 20^th Century

If an academician from a business school had to go through the archives of globalization and read through the dust smeared annals of the phenomenon, one would have to identify events that would figure in the timeline of the world and serve as milestones to reach where we are today. As such based on literature review of some of the very known faces in studies on globalization like Prof. Amartya Sen, Prof. Joseph Stiglitz, Prof. Pankaj Ghemawat, Prof. Jagdish Bhagwati, Prof. Debraj Ray, Prof. Pranab Bardhan and Prof. Kaushik Basu that timeline shall consist of the First World War, Second World War, the independence of India and Pakistan in South Asia, the fall of the Third Reich, the formation and failure of the League of Nations, the formation of the United Nations Organization, the formation of the European Economic Council, the formation of World Bank and International Monetary Fund, the formation of NATO, the formation of the Warsaw Pact, the beginning of the Non-Alignment Movement(NAM) , the Vietnam War, the Korean War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the fall of USSR, the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the invention of the internet.

Globalization Now: In the 21^st century

Globalization and the very nature of the process of integration and inter-connecting of nations has transformed in a big way. The economic and political landscape did change and beyond an iota of doubt accelerated the process by removing barriers to free trade, consolidating economic integration and move towards singular currency (like in Europe). Yet one has to accept that the most defining moment of change was perhaps the last mega-event of the 20^th century. It was the invention of the internet followed by the stream of inventions of email by Ray Tomlinson that facilitated people to people connect without any censorship by governments of nations and without any deliberate attempts at gaming the system by any blue chip corporation. Post modernism which is the phrase that best describes globalization in the 21^st century has been driven by the rise and rise of information technologies. The biggest drivers of globalization in the 21^st century have been technological breakthroughs that have improved exchange of data and information, knowledge intensive services, free flow of information and flows of innovation in both the directions. 

While many people may add a few more inventions like the development of search engines by both Google and Microsoft, we have seen it included in the broader spectrum of the World Wide Web.

Is the World Really Flatter in the 21^st Century?

After the above shown analysis there is still that one question that the devil’s advocate would bother to ask. Has the world become really flatter in the 21^st century? How does the world stand today in the 21^st century vis-a-vis that in the 20^th century? Does globalization have the same meaning that the Washington Consensus had inferred in the end of the 2oth century? Does the world take globalization as free mobility of factors of production and networking of markets? Is there something more to globalization than just networking of markets? As long as there are people who stay disconnected from the markets and governments, the work is only half- done. The debate on the normative aspects notwithstanding here is a list of the biggest differences between the capital intensive globalization of the 20^th century and the digital globalization of the 21^st century.

At Ishan Institute of Management & technology, the first graduate business school of Greater Noida and one of the top MBA Colleges in Delhi NCR we have integrated these subtle changes into the academic curriculum of MBA and PGDM courses. Till date more than 50 research projects have been undertaken on the tracks of globalization, technological drivers and financial integration. 

Searching for the Mahatma: Insights on Gandhism from Top MBA Colleges in Delhi NCR

Top MBA Colleges in Delhi NCR like Ishan Institute of Management & Technology have regularly engaged in intellectual pursuits that put the construct of a free market with freedom ahead of a free market itself. Coming straight from the horse’s mouth and that too from one of the top MBA Colleges in Delhi NCR which in itself has been a supreme epitome of free market mechanism, the statement may appear to subversive if not paradoxical. History repeats itself, first as tragedy and second as farce. Being an academician who has spent the formative years of his career teaching macroeconomics that is built on positivism, one can only appreciate the stark truth that is ingrained in opportunity cost, sacrifice ratio and compromise.

While most business schools that render MBA programs stylised on Anglo-American manuals of management stop at the teachings of the Chicago school that there are no free lunches in economics, top business schools in Delhi NCR like Ishan Institute of Management & Technology extend this learning to embrace yet another truth that the need for achievement, power and affiliation are all based on the quantum of the self that we are willing to sacrifice. To love a goal is to achieve it. To achieve a goal is to submit to a mission. To submit to a mission, is to sacrifice the gloss. To sacrifice the layers of gloss is to be content with the core. The distinction of the core and gloss perhaps is a capability that true managers, executives and business leaders possess in abundance. Almost a hundred years ago, the Mahatma had showed this to the world. Great business acumen, great transaction oriented behaviour, great team building, great enterprise creation and even great social and community building stand on the pillars of how much we are willing to compromise. Perhaps it is this understanding that makes the Mahatma truly invaluable to business schools. As documented in one of the earlier blogs, there is a scope and necessity for the evolution of an Indian school of business management. Whenever this foetus gets engineered into a new born baby, it shall evolve inside the womb of India (as an economy and a market) and shall inherit the genes of Gandhism to the fullest.  In the next few paragraphs we take a look at the rationale behind this statement and why Gandhism has to make its way stumbling and staggering into the academic curriculum and marketable skill formation of aspiring Indian managers and business graduates.

Gandhi and the Science of Adapting to Time, Space and Scale: Gandhian Innovation

There are many facets of the Mahatma’s life and teachings that show different colours. There are many instances which to a business executive may seem to be logically inconsistent. As much as the Indian school of thought bases itself on obedience versatility and the spirit to experiment go for a toss. Innovation gets strangled in the rough and coarse hands of compliance mode of governance. The biggest truth that emerges out of the different colours of Satyagraha is that truth should not be sought in the bisection of actions into black and white. The market is a place full of colours. Each colour calls for a different solution to a unique problem. Adaptation is the truth that continues to evolve in a market that always evolves. Adaptation along the parameters of time, space and scale leads to the engineering of optimal solutions that fit into situations. The realization of this teaching of Gandhi is the foundation of Gandhian innovation and design thinking for bottom of the pyramid markets like India. It is Gandhian innovation that can enable win-win situations for the corporate sector to do well in the market by doing good to the society. This is what top MBA Colleges in Delhi NCR should ideally do to enable business graduates solve the management challenges of the 21^st century.

