There was a time when a New York Times photo essay titled ‘From Bangladesh to the Boroughs’ would have been an account of migrants escaping abysmal poverty in their homeland to build a prosperous future in the USA. But in November 2009, a story of that title was about a reverse flow—the activities of Grameen America’s first 1500 small, collateral-free loans for poor women in the New York City area.

The Smart Manager in association with Asian Centre For Corporate Governance & Sustainability and Mahendra & Young Knowledge Foundation, bring you a series of columns authored by eminent business leaders. In the first of the series, MV Nair, Chairman & Managing Director of Union Bank of India talks about the future of Indian banks in a globalized economy.

The Smart Manager in association with Asian Centre For Corporate Governance & Sustainability and Mahendra & Young Knowledge Foundation, bring you a series of columns authored by eminent business leaders. In the first of the series, MV Nair, Chairman & Managing Director of Union Bank of India talks about the future of Indian banks in a globalized economy.

The acknowledged pioneer of housing finance in India, the Chairman of HDFC Limited explains the importance of striking the right work-life balance to achieve success.

The man behind the rise of ICICI from a term lending institution to India’s second largest universal bank places a premium on learning from experience…

"Do a simple exercise: Think of business persons you have always admired and then start listing the names as they come to mind. Finished? Now, look at the list and consider why you have recalled some and left out others. Now, if you analyze carefully you will find that people on your list share some common attributes. Chief among these are that they reached the top of their professions and built organizations that went onto becoming institutions, even legends. More important though is that these men achieved their goals within a framework of a strong value system, the courage of their conviction and above all, an interest in making a positive difference to the world. As such, it can be said that these men are remembered as much for their success as they are for their values and the impact they made on the world. In this issue, The Smart Manager invited senior statesmen such as Dr. Brijmohan Munjal, Deepak Parekh, K V Kamath, Narotam Sekhsaria and Rahul Bajaj to write about the lessons they would like to pass on to the generations to follow. Read about their legacies and learn from their experiences. "

Too many organizations pay mere lip service to the concept of a corporate value system. In this exclusive for The Smart Manager, GV Nageswara Rao narrates the story of how IDBI Fortis’s incredible success in its first year of operations can be traced back to a clearly defined and articulated value system.

"Big moves, in the form of strategic shifts are pivotal points in the history of companies.However the risks of making a catastrophic mis-step cannot be ignored, because research shows that even the most successful companies have undertaken stupid big moves from which they have had difficulty recovering."

Notwithstanding all the skepticism that met Reliance Money’s decision to foray into rural India, the company went right ahead with the initiative. Sudip Bandyopadhyay recounts the experience, listing the opportunities and challenges.

Winner of this year's Indy's Young Achiever award for excellence in marketing, communications, advertising and branding, Chandramohan Mehra walks down memory lane to recall the career milestones that helped mold him professionally.

"From a modest beginning in 1962 to successfully launching India’s first unmanned mission to the moon in 2008, ISRO has come a long way. In an exclusive for The Smart Manager, Madhavan Nair, Chairman ISRO, writes about the key factors which drove the ‘star enterprise.’"

"The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life" by Alice Schroeder can be said to be a valuable treatise on certain enduring principles underlying investment markets and business management

Companies might do well to manage risks proactively rather than in an ad-hoc manner…

What are the characteristics of a Level 05 organization?

A level 04 integrated company is one that approaches cost management from a three dimensional perspective that goes beyond the traditional levers of costs and revenues

Tulsi Tanti talks about challenges of rapid growth; challenges of acquisitions; challenges of heading a transnational company, and much more

The Kotak journey is one of creating an institution based on the basic tenets of entrepreneurship, value creation rather than just size, trust and responsibility,” says uday Kotak, Executive Vice Chairman & Managing Director, Kotak Mahindra Group

The 200 year old state run bank with a huge legacy was innovating to outpace competition. Would it succeed?

In the first of this six part series Bala V Balachandran and Sudhakar V Balachandran discussed the evolution in a company's ability to understand and manage its cost structure. Here they explain the characteristics of the Level 01 organization.

