E-Learning

Introduction

E-learning can be defined as the process of teaching and/or learning through the use of electronic content, whether packaged or custom built, developed using authoring tools like Adobe Captivate. etc., and delivered through either pre-installed or hosted learning platforms. E-learning can be or self-paced or instructor led. When it is used in combination with face to face teaching it is known as blended learning.

Global E-Learning Market

Per industry estimates, the worldwide self-paced e-learning market is currently estimated at USD 45 billion and is expected to touch USD 70 billion by 2020. While the US dominates this market, Asia has emerged as the fastest growing region. In terms of individual countries, Russia has registered the highest growth rate and is therefore considered a mature market now.

Some of the major companies in the e-learning space, world over, include Pearson, Apollo Group, McGraw Hill, Cengage Learning, and Blackboard. Key spenders on e-learning include private schools, colleges, and universities, large corporations, and the government.

Emerging Trends

Across the globe, as governmental spending on higher education decreases, universities are consequently forced to cut down on scholarships in turn making higher education more expensive for students. Universities are thus looking at online courses as an alternative revenue stream, as they navigate their way in uncertain times. In January this year, Georgia Institute of Technology, in partnership with AT&T and Udacity, started a low cost online Master’s degree in computer science.

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have also paved the way for democratization of knowledge across the world. Some of the key players in the field include edX, Udacity, Coursera, Knewton, Udemy, Khan Academy, 2U, MITx, iTunesU, and Code Academy.

Other emerging trends include business models based on the renting of e-books, e-library platforms/environments which can host e-books, flipped classrooms, big data analytics, data or knowledge mining, gamification of Learning Management Systems (LMS), canned lectures, cloud computing (Infrastructure, Software, and Platform as a Service), Content as a Service, School as a Service, wearable devices, and virtual and remote labs.

 

The E-learning Market in India

In India, e-learning is a part of the Ancillary segment within the Education sector, and is estimated to be worth around USD 15 billion, compared to the total USD 80 billion size of the Indian Education sector.

The e-learning market is at a nascent stage and with all its constituents (digital learning, LMS, CMS, ICT, online learning etc.) across different segments, is estimated at around USD 1 billion growing at a CAGR of 20%. The segment is largely unregulated and is characterized by asset-light business models, making it a lucrative segment for Private Equity/Venture Capital firms.

E-Learning can fix many of the problems that India’s Education sector faces. For instance, in the schooling segment, we are still short of over 100 thousand schools and 4 million teachers. In higher education, our Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) is a mere 20% with a current shortfall of 0.4 million faculty members. The vocational education segment also faces challenges: while the government has ambitiously targeted skilling 500 million people by 2022, there are hardly any “Train the Trainer” facilities. The quantum of investment required to bridge these gaps is estimated at USD 450 billion. India clearly does not have such funds with which to invest in education. However, the acuteness of the problem necessitates that technological solutions be considered before India’s demographic dividend turns into a demographic disaster.

Key Players

The nature of the e-learning industry is such that the entry barriers are very low and therefore, a large number of companies are competing in this space with fragmented market shares. This trend is observed globally and is not limited solely to India. Educomp, Everonn, TutorVista, HughesNet, NIIT Imperia, Excelsoft Technologies, G-Cube, Mexus Education, NIIT, Next Education, Pearson, Upside Learning, 24X7 Learning, Tata Interactive, Tridat, Liqvid, Meritnation, iProf, Attano, S. Chand and Extramarks are some of the players trying to stake a permanent claim in this space.

Key Growth Drivers

The Indian e-learning market is poised to take off in a big way, as indicated by such factors as the huge base of over 900 million mobile phone connections, over 130 million smartphones, in excess of 250 million Internet users with more than 75% being active users of social media, the growing adoption of 3G and 4G technologies, the increasing availability of low-cost mobile devices, and a mostly-young Internet-using population, with 75% under 35 years of age.

One of the key enablers of an e-learning product can be its tangible correlation with organizational goals and its flexibility and compatibility in terms of seamlessly integrating with existing legacy systems like ERP, CRM, etc. In this space, instructor-led MOOCs, m-learning, e-assessment and gamified LMS can be the next big, disruptive business models and, in effect,  game-changers.

Key Challenges

One of the biggest challenges for e-learning in India is that teachers and other faculty are not ready to adopt it at a mass level and there is substantial resistance to such a change across schools, where products like SmartClass are kept under lock and key and sporadically used. Again, many products are mainly imitations, with little differentiation between their core offerings. As a result, players in the market are competing on price alone in order to gain a greater market share, wiping out any scope for profit margins.

Another challenge of e-learning is that, in most cases, it does not account for the prior learning of the learners. Also, at the level of professional courses- an area which MOOCs are targeting in a big way- the industry has still not fully recognized and given due weightage to these courses.

Future Outlook

The e-learning market in India is likely to be fuelled by the increasing penetration of Internet-enabled smartphones, the availability of low-cost tablets, and the shortage of educational infrastructure in terms of quality teachers, labs, libraries, and other physical and support infrastructure. However, the psychographics and availability of such support infrastructure as electricity, computers, broadband, etc. have thus far dampened the growth of e-learning in India. Even today the reach of e-learning products is limited largely to the metros, mini metros, and Tier I and Tier II cities.

On the higher education front, private universities, which have set up physical infrastructure on a large scale, need to watch out for the trend currently developing in the US, viz. the burgeoning proportion of enrolment in online higher education programs vis-à-vis total enrolment in programs of higher education.

Key Imperatives

Among the key imperatives necessary for this sector is the creation of an industry body which provides for a repository of open and reusable learning objects. Also needed is the creation of knowledge through social networks, virtual worlds like Second Life, etc. Further, there is need for an online accreditation agency which can monitor and evaluate the quality of available e-learning offerings. Finally, the e-learning proposition needs to be made more personal and human.

