IMCI_Delhi-64th_ABCeMag-301111-HR.161202513

D E L H I
November 16-30, 2011
de-limiting excellence
Institute of Management Consultants of India, Delhi
1
Dear Readers,
in this issue…
Quotes
2
Crisis for Capitalism 3-6
Tips for Consultants 7-8
About IMCI & Code of Ethics 9
Few days back, while
facilitating a conference, I
heard a Chinese delegate
appreciate the calibre of
Indians to debate. Back in
office, I am still pondering the
finer positives of debating
endlessly. The latest being:
Opening FDI in retail –
economic opportunity or a
political threat.
The real challenge is ‘when
does the paralysis by analysis
stop and action begins?’
A new era is round the corner
for ABC to act decisively,
positively and differently,
keeping the larger national
fabric intact.
Cheers,
Rajiv Khurana
CMC, FIMC
Editor
Misc. 10
Alag Tewar,
Alag Flavour

D E L H I
November 16-30, 2011
de-limiting excellence
Institute of Management Consultants of India, Delhi
2
Questions Consultants Hate
1. How can we concentrate our resources on
all of our projects?
2. Can you list all the unknown problems we
will encounter?
3. While you are completing this project - can
you also ... ?
4. I can't put this off any longer ... will you do it
for me?
5. Why didn't you just tell us the solution up
front?
6. Can you delay finding that solution until ... ?
7. Can we delay paying you until ... ?
Consultants
1. Give expensive advice on topics you know nothing about
2. If you can solve it in a week, get a three month contract
3. Hyphenate words-that-don't-need-to-be-hyphenated
4. Call it what you like, but be ready to fire people
5. Agree with all general statements
Alag Tewar,
Alag Flavour

D E L H I
November 16-30, 2011
de-limiting excellence
Institute of Management Consultants of India, Delhi
3
Alag Tewar,
Alag Flavour
Sharu S.
Rangnekar
CMC, FIMC
AManagement
Educator with
considerable
experience in
conducting
Management
Development
programmes.
www.sharurangnekar.com
The Anna Hazare like protest march started on the Fleet
Street of New York which is considered Sanctum Sanctorum
of capitalism. It has spread to many cities in Europe and
Australia. There was a small movement even on Dalal
Street in Mumbai but it fizzled out.
What is this protest about and why has it spread so widely
in the Western World is a mystery to most Indians.
Competing Systems
At the beginning of 20 th century, three economic systems
ruled the roost.
Feudal System comprising dynastic succession where the
“elite” group held dominance in the economic world.
Capitalist System based on Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations
which stated: A person working for his own self interest, as
if by an invisible hand, will lead the society to prosperity.
Communist System which felt that individual ownership of
the means of production (which meant not only the
factories but also the farms) is responsible for economic
hardships. The proletariat (which was Marx’s term for the
labour class) will have to rebel and rule the economy with
the motto: “From each according to his ability, To each
according to his need”. The slogan was “Workers of the
World, Unite. You have nothing to lose but your chains!”
The Feudal system frittered away with the newly emerging
middle class taking hold of political power and putting taxes
like the inheritance tax to reduce the economic power of
the dynastic group. The industrial revolution that had
started in the 18 th century became very productive by the
beginning of the 20 th century to become economically
dominant. The various evils that were pointed out by Karl
Marx in the working of capitalism and consequent
exploitation of labour were taken care of by labour
legislation and rise of labour unions which severly restricted
the misuse of capitalism. The Communist System initially
appealed to many intellectuals. With the success of Russia
after the First World War and China after the Second World
War more than one third of the world came under
communist domination. However, in the 80s the
deficiencies of communism were exposed. The brutalities in
communist regimes seemed comparable to the worst
brutalities shown in the feudal system and the economic
development was drastically slowed down.

