Zensar Center For Business Innovation

Teachers day celeberation

noreply@blogger.com (Zensar Center For Business Innovation) — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 06:22:00 +0000

A teacher is like a candle - it consumes itself to light the way for others. 5^th September, it is this day we celebrate as teacher's day and so did we in our campus at ZCBI classroom. Having invited all our beloved teachers including our director Nikhil Agarwal, Global HR head Ms Prameela , Tarun ,Prachi, Tanya ,and other staff members of the college , a modest event was organised by whole ZCBIian family to seek the blessings from the honourable teachers and express our gratitude towards them.

The programme started with a sheer rock show by our very own ZCBI Band, which just enchanted such a spell that the whole of the atmosphere just blasted with absolute enthusiasm. It was followed by a poem composed by a student from our class which touched the heart of every individual and dignified the virtuous image of teachers. The show stealers were the mimicry artists, whose splendid performance filled the hall with joy and laughter.

The proceedings of the show eventually ended with cake cutting ceremony, and all the teachers obliged the students by accepting small token of love and honour from the ZCBI students.

This momentary event gave us an opportunity to strengthen our dignified bond with our teachers. It also gave one and all some moments to cherish in their busy, competitive, ever jostling, hard run Race of Life.

Blood Donation Awareness Campaign

noreply@blogger.com (Zensar Center For Business Innovation) — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 11:35:00 +0000

On 14th August'08, Ehsaas- The introspection organized a blood donation awareness campaign at Zensar Technologies.
A graffiti contest was also organized where the participants were requested to write down slogans and thought on blood donation.
The awareness campaign aimed at making people realize about the actual requirement of blood in India. India requires around
8 million units of blood every year of which only 5.5 million is collected through voluntary blood donation. The campaign saw an
active participation from Zensar associates and ZCBI'ans.
The awareness campaign was an extension of the efforts taken by some ZCBI students to solve the problem of shortage of blood.
The students have also launched an initiative http://www.lifeunits.com through which they aim to motivate more and more people to come forward to donate blood.The team plans to organize a blood donation camp at Zensar in the near future.

Mr. Siva Rangaswamy Retail Head, Zensar Technologies

noreply@blogger.com (Zensar Center For Business Innovation) — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 11:30:00 +0000

It was a treat for all the students to listen to Mr. Siva Ranagaswamy,Retail Head, Zensar Technologies.

Mr. Ranagaswamy shared his personal experience of him working with various companies and how few decisions between the age of 21 to 23 made him reach the place he is right now at. His personal life story was itself very motivating and encouraging.

He explained few deep concepts from the '7 Habits of Highly Influential People' like 'The Circle of Influence', which if applied can help us reach great heights.

He shared his thoughts on entrepreneurship. According to him entrepreneurship is about three things.

Idea

People

Launch Pad

He also gave an idea about 'Personal Leadership Chart' which consists of

Time

Relationship

Ideas

People

It was a very informative and enriching session for all of us and this is really going to help us a lot in shaping our future.

Mr.Yogesh Patgaonkar, Regional Head - India, Middle East & Africa, Zensar Technologies

noreply@blogger.com (Zensar Center For Business Innovation) — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 11:21:00 +0000

Came Mr. Yogesh Patgaonkar and with him came the furry of ideas innovation to live life, not just careers.
The topic career management intrigued us with him asking us the definitions of career and management. This was actually to make us clear what we want. He cited the examples from the lives of great self made men like Abdulkalaam Azaad, those lives which have seen all highs and lows of life.Those who with their perseverance have achieved the success.

Mr. Yogesh urged us to see through that common thread that ran through all these great lives, the unwavering great dream. The dream that might seem stupid, that might appear impossible to the eyes of the outer world.
What he taught us was to dream unlimited to work for it uninhibited and to remember that life is to live for.

