IMCI_Delhi-60th_ABCeMag-300911-HR.161202933

D E L H I 

September 16-30, 2011 

de-limiting excellence 

Institute of Management Consultants of India, Delhi 

1 

n.o. 

Dear Readers, 

in this issue… 

Reflections 2 

Alag Tewar, 

Alag Flavour 

Remember the proverb, 

“Slow and steady wins the 

race.” Old stuff. 

We follow the new idiom 

“the fastest and the steadiest 

remains ahead…” 

Every fortnight, 60 times 

over, always on or before 

time, ABCeMag for you. 

Do we need to prove 

anything? 

Time for a bit of bragging ;-). 

Pardon the tone. Join the 

celebrations. You are right in 

the middle, play along… 

Alag Tewar, Alag Flavour 

continues… 

Cheers, 

Rajiv Khurana 

CMC, FIMC 

Editor 

Yo Report 3 

From Celebrity to Tranquillity 4-5 

If TIME were to step out from the 

Shadow of SPACE, could we Co- 

Create a Wiser Low-Carbon and 

Cultural-Rich Future? 

Is Corporate Excellence a Mirage 

and its Search a Wild Goose 

Chase ? 

Management Transformation - 

hierarchy to networking 

Managers – Complexion and 

Calibre 

Managing for Institutional 

Excellence 

An Overview of Working Capital 

within Financial Management 

6-9 

10-12 

13-15 

16-17 

18-24 

25-27 

Sexual Harassment in workplace 28-35 

Why it’s great to be a MAN in the 

office? 

36-37 

Tips for Consultants 38 

About IMCI & Code of Ethics 39 

Misc. 40

D E L H I 




2 

Alag Tewar, 

Alag Flavour 

Dear Readers, 

Time just flies… April 16,2009 seems just 

the other day… the day a little baby, aptly 

named ABCeMag (representing Academia, 

Business and Consulting) was born, just 15 

days after my predecessor, Rajiv Khurana, 

whose idea it was to publish an eMag, took 

over the Chairmanship of IMCI Delhi. On 

that auspicious day, for all of us in the 

three organizational spaces of academia, 

business and consulting, no one probably 

ever imagined that October 1,2011 will 

arrive so soon and our little baby would be 

60 issues young with such a huge domestic 

and global reader base. Even more amazing 

is the fact that each one of these issues has 

been released either on or before time. On 

this momentous occasion, I am sure all of 

you would join me in sparing a thought and 

in your own way acknowledge the single 

minded devotion and contribution of the 

one and only RAJIV KHURANA. To him goes 

all the credit for the 60 treasures that we 

have and the infinite more treasures that 

we shall have in the future. 

I SALUTE YOU RAJIV AND I AM SURE I AM 

NOT ALONE. WITH ME ARE ALL THE 

READERS…! 

Sumit Chaudhuri 

CMC, FIMC 

Chairman, IMCI Delhi 

One of the 

serious 

problems today 

is the growing 

supply of 

information. To 

try to go 

through all the 

information and 

to note the 

significant 

aspects is 

becoming like 

drinking water 

from a hose 

pipe. In such a 

situation, ABCe 

Mag is a 

blessing as it 

gives significant 

information in a 

concise and 

readable form. 

Sharu S 

Rangnekar 

CMC, FIMC

D E L H I 




3 

Alag Tewar, 

Alag Flavour 

The Second Idea Ball, the Inter-Campus B-Schools’ Presentation Competition was 

organized jointly by The Institute of Management Consultants of India (IMCI), 

Delhi and Jagannath International Management School (JIMS), Kalkaji, New 

Delhi. The event was operationalised by a team from JIMS Kalkaji, under the 

guidance of Dr. Amit Gupta, Chairman and Dr. (Cdr.) Satish Seth, Director with the 

organizing team consisting of faculty members and students. The event was 

managed with active collaboration of IMCI Office Bearers, namely, Mr. SA Khader, 

Member, Mr. Anand Chabra, Honorary Treasurer and Mr. Sumit Chaudhuri, 

Chairman. 

Eight teams from various Business Schools of Delhi and NCR participated in the 

competition through a twelve minute power–point presentation, followed by a 

grilling question-answer session from the judges and the audience. 

The Guest of Honour, Mr. Vivek Nanda, Head - Direct Sales, North, Sharp Business 

Systems Limited emphasized the need for professionalism including the 

importance of punctuality. The panel of judges comprised of Mr. VK Verma, 

General Manager - HR, TCS Ltd, Ms. Suguna Swaminathan, Senior Manager - HR, 

BHEL, Mr. Indraneel Das. Manager Training, Raymond India Ltd. and Ms. Rakhi 

Ruhal, Manager Evaluation, AIMA, who conducted an enlightening feedback 

session about the event and for the participating teams. 

JIMS Kalkaji’s Mr. Abishek Somal, Mr. Abishek Pandav and Mr. Himanshu Pachori, 

were declared the winners, followed by IIHMR, Dwarka’s, Dr. Kanchan Dua, Mr. 

Mandeep Singh Arora and Mr. Manish Jain who were the Runners Up. All the 

participating team members were presented with Merit and Participation 

Certificates as also Gift Hampers from Dabur India Ltd. 

The vote of Thanks on behalf of IMCI Delhi and JIMS Kalkaji was presented by Mr. 

Khader from IMCI. 

- Sanjeela Mathur

D E L H I 




4 

The basic qualities that lead to success of an individual 

are Ego, Envy, Expectations and Insistence. Ego makes 

the person believe that he is different from ordinary 

people and is destined to achieve something remarkable. 

Envy makes him look around at people achieving success 

and makes him try to exceed their achievement. 

Expectations are his desire to derive more from himself 

and others around him so that he can achieve great 

results. Insistence is his tenacity to focus on the results 

and follow up with people to achieve the result. Without 

these four characteristics a person may not achieve a 

great deal and will lead a mediocre life - described by 

Urdu poet Akbar Allahabadi: 

Kya kahein ahbab kya kya kaare numaya kar gaye 

BA hue, naukri mili, pension mili, mar gaye 

Alag Tewar, 

Alag Flavour 

Sharu S. 

Rangnekar 

CMC, FIMC 

AManagement 

Educator with 

considerable 

experience in 

conducting 

Management 

Development 

programmes. 

www.sharurangnekar.com 

What can I say what great deeds my friend has 

performed, 

Got B.A, got a job, got pension, passed away 

Eventually success makes him a celebrity: small, medium 

or large. However, the aura of celebrities is destined to 

vanish and this creates a great problem to those who 

achieved celebrity status. When the limelight moves 

away, they find their life suddenly darkened and this puts 

them onto a cross road. One route is the frustration – 

bitterness – depression route. The other is to taper off 

the ego-envy-expectations-insistence aspects to achieve 

tranquility. 

Most people take the route of frustration –bitternessdepression. 

The loss of celebrity status gets them 

frustrated and makes them angry with people around 

them. The people around them also react negatively to 

these former celebrities. Ultimately, the celebrities end 

in having feeling of bitterness against those around. They 

feel that the world has become ungrateful and eventually 

drift into despondency and depression.

D E L H I 




5 

Those who have built their success on money, status and 

power get into this route very easily because these three 

commodities decline very fast in the life of celebrities. 

However, there is another success in life: autonomy, 

creativity and integrity. Here people are doing what they 

like to do. They are creative and stick to their values. Very 

often this route does not give them a celebrity status as 

high and visible as the money-status-power route. 

However, the autonomy-creativity-integrity arise 

essentially from within the person and so are not affected 

by the loss of celebrity status. After all celebrity is seeing 

at yourself through the eyes of others. If a person likes 

the work he is doing, the work satisfies his creative 

instincts and enables him to stick to his values, his position 

in the eyes of others does not affect him as he is able to 

look at himself through his own eyes. 

If he is able to switch off are his Ego, Envy, Expectations 

and Insistence, he can reconcile himself to the post 

celebrity life. This switching off mechanism is obviously 

very difficult and very few are successful. 

Thus, the ability of a person to recognize that he is “going 

down the hill” and being reconciled to it is essential for his 

tranquility in the period after the celerity status gets 

diminished. The higher you rise the harder is the fall! 

Everybody does reconcile to some extend in the physical 

aspect. After all a person at the age of 80 cannot lift 

weight or carry out physical exertion as much as a person 

at the age of 40. So sportsmen do retire at a point 

accepting they are going down the hill. However, when 

the celebrity status is based intellectual ability the person 

does not readily accept he is going down the hill. He feels 

the world is not accepting him as it is basically ungrateful. 

Alag Tewar, 

Alag Flavour 

Thus, the aspects of Ego, Envy, Expectations and Insistence 

remain with us from birth to grave and what gives us 

celebrity status can lead us to a possible misery – unless 

we can subdue these on ceasing to be celebrity.

D E L H I 




6 

Alag Tewar, 

Alag Flavour 

Dr. Charles M. Savage, 

author of Fifth 

Generation Management, 

has been for years on the 

cutting edges of 

leadership changes. 