D E L H I
November 16-30, 2011
de-limiting excellence
Institute of Management Consultants of India, Delhi
4
Alag Tewar,
Alag Flavour
I was conducting a programme for a toiletry company in 1985. The
training manager informed me that a Russian Delegation is visiting them
to negotiate an order for Rs.2 Crores toothpaste to be exported from
India to Russia. At lunch the training manager invited me to a special
lunch hosted for the Russian Delegation. When I met the Russian
Delegation, I talked to the chief of the delegation who knows English
quiet well. I asked him have you signed the agreement. The head of
delegation said that they had just done so. Then I said, “I am wondering
why you are importing toothpaste from India? With a garage and Rs.5
lakh worth of equipment you can produce Rs.2 crores worth of
toothpaste every year.” He asked me, “Who will produce it?”. I said; “in
Russia, the Russian workers will produce the toothpaste.” He said.
“Russian Workers don’t work.” I asked him. “What do you mean?”. He
said, “In Russia everybody has a job. Thre is no unemployment. The
workers work for about 2 hours and then relax.” I told him” “Such things
happen in Indian Public Sector and even in some Private Sector units, so
what we do is to offer incentives which can make the workers work as
much as 4 hours a day”. He said, “In Russia, not only workers do not work
even the incentives do not work.” I asked him. “What do you mean?” He
said. “The incentives are given in roubles and the workers say very little is
available in roubles. Even cosmetics are imported and have to be bought
in the black market with high payment in roubles. Everybody has a
tenement. He shares the kitchen and the toilet with 4 other workers. A
bigger tenement has to be allotted by the government. He cannot pay
roubles to get a bigger tenement. He can buy bicycles with roubles but in
order to buy motor cycles he has to get permit, Cars are given only to the
politbeauro members. Admissions to various educational courses are
strictly given by the results of government tests. Those who don’t get
admission to high level education have to become workers. You cannot
use roubles to give high education to your children - if they do not qualify
in government tests. In fact in the communist country people are not
allowed to dream - so they are not motivated by incentives”. I asked him,
“How long will this continue. He said, “I hope it continues till I retire”.
But it did not. By 1988 the communist system collapsed and USSR
became eight pieces with hostility to each other and the communist
dream of ruling the world extinguished forever.
Even China moved away from communism and allowed private sector
breaking the basic principle of Marxism that “Individual ownership of
means of production should not be allowed because it leads to
exploitation of the proletariat for the benefit of the bourgeoisie (Marx’s
word for the entrepreneurial and managerial class as well as farmers who
own the land).

D E L H I
November 16-30, 2011
de-limiting excellence
Institute of Management Consultants of India, Delhi
5
Alag Tewar,
Alag Flavour
Protest against Capitalism
At that time it was felt that now capitalism had no competitors
and the whole world will soon be a capitalist world. Suddenly we
are getting the Fleet Street Agitation spreading around protesting
against capitalism. The main grounds for the protest are:
Big corporations are reducing jobs and outsourcing jobs to poorer
countries having lower wages.
The managers in these organizations are getting fabulous salaries
with bonuses etc., Infact “Andha bate Revadi – Apne Apne ko
de!” (The blind man distributes sweets, gives to his own kith and
kin)
The government machinery is used to bail out the corporations
going bankrupt due to mistakes of the entrepreneurs and
managers. Thus, the taxes taken from the poor are used to
ensure benefits for the rich.
In order to tackle recession all the countries were reducing
employment to minimise costs and to increase productivity. This
was the basic point that the protestors were protesting against.
However, they are not able to show any alternative. The
economic system is in trouble and requires drastic remedies. The
USA credit rating is already downgraded The Euro is in trouble
and may collapse if the economic problems of Greece and Italy
(and very soon Spain and Portugal) are not taken care of. There
again the remedy suggested is to reduce government
employment to reduce cost. This solution is obviously not
acceptable to the protestors and there agitations are getting
more violent.
Periodic downturns and upturns are always expected in
capitalism leading to recession and inflation. But the recent
depression with inflation (called stagflation) was not expected.
Unless this is diagnosed and remedied the conflict and hostility
will continue to increase.
Ultimately it will also affect countries like India which were not a
part of original conflict - but are being affected by the economic
depression in America, Europe, Japan and Australia. The problem
basically started with the availability of credit in these countries
allowing people to spend more than they earn. Ultimately this
led to a low rate of saving. Thus, the national saving rate was 2%
(and now become -2%) in USA and has decreased substantially in
other countries. This has led to decrease in investments and
decrease in creation of new jobs.