Celeberations@Chokhi Dhani

noreply@blogger.com (Zensar Center For Business Innovation) — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 09:40:00 +0000

The second term at ZCBI began on the 1st of September, and we started it with a visit to Chokhi Dhani. Chokhi Dhani is a small model Rajasthani village created on the outskirts of Pune where they welcomed us with Rajasthani food and drink. The premises was decorated with cottages and ethnic fervour throughout. We were shortly joined at the hamlet by the Head of HR, Mrs. Prameela Kalive and the Senior Vice President, Mr. S Balasubramanium, alongwith Dr. Nikhil and Mr. Tarun. We were overwhelmed by their hospitality when our hosts took care of us like celebrities, and we left the place totally happy and eager to face a whole new term back in class.

Leilani O. Baumanis

noreply@blogger.com (Zensar Center For Business Innovation) — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 08:38:00 +0000

Robert W. McGee

noreply@blogger.com (Zensar Center For Business Innovation) — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 10:04:00 +0000

Director, Center for Accounting, Auditing and Tax studies, Florida International University

Mr. Anil Dhanker, VP HR, Bajaj Finance

noreply@blogger.com (Zensar Center For Business Innovation) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 11:24:00 +0000

If one wants to know, importance of the HR department? One should attend the session by Mr. Anil Dhanker. During his visit to our campus, he shared his views on what HR people seek while selecting an individual. He also spoke to us on Finance Industry and gave an insight over how companies are moving towards consumer durable financial schemes. His session showed us the vital importance of HR and Finance departments for an organization.

Mr. Pradipto Mohapatra, Director RPG

noreply@blogger.com (Zensar Center For Business Innovation) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 11:17:00 +0000

Mr. Pradipto Mohapatra is the personality behind the success of retail business of RPG. He understands retail business from its core, he taught us retailing concepts by giving example of different retailers like Mark and Spencer�??s, Body-shop, Tesco to name a few. We all got involved listening to his research work on different retail stores present across the globe. He brought to light many aspects of retail business and the way how companies plan for their marketing.

Ehsaas "The Introspection" (social initiative by ZCBI)

noreply@blogger.com (Zensar Center For Business Innovation) — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 13:05:00 +0000

Sub Prime Crisis

noreply@blogger.com (Zensar Center For Business Innovation) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 12:56:00 +0000