Born and raised in Hawaii, 

he’s been teaching MBA 

Leadership courses in 

Germany, Sweden and 

India. 

Even after these many centuries, TIME still puzzles us. 

The headline of a recent German publication focuses 

on the ‘Mystery of TIME’ *GEOkompakt, Nr. 27]. And 

FQXi just held an international conference in Norway 

and Denmark “Setting Time Aright.” 

[http://fqxi.org/conference/2011] 

We remember Aristotle’s definition of time as 

movement in terms of before and after. St. Augustine 

said that when asked, he was puzzled. Newton 

maintained SPACE and TIME are both absolute and 

separate. Einstein welded SPACE and TIME together 

(SpaceTime) and argued they are relative. 

Modern technology is enabling us to define units of 

TIME in Pico-seconds. This is important for our GPS 

coordinates, the functioning of the Internet and 

Algorithmic trading on some of the stock exchanges. 

Yet, does this really explain time? Are we not really 

measuring movement or duration in SPACE? 

Does TIME have its own nature apart from SPACE? 

SPACE is so all-present to us in every-day life, that it is 

hard not to think in spatial categories. Moreover, our 

eyes see things in SPACE and our brain transmits this 

information 

to the visual cortex in the back of our heads. We use 

spatial metaphors to think about TIME, i.e. there 

seems to be a physical distance between our PRESENT 

and our PAST. Likewise, the FUTURE is out there – 

more distance. But is this really the way TIME works? 

This past March at a workshop at the Royal Society in 

London we were reflecting on Ibn Al-Haytham’s “Book 

of Optics,” started exactly 1,000 years ago this year. 

Were his “optics” of both SPACE and TIME, or just the 

former? It quickly became clear he was just focusing 

on light and position in SPACE. Is there a book about 

the Optics of TIME?

D E L H I 




7 

Alag Tewar, 

Alag Flavour 

Are these like the three coordinates of things in SPACE? 

NO, we never really seem to see things in TIME within these three dimensions all 

at once. They are always separated (a spatial concept). Perhaps TIME perception 

does not function like spatial perception and we have no “temporal cortex” in our 

brains. What if we were to take SPACE out of TIME so that “spatial distances” 

disappear? 

Were we to do this, the PAST would not be “back 

there,” but instead “right here.” The FUTURE 

would not be “out there,” but also “right here.” 

Even if this does not seem natural, let’s explore 

how this might work. 

Might we use the metaphor of “Additive Color Theory” with its three 

overlapping disks of the primary colors: Red, Blue and Green? We quickly 

notice that at the overlaps, something very interesting occurs. We discover 

the secondary colors: Yellow, Magenta and Cyan. And in the middle White 

emerges. 

What if the three dimensions of TIME were to overlap? Would we see just the 

PAST, PRESENT and FUTURE or would we see nuances and interrelationships at 

the overlaps? And were we to look as something within this context, might 

new “insights” emerge? Perhaps, but this is not as automatic as with Additive 

Color Theory. Why not? 

Again, we are looking at a spatial representation of color. If we take SPACE out 

of TIME, we might need to “see” time in a much different way. Perhaps we 

cannot count on a static representation within the realm of TIME, but need to 

understand the dynamics of the interaction between the three elements of 

TIME. 

What if we were to use a second metaphor, that of a jazz trio? Jazz musicians 

are extremely accomplished, yet when they play they are always open to the 

unexpected. The improvisations of the one inspire an answering dialogue from 

the other. Suppose that for the secondary colors to emerge, the three primary 

colors would need to enter into a jazz like dialogue. Moreover, for White (new 

insights sparking further improvisation) to become visible, might the 

underlying patterns of the primary and secondary colors need to have an 

even more intensive improvisational dialogue? 

Suppose something unexpected happens in the PRESENT. We rightly ask, 

“What’s happening and why?” Might it be due to events in the PAST? Or could 

it be because of anticipations in the FUTURE? 

TIME takes on texture within our reflective selves. Our curiosity and questions 

open windows of understanding in the dynamics of TIME. This can be very 

energizing. In addition, this dialoguing may bring ideas about how to better 

co-create the future in a wise and thoughtful manner. Here we have a third 

metaphor at work. Instead of TIME being something in and of itself, it really is 

the “canvas of life” upon which sketch and paint our individual and 

communities stories in real time.

D E L H I 




8 

Alag Tewar, 

Alag Flavour 

Notice the color of TIME is not visible in SPACE, but becomes visible 

within the inner dialoguing of our rational and empathetic selves. 

Moreover, because of TIME’s complex dynamics, we need one another 

to check, compare and inspire deeper reflections. In other words, TIME 

does not just happen within myself, but between ourselves! 

Remember how in 1758 Carl Linnaeus gave us the benefit of the doubt 

in calling humans:Homo Sapiens Sapiens. As we know, “Sapiens” means 

wise, so he doubles it for Humans who are to be “wisely wise.” Did he 

see possibilities within humankind that we haven’t really noticed or 

even tried to reach? Is there something more to live yet to be 

discovered? 

The 2009 film “The Age of Stupid,” suggests we have a long way to go 

to live into Linnaeus’ vision of the possibilities of human life. Perhaps 

he saw life is not just accumulating things, but instead it is lived in the 

inner dialoguing of TIME within and between ourselves? 

Aristotle had three forms of knowing: Techne, Episteme and Phronesis. 

Techne refers to ‘know how,’ or technologies. Episteme indicate ‘know 

why’ or the theory of how things work. Phronesis is ‘wise judgment.’ 

Our schools and training in organizations focus on the first two, but 

tragically leave out Phronesis. Perhaps this explains why the movie on 

stupidity has had to be made. 

How might we learn to truly live wisely? 

Is it not time for TIME to step out of the shadow of SPACE and realize 

its real potential? 

Perhaps in this way, we can actively co-create a low-carbon economy 

that is also culturally rich. It may well be that the really renewable 

energy is the energy within each of us supported through cultural 

metabolism; and were this to happen, we’d have an engaging global 

economy that provides adequate work for all because TIME is 

abundant whereas SPACE is scarce, i.e. clock time, a creation of SPACE 

is also scarce as we know. 

Our economies have always been in SPACE, be they the ‘hunters and 

gatherers,’ the ‘agricultural era,’ the “industrial era,” and now the 

emerging ‘green economy’ and maybe the ‘blue economy.’ Yet, we 

understand that our resource usage cannot continue and we need to 

decouple GDP growth from its tightly coupled use of energy and other 

resources 

[www.unep.org/resourcepanel/Publications/Decoupling/tabid/56048/Default 

.aspx]. 

This means humans are facing the most profound challenge we’ve ever 

faced if we wish to live more wisely and well. Might we move beyond 

to a SPICE ecoNOMY? [Spirited People, actively Improvising, Co- 

Creating and Educating.]

D E L H I 




9 

Alag Tewar, 

Alag Flavour 

These thoughts are shared not as a 

blueprint of the future, but to invite 

and inspire us all to enter into a 

more intense dialogue where we 

look back to the wisdom of the PAST 

in our various cultures (i.e. the 

Dharma) to gain new insights in 

facing today’s challenges. Only in 

this way can we co-create a much 

wiser FUTURE. As we see the 

overlapping dynamics of the PAST, 

PRESENT and FUTURE, there may 

emerge in the center the white light 

of new and inspiring insights 

[VENNergizing TIME]. And it is these 

insights that will energize us for the 

tough and challenging work ahead. 

This takes active listening, questing, 

dialoguing, reflecting and 

improvising. The good news is that 

as we engage in this process, we 

begin to sense the transition is 

possible because of the jazz like 

improvisational nature of TIME. 

Is it not time to find our potential 

wisdom as we shine our lights on 

the dynamic and energizing inner 

dialoguing of the three elements of 

de-spatialized TIME? Perhaps in this 

way we can actively co-create a 

wiser low-carbon and culturally-rich 

FUTURE. Sorry Albert, but we need 

to de-weld SPACE and TIME so 

each of us can have presence in our 

own unique and individual ways. 

Through this we can experiences a 

much richer being by improvising in 

community upon the canvas of LIE 

in wiser and more creative ways! 

SPACE, please step aside and let 

TIME become visible once again in 

its own unique ways.

D E L H I 




10 

Alag Tewar, 

Alag Flavour 

An international 

economist and 

consultant having 

worked with the 

institutions like 

United Nations and 

Asian Development 

Bank and a large 

number of public 

and private sector 

organisations in 

India and overseas. 

Accredited Fellow of 

IMCI and others. 

The Fashion 

For quite some time, since the publication of In Search of 

Excellence by Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman 

Jr., excellence in corporate management and institutional 

space has been in fashion, Several studies have focused 

on corporate excellence which has been variously 

defined. Many institution have been created using the 

enchanting term ‘excellence’ such as Centres of 

Excellence. Similarly, a number of management books 

have been produced and the executive development 

programmes designed using the term ‘Excellence’. 

