rajeev sharma blogs

new world economy

rs — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 01:15:27 -0500

"Furthermore, most multinationals are not big. Rather, they are mostly small- to medium-sized enterprises. Typical perhaps is a German manufacturer of specialized surgical instruments who, with $20 million in sales and with plants in eleven countries, has around 60 percent of the world market in the field. And only a fraction of multinationals are manufacturers. Banks are probably the largest single group of multinationals, followed by insurance companies such as Germany's Allianz, financial-services institutions such as GE Finance Corporation and Merrill Lynch, wholesale distributors (especially in pharmaceuticals), and retailers like Japan's Ito Yokado."

How have these companies become multinational?

State of MBA education

rs — Fri, 11 Mar 2005 00:04:13 -0500

An Academic, PhilipGreenspun, recently wrote this in his blog:

"When universities created business schools in the 20th Century traditional academics decried the collapse of standards. Instead of students studying Literature, Art, History, and Science they would be going through the motions of a scholar while occupying their minds with things that formerly had been learned at a desk as an apprentice in a dreary Victorian counting house."

Is the same thing true in today's world? Is the standard of education in these institutions still something that can be learnt at a "Victorian counting house"?

My guess is that it is not so. In the last few decades many new forms of markets have evolved and at the same time many new products and services have come up. Without a systematic study of this phenomena it is not possible to increase the efficiency of running today's businesses.

Changing face of entertainment industry?

rs — Sat, 26 Feb 2005 01:38:14 -0500

Have a look at doonesbury (from 21st Feb to 26th Feb). Shape of things to come?

Is the MBA responsible for moral turpitude at the top?

rs — Sat, 26 Feb 2005 01:01:16 -0500

Interesting opinion in the economist

Business schools are not responsible for unethical behaviour of their old students.

"The dubious claim that business schools are responsible for the moral failures of their graduates decades after graduation does, however, highlight one widespread misunderstanding about the role and purpose of an MBA."

Is economics to be blamed?

"Sumantra Ghoshal, a respected business academic who died last year,... (and other respected academics, such as Jeffrey Pfeffer of Stanford, are carrying his argument forward), is because management studies have been hi-jacked intellectually by the dismal science of economics."

MBA = Business Leaders?

"a good MBA degree can help provide a student with analytical skills and theoretical knowledge useful to a business career. But becoming a successful leader of men and women in a turbulent business world
requires maturity and wisdom."

Sadly maturity and wisdom cannot be taught in any academic program. We can only ensure that mature and wise students join business schools by using appropriate testing techniques.

read more

Google's scholarly pursuits

rs — Fri, 19 Nov 2004 04:28:16 -0500

I wonder why Google took so much time to come up with this kind of service. Read more about it at google's blog. It will be interesting to watch impact of this service on research/publication/tenure in academic circles.

Study the timeline, google first came up with a search tool for different languages, then image search,and after that "froogle" and then after something like nine years since their inception they have come up with "scholar".

It is quite possible that when Sergey Brin and Larry Page decided to build "google" then they could have thought of doing it for reducing their literature review workload (part of doing a phd). During the process of building up this company they must have forgotten about this (as so often happens with most of the phd scholars, they do everything else but their phd). This tool (scholar) will be of great help to researchers all around the world.

Is your job moving to India? Get used to it

rs — Thu, 07 Oct 2004 02:02:58 -0500

Backlash against outsourcing is inevitable. Indian government and companies need to effectively manage their public relations so as to create a positive image in the mind of offshore consumers and outsourcers. [i]Outsourcing is still only in its infancy. That should give businesses and governments ample opportunity to learn how to use the trend to their advantage. Hopefully, the next U.S. leader, be it Bush or Kerry, will do just that.[/i] [url=http://www.iht.com/articles/542227.html] Link[/url].

Lite entertainment for bored college students

rs — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 11:56:29 -0500

Interesting [url=http://scs.student.virginia.edu/~decweb/lite/]opinion[/url] by Mark Edmundson on what is wrong with American education system. In short: [i]It's not that a left-wing professorial coup has taken over the university. It's that at American universities, left-liberal politics have collided with the ethos of consumerism. The consumer ethos is winning.[/i]

Future of home communications and entertainment

rs — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 01:14:14 -0500

[i]Open Source software is leading to digital devices being used in large volumes in ways their designers never envisioned. This takes control of the network out of the hands of the providers and into the hands of the users. And the outcome doesn't have to be some socialistic information economy. On the contrary, it means that whole new business models will appear to take advantage of the fact that all types of communications and all types of content will be able to reach all parts of the market with almost no friction.[/i] Well someone in [url=http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20040930.html] Canada [/url]is changing the way we use our telephone, TV, and Interent cable. Do let me know if you succeed in doing it in India.

new form of outsourcing

rs — Fri, 24 Sep 2004 01:17:18 -0500

Follow the discussion on outsourcing at [url=http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/philg/2004/09/19#a6113] "Outsource university administration to India or China?"[/url]. [i]Business idea for the young readers: Start a university "back-office" service bureau in India or China. The folks who've done this for Wall Street have been very successful (New Yorker magazine did a great article this summer on Office Tiger, started by two Princeton alums). Most university administrations lack the initiative to manage staff overseas (or do anything innovative, actually) but they would all appreciate the potential cost savings. So they'll need a contractor to do it all for them.[/i]

Market for e-books?

rs — Sun, 22 Aug 2004 11:23:41 -0500

Industry of e-books and associated reading devices remains in its infancy, and it is believed electronic publishers can eventually develop technologies that substantially reduce eyestrain. For now, there aren't many people interested in curling up with a good mystery on their PDA or laptop. E-books are also not very user friendly in terms of transferring the book from one computer to another as some of them are licensed for use on only one computer. Imagine a situation where I have to transfer a digital book from my office computer to my PDA and then my home computer. This problem does not arise with a normal book. Disincentives in making e-books successful far exceed the incentives of making it possible. Publishers are afraid that industry will face piracy problem while the authors are looking for ways to get their work appreciated by readers from all over the world.