It came into light in August, 2007 and created a snowballing effect in Global Markets and shook the entire financial world. Yes I am talking about Sub-Prime Crisis and its ripple effects not only on US Economy but Economies world over.
What is Sub-Prime Lending:
Sub-Prime Lending means lending to people having a little or no creditworthiness or to the people who have a poor credit history. In context of US housing markets, such lending was possible because of manic house buying, fraudulent lending practices and a very little oversight by regulator.
How it all started:
It all started with dot com burst of 2000-2001. The US stock markets were down and languishing. The then prevalent benign interest rate ensured lot of liquidity in the hands of US investors and institutions. The only attractive investment avenue available then was housing. The demand for housing started increasing due to two reasons one being that rising prices led to speculation and second being the fear among the masses that they won�??t be able to buy houses if the prices kept on increasing in secular trend. Under the pressure to maintain margins US Financial Institutions started lending to borrowers with poor credit history overlooking the regulatory and prudential norms. The incentive was to earn higher mark-up in term of interest rates. They shifted the entire such loan portfolio by selling them off in secondary market through the mechanism of Securitization. So nothing was kept on books and the capital was freed instantly. As housing prices were rising relentlessly the Financial Institutions were confident that even though the Sub-prime borrowers defaults they will be able to service the securitized issue by recovering the defaulted amount and losses by foreclosures and selling the properties at much higher prices in ever rising market. They fail to understand the basic rationale that whatever goes up frantically comes down with double the pace. The size of US mortgage industry in late 2007 was approximately of $10.74 trillion out of which the Sub-prime mortgage were of the size $1.30 trillion and in 2006 alone $600 billion of Sub-prime mortgages were originated.
How it resulted in Crisis:
The housing demand led to construction boom and helped US economy to remain afloat. But due to rising trade deficit and China�??s (US had a huge trade deficit with China) reluctance to abandon its fixed band exchange regime, as it could have dampened its export oriented growth put pressure on Fed Reserve to start raising the interest rate. From 2004, there was a steady increase of interest rate which affected the housing demand. The housing supply side reacted but with a lag thus creating a pile up housing inventory. Also because of rising interest rate the adjustable rate mortgages started getting resets at higher level which the Sub-Prime borrowers ill-afford to pay. Suddenly, such borrowers realized they that the cost of their Mortgages has increased substantially. Reset at higher rates and stagnant housing prices led to increase in defaults leading to massive foreclosures.
Effects of Crisis:
1) The Credit norms were suddenly tightened which lead to severe liquidity crisis. The liquidity from the market vanished so rapidly that it has put US on the brink of recession.
2To avoid liquidity problems and thus falling consumption levels Fed first announced the rate freeze and then started cutting interest rates.
3Many big financial institutions and banks like Citibank, UBS have to write down losses because of heavy exposures to Sub-Prime lending. Bear Stearns one of the active players in the space became virtually bankrupt and was taken over by JP Morgan Chase and Co. at substantial discount to value which it commanded before the crisis broke out.
4Investors in MBS and CDO�??s market saw there investment value depreciating rapidly. A lot of them were institutional investors aboard and they also burnt fingers in the crisis.
5There was sudden emphasis on cost cutting and many financial institutions started resorting to job cuts. These also has severe impact on traditionally consumption led US Economy.
6The falling value of houses led to negative equity which means that houses value dropped below the mortgage amounts. So even Prime Borrowers started defaulting as they did not see any incentive to service mortgage which was more than what the actual prevailing value of house was.
There were many other adverse effects like global slowdown, reverse flight of capital invested in emerging economies and depreciation of dollar against major currencies etc.
Conclusion
It is said that the crisis seen so far is only a tip of ice-berg. There are many more skeletons to fall. The Fed has no other option but to provide succor through rate cuts. But these will provide only temporary relief. It also needs to tighten the credit norms and see that they are followed in letters and spirit. The Fed need to go deep, find and punish the actual culprits who held the entire system to ransom. Apart from cutting rates Fed should also encourage refinancing and repackaging of Sub-Prime Mortgages. By cutting rates only Fed will do nothing but follow the vicious interest rate trap in which it find itself whenever such crisis breaks up. The rate cuts have already put more money in the hands of Speculators who are now chasing commodities especially crude. Hope the Fed is alert enough to avoid another asset bubble being created this time in commodities.
By Ajaykumar Shaha
Student - ZCBI

Mr. Vijay Deshpande, VP-HR, Greaves Cotton Ltd.

noreply@blogger.com (Zensar Center For Business Innovation) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 12:10:00 +0000

Date: 19th July, 2008
Topic: Staying ahead in fast changing time.
In today�??s dynamic business environment nothing is constant. The only thing permanent is change. This was the essence of guest lecture given by Mr. Vijay Deshpande, VP-HR, Greaves Cotton Ltd., on 19th July 2008. The Zcbians are privileged lot having this timely piece of knowledge and experience being shared by one of the top HR professional on whom the award titled �??India�??s Greatest HR Professionals�?? was conferred upon in year 2004 in an event organized by ITM Business School.

Mr. Deshpande started with comparison between the way the business was being done some 12-15 years back in India and the way it is being done now. He came up with specific examples such as monopolies being crashed, Business becoming more global to explain the changes which has occurred in the business models in recent times. All the changes can be attributed to LPG (Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization) initiated by the policy makers and technological development happening all round. This has resulted in the shift from life time employment to employability and has made succession planning difficult for the HR professional.