Corporate strategies and techniques are designed and 

developed targeting good corporate governance. 

The Borrowed Techniques, the Base 

Like TQM (Total Quality Management) and BPR (Business 

Process Reengineering), the concept of corporate 

excellence may also wane in due course like BPR which 

The Economist of London described as a management 

fad. Even Balanced Scorecard is slowly losing its shine. 

Among other reasons, all these new management 

concepts, techniques or systems have been focused on 

some specific breakthrough ideas but using the 

techniques developed by basic management strategies 

and systems. The new techniques are pushed by the 

authors, consultants and media prompted by a need to 

make thrusts with highly branded users, principally 

consultants and resourceful corporates. Six Sigma, for 

example, attempts to adopt efficient processes in order 

to achieve high performance measured by Six Sigma. The 

innovation in Six Sigma is to focus on a statistically 

measured target of efficiency. Take another, quality 

management in the form of TQM (Total Quality 

Management). It uses among others measurable targets 

through processes and human resource development 

techniques. 

Most organisations (or their component constituents) 

put the epithet of ‘excellence’ only to say that they 

propose and plan to deploy techniques and systems 

which will lead the organization or its constituents to 

achieve highest rates of efficiency and goal achievement 

coefficients.

D E L H I 




11 

The Concept and Parameters 

Corporate Excellence is a concept which, in fact, only 

means that in all facets and dimentious of corporate’s 

operations, it will strive to achieve benchmarks. In most 

cases, neither the benchmarks are unique nor are the 

processes of their achievement. 

The concept of corporate excellence basically implies 

corporate management which drives steady and 

consistent comparative high level of sustainable growth 

and mutidimensional performance. Since the structure, 

field of activity, uses and objects differ, the content 

configuration also takes varying forms. It manifests itself 

in diverse ways and is not a single point or a single track 

phenomenon. 

In a study on the central public sector in India (cier-scope 

study titled ‘A Symbol of Corporate Excellence’, we had 

identified a number of dimensions of corporate 

excellence: exploring new markets and accessing 

resources by forging strategic alliances; empowerment 

through innovative management interventions; attaining 

high levels of financial performance leading to global 

competitiveness; streamlining the processes of 

technology upgradation for gaining the cutting edge; 

fulfilling social goals through multidimensional 

initiatives; adopting new directions of people 

management, a critical driver of performance taking 

continuing care of the environment and serving the 

mission to save the planet; and integrating corporate 

development with inclusive social and economic growth. 

Now the million dollar question: Which contemporary 

and vibrant business organisation should not strive to 

achieve these parameters? What it achieves is a different 

matter. But corporate excellence does not itself suggest 

any specific techniques away from what are already 

known. And if one achieves all this, it has to be at the 

top of the world – in its area of operation. All are not at 

the top despite their march towards the goals. Corporate 

Excellence has, therefore, varying levels. 

Alag Tewar, 

Alag Flavour

D E L H I 




12 

Alag Tewar, 

Alag Flavour 

The Real World 

The ground realities are often different. Every 

organization exists in a real world – a world of diverse 

uncertainties. The uncertainties are often external. And 

when these occur and manifest themselves in different 

shapes and rigours, the strategies to deal with them will 

differ to be tailored accordingly. If Lehman Goldman 

Sachs or AIG, the leading business operators of the 

world, stumble and affect the fortunes of corporates 

located in Kolkata or Coimbatore, the responses have to 

be different. No measure of corporate excellence can 

prevent the turbulences. And the strategies will have to 

be different in divergent situations: location, field of 

operation, size, structure and governmental and business 

environment. 

No corporate can sit on a pedestal which could be styled 

as the pillar of corporate excellence unless it has to be 

conscious that it has to continue to work for the goal 

adjusting itself to the ever changing scenario. 

The fortunes change in the twinkling of an eye – be it an 

error of judgment in corporate decision making, such as 

a faulty merger and acquisition decision, a new market 

alliance or penetration in a new market. Often the 

emergence of a new market leader could upset the 

corporate health and generate turbulence. 

Corporate Excellence is not an absolute concept or 

epithet. It lies in the dynamism of the management to 

sail in turbulent waters of the present day business 

world. Corporate Excellence is a goal not a milestone. 

And there are many milestones, not one. The milestones 

are not in a series, they are multi-directional moving 

concomitantly. A deficit in one will impact others. 

When a deficit occurs, the management consultant can 

make a wholesome contribution. With a wider exposure, 

a consultant can play a significant role in diverse stages 

of the march towards Corporate Excellence. 

Surprisingly, The central task of a management 

consultant always is, whatever the context, to make 

move towards the goal of Corporate Excellence – never 

mind that the goal is illusory. Dreams are always illusory 

but good dreams are worth dreaming and pursuing with 

passion and commitment.

D E L H I 




13 

Managing in industrial economy was much simpler. 

There was clear demarcation of thinkers and doers. 

Thinking was the job of managers. Doing was the job of 

workers and employees. They were supposed to follow 

instructions and keep doing what they were told to do. 

There was simple functional hierarchy of white collar and 

blue collar. The hierarchy is depicted at figure 1 

White- 

Collar 

Blue - 

Collar 

Alag Tewar, 

Alag Flavour 

Ramesh Tyagi 

CMC, FIMC 

An international 

consultant having 

experience of 

working in ten 

developing 

countries as a 

consultant to an 

international 

organisation. 

The only issue was how to make the workers more 

efficient. 

Frederick Taylor did pioneering work in this direction 

and wrote The Principles of Scientific Management in 

1911. (It can be downloaded free of charge on i pad or 

kindle). He believed that workers did not work to their 

full capacity and used the word ‘soldiering’ which means 

working more slowly than one's capacity or loafing. He 

stressed upon efficiency and productivity of workers. 

Taylor mentions “---the best management is a true 

science, resting upon clearly defined laws, rules and 

principles as a foundation and further to show that the 

fundamental principles of scientific management are 

applicable to all kinds of human activities--.” He 

suggested methods to improve efficiency but missed the 

most important element of management that people 

were not mere units of production but were human 

beings and had feelings hopes and aspirations and 

tremendous potential for thinking, creativity, innovation 

and improving things.

D E L H I 




14 

Between 1908 and 1913, Ford focussed on increasing productivity through 

standardisation and specialised division of labour in mass production. Increase in 

productivity lowered the price of automobiles, making them widely affordable. 

However, the degree of vertical integration was very high. The company maintained a 

high-level of in-house production of different parts used in the assembly of cars. This 

is unthinkable in present system of manufacturing when more than 60 percent 

components are outsourced. 

In this era, management was simple as it was related to observation and calculations. 

The transition from Industrial economy to Knowledge economy is depicted at figure 2 

Industrial 

Economy 

Transition 

Knowledge 

Econmy 

IT-enabled 

NETWORKS 

As the economy was globalised and transformed from industrial economy to 

knowledge economy, management became much more complex. 

The knowledge economy is the term popularised by Peter Drucker. He used this term 

in his book The Age of Discontinuity saying that knowledge resources such as knowhow 

and expertise are as important as other resources. 

New ideas and concepts were developed to solve management issues particularly in 

the area of strategy and human resource development which was neglected in the 

industrial era. For example in the year 1995, Daniel Goleman wrote Emotional 

Intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ. Japanese made great strides in involving 

workers on car production lines through concepts such as kaizen (continuous 

improvement) 

According to Bowker, the company responsible to assign ISBN number to the 

publishing industry, more than 11000 business books are published every year. 

Amazon.com carries more than 630,000 business related books in addition to audio 

books and e-books. As per one estimate, there are 527 major business related 

journals and 110 million business-related blog posts which is growing every day. It is a 

challenge to keep up-dated on what is new in business related ideas and precepts. 

However, too much complexity and abundance sometimes obscures the purpose and 

keeps people away from bias for action. 

“After all is said and done, there is usually more said than done.” Anon 

Alag Tewar, 

Alag Flavour

D E L H I 




15 

IT-Enabled Network Organisation 

"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. 

We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift." Albert 

Einstein 

Innovation and creativity is the lifeline of the present day business. Creativity is a 

collaborative activity in which people develop and share ideas together. .We are now 

in an era of networking and connectivity. Industrial era management was preoccupied 

with organising the mass production systems. The networking and web connectivity 

could make innovation and creativity a mass activity. Web allows the best minds in 

an area to work together on common problem. 

Concept of networking in simple terms is depicted at figure 3 

Alag Tewar, 

Alag Flavour 

Information technology has made tremendous impact on management. Technological 

advances have provided huge opportunities for networking and fast communication 

To understand the power of networking, let us look at the structure of human body. 

Human body is a collection of highly complex networks including our brain, nervous 

system, circulatory system and immune system etc. Let us think for a minute what 

happens if this network collapses. In the word of Beinhocker “If you took away the 

network system of the human body, we would each be nothing more than a small box 

of chemicals and half a bathtub’s worth of water.” (The origin of wealth, 2006) 

Imagine the state of economy without the network of roads, railways, electrical grids, 

gas lines, radio waves; television signals, air services and optical cables etc. The 

matter, energy and information flow through these networks and keep the economy 

vibrant.. 