D E L H I
November 16-30, 2011
de-limiting excellence
Institute of Management Consultants of India, Delhi
6
Alag Tewar,
Alag Flavour
In the inflationary period, the common
consumer was offered to spend more
than he could afford on basis of his
income. Thus, a person with an income
of $ 200,000 per year was given housing
loan of $ 2 millions. When the income of
the person did not increase, he was
unable to repay the loan and this led to
foreclosures by the banks. For the banks
these houses became non-performing
assets. The prices came down which led
to more defaulters and more
foreclosures.
Similarly overspending on the credit
cards led to overdues and defaulters -
again leading to bad debts and nonperforming
assets. The financial
institutes started collapsing in this
situation created a vicious circle. To
tackle the crisis, the government
reduced spending and the consequent
reduction of jobs deteriorated this
situation. Now capitalism is facing a
crisis of credibility.
The capitalism always gave a feeling that
the free enterprise system will lead to
greater investment and greater
employment continuously. Now to keep
investments increasing and
employments growing are becoming a
challenge for the western economies.
In India, with high rate of saving (as
much as 35%) and conservative lending
policies of the banks this problems was
not faced. However, the depression in
the West is having an impact because of
decrease in imports from India. The IT,
Pharmaceutical, minerals etc., have
increased exports to make up for the
deficit in other sectors. However, unless
the economy in the Western World
improves we shall be in a difficult
situation in the future.
FUNNY MONEY
Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a
refund from the IRS, which lasts until
you realize it was your money to start
with.
-From a Washington Post word contest
Money will buy you a pretty dog, but it
won’t buy the wag of his tail.
Henry Wheeler Shaw
The only reason a great many American
families don’t own an elephant is that
they have never been offered an
elephant for a dollar down and easy
weekly payments.
Mad Magazine
Inflation is when you pay fifteen dollars
for the ten-dollar haircut you used to
get for five dollars when you had hair.
Sam Ewing
If you want to know what God thinks of
money, just look at the people he gave
it to.
Dorothy Parker
The only man who sticks closer to you
in adversity than a friend is a creditor.
Unknown
Today, there are three kinds of people:
the haves, the have-nots, and the havenot-paid-for-what-they
haves.
Earl Wilson
Money can’t buy happiness, but it can
buy you the kind of misery you prefer.
Unknown

D E L H I
November 16-30, 2011
de-limiting excellence
Institute of Management Consultants of India, Delhi
7
Given that I am an independent consultant, is it really
necessary to have a formal business continuity plan?
This all depends on what you mean by a business continuity
plan. Traditionally such a plan is created to manage an
organization through a disaster such as a fire, earthquake or
other unusual and catastrophic event. This is the old "disaster
recovery plan," which has been expanded to accommodate
more organizational components (than just saving financial or
data records) and more preparation and even training. The
goal is to minimize the disruption to the business in the event
of a disaster.
As a solo practitioner, your systems are likely to be fairly
simple and a formal plan may be overkill. Conversely, many
small businesses have quite a few systems or assets to protect
and operations to provide for. You may have computer files
that call for offsite backup, ongoing client communications
that need redundancy, a base of operations in which to work
during recovery, etc. Being small doesn't mean you don't need
planning, it just means the scale of response may not be as big
as for a bigger business.
Furthermore, there are hazards you face that larger businesses
do not. Illness of the entire staff (you) is little different from
the impact of pandemic flu keeping a company's whole
workforce off the job. Your business may be less complex but
there is greater risk of entire systems being compromised,
such as when your laptop (the company's entire IT
department) gets flooded when a pipe bursts.
Tip: Make a list of your critical systems and a list of what is the
worst (and second and third worst) things that could happen
to compromise them. How will you market and deliver
services to your clients under each of these situations? What
can you do to both prevent their occurrence and speed up
response and recovery? Maybe it's not a formal plan, but at
least you will have thought this through. Ask to see a friend's
plan and see what each of you have missed.
Alag Tewar,
Alag Flavour

D E L H I
November 16-30, 2011
de-limiting excellence
Institute of Management Consultants of India, Delhi
8
Some of my consulting colleagues head up small
or solo consulting practices. Between them,
they are President, Principal, Managing Partner,
Chair, Executive Consultant, CEO, CXX (any
number of "creative" titles), or no title at all.
Does any of this matter?
These titles are important in a large firm to
differentiate between various executive,
management and staff jobs. It helps outsiders
know which roles and responsibilities an
individual has. HR departments use these to
describe a job to applicants. Inside a firm, it
helps define accountabilities, and who gets what
size office. Certainly if your business is related to
the Internet or marketing, there has been an
arms race in creative job titles.
For a solo or boutique firm consultant, this boils
down to what your ego needs and what makes
your mother proud. It really doesn't make any
difference what you call yourself. Clients are
hiring you for your expertise, perspective, skills
and behaviors, not because you are CEO or
President or Grand Poobah.. I've heard more
than one client express some disdain in reaction
to a consultant whose business card reads "CEO
and Chairman" when they are a one-person firm
or "Managing Partner" in a ten-person firm.
Tip: Call yourself whatever you like, but know
that it is mostly for your own benefit.
Alag Tewar,
Alag Flavour

D E L H I
November 16-30, 2011
de-limiting excellence
Institute of Management Consultants of India, Delhi
9
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
November 16-30, 2011
de-limiting excellence
Institute of Management Consultants of India, Delhi
10
Visit
Join ‘IMCI DELHI’ on
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You are asked, “What is your
guarantee for results?”
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
Sumit Chaudhuri
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
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