In such dynamic environment to stay ahead Mr. Deshpande suggest that organization should adopt Proactive Strategy Implementation and Market Driven Management. The sustenance in fast changing time depends upon the ability of organization to create Customer Centric Monopoly. In the end, organization should either try to be no.1 or no.2 in the market it serve but not less. Indeed a master piece of advice for the budding Managers.
We thank Mr. Vijay Deshpande for sharing the great insights coming from his long industry experience and expertise. By:- Ajay Kumar Shah

Guest Lecture by Zensar CISCO team

noreply@blogger.com (Zensar Center For Business Innovation) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 08:28:00 +0000

It was yet another day full of knowledge and enlightenment that was focussed specially on the industry orientation.

We were expecting Mr. P Mohan, Head, CISCO ODC, to deliver the lecture but he was accompanied by 7 other great minds of CISCO who were the Practice Heads of various departments in CISCO. They all were associated with CISCO for the past 8 years. Mr. P Mohan started the lecture with the history of CISCO and its growth from a 20 member team to more than 800 members at present to become the largest account of Zensar. He then gave an overview of various departments of CISCO and the operations carried out there. Then he introduced us to all the Heads of CISCO and invited them to give some more insghts on the operations and processes followed in their respective teams. All those who were from technical background were trying to capture the details as they knew the opportunities for them in CISCO. When the presentation was going on and slides were changing quickly came the much awaited slide for all of us which was giving an overview of plethora of opportunities we can have in CISCO. They opened the gate for us and we wasted no time in interacting with them personally to gain more information on the opportunities we have.

It was a great learning for all of us and we Thank the whole CISCO team for extending their help and co-operation towards us.

Spjain Nimitt, 08

noreply@blogger.com (Zensar Center For Business Innovation) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 08:14:00 +0000

On 11th July 2008, the entire B school fraternity and the corporate world could feel the strong essence of a blooming flower, an entity so bright that soon it shall give its light to others, an epitome of innovation in this dynamic business world, Zensar Center for Business Innovation. On this day ZCBI's tryst with success took off with its first win in SPJAIN annual b school fest called NIMITT.NIMITT 08 acted as a platform for the SMEs to come out with their issues and seek invaluable inputs from the stalwarts of the industry and the academia on how to tackle these and ensure long term sustainability. ZCBI�??ans along with students from IIM -k, IIM c, ISB, SIES, and NMIMS participated in the annual event which comprised of panel Discussion Meet and on the spot-Elevator Pitch. It was an opportunity to be a part of the knowledge festival, exchanging ideas with the leading business minds. Along with it we got a chance to interact with students from different other leading b schools which was absolute wisdom enrichment. In this unique contest of acumen and business presentation skills we clinched the first and second prizes in the Elevator pitch contest collaborating with other students. The first exposure of this kind was blessed by perfection and one could well imagine what this new face of Business Innovation will bring out in the future, a perfect perfection.

Mr. Raj Dhillon, Sr VP, Zensar,(14th-July-2008)

noreply@blogger.com (Zensar Center For Business Innovation) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 07:26:00 +0000

Mr. Rajor Dhillon shared his recipe of success to us 'Hungry Students'. He told us the four ingrediants according to Hindu philosophy - Yogyata - competence, Karma- action,Bhagya- outcomes of choices we make,Ishwarya Krupa - factors not under our control.

Through his example of Aji's cake he made us understand the whole process requirement to set up a venture, the importance of quality and the continuous improveent.

The main thing is to get it right the first time. It saves both time and efforts and any sort of agony of failure.His recipe for shall surely pave our way to succees.

Mr. Zubin Kabraji (07-july-08)

noreply@blogger.com (Zensar Center For Business Innovation) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 07:24:00 +0000

Zubin Kabraji, Regional Director, Indo-German Chamber Of Commerce-Pune, was her at zcbi to share his experience on working with German's and GERMANY. He shared his knowledge on the culture and reasons on why the companies from germanies are there in PUNE since so long. Its the ability of indians as follows:

* They expect us to think different
* To be technologically savvy
* To have an open mind �?? a mind for effective alternatives
* To be ready for new challenges
* To think well outside the box
* To be more quality conscious
* To be punctual
* To adhere to our committments and delivery schedules
* To be better team players

In all its been a pleasure for all students to have an insight of what people from other end of the world expect from us, in their organization and how they like us to be different from rest of the world.