To sum, India needs to take a leadership role in this space, given its strong IT infrastructure as well as the quantum of manpower involved in the IT and ITeS sectors. Indian students need to stay ahead and not lag behind in terms of adopting technology, in comparison with their transcontinental counterparts.

A free e-book on Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) - 2005

To download the full version of the free e-book on Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) - Click on the below link: https://www.slideshare.net/aurobindoxp/free-e-book-on-limited-liability-partnership-2005

 

Limited Liability Partnership

This book was written in 2005 and aims to cogitate the raison d'être, which beget the evolution of the limited liability partnership (LLP) form of business structure. It discusses the LLP Statutes in United States of America, Channel Island of Jersey, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Singapore and Australia. It further draws a comparison of the limited liability partnership laws prevalent in these places and identifies the best practices, which with apposite adaptations can be made a part of a similar legislation in India.

Methodology

This book adopts a desk research method, which involves Internet research, literature review and analysis, and correspondence with the relevant authorities in the places studied.

Acknowledgement

I would like to acknowledge the valuable contributions made by a number of people who helped me in the development and refinement of this text. First I would like to thank Prof. Prem Sikka, Professor of Accounting, Department of Accounting, Finance and Management, University of Essex, UK for his guidance on the subject.

Special thanks go to Ms. Toh Wee San, Senior Assistant Registrar ACRA, Singapore who gave my queries a patient listening and guided me in understanding the most technical issues of the subject.

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

The inclination to collaborate to accomplish certain commercial objectives has a long history. The commercial magnetism of such collaborations and a need to govern their business ultimately led to the codification of corporate and partnership laws.

Corporations and Partnerships have been a primary form of business structure for a long time now. For more than a century, partnership law has offered an all-embracing and lucid alternative to corporate law. Although, the two bodies of law have much in common, historically they differed sharply on the role of the contract and private ordering in structuring the firm.

Partnership law encourages private ordering through bargaining by providing a set of statutory default norms that, with only a few exceptions, yield to agreements negotiated by partners. In contrast, corporate law historically has provided a mandatory framework for firm structure highly resistant to shareholders’ attempts to define their relationships through bargaining[1]. Proponents of private ordering within firms prefer the freedoms of partnership law to the mandates of corporate law, and over time they have enjoyed success in extending the bargaining model from partnership law to corporate law.

However, the inherent limitations of both these forms of businesses have made them unsuitable for certain businesses and ultimately hybrid forms of business structures such as limited partnerships, limited liability partnership, limited liability limited partnerships etc. evolved.

GENESIS AND DEVELOPMENT OF PARTNERSHIP LAWS

Partnership laws around the world have evolved over a period of time in consonance with the changing business requirements. Broadly, the partnership laws can be classified in three generations viz. General Partnership Laws (First Generation), Limited Partnership Laws (Second Generation) and Limited Liability Partnership Laws (Third Generation).

First Generation

The UK Partnership Act, 1890 is an archetypal example of first generation of partnership laws. A general partnership firm is not a separate legal entity. A partner is considered as the agent of the firm and of other partners for the purpose of the business of the firm. Further, every partner is liable, jointly and severally with all the other partners, for all acts of the firm done while he is a partner. Where, by the wrongful act or omission of a partner acting in the ordinary course of the business of a firm, or with the authority of his partners, loss or injury is caused to any third party, or any penalty is incurred, the firm is liable therefore to the same extent as the partner.

General partnership is regarded by the public as the type of business structure providing the optimal protection to members of the public, because partners are not protected by limited liability and the claimants can always go after the personal assets of each partner to meet his or her claim.[2]

The characteristic of "unlimited liability" ensures that the partners maintain a direct interest in the affairs of the partnership and conduct of its partners, especially in small practices where the partners are likely to work in the same location. For large practices, they may have offices in several places, and thus partners may not be able to keep track of all aspects and transactions of the partnership. Nonetheless, under a general partnership, partners still have to share the liabilities for the negligence of those partners whom they may barely know or meet.[3]

The advantage of this structure is that its business affairs are entirely private. A partnership agreement is also a private confidential document providing the flexibility in which the partners can determine how the internal structure and relationship between partners and between partners and the partnership are governed.[4]

Second Generation

The UK Limited Partnership Act, 1907 is an archetypal example of second generation of partnership laws. A limited partnership is different from a general partnership to the extent that it classifies the partners into two classes: a general partner and a limited partner. Limited partnerships must have at least one general and one limited partner. The essence of a limited partnership is that it bestows on the partnership the benefit of limited liability to a certain extent. In a limited partnership, the liability of the limited partner is limited to the amount of his contribution. He is like an investor and usually does not take part in the management or day-to-day running of the firm.

However, if a limited partner takes part in the management, he can be held liable for all debts and obligations of the firm incurred while he so takes part in the management, as though he were a general partner. As against this, the general partner is responsible for the management of the firm and has unlimited liability. Further, limited partnerships do not specifically deal with the issue of joint and several liabilities. Partners can still be held liable for the wrongful acts or omissions of their fellow partners. For tax purposes, a limited partnership is not considered as a taxable entity and its income and capital transactions flow through to the partners. Limited Partnerships are increasingly being used for private equity and fund investment businesses.

Third Generation

The UK Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2000 is an archetypal example of third generation of partnership laws. A limited liability partnership (LLP) is an alternative corporate business vehicle that not only provides the benefits of limited liability but also allows its partners the flexibility of organizing their internal structure as a general partnership. The limited liability partnership is a separate legal entity and, while the LLP itself will be liable for the full extent of its assets, the liability of the partners will be limited. In LLP, each partner is the agent of the LLP but not of other partners.

The limited liability partnership structure has gained importance in the last one decade and is now available in United States of America, Channel Island of Jersey, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Singapore and Australia.