Gandhi and the Art of Human Engineering: Leadership in Focus

There is a standard principle of individualization in Homeopathy stated by Dr.James Tyler Kent. The principle asserts that each individual has a distinct and unique biological system. Hence prescription for any ailment is based on the individual under consideration. Based on the fact that every individual is distinct there is both a scope and necessity to take cognizance of the individual. Diversity is central to the social fabric of India and as we step into the 21^st century there are conclusive evidences coming forward that constructed teams that are high on diversity of race, community and gender are much better placed to handle different business situations. Diversity manifests in multiple problems. Diversity when it emerges out of differences of skills, backgrounds and opinions and held together by the glue of leadership becomes a boon and when left tampered with to neutralize the complementary effects arising out of differences leads to disaster. The capability to move forward with a diverse set of stakeholders like investors, clients and employees together is a skill that has to be learnt, emulated and repeated constantly. This is where Gandhism becomes a great manual for the modern day practicing manager to follow.

India and Bharat are two distinct pictures emerging out of the same land and as we step into the 21^st century it is becoming crystal clear that the reconciliation of the market and the nation is easier said than done. To integrate free market democracy while consolidating free social democracy is the steepest of mountains and the most uphill of tasks. At Ishan Institute of Management & Technology, one of the top MBA colleges in Greater Noida we have been engaging in mentoring MBA and PGDM students to achieve just that through high quality business research backed by inputs on social sciences like economics and sociology. We are the fist graduate business school and MBA college in Greater Noida.

Global Business and Tech Trends in Ecommerce: Insights from Top MBA Colleges in Greater Noida

At one of the top MBA Colleges in Greater Noida, Ishan Institute of Management & Technology, the last year has been exciting and happening for both academicians and students. We have been collaborating in researching on different aspects of the ecommerce industry both at the national and global levels. At the global level ecommerce has evolved better and thus grown faster and better than in India. Given that ecommerce is a technology driven vertical, it gives the impression to many people in business schools that the key driver of business growth is technology. As business academicians at one top MBA colleges in Greater Noida, we beg to differ. Based on the empirical evidence that our students and fellow academicians have collected we assert that the synchronization of technology with the business and revenue models matters the most. Technology in isolation does not achieve the desired targets of business growth. As such we have based this piece on business and technological trends that are shaping the contours of the ecommerce vertical at the global level.

Global Rankings of Ecommerce Companies

Based on the net product sales, Deloitte has published the findings of its research. Amazon stands right at the top of the global rankings with net product sales of U.S $ 61 billion. The other big global company JD.com INC from China comes in second position followed by Walmart and Apple both from the U.S. The complete list of the top ten global companies in ecommerce is given below.

How Does India Compare to the Global Ecommerce Market?

As an MBA College in Greater Noida, we get to interact and learn about the ecommerce industry best practices being followed by their business executives in the markets of Delhi NCR. Again, we have also collected data from our alumni working in the ecommerce vertical in the overseas markets. We have tallied the differences that we have observed. Our students who are pursuing PGDM and MBA courses have also engaged in researches to identify the differences between ecommerce in India and the rest of the world. Here is a list of the major technological and business trends that we have observed.

Global Ecommerce Market Runs on Non-Price Competition

The global ecommerce market is more into the market morphology of imperfect competition and has evolved tremendously over the years. The pattern of competition in the global ecommerce market is based on non-price competition. Companies operating at the global level have looked to focus on customer retention and profitability by building key product and brand differentiators Non-price competition has enabled these companies to compete against each other and yet grow organically in terms of gross merchandise value and net product sales without having to sacrifice their profitability. This has been possible through focus and innovation in process and product development, embracing of technological platforms like big data, internet of things, machine learning, artificial intelligence and cloud computing solutions. On the other hand companies in India like Flipkart, Amazon India, Snapdeal, Jabong and others have looked to build on market share and new client acquisition in the B2C segment. This has allowed them to grow in terms of sales volumes but the gross revenues have been compromises on by means of offering heavy discounts, offers and loyalty programs.

Business and Revenue Models in Vogue

Companies in India are trying out multiple business models to stay afloat in a market that is becoming increasingly crowded. Some of the top Indian ecommerce companies and their business model types are mentioned below:

To survive and sustain in the market, companies are also taking advantage of multiple revenue models.

Yet another interesting observation about the ecommerce market in India is that it is witnessing very aggressive mergers and acquisitions that in the near future should lead to consolidation fragmented market share and a steady increase in revenue streams owing to the gain of product specific SBUs. In the year 2014, the acquisition of Myntra by Flipkart was worth INR20 billion and was the biggest in that year in India. This deal was closely followed by the acquisition of Pilani Softbus that used to run the online ticket booking portal redbus.in by the South Africa based Ibibo Group for INR 135million and the acquisition of TaxiForSure by Ola Cabs for INR200 million. The observation that emerges here is that most of the M&A activities have taken place in specific product led verticals. The rise of vertical specific companies in India and at the global level shows the dominance of vertical specific e-tailers over multibrand online retailers. A complete list of vertical specific ecommerce firms in India and the world as given below points to the insight.

At Ishan Institute of Management & Technology, one of the top MBA Colleges in Delhi NCR our students have worked on more than 200 research projects on ecommerce till now and have attended 7 workshops on best practices in ecommerce vertical. The clips of data offered in this piece are fragments of research projects done by students under the mentoring of academicians of the faculty of business administration and top business executives from ecommerce industry in India.