We highly appreciate Mr Zubin Kabraji's effort to make us understand the insights better.

Singhad @ Adventure Club (19-june-08)

noreply@blogger.com (Zensar Center For Business Innovation) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 07:18:00 +0000

It was a cloudy day in the midst of the week, and the ZCBI adventure club was all geared up to trek the inviting slopes of Sinhgad. The huge fort perched on top of the mountain looked more formidable when we approached it early morning. The strenuous trek up the mountainside took close to 90 minutes and we were exhausted by the time we reached the entrance, but a nimbu-paani was all it took to get us refreshed again. We toured the echo point, the wind point and the kalyan darwaaja with a light drizzle and the thin mountain air for company. The experience provided a welcome break in our schedule, and we were thoroughly refreshed after the trek. The adventure club plans to have such treks once a fortnight.

ZCBI @ Second Life

noreply@blogger.com (Zensar Center For Business Innovation) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 06:21:00 +0000

Second Life, a free virtual environment on the Internet where users create avatars, move around, interact with other users�?? avatars. 3D virtual environment gives a very interactive platform to learn and share knowledge.
Moving with the new trend of online education Zensar Center for Business Innovation is the first and the only Indian institute to have presence on Second Life.
Currently the group of students working for Second life project are in process of building Zensar Innovation Land.

Please check the following link to visit ZCBI campus

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Krypto/141/199/39

Visit to Akansha Education center at Chandan Nagar locality (24-june-08)

noreply@blogger.com (Zensar Center For Business Innovation) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 06:11:00 +0000

Ehsaas - An introspection organised a visit to Akansha Education center at Chandan Nagar locality.

The visit was organised with the aim of giving a first hand experiance to the students at ZCBI to understand the social initiative at Zensar Technologies.Akansha education Center at Chandan Nagar is run by Zensar Technologies to provide an opportunity to underpriveliged kids to learn computer and nuances of english along with value eduaction.Around 20 students went with the aim of imparting some knowledege to the kids but returned themselves enriched with lot of knowledge from the kids.

Zcbi'ans began their interaction by singing few songs with the kids. The kids were really happy to see the ZCBI'ans singing song. This was followed by an introduction of the kids. It was really great to see the kids being so eloquent and focused about their goals in life.

Once the introduction was over we conducted a small quiz related to India. The kids showcased a deep understanding of the Indian facts. They not only showed their vast knowledge base, but also a deep interest to learn and inculcate. Some of the students who were studying for their last term, had studied for a project on the Netherlands. The amount of knowledge they had about the subject astounded us, and at the end of the session we ended up learning a lot about the scandinavian country. The students' conduct showed a great deal of discipline and they were genuinely happy at the end of the session.

Overall, it was a very good experience and we intend to continue with this initiative in larger numbers in future. As part of EHSAAS the student plan to visit the center regularly on a monthly basis.

Exit option for US in Iraq

noreply@blogger.com (Zensar Center For Business Innovation) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 18:30:00 +0000

War has been the most the terrible thing to have happened to mankind and has been its scourge since it realized self and identities.

What makes it much more grievous than even diseases or natural disaster, is perhaps a realization of its, futility, preventability, a sense of injustice and over all the guilt of being a party to this pogrom of fratricide.

Iraq today presents, yet another glaring example of a nation, and a civilization torn apart by greed of parochialism. As an antithesis to Arab nationality, enriched by the natural bounty of oil, juxtaposed to the origins of human civilization and an area central to all the three Abrahamic faith.