The push for the creation of limited liability partnership grew from several factors, such as general increase in the incidence of litigation for professional’s negligence and the size of claims; the risk to a partner's personal assets, when the claim exceeds the sum of the assets and insurance cover of the partnership; the growth in the size of partnerships; increase in specialization among partners and the coming together of different professions within a partnership.

There are also concerns about the shifting of the business structure of a firm from a general partnership to an LLP, albeit there is no empirical data supporting them. One of the concerns is about the impact upon the culture of a law firm. For instance, the practice of law in high-risk areas often yields high rewards commensurate with the increased risk of liability. Partners in a general partnership usually share both the risk and risk-related gains with their fellow partners. If a shift to an LLP causes a member/partner to shoulder a higher risk of liability than others, he or she may demand a larger share of the rewards. Similarly, the risk of some members/partners may increase where the legislation provides that members/partners of LLPs have to be liable for the acts of those under their direct supervision; in particular, if some members/partners have to supervise less experienced lawyers or staff.[5]

 

Some consider that shifting from the general partnership status to the LLP status may result in less incentive for members/partners to monitor and control the quality of work by other members/partners of the firm, as they are no longer liable for the acts of their fellow members/partners. The breakdown of internal procedures at Arthur Andersen, the accounting firm operating as an LLP, in connection with the collapse of the Enron Corporation, is often quoted as an example of such disincentive.[6]

However, the level of protection that an LLP affords partners of a LLP is an important factor in why LLP is fast becoming the preferred structure for major professional services firms.

 

Failing Organizations - The Dump Truck Syndrome

A link to this document - https://www.dropbox.com/sh/3cgnyzcmpn3bjqr/9X4YPAJRX2 

Link to the document

The Future of Education

The Future of Education

Introduction

As India moves ahead on the path of globalization, it needs to overhaul its education system to meet the future demands. While the world population is ageing, India’s working population (25-59 years) is slated to continuously increase. This phenomenon will make India a supplier of workforce to the entire world. In the wake of this reality, the Indian education system should therefore be able to produce a workforce which is globally competitive and thus reap its demographic dividend. There is, therefore, an acknowledged need for disruptive and innovative models of education to address the challenges of educating the “digital natives”.

How will this new model of education be different? It will be flexible, creative, challenging, and complex. It will be focused on addressing the needs of a rapidly changing world filled with fantastic new problems as well as exciting new possibilities. In the following paragraphs, we will attempt to peep into the future and see how technology will be leveraged to address some of our dire needs of creating knowledge that is meaningful and fun filled. We will also attempt to visualize the future of school education, school leaders & teachers and how the job market will evolve with several careers getting extinct and many more emerging.

Peeping into the Future

It is certain that the future will be shaped by emerging and ever evolving technologies. An analysis of the history of technology shows that technological change is exponential, contrary to the common sense “intuitive linear” view. We are living in exponential times – consider this- a week’s worth of the New York Times contains more information than a person was likely to come across in a lifetime in the 18^th century. It is estimated that 4 extrabytes (4 x 10^19) of unique information will be generated this year, which is more than the information generated in the last 5,000 years. So we won’t experience 100 years of progress in the 21^st century – it will be more like 20,000 years of progress.

One of the reasons which can be attributed for this exploding growth of knowledge is the concept of “Sapiential circles”. The concept was coined by Prof. Warren Bennis, a distinguished professor from Southern California’s Marshall School of Business — he was referring to how the knowledge of a group tended to increase exponentially as new members were added to the group.

What we are witnessing in the world of today is a dramatic increase in our own ‘human sapiential circles’ as a result of global connectivity. Quite simply, we have connected the minds of people around the world who share an interest in a topic or issue — they become a ‘sapiential circle’. And the result is dramatic — for example, the amount of medical knowledge doubles every eight years; it is said that half of what an engineering student learns in their first year is obsolete or revised by the time they graduate.

Changes of this magnitude require a complete rethinking of education systems, both in terms of the curriculum, and in the development of pedagogies that ensure that every student acquires high level of skills needed to thrive in the dynamic world of the 21^st century. In addition to the basic skills of literacy and numeracy, every learner must also master the "three C's:" Communication, Collaboration, and Creative Problem Solving.

Beyond these are the equally important skills of knowing how to use numbers and data in real-world tasks, the ability to locate and process information relevant to the task at hand, technological fluency, and, most of all, the skills and attitudes needed to be a lifelong learner. Teachers need to not only teach children what to learn, but they need to teach young people how they can continue to learn in the future.

Education of the future will be extensively driven by technology and will not be limited in time or to one place. Learning can happen anytime, anywhere, and can meet needs based on interest. Students will be motivated by a structure that allows them to explore and learn in innovated and interest-driven environments.

Schools in the 21^st century will be laced with a project-based curriculum for life aimed at engaging students in addressing real-world problems, issues important to humanity, and questions that matter. 

This will be a dramatic departure from the factory-model education of the past.  It is abandonment, finally, of textbook-driven, teacher-centered, paper and pencil schooling.  It means a new way of understanding the concept of “knowledge”, a new definition of the “educated person”. 

Schools will go from ‘buildings’ to 'nerve centers', with walls that are porous and transparent, connecting teachers, students and the community to the wealth of knowledge that exists in the world.”

A school of tomorrow will thus focus on ensuring that students and teachers understand that they must be prepared to engender a mindset that involves adaptability, flexibility; a mindset that embraces and does not fear constant change; a mindset in which they will view a future of constant change with wonder and awe, rather than concern.

The Future of Learners

Technology will serve as a means to the resources that students will be able to utilize in order to broaden their learning. Several new technologies are slated to emerge that will make learning fun and more personalized.

Things like emotion sensors will detect student boredom. Thus, student learning will be continuously monitored and the learning systems will be capable of adapting themselves to maintain student attention and interest.