The new IT-Enabled Network Organisations allow Information Transparency when 

Information is made freely available to all in the organisation who might act on it. The 

information is released only to those who need to act on the information. Network 

organisation is extended beyond physical boundaries of a traditional organisation. The 

suppliers and customers are connected through network. Organisations outsource the 

areas which are not their core –business and networked for effective coordination. 

In sum, management transformation has taken place from Hierarchical to IT-Enabled 

network organisation. Management was simple in industrial era. It is more complex 

and challenging in the present economic environment. Innovation, IT, Networking and 

Human Resource Development are the key issues

D E L H I 




16 

Alag Tewar, 

Alag Flavour 

T Ramaswamy 

CMC 

MBA from IIMA, 

Certified 

Management 

Consultant with 35 

years' consulting 

experience in value 

based 

management. 

Management is the art of getting things done through 

others. Good management is scarce despite advancement 

in management concepts and techniques. Managerial 

performance varies depending on the style they adopt and 

the impression they create on their subordinates. It is 

interesting to consider some specimens of mangers and 

their roles. 

The bullying Manager 

This type of managers believe the best way to manage is to 

shout at their subordinates even for trivial omissions and 

errors. More than men women are likely targets for these 

managerial sharks? They think it is their right to bully the 

helpless victims. The results they achieve are doubtful and 

they easily create hostility in the organization. 

The Clerical manager 

The Clerical Manager drives employees mad. He discharges 

no other function. He is more concerned with appearances 

of the employees, how they dress and behave in office and 

is least bothered about their performance on the job. 

The Goal Post manager 

He believes in favoring selected employees particularly 

women and gives them lavish concessions and benefits at 

official cost. If favors are denied they resort to harassment 

by creating obstacles for high performance to employees. 

For e.g., when an important task is to be executed at a far 

off port they see to it the employee is denied access to 

supporting staff or transport. 

The Managerial Moron 

He is an incompetent manager who is pushed into 

positions of power by unusual combination of 

circumstances, often the spillover results of favoritism. 

Somehow he got promoted to a managerial post. He has 

no idea of the job to be done or his responsibility except 

that of drawing salary every month. He manages with the 

help of his clout to persuade his colleague to run his 

department, regardless of his colossal incompetence. He 

tries to be in the good books of his boss. 

The Managerial Spy 

He likes to spy on employees hoping to trap his colleagues 

or employees committing minor omissions. Invariably he 

uses the occasion to increase his popularity.

D E L H I 




17 

Alag Tewar, 

Alag Flavour 

Tough minded Manager 

He assumes that people are lazy and must be goaded to 

perform. He uses fear and intimidation as a tool of 

guaranteed response. He forgets that usually his action 

ends up in temporary compliance only. 

The Satin Cloth manager 

. He believes in the inherent goodness of the employees 

and that people want to do a good job. He may get a 

response with this approach, but is unlikely to get the best 

response. In reality contrary to expectations he is more 

likely to be taken advantage of by the employees. 

The Practical Manager 

He realizes that he doesn't have to act tough all the time. If 

employees perform their tasks earnestly and there is no 

emergency that requires immediate intervention, he takes 

a back seat and give them free hand do their jobs. By doing 

this he not only teaches employees to be responsible, but 

is able to concentrate fully on the most important things 

that contribute the success of the organization. 

The Leader 

He is participative and shares decision making with team 

members. Consensus leaders encourage group discussion 

about a problem and make a decision based on the 

consensus. He knows that each idea must have intention 

behind it, and the intention must be to transform the way 

people see themselves, to uplift, to enlighten, to 

encourage, to entertain. 

He has the ability to lead others based on personal charm, 

the ability to inspire trust within the organization. He can't 

be bought. He allows the individual departments to run 

autonomously to meet their goals. He expects everyone to 

use his mind and heart on the job. He builds a team 

composed of members that shared his vision and is willing 

to support his quest for excellence. His highly loyal and 

motivated staff rises to the challenges provided by their 

leader and continues to strive to be industry's best. 

Any progressive organization would benefit by identifying 

the type of mangers it has in its fold and to design training 

programs to correct or supplement their tendencies as 

they affect the performance of the organization. Seldom 

does an organization get an ideal manager who is fully 

identified with the goals of the organization.

D E L H I 




18 

Alag Tewar, 

Alag Flavour 

S A Khader 

CMC, FIMC 

A productivity & 

competitiveness 

consultant and a 

consultant trainer, 

with life-time 

association with 

Indian productivity 

movement 

Preamble 

Institutions of higher learning, whether 

managed by government or private 

entrepreneurship, have become the 

modern temples of learning to transform 

and groom the much needed human 

resource to the dynamic and fast changing 

national & global economic and societal 

scenario. Managing these institutions has 

become a great challenge in balancing the 

social goals such as developmental 

philanthropy of education sector vis-à-vis 

the compulsive commercial goals of 

knowledge transfer and providing academic 

& technical qualifications. Above all, 

maintaining continued excellence in an 

academic environment and relating the 

faculty to the demanding requirements of 

the key stakeholders namely the students 

(parents) in terms of placement and 

beneficiaries like the industry & economy in 

value-adding human resource are the 

cardinals in the process of managing to 

survive, sustain and grow in this sector. 

Conceptual Framework for Institutional 

Excellence 

Students with different academic & sociocultural 

background and abilities join a 

Higher Technical Institute with the objective 

of becoming successful Engineers & 

Managers. It is an onerous challenge that 

this institution faces in taking their present 

abilities and skills to a level where they 

would successfully perform & contribute in 

industry. To fulfill this challenge, the 

academic inputs are given through 

competent faculties under learning-

D E L H I 




19 

NATIONAL / GLOBAL TECHNOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT 

P 

A 

R 

E 

N 

T 

S 

& 

S 

O 

C 

I 

E 

T 

Y 

A 

INCOMING 

STUDENTS 

•Zeal 

Enthusiasm 

Commitment 

Passion 

Ethos 

Family Values 

Career Vision 

KNOWLEDGE –WARE 

Faculty, Learning Environment, KM & 

KT Systems, R & D, Student 

participation, Software & Connectivity 

Institute of 

higher 

Learning & 

Research 

PHYSICAL INFRASTRUCTURE 

Class-room, Labs/Workshop, 

Library, Hostel, Canteen, IT- 

Infrastructure, Extra Curricular s & 

Administration. 

ENGINEERS/MA 

NAGERS/ 

RESEARCH 

•Placement in 

reputed Industries 

•Techno- 

Economic/ 

Societal 

contribution. 

•State of the art 

Knowledge, 

Research & 

Innovation 

Capabilities with 

Service 

Orientation 

NATIONAL & STATE GOVT.- REGULATORS & MEDIA 

D 

B 

M 

A 

R 

K 

E 

T 

& 

I 

N 

D 

S 

T 

R 

Y 

environment, which is constituted significantly by the available infrastructure. 

The role of infrastructure is observed to be gaining importance from the 

perspective of students, parents and contemporary institutions, considering the 

emergence of 5-star environment of teaching-learning place/campuses. Alongwith 

this, emphasis is laid on professionalism, value-development & ethics as well as 

commitment towards excellence and these have become essentials to bring out 

successful professionals, who would be looking forward (as motivated citizens 

having professional attitude) to serve economy and society. The above conceptual 

frame-work depicts the above mentioned thought processes involved in the 

transformational processes. 

Towards achieving institutional excellence; three strategies come to surface 

under this conceptual framework. These are; i) creating inspiring learning 

environment charged with visionary academic leadership, ii) catalyzing and 

directing the human resource with appropriate and state-of-the-art infrastructure 

and iii) developing & maintaining very supportive and useful relationships with 

external stakeholders leading to attractive branding. In addition, the processes of 

participatory goal setting with the faculty is the effective means of voluntarily 

harnessing their full potentials to ensure world-class outputs in terms of 

knowledge development and transforming the young citizenry to scientists, 

technologists & engineers as well as administrators & managers. 

Alag Tewar, 

Alag Flavour

D E L H I 




20 

Visionary Institutional Management 

The current institutes of engineering and management are 

no longer mere institutions of higher learning and 

academic excellence, but they have become a kind of 

business enterprises turning out human resources needed 

for the market. Towards achieving this it has primarily two 

internal factors namely the deployment of motivated 

faculty & maintaining its tenor and supported by attractive 

& efficient infrastructure for effective teaching-learning 

process coupled with holistic personality development. In 

this process, one must realize that the younger generation, 

these days has a dream to fulfill, possibly inspired by their 

parents or other exemplary personalities and incidents 

they have encountered in their lives. Towards these 

pursuits, they are taking increasingly to professional 

institutions of higher learning after their schooling. At this 

stage, an adolescent from hitherto controlled schoolenvironment 

is thrown into the free campus environment 

of higher technical institution. Thus, it should be the 

responsibility of the institution to create an environment 

wherein this adolescent is in a position to blossom by 

harnessing his hidden potentials in all its facets. 