The backdrop of the crisis is:

With the breakdown of Ottoman Empire, the British divided the Arabian Peninsula, and popped up rulers, under their protection, and in a similar way, created Kuwait in a manner such as to squeeze Iraq�??s entry into the Persian Gulf. The cold war heightened the tension, with Iraq joining the Russian bloc and signing the Baghdad pact. As a fall out of it, the baathist came to power and saddam Hussein established a firm, and tyrannical to his tribe of origin, the tikritians, and then his sect of Sunni Arabs, a discriminatory and reprehension regime was formed and the decade long Iran Iraq war was an ominous extension. During the war as Iraq got buried under debt, it attacked Kuwait, eyeing its oil fields as well as to increase its control over the Persian Gulf and it prompted, an US led international retaliation under Operation Desert Storm, which stopped short of dethroning saddam and imposed crippling sanction on his regime. In abid to enable rebellion , many measure like , no flying zone and mass demilitarization , which reached its peak during the operation Desert Fox(1998) , the final phase was against the backdrop of 9/11 bombing and has resulted in overthrowing of saddam�??s regime and the US led forces trying to maintain a country plunged deep into civil war.

All said and done, Iraq has proved to be too complex for such simplistic analysis and the US, along with its war machine finds itself enmeshed into this treacherous polity of middle east, trying to fight, its plummeting moral authority, hatred of Muslim world, almost bringing the world into the brink of a clash of civilization, rising causality by a day, almost 4000 and counting. A falling currency and impending recession, and a condition where oil prices have crossed $100 a barrel and the already fragile world order and international institution has been run down.

The US and the saver world now grapple for a way out. A way which is

Honorable for the US
Assuaging the hurt Islamic feeling
Capable of establishing peace and order in Iraq
Acceptance to the divergent groups in Iraq
Maintains regional balance of powers
Reinforce energy security for the world
Creates a situation favorable to the international drive against terrorism.

The first option is a long term investment by the US in taking over a gradual rebuilding of Iraq and its institution. Bringing over a force much larger, at least around 200,000. Disarmament of the sectarian forces, building up of a credible army and police forces, governing and judicial institution, reestablishing the oil sector in a public- private partnership model and then a gradual democratization of its polity.

This calls for a commitment and involvement, not available with the US polity. A war costing 200 billion $ a year, is not acceptable to the US public and there is no acceptance of further responsibilities.

Second available option , is a US retreat and UN takeover, facilitated by security council resolution , and a Un peace keeping force, with mainly forces from , Arabic and Islamic nations, and a gradual democratization, with world assistance following , similar to Afghanistan . But we see the results are not very encouraging and the biggest drawback would be an army large enough

Third option would be to trifurcate Iraq into Shia, Sunni and Kurd majority areas, but it would disturb regional balance with Shia regions, joining bloc with Iran and turkey opposing Kurd nation.

As we see options are many but they call for a statesmanship, not in view at present, and what can be best hoped is some intrinsic leadership to emerge and some internal consensus evolving around it.

By:- Komal Singhal

Prof. Dr. Konstantin Theile

noreply@blogger.com (Zensar Center For Business Innovation) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 06:41:00 +0000

Director,EGSM
Switzerland

A day with the Founder - Dr Ganesh Natarajan, Chairman NASSCOM & CEO Zensar Technologies

noreply@blogger.com (Zensar Center For Business Innovation) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 13:06:00 +0000

Believe me or not, something unheard is happening at ZCBI. I could feel it right from day one. It kept on growing in volume and intensity with each passing day. It started with the breath of few individuals, soon it turned into the air of Innovation and now it is no longer a mild breeze, it is a strong Wind. Yes! The Wind of Transformation has begun! It is a Wind which both the ZCBIians and the Corporates have felt alike. They have begun to experience it, enjoy it and sail with it.

Call it the first destination or the beginning of a journey, on 10 June 2008, ZCBIians were enriched and enlightened by none other but the founder of this Concept ZCBI, the Mastermind behind this Epitome of Innovation, Dr Ganesh Natarajan, Chairman NASSCOM & CEO, Zensar Technologies.

Fun at heart, follower of intuitions and passionate about enjoying every moment at work, Dr Natarajan believes in listening to his heart. He is a sailor in this sea of life and hates wasting fuel going against the stream. Probably, he is a strong believer of the �??Law of least Efforts�?? which says that you achieve utmost success when you seem to apply the least efforts, the enjoyment in the journey is so extreme that it overwhelms the burden of the efforts!