Electronic translators will ensure complete irrelevance of language. Thus, language will no longer be the barrier to learning.

Things like 3D holography will ensure that a teacher can be present across the world and her lessons can be viewed by the student at his own pace and for any number of times, anytime - anywhere.

Technologies like 3D printing which came into scene in 2003 will get more advanced. The costs of 3D printers will also come down substantially. This will bring 3D printers from industrial use to home use and each house will have a 3D printer. Children will be able to print their models and work of art at home. This will fuel development of innovative products.

Students will be able to work at their own speed to attain competencies of choice. Students will be matched to projects that align with their own learning levels and abilities. Each student plan could be paced differently based on what a student needs. Learning will be more personalized, inclusive and experimental.

Overall, students will take the responsibility of their own learning and teachers will just be a facilitator – encouraging self-directed learning; learning by doing; learning from experience; students will design and complete their own growth plans. Continuous and lifelong learning will become the way of life.

This will result in a need for developing competency-based curriculum in which students demonstrate their competencies and can move forward if the skill is proven as mastered, rather than repeating those skills.

Currently, educators hope that the knowledge, behaviours, and skill learned in the classroom will be effectively transferred to relevant situations in the real world. However, the current education system does not prepare a child in a way that classroom learning can be effectively applied in the real world. It is foreseeable that simulation and immersive learning technologies will come to the fore and enhance knowledge, verify expertise and improve learning outcomes.

Through these technologies, a student will not only be able to do focused and repetitive practice to gain expertise but also get assessed in a real time mode on his technical competencies. Such learning systems will also have the capabilities to support multi learner environment and assess not only individual performance but also group cohesion and team dynamics.

Broadcasting networks and technologies, which provide access to educational content even in the remote areas will gain momentum. Online collaboration platforms will enable teachers, students and families to interact and build educational content. Online learning platforms will be developed which can be customized and tailored to the needs of the students, even outside the mainstream education system.

The Future of School Teachers & Leaders

In future, knowledge will become freely available. Lesson plans, videos, books, text, articles, blogs will all be digitized and will be available freely. Teachers will become facilitators of knowledge and no longer the “only expert” because of the rapid and constant changes and additions to information that can be found. Schools will work in partnership with the community to provide services for students and provide an educational team that will meet all needs. Within this team there will be experts in areas that will help the team look at the “whole child” and help that child create a plan based on skill strengths, interests, and community needs.

The teacher will guide students through learning – no longer the one who possesses all the knowledge will lecture and “give” all the knowledge to the students. It will be impossible for teachers to have all the knowledge with technology that is capable of finding much more than what can be learned.

Thus, teachers will play the role of a facilitator. The role of the teacher will be to help the students with resources; help students learn where to locate information and help students evaluate sites and resources for validity.

This would require continued professional development of teachers for which teachers will have to be empowered and made partners in change. They will have to keep themselves abreast of the latest technologies as the world ahead will be a more connected world with growing numbers of virtual schools.

However, continuing to train teachers to perform in a world of monolithic, teacher led content delivery, where the key skills are in holding students’ attention to subjects that are being taught to the dominant type of learner in each subject, trains teachers for the past.

Future teachers will need the skills to work one on one with different type of learners as they study in a student centric way. The tools that teachers build and distribute in the user networks of the future will play a key role in making learning student-centric. The next generation of teachers needs to learn how to build these tools for different types of learners.

The Future Job Market

Today, everyone knows that education is taking on more and more importance around the world. In the last decade, international competition in higher education and the job market has grown dramatically. As the New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman famously pointed out, the world economy has indeed "flattened." Companies now digitize, automate, and outsource work to the most competitive individuals, companies, and countries.

If our challenge could be limited to preparing people for the kinds of jobs available today, we would still have a lot of work to do. Unfortunately, the challenge is even greater. Many of the jobs that will be available at the turn of the century have yet to be invented. Research shows that the top 10 in-demand jobs in 2010 did not exist in 2004. It is believed that majority of the jobs our current kindergartners will be filling in the year 2050 haven’t been invented yet.

It is predicted that all jobs, which do not require creativity will get automated in near future. So the kind of jobs that would be on offer will be more creativity based in nature. Thus, critical thinking and problem solving skills will be in high demand.

Workers of the future will change jobs many more times during their lives as compared to workers of present — and parallel careers will become the norm as people will extract themselves from professions that are becoming extinct. Educators need to know what is happening; how careers go extinct; how people survive extinction; and how they use extinction to thrive. Knowing this will once again help them in preparing young people to cope and thrive in a world of constant, relentless change.

Road to the Future

As a developing country develops an industrial based economy, studying science, math, and engineering offer big rewards that ensure students an escape from poverty. When the same country achieves stability and prosperity, students have more freedom to study subjects that they find fun and intrinsically motivating.

India needs to identify its own paths to the future in intrinsically innovative way. If we keep doing what we're doing, we're not going to get there.

Conclusion

There is much one could envision for education in the future—the rise and fall of nation-states, changes in global values and financial systems, developments in nanotechnology, rethinking private/public space, or changing aspirations for living standards that might influence a child’s work ethic. Unimagined global possibilities exist. As we look to education’s future, we trust our experience that humans will do what interests them. In education, learning has always succeeded when students actively engage in projects they care about.

There is no question that we are experiencing a fierce pace of change in an increasingly global economy. Schools that ignore the trends shaping tomorrow will cease to be relevant in the lives of their students, and will quickly disappear. We must transform all formal institutions of learning, from pre-K through college, to insure that we are preparing students for their future, not for our past.

The challenge of transforming education in India cannot be met by quick-fix solutions or isolated reforms. It can only be accomplished with a clear, coherent, and coordinated vision of reform. The important thing to note here is that anything we do today to fix our schools will take fifteen to twenty years to show significant results. Leaders of today will need to have clear understanding of how the world may be different 15 to 20 years from now.