Ultimately, he or she must develop as a productive 

technocrat and a full-fledged citizen with such values 

conducive for the harmonious development of self, the 

enterprise and the society as well as the nation. This 

should be the quintessence of the educational philosophy 

and vision of the management of any higher technical and 

professional institution. 

Alag Tewar, 

Alag Flavour 

The visionary management needs to outline processes that 

focus on planning, operation and monitoring instructional 

activities for meeting the aforesaid challenges; such as a) 

Optimization of resource potentials & capabilities while 

maintaining academic excellence and b) enhancing the 

effectiveness of relationships with the external 

stakeholders in particular through better quality of 

deliverables. These processes should be suitably oriented 

to the unique culture and environment of institutions.

D E L H I 




21 

Academic Excellence 

Academic excellence is a term indispensable for an Institution for higher 

learning for ensuring good placements. The knowledge imparted should not be 

only for the technical competence; at the same time the value inculcation in the 

students is equally important. Academic environment is said to be excellent only 

where the faculty is encouraged by the institution for their own improvement 

and also this should become the in-built feature of the faculty. The following are 

the essential elements that need to be focused in developing a congenial 

environment for academic excellence: 

a. Qualified & Motivated Faculty 

b. Continuous Improvement of Faculty (FIP/QIP) 

c. Suitable Infrastructure (Labs/Library etc.) 

d. Industry Interface and Interaction 

e. Practice Orientation & Seminars/Workshops 

f. Continuous Adaptation of Syllabus 

Thus, an academic institution has primarily two internal factors for achieving 

excellence, namely the deployment of motivated faculty & maintaining its tenor 

through continuous professional development and adequately supported by 

attractive & efficient infrastructure. 

Continuous Professional Development 

Alag Tewar, 

Alag Flavour 

Academic environment is not just about having qualified & motivated faculty, 

but also to facilitate them to pursue relentlessly continuous professional 

development (CPD) for suitable adaptation to the fast changing requirements 

and also bring in closer industry-institution interface as well as practice 

orientation. Thus, the Human Resource Management (HRM) needs to seize 

with these basic imperatives to make a modern educational infrastructure value 

adding to all its stakeholders. The key focus of HRM in a higher technical 

institution context should be to keep the appropriately qualified faculty and 

technical staff on the path of continuous knowledge updating and up-gradation 

through suitable means such as attractive welfare measures, policies for 

recognition & promotion and above all demonstrating basic people-concern 

towards all employees as a noble employer. Thus, there is need for an effective 

& practical Manual on HR Management & Development consisting of processes 

that imbibe & integrate the above values &outlook in the employees (faculty & 

staff).

D E L H I 




22 

Modernization of Academic Ambience 

Infrastructure in an Academic Institution has an important role to play in 

enhancing the effectiveness of learning by providing a congenial learning 

ambience, which in turn enables effective knowledge transfer and acquisition 

through research and projects & consultancy. The learning ambience consists of i) 

academic component (knowledge) and ii) physical academic facilities. The 

academic ambience, which is a major factor for knowledge transfer is constituted 

by knowledgeable faculty members, who are motivated towards teaching their 

subject. On the other hand, physical academic facilities refer to good labequipments, 

library, IT facility and physical ambience – class rooms, labs and 

workshop facilities. In order to bring all the above infrastructure constituents to a 

state-of-the-art level, it is essential to undertake bench-making exercises by 

visiting advanced institutes & research facilities. Focusing more on infrastructure, 

IT integration for academic ambience, creating modern laboratory facilities, class 

rooms, faculty seating are becoming increasingly important in modern 

infrastructure development. Some of the other infrastructure development 

activities are focusing on energy and resource conservation in the campus, 

building green campus and strengthening health and hygiene maintenance 

including high-quality hostels & accommodation for the student and faculty 

community 

Student Development Processes (SDP) 

Alag Tewar, 

Alag Flavour 

Student’s Personality Development is an essential purpose of higher 

education. The learning and growth of each student extends well beyond the 

traditional classroom. The basic idea is to create an environment that encourages 

students' growth not only in the technological skills and expertise, but also as a 

holistic person. He should have the ability to cope with what he encounters in the 

practical world and to achieve successfully what one sets out to do. An increased 

tolerance and respect for different backgrounds, habits, values, and appearance, 

and a shift in the quality of relationships with intimates and close friends is to be 

developed. With the capacity for intimacy, students must build relationships on 

trust, interdependence and individuality. They have to develop a sense of social 

and personal responsibility and a belief that knowledge implies a responsibility to 

act. Growth will also involve the development of a personality with valid set of 

beliefs that have some internal consistency and that provide a tentative guide for 

behavior. A set of intervention processes for re-orienting the personality 

development have to be delineated to develop an attractive & distinguishing as 

well as effective & value adding citizen out of the current students. 

Ultimately, it is incumbent upon institutional management to create an attractive 

and congenial environment to develop its intake as confident and value-adding 

technocrats & managers and citizen when they land themselves in the practical 

world of today. This should be the quintessence of the educational philosophy 

and vision of any educational entity be it a society or an enterprise.

D E L H I 




23 

Conclusion 

Achieving Institutional Excellence is about working together to 

realize the ambitions & mission set for itself in terms of academic 

excellence, which in itself is an onerous task. When achieved, it 

builds a great amount of satisfaction and pride in its stakeholders. It 

is some kind of a virtuous cycle leading to enhanced and heightened 

level of energy flow and efforts from all those involved (IITs & IIMs 

for example). It develops some kind of charged environment wherein 

every one wants to contribute his best to improve it on a 

continuing basis denoted by the following academic excellence 

model comprising primarily of three stakeholders; namely – i). 

Students & parents; ii). Faculty & related pedagogic systems and iii). 

Alag Tewar, 

Alag Flavour

D E L H I 




24 

Management’s concern & commitment 

for excellent infrastructure. These 

stakeholders need to be properly 

catalyzed towards ultimate goals & 

objectives as perceived by the 

management in the journey towards 

excellence. The promoters or the 

management of the institution need to 

focus on interfacing with the following 

four external agencies on a continuing 

basis so as to internalize the feedback and 

implement such human resource 

management and development processes 

that bind faculty & staff (people) with 

achieving academic excellence. These are 

i) strengthening parental interactions to 

enhance student involvement & 

commitment; ii) continuous involvement 

of industry & services sectors for 

revamping of the courses to suit to their 

needs so that the employability enhances; 

iii) enhancing the compliance and 

transparency in its working to build a 

brand of a educator with certain nobility 

and iv) lastly, but most importantly 

keeping the faculty motivated to sharpen 

their skills and abilities to maintain 

highest standards of knowledge transfer 

and knowledge acquisition. The above 

model of Academic excellence outlines 

twelve internal processes within an 

institution that would integrate all the 

strengthening and refocusing suggested 

with respect to all the stakeholders for 

ensuring institutional excellence. 

Alag Tewar, 

Alag Flavour

D E L H I 




25 

Alag Tewar, 

Alag Flavour 

K.A.Fareed 

(Fareed Siddiqui) 

Member, IMCI 

MPhil., MBA, 

Pursuing Ph.D. 

Writer, Author, 

Trainer 

Finance is much concerned with the effective 

utilization of funds. It’s focused on the arrangement 

of funds at the right time in order that the 

determined tasks may be carried out satisfactorily. 

Financial management plays a vital role; on account 

of which the liquidity position of a business is 

affected. The term liquidity refers to the ability of 

an organization to pay its current liabilities as they 

come due. Not only does financial management 

aim at the effective utilization but also at money 

management. If sufficient funds are available at the 

time when needed, a company can clear its short 

term debts; its operations can be maintained 

effectively and so the working capital financing 

lends a hand for a business to do well. 

Working Capital is defined as, “The administration 

of the firm’s current assets and financing needed 

to support current assets.” The term working 

capital is used for day-to-day requirement of funds 

for a business. A business needs certain amount of 

cash for meeting routine payments, providing 

unforeseen events or purchasing raw materials for 

its production. The concept of working capital 

should be easily understandable since it is very 

much connected with our personal lives as well. In 

the sense, sufficient money is needed for our cost 

of living. We would like to collect the money owed 

to us, at the same time, we would like to pay whom 

we owe. If the ready money is not maintained 

properly or we fail to do so, the situation is called 

as bankruptcy or insolvency. The same applies to a 

business and the task of financial management in 

terms of working capital is to maintain sufficient 

funds for its day-to-day requirements, while 

safeguarding the business against the possibility of 

insolvency. Thus, the term working capital refers to 

the excess of the current assets over the current 

liabilities. 

Current assets of a business are those that will be 

converted in to cash in twelve months period. They 

are: Cash, Receivables, inventories, marketable 

securities and prepayments. Current liabilities are 

those that are to be settled in twelve months 

period. Current liabilities are: Accounts payable, 

unearned revenues and wages payable.