There in an evolution in a company's ability to understand and manage its cost structure, say Bala V Balachandran and Sudhakar V Balachandran. Learn the five levels of cost management maturity model.

In 2005, analysts advised their clients to sell Bank of Baroda shares. The Sarkari bank was too stodgy and too slow to match the scorching pace set by competitors such as ICICI. Today a u-turn has taken place, with analysts pointing to a 80% growth in the credit business, 127% growth in international business, a brand relaunch and more. Anil Khandelwal describes the transformation process.

Can a bank make money out of billions of tiny transactions? This was the challenge facing KV Kamath. IT helped but only to a point: what was really needed was management innovation. Read on…

It is a management innovation that has transformed the way the world does business. And it all started in India through the initiative of a few far-sighted Indians working for an American firm.

Despite the need for a good cost accounting system, ABC and ABM systems suffer from too many cost drivers. Volume adjusted costing (VAC) is easy to understand, and based on the premise that annual volume is the most valuable cost driver. VAC's purpose is to provide direction for decision making but one of the biggest benefits is getting "buy-in" among users of cost data.

One of world's greatest super traders operating in one of the world's toughest stock markets, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala is as bullish on India today as he has been since 1985. Here he explains his investment approach, and the influences which have shaped it.

Not many can look into the crystal ball and predict what the future has to say. But if one wants to manufacture right and sell all, then the key is to forecast accurately, says Dr Rakesh Singh, Professor of Economics and Business Strategy, SP Jain Institute of Management Research, Mumbai.

If you want to improve your profits, should you increase sales or decrease cost? It’s a classical dilemma facing every manager. Learn as the leading professor of accounting from the Kellogg School of Management explains.

Instead of cost control, it may be more productive for managers to incur the extra costs associated with higher utilization if it produces a net increase in revenues.

“Private equity gives an opportunity to the managers to actually own the company they are running and it allows them to make this transition without having to compromise,” says Managing Director & CEO, ICICI Venture, Renuka Ramnath.

“Private equity gives an opportunity to the managers to actually own the company they are running and it allows them to make this transition without having to comprise, says Renuka Ramnath, Managing Director & CEO, ICICI Venture

Valuing team players over star performers reaps dividends says Keki Mistry, Managing Director, HDFC.

Transforming a staid development bank into the second largest universal bank in the country was the challenge that Kamath faced. In this personal account he narrates his triumphs and failures as a change manager to Gita Piramal.

Unfazed by stiff competition from the established incumbents such as Life Insurance Corporation as well as new ones such as ICICI Prudential, Max New York Life is forging ahead by listening to the customer. Here Anuroop 'Tony' Singh, CEO and Managing Director, Max New York Life, describes how to insure success.

Businesses create value as fast as they destroy it through strategic decisions, which in retrospect are often termed as misconceived. This raises a question, are strategic decision successes, in the end, a zero sum game? Questions Ajoy Nair, Academic Head, TASMAC Group.

We assume that the easiest way to build a leading practice is to replicate the best practices of leading firms. "Not so," says Ashok Wadhwa, CEO of Ambit Corporate Finance. ("Trust your instinct and protect your clients interests. Be bold and experiment in the face of competition.")

Morgen Witzel explains ‘dead cat bounce’ and how it traps the stock market investors over and again.

Hire ordinary people, turn them into leaders. That's what HDFC does best, apart from selling mortgages. The payoff? 10x growth with the same people. The secret? An environment and culture where people can flourish, an island of excellence within India.

How do you think big, start small but scale up fast? Shikha Sharma, CEO, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, explains the strategy and processes that went in founding the large scale start up.

Every working day, 4,500 semi-literate dabbawalas collect and deliver 175,000 meals within four hours. What can we learn from this unique, simple and highly efficient 120 year old logistics system? by Pradip Thakker

What does it take to be a successful banker in London? Nishit Kotecha, Executive Director at Lehman Brothers Europe, shares his learnings.