We know we do not have all the answers to our educational challenges. Yet not having all the answers cannot become an excuse for inaction. The immediate need to provide an excellent education for every child is a right that cannot be postponed. The time for change is now.

***

Emotional Competencies and Professional Excellence

INTRODUCTION
Technology is changing the world at a frightening speed. Professionals should therefore develop competencies that are not only based on sound and proven theories and concepts, but are also laced with practical and contemporary issues and dimensions. They need to be creative leaders and should possess and demonstrate qualities and characteristics that they would advocate as signals of success. From effective time-management, self-awareness, self-organisation and self-confidence to updating knowledge, networking and effective communication skills – all these should not only be mere percepts and concepts, but possessed, practiced and demonstrated by a professional in his day-to-day life.

DEFINITION OF PROFESSIONAL
When asked to define a “Professional”, many would emphasise on traits such as intelligence, toughness, determination and vision – the qualities traditionally associated with a professional. Such skills and traits are necessary but insufficient for today’s professional. Although a certain degree of analytical and technical skills are required for success, yet studies indicate that emotional competency may be the key attribute that distinguishes outstanding professionals from those who are merely average.

In today’s talent-centric workplace, since there is no dearth of qualified and talented professionals, it makes sense to brand oneself as a unique entity. Branding oneself focuses on creating a unique set of values by identifying the stakeholders’ needs and developing strategies to satisfy these needs over a long term.

In the middle ages, craftsmen marked their wares with a letter or symbol. This mark assured the customer that they were buying a particular artisan’s work and provided a guarantee of quality. Professionals should also project themselves as a brand and strive to develop brand loyalty for themselves.

THE CONCEPT OF COMPETENCIES

Competencies are a collection of characteristics such as skills, knowledge, self- concept, traits and motives that enable one to be successful in his interactions with others at work, home, and in the society at large. Basically, a competency is what outstanding performers do more often; do in more situations; and do with better results than average performers. In today’s hypercompetitive environment, a successful professional should have a clear understanding of his/her core competencies, which can be leveraged to gain competitive advantage over competitors.

Broadly, core competencies can be defined as a collection of skills that make up the essence of a professional’s characteristics. It has three main charateritics namely:

(1) It is a source of competitive advantage and makes a significant contribution to perceived customer benefits;
(2) It can be applied to a wide variety of areas; and
(3) It is difficult for competitors to imitate.

On the other hand, competitive advantage is the ability to perform in one or more ways that competitors cannot or will not match. These competencies should ideally be sustainable over a period of time and if not sustainable these should atleast be leverageable.

It is desired however that before developing any strategy, the Professional should do a thorough SWOT analysis[1]. SWOT is an acronym, which stands for Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat. The SWOT matrix below illustrates how the external opportunities and threats facing a professional can be matched with his/her strengths and weaknesses. Further, it can also help a professional to devise a set of possible strategic alternatives that might not be otherwise considered.

Professionals must nurture their competencies in the race to stay ahead of rivals. W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne in their article[2] “Blue Ocean Strategy” discuss how to develop uncontested market space that makes the competition irrelevant. Blue Ocean is defined as a previously unknown market space. In blue oceans, demand is created rather than fought over. There is ample opportunity for growth that is both profitable and rapid.

There is another related concept also known as “Red Oceans”. In Red Oceans i.e. market places already existing, the market players compete by grabbing for a greater share of limited demand. As the market space gets more crowded, prospects for profits and growth decline. Products turn into commodities and increasing competition turns the water bloody. Creating blue oceans helps in building brands, so powerful that they can last for several years. However, in today’s competitive environment, rivals quickly copy the competencies and thus most competitive advantages tend to be temporary. Thus, a professional can outperform competitors over longer periods only if he/she can establish a difference that can be preserved.

Broadly speaking, professionals can remain competitive in their profession by following three basic strategies:
(i) By continuously developing competencies and integrating one kind of competencies with another to create higher order value for all stakeholders;
(ii) By concentrating on core competencies; and
(iii) By translating core competencies into competitive advantages.

Generally, a professional’s work involves making judgements in situations where even knowing all the facts does not make it clear what would be the right course of action. Professionals are therefore required to keep their knowledge up-to-date and continuously improve their technical skills. Although knowledge and other technical skills can be of great use, yet they alone cannot guarantee success in one’s professional life. Many non-technical skills are also important, these include the ability to work effectively with others, motivate and guide subordinates, and handle stress all of which involves emotional intelligence.

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
The concept of emotional intelligence is an umbrella term that captures a broad collection of individual faculties and dispositions usually referred to as soft skills or inter and intra-personal skills that are outside the traditional areas of specific knowledge, general intelligence, and technical or professional skills. It has been emphasised that in order to be a fully functioning member of the society one must possess both traditional intelligence (IQ) and emotional intelligence (EQ).

Emotional Intelligence is something that can be consciously learnt, imbibed and improved at any point of time, through self-observance, introspection and experience. Although Emotional Quotient (EQ) is gaining importance and widespread acceptance in measuring individual’s capacity for success, it is not likely to supplant Intelligence Quotient. Emotional Intelligence only describes attributes that are distinct from, but at the same time complementary to academic/cognitive intelligence.

EMOTIONAL COMPETENCIES
Emotional Competencies are learned capabilities based on Emotional Intelligence that results from outstanding performance in anything one does. It consists of (I) Personal competencies and (II) Social competencies. The following diagram describes the framework of emotional competencies.

PERSONAL COMPETENCIES
The personal competencies include competencies such as self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation and stress management. Self-awareness involves knowing one’s internal state, preferences, resources and intuitions. It involves how aware one is of his/her feelings and how one views oneself. The skills needed for this are emotional awareness, self-assessment, and self-confidence.