D E L H I 




26 

Alag Tewar, 

Alag Flavour 

“Cash is king” - despite the fact that the cash has its own costs. Cash is 

the most liquid asset to be presented commonly on the balance sheet 

as the first item. Management of cash is of great essence for a 

company. If adequate cash is not available as and when it is needed, 

the situation leads to bankruptcy. Management of cash and liquidity 

involves providing sufficient funds to the business for meeting various 

requirements at the right time, such as, repayment of bank loans, 

payment of taxes, payment of wages, purchases of raw materials and 

inventory etc. Moreover, holding the cash entails a precautionary 

motive in order to meet unforeseen events. Therefore, the cash must 

be managed properly and provided for arising contingencies. Apart 

from these, cash management also involves speeding cash inflows and 

slowing cash outflows. The former case indicates making collections as 

soon as they come due for collection while the latter indicates the 

payments to be made as close to the cut-off-date as possible – but it is 

not be taken in isolation – as it is likely to lose the facility of availing the 

discounts. So, the payments are to be made close to the cut-off-date 

while utilizing the discounts if any. In this manner, in the former case, 

the discount is offered for early payment –to generate the revenue 

quickly. In the latter case, the discount is availed – to clear the debts 

and using the facility of discount. This is how the two-fold benefit may 

be obtained. 

Next in importance comes the receivables. It is universal truth that 

every Business has receivables. They are the dues from the credit 

customers. There are various reasons for credit sales, such as, to 

penetrate and establish in the market, to increase sales, to get more 

customers and to help customers on whom the fortune of a business is 

contingent. While managing receivables, an organization develops the 

policies which are beneficial to both customers as well as the 

organization that makes credit sales. Credit policies must have few 

standards, credit period, credit terms, etc so as to manage the 

receivables in an efficient manner. Credit standard is meant to the 

classification of customers depending upon the relationships and in 

terms of risk etc. The credit period is referred to how long a period 

should be allowed. Credit terms mean offering discount on early 

payment or the payment before the cut-off-date. In the point of fact, it 

should be understood that making much credit sales leads to great 

benefits and make profits on the one hand, while it involves the 

creation of bad debts or risks on the other. Thus, the best possible way 

is to be adopted for receivable is to manage within the accepted level 

with the establishment of planning as well as controlling measures. 

.

D E L H I 




27 

Alag Tewar, 

Alag Flavour 

The impact of inventory management on working capital is vitally important. A 

company, whether of trading or of manufacturing, has to carry certain amount of 

inventories. Inventories are classified as inventory of finished goods, of raw 

materials or of work in process depending upon the type of business. A trading 

company purchases or sells the finished goods whereas the manufacturing company 

deals with all types of inventories. At this juncture, it should be noted that having 

too much or too little inventory becomes a problematic cause in terms of sales and 

production. Also, even a little less or more amount of increase or decrease in the 

costs of inventories gives rise to a radical change in terms of overall amount of 

investments in the inventories. Thus, inventory management involves planning and 

controlling functions with regard to the order of quantity of even single unit and the 

specific task of inventory management is to answer the questions: when to order 

the inventory? How much inventory is needed and if any discounts are likely to be 

lost by not ordering as per the standard limit of order etc? It is therefore necessary 

for the process of inventory management to find satisfying answers to the above 

questions pertaining to various costs of the inventories. It is appropriate to mention 

that there are several techniques available for the effective management of 

Inventories with which a management may be benefited. 

Mention deserves to be made about the determinants of working capital while the 

components are being discussed. The same may be outlined herein briefly. 

The working capital is influenced by the nature of business. A trading business 

needs to invest a great deal of money in the working capital as compared to the 

money required in the fixed assets. The similar case in point is related to a 

manufacturing business as well. 

Business Fluctuations have to do a lot with the management of working capital. 

The seasonal fluctuations have a great cause in relation to the production and 

services of a business. It is during a decline in the economy, sales will fall resulting in 

the level of inventories. 

A business firm needs to be prompt in making collections. The working capital is 

also affected with the credit policy of a business. Establishing a liberal credit policy 

is having more trade debtors, while a restricted credit policy can reduce the size of 

trade debtors. However, depending upon the standing of customers and other 

factors a rationalized credit policy is to be formulated. 

To end with, financial management is a distinctive area of business management 

and the Financial Manager has a key Role in overall business management ensuring 

the achievement of business objectives and wealth or profit maximization. Financial 

management is an integral part of overall management affecting the survival, 

growth and strength of a business. The sole task of financial management is 

maximization or optimizing the value of a business firm. If dealt effectively and 

efficiently, a financial manager can ward off a large number of problems while 

safeguarding the business against insolvency.

D E L H I 




28 

Alag Tewar, 

Alag Flavour 


CMC, FIMC 

HR Specialist, 

consulting, training 

and teaching for 

major global and 

domestic private, 

public, government 

and non-government 

organisations. 

Sexual harassment as a phenomenon is probably one of 

the most prevalent and wide-spread aspects of societal 

behavior in general and organisational behavior in 

particular. Having tried to understand this phenomenon 

for a fairly long period of time, I can say with a lot of 

certainty that though a lot has been said or heard about 

it in the last two decades or so, many of the real victims 

hardly ever get justice. On the other hand, a lot of the 

real voluntary partners in the happening are able to hog 

the limelight and paint themselves “innocent victims”, 

while the other party is completely vanquished 

personally, financially and professionally. In this context, 

the Justice Sirajuddin case in Mumbai in January 2004 is 

a clear pointer to what sometimes really happens and 

what actually gets reported and known, not to mention 

the tremendous humiliation and the mental torture that 

the “innocent accused” is forced to undergo. While 

there is no doubt that real victims must get justice, we 

should not overlook the law of natural justice, which is 

equally applicable to the accused. 

At a time when The National Commission for Women 

(NCW) has already submitted a draft of The Sexual 

Harassment of Women at the Workplace (Prevention 

and Redressal) Bill, 2004 to the HRD ministry for 

consideration, it becomes imperative to initiate a 

debate in order to ensure that if passed and made into a 

law, it should certainly serve to punish the accused but 

should not become a draconian law to harass, humiliate 

and mete out punishment to an innocent accused. It has 

been proved time and again that even after a physical 

relationship happens after the voluntary consent of the 

person in question, due to family or social pressure or 

plain and simple extortionist attitude (the lure of the 

moolah), a clear attempt is made to prove that the 

consent was either not there or was obtained under 

duress. This has made people to think whether we have 

reached a stage where the consent has to be obtained 

in writing and in the presence of witnesses, who shall 

stick by their commitments. The old adage that a girl 

will not go and report such a matter to the authorities 

without really being a victim does not hold water any 

longer.

D E L H I 




29 

This article presents the phenomenon in a realistic and practical perspective 

with an attempt to provide a possible solution to at least mitigate the evil if 

not eliminate it completely rather than an emotional and judgemental 

perspective, which articles on the subject mostly meander towards. 

WHAT ARE WE CONTENDING WITH ? (PERSPECTIVE) 

1. An immensely complex human behavioural issue of intimacy (Without, 

Partial or With Consent) 

2. An issue having tremendous interplay of socio-economic, socio-cultural 

and power dimensions 

3. Flaws in upbringing of our children 

4. Hypocrisy of a very high degree at all levels 

5. A belief that if we close our eyes to a problem, it ceases to exist 

6. Secrecy in terms of its actual happening as well as its reporting 

7. Society is definitely moving towards permissiveness, leading to varying 

judgements about openness and harassment 

WHAT IS SEXUAL HARASSMENT ? 

1. Definition by Supreme Court : 

Sexual Harassment includes such unwelcome sexually determined 

behaviour (whether directly or by implication) as: 

a) physical contact and advances ; 

b) a demand or request for sexual favours ; 

c) sexually coloured remarks ; 

d) any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct of sexual 

nature 

1. Is it Sexual Harassment when : 

a) a girl is married off against her wishes ? 

b) spouse extracts sexual favours ? 

c) the person seeking sexual favour is gay or a lesbian ? 

d) sexual favour is granted with consent ? 

e) Sexual favour is offered ? 

Though (a) and (b) do not have anything to do with workplace, they are 

closely intertwined with the psyche of the victim and other significant 

members of society. 

Alag Tewar, 

Alag Flavour 

Regarding (d) and (e), you must be naïve not to know about the “casting 

couch.”

D E L H I 




30 

WHERE IS THE PROBLEM ? 

1. Ignorance as to what constitutes sexual harassment 

2. Inhibition to express what has happened / is happening due 

to : 

a) embarrassment 

b) fear that it will not be taken seriously 

c) it may lead to aggravation of the problem 

d) economic or some other necessity 

e) expectation of being able to marry the perpetrator (Victims 

react very much like rape victims, i.e., they are ashamed and 

don’t speak up ) 

3. Inappropriate response of “significant others” even when 

the victim gathers courage to report 

4. Proof what actually happened is extremely difficult 

5. Long drawn procedure oriented system for handling the 

issue often leading to very little result 

6. Victims who leave jobs due to Sexual Harassment almost 

always give other reasons for leaving and hence, it does not 

get highlighted even at time of separation from the 

organisation 

7. Gender sensitisation is generally non existent 

WHAT COULD BE THE SOLUTION ? 