Self-regulation, which is another key component of personal competencies, involves managing one’s internal states/emotions, impulses and resources. It is both trying not to be distressed, or stifling an impulse, and at times intentionally eliciting an emotion. The skills needed for this are self-control, trustworthiness, conscientiousness, right attitude and innovativeness.

Most often it is not the rewards that make one enjoy work but the creative challenge and stimulation of the work and the opportunity to keep learning. Some of the factors that motivate outstanding performers are achievement drive i.e. striving or working towards improving or meeting an ideal standard of excellence, commitment, Initiative, Optimism, and happiness.

Professionals face stress in their day-to-day work and therefore it is important that they know how to manage it. Stress Management is concerned with one’s ability to withstand stress without caving in, falling apart or losing control. It deals with remaining calm, not being impulsive and coping well under pressure.

SOCIAL COMPETENCIES
Social Competencies constitute skills or competencies that determine how one handles relationships. Those who are competent in this sphere of emotional intelligence understand, interact with and relate well to others in varied situations. They also inspire trust and function well as part of a team. Social competence can be broadly divided into aspects such as Empathy, Social Responsibility and Social skills.

Empathy is the ability to sense or be aware of, understand and appreciate the feelings and thoughts of others especially without their saying so. It is the knowing and understanding of what, how and why people feel, think and act the way they do. Empathy in fact represents the basic skill of the social competence aspects of emotional intelligence and includes understanding others, developing others, leveraging diversity, and having political awareness.

One must not forget that Professionals are a vital element of the society. The society provides them all the resources for effectively operating in the market space. Thus, they have a great deal of responsibility towards the society. Social responsibility can be defined as the ability to demonstrate that one can be a cooperative, constructive and contributing member of the society at large. It involves acting in a responsible way, doing things for others, accepting others, being conscientious and upholding social rules, even though one may not directly benefit from doing so.

Since this competency is directed outward to the group or society, it is possibly one of the easiest components of emotional intelligence to change. Being socially responsible in fact has more benefits than demerits. By helping others one definitely helps oneself. By focussing on and trying to solve the problems of others one gains new and clearer perspective of one’s own problems and dilemmas.

On the other hand social skills are the abilities in inducing the desirable or required responses in others. Competencies that collectively form the social skills are communication, influence, conflict management, leadership, change catalyst, problem solving, building relationships, collaboration and co-operation, team capabilities.

From the above discussion it is clear that each element of the emotional competency is necessary but is not sufficient on its own. To be successful in any profession and to have a high EQ depends on a number of emotional intelligence competencies. No component of EI exists in isolation, they are all intertwined and are all equally valuable. Competencies in one area are usually imperative to be competent in another area. The impact of each element increases to the extent it is part of a process that includes the other competencies.

When one’s Emotional Intelligence is strong one is better equipped in life and is more likely to find success in every sphere of life, be it work, personal life, relationships etc. As already stated Emotional Intelligence can be learnt and enhanced at any time in a person’s life. In fact it is an ongoing and continuous process throughout a person’s lifetime.

CONCLUSION
It is observed that a Professional often faces ethical dilemmas. Professionals in order to gain something, sometimes keep their morality and ethics at stake. Here, it is important to note the principles laid down by philosopher Immanual Kant, which can be used as a guide to actions:

(1) A person’s action is ethical only if that person is willing for that same action to be taken by everyone who is in a similar situation. In simple words, treat others, as you would like them to treat you.

(2) A person should never treat another human being simply as a means, but always as an end. This means that an action is morally wrong for a person if that person uses others merely as means for advancing his or her own interests. To be moral, the act should not restrict another people’s actions so that they are left disadvantaged in some way.

Therefore, it is critical for professionals to act ethically at all times and think integratively across diverse disciplinary perspectives to understand and address real world problems, which are complex, dynamic and uncertain.

Meeting the Giants: Developing Strategies for facing Gloabal Competition

INTRODUCTION
Globalisation is the term used to describe the increased pace of interconnectedness that has taken place over recent years. It came about as a result of two developments. Firstly, technological changes have enabled information and goods to travel much faster than before, making it easier to transport things and communicate with people. Secondly, the end of the cold war and the spread of a new political philosophy of liberalization have lead to the removal of trade barriers. As a result of globalisation, foreign trade and investment have grown dramatically and the world’s economies and societies have become more and more integrated.

Today, we are witnessing the implosion, where four great forces-corporations, capital, communication and the citizens can freely criss-cross national boundaries. A single virtual world is being formed, comprising hubs of economic activity, interconnected by technology, and unrelated to the geographic limits of the nation states that they are part of. Thus, economic liberalization, global business opportunities, increasing competition, onslaught of technological innovations and emergence of global communication networks have all impacted businesses
in a large way.

Globalisation has opened up an array of opportunities to corporate India. To emerge successful in its new tryst with destiny, there are no soft options available and the Indian corporate sector must necessarily turn to good governance in its pursuit of competitive excellence in a challenging international business environment.

INDIAN CORPORATE SECTOR
As we stand in 2004, 57 years after independence, India is witnessing a new phenomenon on the industrial front. This is the emergence of a confident, competitive Indian industry, which is now looking at global markets increasingly, and not merely at defending its position in the Indian market as fortress India.

In the short decade that India has grappled with the challenges posed, and capitalized on the opportunities offered by a liberalizing economic environment, there are already shining examples of corporations achieving business excellence concurrently with, or perhaps more appropriately, because of the excellent standards that they have set for themselves. Further, maturation of the market place is likely to recognise and reward such corporations in greater measure in the decades ahead.

The going global is rapidly becoming Indian Company’s mantra of choice. Indian companies are now looking forward to drive costs lower, innovate speedily, and increase their International presence. Companies are discovering that a global presence can help insulate them from the vagaries of domestic market and is one of the best ways to spread the risks. Indian Corporate sector has witnessed several strategically important success stories in the recent past. Tata Motors acquisition of Daewoo Commercial Vehicle Company, Tata Steel acquisition of Singapore’s NatSteel, Reliance’s acquisition of Flag is the culmination of Indian Company’s efforts to establish a presence outside India. In terms of cost competitiveness, India’s Steel Industry ranks among the top in the world (it is ahead of the US). Nalco and Hindalco are among the lowest-cost producers of aluminium in the world. Ranbaxy’s products are successfully fighting in markets abroad against local or multinational brands and many of its labels are market leaders in their segments. A whopping 70 % of Ranbaxy’s revenues come from abroad.

Reliance Industries, Infosys Technologies and Wipro are among the eight Indian companies that have been included in the Forbes magazine’s list of best big companies in 2004. Bharat Petroleum, ITC, Bharti Tele-Ventures, Oil and Natural Gas Corp, and State Bank of India are the other domestic companies in the “World’s 400 best big companies. India’s software exports are on track to grow by 30 per cent in the year to March 2005, despite attempts in the key US Market to discourage outsourcing and protect jobs. India’s information technology (IT) sector and business process outsourcing (BPO) industries, which offer back office and call centre services, logged exports worth $12.5 billion in the 20032004 fiscal year. Nearly 25 per cent of the exports that involved 800,000 workers come from the top three companies in the sector namely Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, Infosys Technologies Ltd and Wipro Ltd.

India is also rapidly emerging as a hotspot for outsourcing pharmaceutical products, engineering design, R&D, clinical research, textiles and even auto components besides in IT enabled services. The obvious thing going for India is cost and quality of services. However, studies on outsourcing IT enabled services have shown that companies also stand to gain from reduced investments in physical and telecommunication infrastructure when they offshore work to Indian companies. India is ranked 34 in IMD’s World Competitiveness Report, 2004. That is 16 ranks higher than its 2003 rank of 50. There’s more in terms of business efficiency, its rank has moved from 51 to 22 and in terms of economic performance from 22 to 12. The ranking is not a surprise: the dismantling of the industrial licensing system, the rationalisation of the tax regime, and the removal of the competition-stiffing tariffs have not just contributed to faster economic growth they have made Indian companies more competitive.

Global tech research firm Forrester has recently in its report titled ‘Low-Cost Global Delivery Model (GDM) Showdown’ passed the verdict that Indian IT services vendors have better global delivery capabilities than their overseas counterparts. The report places Indian Vendors TCS, Wipro and Infosys a few decisive notches above IBM, EDS and Accenture on offshore capabilities.

IMPEDIMENTS IN PURSUIT
Despite the stunning success of Indian companies in the recent past, the fact that the number of true Indian multinationals can be counted on fingers remains an issue. Indian products and services are expected to be low-cost, low-price and low-margin. As a result the Indian companies are unable to invest in new resources and competencies that are necessary to protect and enhance their competitiveness in future.

Most Indian companies start on their internationalisation journey on the strength of their low- cost labour based manufacturing. They lack both the upstream capabilities of technology development and design and the downstream strengths in brand marketing and distribution. This is one area where Indian companies appear to face some difficulties. Perhaps, there is something in the psyche of the Indian management that hinders their ability to work horizontally in a partnership mode with foreign firms. The ability to form, sustain and learn from alliances is a core competency that Indian companies will have to acquire or develop.

HOW ORGANISATIONS GO GLOBAL?
An organisation typically proceeds through three stages. In stage I, management makes its first push toward going international merely by exporting its products to other countries. This is a passive step toward international involvement with minimal risk because management makes no serious efforts to tap foreign markets. Rather, the organisation fills foreign orders only when-or if-it gets them.

In stage II, management makes an overt commitment to sell its products in foreign countries or to have them made in foreign factories. However, there is still no physical presence of company personnel outside the company’s home country. On the sales side, stage II typically is done either by sending domestic employees on regular business trips to meet foreign customers or by hiring foreign agents or brokers to represent the organisation’s product line. On the manufacturing side, management contracts with a foreign firm to produce its products.

Stage III represents a strong commitment by management to explore international markets aggressively. Management can license or franchise to another firm the right to use its brand name, technology, or product specifications. This is a widely used approach among pharmaceutical companies and fast-food chains like Pizza Hut. Joint ventures involve a larger commitment since a domestic and a foreign firm shares the cost of developing new products or building production facilities in a foreign country. These are also often called strategic alliances. These partnerships provide a fast and less expensive way for companies to compete globally.

An organisation with a vision to become truly world-class and in turn competitive should consider and incorporate the following factors in its strategy:
— Premium quality of products/services
— Long-term vision
— Financial strength
— Market leadership
— Customer Centricism
— Strategic Leadership
— Organizational Culture and Climate

To quote a few instances, ICICI, on its aggressive path of internationalization is following the customer. It has already started on building its operations in Singapore, Dubai, Shanghai, New York, Canada and Britain. ICICI Bank has chosen this mix of subsidiaries, offshore branches and representative offices. Its senior managers will focus on India-related business, rather than trying to compete against global banks for global clients.

Infosys is developing downstream capabilities by creating proximity development centers (PDCs) in key cities around the world. It has recognized that it can not succeed globally unless it can develop insider positions with location wise domain knowledge within the business networks in the home countries of customers. Infosys’s PDCs would be staffed predominantly by local people in an attempt to provide a local image.

OVERCOMING PAROCHIALISM
As a result of globalisation, foreign trade and investment have grown dramatically and the world’s economies and societies have become more and more integrated. Doing business beyond the national borders is now a commonplace. Reliance Infocom is offering telecommunication services in US, Maruti is exporting its cars to middle east, Indian IT companies are making software for companies around the world. Not only are market borders blurring, but acquisitions, mergers and alliances are obscuring the nationality of many companies. To quote a few examples, half of Xerox’s employees work on foreign soil, and half of Sony’s employees are not Japanese.