PREMISE – In reality, the onus of finding a solution, rightly or 

wrongly, is on the aggrieved party. 

Ideally, a holistic solution should be attempted which obviously 

means that a coherent and coordinated approach to the problem 

has to be evolved, which ultimately is nothing more than good 

management practice. It has to be addressed at both the 

preventive and curative levels, i.e. at the proactive and reactive 

levels. 

Alag Tewar, 

Alag Flavour

D E L H I 




31 

THE PROACTIVE-REACTIVE CONTINUUM / MATRIX 

We may try to create a matrix taking into consideration the stance taken by 

the victim and the significant others. It may be depicted as follows: 

Reactive 

SIGNIFICANT OTHERS 

Proactive 

Scenario 2 Scenario 4 

(WORST) 

Scenario 1 Scenario 3 

(IDEAL) 

Proactive 

Reactive 

VICTIM 

The following are a few of the things that may be followed / done by the victim 

and the significant others : 

VICTIM 

Proactive 

1. Be aware and updated on the issue 

2. Believe that it can happen to you 

3. Avoid wearing clothes that may send wrong signals 

4. Be careful about the language you use and your body language 

5. Avoid / ignore / move away / tell them to stop if colleagues or others are 

using words which are double meaning slangs or anything even remotely 

obscene 

6. Avoid being alone to the extent possible 

Reactive 

Alag Tewar, 

Alag Flavour 

1. Make it clear in the very first instance that you do not like the perpetrator’s 

behavior and shall not tolerate it 

2. Document each incident precisely 

3. Speak up and inform the appropriate authorities and “significant others” 

4. Leave the place where you are not comfortable

D E L H I 




32 

SIGNIFICANT OTHERS 

A. MANAGEMENT 

Proactive 

1. Policy - A policy of intent that the organization does not condone sexual 

harassment and that general internal resource is available against such 

misconduct 

2. Top Level Management Support - Extremely important to successfully 

implement the policy 

3. Clear information - Widely advertised policy and procedures for the staff 

and guidelines for managers 

4. Training - A programme of training for gender sensitisation of the managers. 

These managers could subsequently be used as trainers 

5. Dress code - A standard dress code may help bring about uniformity, a sense 

of oneness and also help in resolving the subjectivity as to what is 

provocative and what is not 

6. Forums - Constitution of a forum / cell / committee to deal with such issues. 

7. Procedures - A clear time bound procedure to be laid down (including both 

formal and informal procedures) for resolving the cases 

8. Responsibility of managers - Adherence to their policy by their staff 

9. Monitoring and review – The policy, procedures and implementation 

measures should be periodically monitored / reviewed 

Reactive 

1. Must initiate action the moment such a thing happens 

2. Provide immediate psychological and other required support to the victim 

3. Act in a manner which is not only to punish the perpetrator but also send 

out a message to others that such things shall be dealt with firmly 

B. BOSS 

Proactive 

Alag Tewar, 

Alag Flavour 

1. Be sensitive to rumours and stories that may not have been communicated 

to him / her formally 

2. Must put pressure on higher management to listen to and do things that 

build a healthy environment in the organisation 

3. Make sure that his department employees are aware of the guidelines in 

this regard and check if things are all right from time to time

D E L H I 




33 

Reactive 

1. Must exhibit supportive behaviour when such a thing comes to his / her 

notice or gets reported and not take it lightly 

2. Take immediate appropriate action in the matter by assessing the intensity 

of misconduct and counsel / reprimand the perpetrator as required 

3. Reassure the victim by giving and promising all the support that he / she 

might need 

4. Help the victim to formulate the right strategy 

C. OFFICE COLLEAGUES 

Proactive 

1. Caution new comers about behavioural patterns of certain people who 

could be possible perpetrators 

2. Caution prospective harassers against such things by making them 

aware of not only the ethics and morality of such conduct but also the 

loss of reputation and penalty it may attract 

3. Make effort to see that any of their peers who may be a possible 

victim is not left alone with a prospective tormentor 

Reactive 

1. Must be able to empathise rather than sympathize with the victim 

2. Must not be a party to and actually prevent office grapevine to make 

juicy stories out of such incidents 

D. FAMILY 

Proactive 

1. Education and instilling appropriate orientation towards gender related 

interactions 

2. Explain the importance of understanding the culture at the work place 

and behave in accordance with it 

3. Create awareness in the concerned person about such harassment 

possibilities in the workplace 

4. Equip her/him with the general do’s and don’ts 

Alag Tewar, 

Alag Flavour

D E L H I 




34 

Reactive 

1. Empathise with the victim rather than blaming her / him for not adhering 

to the do’s and don’ts. They must remember that it is easier said than done 

2. Must exhibit supportive behaviour 

3. Reassure the victim by giving and promising all the support that he/she 

might need 


E. FRIENDS 

Proactive 

1. Create awareness in the concerned person about such possibilities in 

the 

workplace 

2. Equip him / her with the general do’s and don’ts. 

Reactive 

1. Must empathise rather than sympathise and exhibit supportive 

behaviour 

2. Provide immediate psychological and other required support 

3. Reassure the victim by giving and promising all the support that he / 

she might need 


F. SOCIETY 

Proactive 

1. Change it’s attitude by understanding the reality that it can happen to 

anybody rather than pointing a finger at the victim 

2. Accept the reality that norms regarding sex and sexuality are no 

longer what they were and hence be more realistic to see and discuss 

openly to find solutions to such issues rather than have an “ostrich 

like” attitude or “a holier than thou” attitude 

Reactive 

Alag Tewar, 

Alag Flavour 

1. Ensure that they do not put further mental pressure on the victim as 

she / he is already under tremendous trauma 

2. Provide support and encouragement so that she / he can gather 

courage to fight it out.

D E L H I 




35 

G. LAW 

Proactive 

1. Prescribe guidelines for acceptable and 

unacceptable behaviour 

Reactive 

1. Find out ways to ensure that victims are 

adequately compensated in 

psychological, economical and social 

terms 

2. Ensure that the perpetrators are 

adequately punished and are unable to 

get acquitted due to procedural and / or 

narrow technicalities 

H. LAW ENFORCEMENT 

Proactive 

1. Education about acceptable and 

unacceptable behavior through the 

media and other available methods 

2. Creating awareness about penal 

provisions especially hooliganism during 

festivals like Holi, etc. by advertising that 

women police staff shall be present in 

public places to take immediate action 

Reactive 

1. Retribution by the way of appropriate 

penal action when an incident like this 

happens or get reported 

2. Ensure that investigation and procedural 

details are carried out in a manner that 

the guilty do not escape due to technical 

infirmities. 

Alag Tewar, 

Alag Flavour 

CONCLUSION 

Let’s get together to rid society of this 

scourge.

D E L H I 




36 

Alag Tewar, 

Alag Flavour 

[An imaginative 

first person 

confessional 

narration by the 

man in the office 

who hates to give 

respect, equal 

treatment and care 

to his colleagues of 

the fairer sex 

-A funny version of 

serious situations] 

Rajiv Khurana 

CMC, FIMC 

International 

Management 

Trainer and 

Consultant, 

Author, 

Newspapers 

Columnist, 

Photography 

Enthusiast 

I could be anybody. May be part of you. It does 

not matter. Some people reading this hardly 

shared personal account of mine may call me 

stupid. Let them. Who bothers? I know I am 

STUPID – Smart Talented Unique Person in the 

Department. I am not alone. I have hundreds 

and thousands of clones. They are spread all 

over the country. We have counter parts all 

across the globe. We think differently. We act 

differently. But we behave the same. Our unwritten 

one line motto is: TO THINK NEGATIVE, 

ACT NEGATIVE AND BEHAVE NEGATIVE 

TOWARDS OUR WOMEN COUNTERPARTS IN 

THE ORGANIZATIONAL JUNGLE. 

How do we do it? Each one of us is an authority 

himself. We learn from each other. Where else 

would you find such a great team performance. 

I will share with you what I do. You can create 

your own encyclopedia by watching others and 

sharing with others. Don’t hide away to read 

this article. I dare you to share your negativities 

openly. 

• I believe in equality. I believe men are more 

equal than women. I extend my negativity 

equally amongst the women. 

• I admire Bosses who are fond of 

embarrassing my women colleagues in front 

of everyone. I have learnt new techniques of 

embarrassments. I will show them when I 

become more responsible in the 

organizational hierarchy. 

• I like talking about women in my office. I talk 

about them in my chartered bus, in my 

friends’ circle and with some colleagues like 

me. Even the chaiwala and paanwala near 

our office enjoys the stories about the 

women colleagues who are old spinsters, 

separated or single parents. 

• I feel even responsible for entertaining my 

women colleagues. I do share my double 

meaning and sometimes explicit jokes. It’s 

their outlook if they do not laugh. Women 

have limited sense of humour, you know.

D E L H I 




37 

• I do not like some of my colleagues who take extra care about their women 

colleagues. Why should I hold the door or stand up for a woman. I don’t even 

like it when the Big B holds the chair for a women on KBC. 

• I think women take advantage of their proximity with men. That’s why they get 

promoted faster even though, I feel, they should at the best be doing only the 

support roles. 

• Women are not very intelligent. I strongly believe that men are. So what if girls 

have been constantly scoring the highest marks in the X and XII standard board 

exams. 

• I don’t think that women are serious about their jobs. They come to pass their 

time and even claim all medical benefits. I feel that newly married women 

should not be hired in the office as it amounts to lot of time and money loss 

within 2-3 years. 

• I must tell you that I am very fond of poetry and graffiti. Haven’t you seen my 

scriptures on the toilet walls and lift cabins. You couldn’t have missed them. 

• Sometimes, I play with them. Making blank calls is a great office hide and seek 

game. 

• I am gradually learning but some of my friends have mastered the art of making 

women cry. Great fun! No? 

• I am quite religious minded. Whenever there is an office party, I and my friends 

adopt the mandir or gurudwara approach. Women one side and men on the 

other side. After all, we need our space to talk about the three Ws [Wine, 

Wealth and Women]. 

• Some of my friends have become quite hi-tech these days. They keep mass 

mailing the XXX web-material to each other. Few intentional accidental 

transmittals do occur and my women colleagues do get them. Technology has 

some short-comings too. What can be done about it? 

• I am very generous. Who so ever asks me, I do provide the personal home and 

office numbers of my women colleagues. 

• Many a times, I think that I should be a newspaper columnist on fashion. I have 

documented every nuance of what I see in the back-up memory of my brain. 

• There are times when I feel reserved or may be a bit shy but my kind of other 

colleagues do not. They do indulge in a bit of strip tease when they move 

around with their 2-3 shirt buttons open in the office. 

• I wish I was a bit more senior than I am. I would have, by position of my 

authority, made my women colleagues sit in my cabin for hours to have 

tea/coffee and to witness my ‘majma’ style of management. 

Alag Tewar, 

Alag Flavour 

I wish I had the time and space to write more. But why should I tell you everything. 

Go ahead, use experience and creativity. The organizational jungle is big and wild. 

Roar. Be a Lion. The other part is normally timid and defenseless. Be mean. Be self 

obsessed. The life of a man will not come again. Go for the kill. Don’t worry about 

what people say. Be an MCP – Magnificent Creation in this Peninsula.

D E L H I 




38 

Alag Tewar, 

Alag Flavour 

Companies are being squeezed for cash 

like no other time in our lives. Even 

though, in theory, they really need 

consulting services more than ever, how 

are they, practically, going to pay for 

them? Can I be proactive to suggest 

alternative compensation strategies? 

We are hearing from a lot of clients that 

are hitting the wall with all but essential 

expenditures. As much as we like to think 

of our consulting services as an 

investment rather than an expense, and 

an investment in efficiency and 

effectiveness, sometimes there is just no 

getting past the fact that your fees are a 

check that has to be written. Many clients 

will increasingly find it hard to pay your 

fees unless you can help make the case 

(usually in a new way) that your services 

are high priority. 

Occasionally mentioned but never getting 

much traction in the past, pay for 

performance seems to be making a 

comeback. This is partly because clients 

want to make sure any investment 

(including you) is worth the cost, but also 

because clients are looking for more 

accountability from consultants. Satisfied 

with results of other pay for performance 

or gainsharing agreements for other 

professional services, executives are 

exercising their fiduciary responsibilities 

by asking consultants to assume some of 

the risk of investing in their intangible 

services. 

What does this mean for you? Maybe 

nothing, or at least until your client asks 

you to discuss pay for performance 

instead of a daily rate or project fee. 

However, it makes sense to be prepared. 

Talk to your colleagues in IMC or in your 

industry about their recent experiences in 

structure of compensation. 

Most consulting engagements go 

according to plan and deliver great 

value to the client. However, we all 

have had projects that go off the 

rails, either because of something 

we or others did. How can I know 

well ahead of time when a project is 

headed for failure? 

One of the best ways to increase the 

probability of project success is to be 

vigilant that project failure is right 

around the corner. Despite our 

omniscient plan and exceptional 

project management skills, we do not 

control all aspects of a project. Client 

leadership, staff resources, the client 

company's market, communication 

miscues, lack of needed skills and 

other glitches can thwart an 

otherwise good plan. 

Your project management plan, 

which you must develop jointly with 

your client, should address project 

risks explicitly. What if the client 

cannot provide the specified 

corporate leadership? What if the 

needed resources are not made 

available to you? What if your 

attempts to work with staff are 

resisted? What if you are not able to 

provide sufficient skills or resources 

to meet your commitments or 

resolve shortcomings elsewhere in 

the project? What are the biggest 

risks to project success and what 

(specific) mitigation or response 

steps are you both willing to make?

D E L H I 




39 

Alag Tewar, 

Alag Flavour 

ICMCI 

The International Council of 

Management Consulting Institutes is 

the global association of national 

management consulting institutes from 

around the world. These national 

institutes administer, in accordance with 

world class standards, the international 

"CMC" certification Certified 

Management Consultant earned by 

individual professional management 

consultants. 

More details: icmci.org 

IMCI 

The Institute of Management Consultants of 

India (IMCI) is the apex body of management 

consulting professionals, being the only 

registered institute of established 

management consultancy firms and 

practicing individuals in the country. 

Constituted in 1991, IMCI was formerly 

known as the Management Consultants’ 

Association of India (MCAI), which was 

founded in 1963. 

In 1989, IMCI became the first Asian 

organisation to be accepted for membership 

of the International Council of Management 

Consulting Institutes (ICMCI), the global apex 

body of Management Consulting Institutes. 

ICMCI has 46 member countries in the world. 

The Executive Secretariat of IMCI is located in 

Mumbai. The Institute has regional Chapters 

in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Chennai 

(Madras), Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai 

(Bombay) and Pune. 

CMC Designation 

IMCI endeavors to raise the standards of 

management consulting by awarding 

Certified Management Consultant (CMC) 

designation to individual members who have 

passed a qualifying examination and have 

met the profession’s standards of 

competence and ethics. The CMC designation 

implies international recognition to 

worldwide standards. 

More details: imcindia.co.in 

Code of 

Professional 

Conduct for 

IMCI members 

Minimum Guidelines 

Confidentiality 

A member will treat client information as confidential 

and will not take personal advantage of privileged 

information gathered during an assignment, or enable 

others to do so. 

Unrealistic Expectations 

A member will refrain from encouraging unrealistic 

expectations or promising clients that benefits are certain 

from specific consulting services. 

Commissions / Financial Interests 

A member will neither accept commissions, remuneration 

or other benefits from a third party in connection with 

recommendations to a client without the client’s 

knowledge and consent, nor fail to disclose any financial 

interest in goods or services which form part of such 

recommendations. 

Assignments 

A member will only accept assignments for which the 

member has the skill and knowledge to perform. 

Conflicting Assignments 

A member will avoid acting simultaneously (in potentially 

conflicting situations) without informing all parties in 

advance that this is intended. 

Conferring with Clients 

A member will ensure that before accepting any 

engagement, a mutual understanding of the objectives, 

scope, work plan and fee arrangements is established and 

any personal, financial or other interests which might 

influence the conduct of the work are disclosed. 

Recruiting 

A member will refrain from inviting an employee of a 

client to consider alternate employment without prior 

discussion with the client. 

Approach 

A member will maintain a fully professional approach in 

all dealings with clients, the general public and fellow 

members. 

Code of Professional Conduct 

A member will ensure that other management 

consultants carrying out work on the member’s behalf 

are conversant with and abide by the Code of 

Professional Conduct.

D E L H I 




40 

Visit 

Join ‘IMCI DELHI’ on 

Imagine 

You are asked, “How do you 

create value through your 

seniority?” 

How would you respond? 

http://twitter.com/imcidelhi 

We await your 

ideas, 

suggestions, 

contribution, 

support … 

Alag Tewar, 

Alag Flavour 

Patron: 

Chairman 

Dr. M.B.Athreya 


Mentors: 

Dy. Chairman 

Dr. S.R.Mohnot 

Vijay Nagrani 

Mr. Shashi Budhiraja 

Hon. Secretary 

Dr. Sunil Abrol 

M S Sridhar 

Past Chairmen: 

Hon. Treasurer 

Mr. Ashok Kumar 

Anand Chhabra 

Mr. Ramesh Tyagi 

Executive Members 

Rajiv Khurana 

S A Khader 

Dipanker Das 

Regional Rep. 

S A Khader 

IMCI – Delhi 

imcidelhi@gmail.com 

This eMag is meant for free electronic circulation amongst members & friends of IMCI - Delhi

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