As markets expand, national boundaries and national allegiance matter less and less. When the German manufacturer Daimler-Benz, makers of Mercedes luxury cars, merged with US carmaker Chrysler, one executive commented: “There are no German and American Companies. There are only successful and unsuccessful Companies.”

Equally significant in creating a global village are incredible advancements in communication technologies. The Internet now permits instantaneous oral and written communication across time zones and continents. Software firms in Silicon Valley depend on programmers in India to solve intricate computer problems and return the solutions overnight via digital transmission.

As world commerce mingles more and more, another trend gives cross-cultural communication increasing importance. It is not unusual for German and Italians to speak three or four languages. Most Japanese school children begin studying English in the early elementary grades.

Successful global management requires enhanced sensitivity to differences in national customs and practices. Management practices that work in Asia may not work in Europe or America. As we enter this current period of globalisation and multiculturalism, managers are expected to make adjustments and adopt new attitudes. Adjustment and accommodation become easier if managers understand other cultures and respect them.

PEEPING INTO FUTURE
In the 70’s work was normally outsourced to the domestic vendors in the local market, in 90’s work started to be off shored to a low cost providing country. In the times to come global product/service will be produced with collaboration from various centres all over the world. The call centre may be based in Gurgaon, the back-end software developed in Manila while manufacturing takes place in Shanghai. According to a new report by the research firm Forrester Research, companies are trying to shift to a model that capitalises on centres of technological excellence around the world. New areas like web services, database monitoring, radio frequency identification, GPRS solutions, insurance and banking can now adopt this model.

The recent trend of globalisation suggests that the organisational structure that would stem from enabling features resulting from the convergence of several technologies and increasing demand for a global workforce would be rather virtual. Virtual organisations look like a great idea. However, organisations may not go for full scale virtual structure. Rather they may use virtual teams for tactical projects. After all, they allow an organisation to bring together its best minds to work on a project, regardless of where they are located.

With globalisation running rampant, virtual teams can cross the boundaries of company, culture and country and can be managed from anywhere. A growing body of industry research shows few organisations proactively adopt virtual teams as a means of creating a competitive advantage. Most organisations do so reactively, as a means of coping with an organisational structure that has grown through acquisition or rapid global expansion. At the same time the dangers of getting it wrong are also real. For the employees, working in a badly managed virtual team can leave team members feeling ambiguous about their role, reducing their level of commitment.

This can lead to workers delivering sub-par performances and, eventually, to absenteeism.

Two issues stand in the way of managers successfully operating virtual teams. The first is the level of politics resident within the organisation and management fearing they need to be close to people lest they suffer if they are not. The second issue is the maturity of managers themselves, and their ability to manage by objective rather than by headcount. Cultural trends can exacerbate the latter issue. While objective-based management is growing in popularity in Western Europe and North America, in Latin American countries, having their people gathered around them enhances a manager’s importance.

The next step to empowering a virtual team is for management to make a top down assessment of the various tools available to that team. It can then decide when and how they can be best applied. These include traditional tools such as the telephone and e-mail, and also latest technologies like audio and video conferencing, online discussion forums, and collaborative file sharing.

While none of these tools are especially new and, in many cases, are resident within the applications available to most workers in knowledge-related industries, rarely are those workers ever trained in their effective use.

ROLE OF PROFESSIONALS
A Professional is supposed to make judgements in situations where even knowing all the facts does not make it clear what would be the right course of action. Recognition of the difference between a profession and other forms of occupation is credited to the Greek doctor, Hippocrates, who lived 2500 year ago but the current range of different professions did not begin to emerge until the nineteenth century. Professionals normally have a code of ethics, take the trouble to keep their knowledge and expertise up-to-date and are paid to enable them to devote their time to using and improving their skills.

Technology is changing the world at a frightening speed. Professionals should therefore develop new skills that are not only based on sound and proven theories and concepts, but also laced with practical and contemporary issues and dimensions. They need to be leaders. They should possess and demonstrate qualities and characteristics that they would advocate as signals of success. From effective time-management, self-awareness, self-organisation and self-confidence to updating knowledge, net-working and effective communication skills, all these should not only
be mere percepts and concepts, but possessed, practiced and demonstrated by a professional in his every day life.

In today’s demanding business environment, organisations face multiple challenges. They have to comply with law and regulation, communicate with their stakeholders, ensure that their internal procedures run smoothly and, of course, go about their everyday business. Organisations need people who can deliver on every front, ensuring that they find ways to meet their obligations, maintain efficient operations and prosper in their field.

Company Secretaries are ideally qualified to meet an organisation’s multiple needs. The depth and breadth of their training ensures that Company Secretaries are equipped to answer multiple needs and to provide solutions to workplace issues. Their knowledge and expertise in company law, finance, contracts, general management and corporate governance can be applied to all sectors, from companies to local government, from charities to the armed forces, from universities to hospitals. With the strong requirement to meet and maintain the highest standards of probity and ethical behaviour, the Company Secretary is a true professional.

CONCLUSION
India is now set firmly on a faster growth path. It needs to follow a bold pro-growth programme of economic reforms. The goal should be to achieve a sustainable rate of growth of 7 to 9 per cent, which is necessary to make a quick and visible reduction in poverty, unemployment and regional imbalances.

In this endeavour to achieve self-growth and global growth, Indian Corporates will have to work actively with the International business community. If Indian companies are already a good business value proposition they can become even better one in the times to come.

A steady and growing market size, abundant availability of natural resources for manufacturing, cost attractiveness, reliable business community, high levels of intellectual manpower, engineering expertise and a reform process that has brought about impressive economic liberalization, would surely make Indian companies competent to meet the global giants.