The Big day started with the celebrations of the first 50 days of ZCBI. ZCBIians presented the journey so far to Dr Natarajan who was highly impressed by the �??Ehsaas�?? Social initiative and the advent of ZCBI into Secondlife, an online Virtual World, as well!

There is something at ZCBI which compels its visitors to follow the Mantra of Success �?? Doing things differently and Dr Natarajan was no exception. To everyone�??s surprise Chairman of NASSCOM started his lecture not by speaking about IT, US, Europe or Asia-Pacific but by speaking about Rural India. He asked us that how many have spent a decent part of their life in small towns of Rural India. To Dr Natarajan�??s surprise there were many of us who had absorbed the Purity of Rural India in our childhood. This was something unique we shared with Dr Natarajan, himself coming from a small town of Bihar and an introvert in the early days of his life, we were overwhelmed by his strong connection with his roots.

Dr Natarajan now fired a question at us �??What is NASSCOM and its purpose of existence�??. Multiple answers soared from all corners of the classroom and each covered just some aspects of this huge body. Dr Natarajan explained that the prime purpose of any big coalition is to share and comprehend the best practices with each other and NASSCOM does the same. It is a platform for the IT & BPO Industries to Learn, Share, Enrich and Grow together. He went on to ask the reason behind the success story of Indian IT industry during its early days. There were many answers and someone popped up with the Y2k solution but Dr Natarajan wanted an answer that would appeal to his �??that sense�?? which all of us have in plenty but tend to use it least because we feel it is common, yes indeed it is common but didn�??t Abraham Lincoln once said �??God loves common people, that is why he makes so many of them�??. Yes! Dr Natarajan appealed to us to use the immense strength of our common sense and trust the wonders it can create. He went on that during 1980�??s a strong trend began when students from IITs and other premium institutions went abroad, particularly to the US for higher studies and work. Strong presence of Indians in US and other foreign countries helped the IT industry to grow exponentially. This is the power of Collaboration and indeed it is much common than solving the mighty Y2k problem!

Dr Natarajan went on to apprise us about the company he currently heads, Zensar Technologies. He said that in order to achieve success it is extremely important to be Original and Differentiate yourself from the crowd. Zensar Technologies differentiates itself from the rest by believing in Constant Innovation, ZCBI being a classical example. Dr Natarajan informed that Zensar Technologies focuses on Process and Business Model Innovation. He added that the Business Models keep on evolving and need Constant Innovation. It started with TCS�?? Onsite Offshore Model, followed by Infosys�?? state of the art facilities in India better called the Global Development Centres and currently Zensar Technologies latest Business Model is a revolution in itself for the industry. Dr Natarajan informed about the Innovative practices that Zensar Technologies follows in People Management as well. Encouraging Women Leaders, Zensar Technologies is indeed a People Oriented Organisation.

However, one needs two hands to clap. Let one hand be that of the Associates & other of the Organisation and Zensar Technologies shall never stop Clapping. The essence of this was pointed out by Dr Natarajan saying that even if on one morning you feel not going to Zensar, you better quit!

Indeed the �??Law of Least Efforts�?? shall be followed by all Zensarians - Amen!

By: Abhinav Baloni

Guest Lecture: An evening filled with experiences with Mr. Ravi Ramanathan

noreply@blogger.com (Zensar Center For Business Innovation) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 11:02:00 +0000

Mr. Ravi Ramanathan is an information technology professional with over 23 years of professional experience holding a strong and proven track record; be it marketing, sales, business strategy, operations or software delivery program management.

After reading Ravi�??s introduction one would definitely think of him being an arrogant professional. But these thoughts of ours totally turned tables when we saw him as a down to earth great personality.

We at ZCBI had the pleasure of being able to interact with a guest lecturer who taught us the art of presenting yourself with humbleness and humor.

As he entered the room he brought along a breeze of comfort. He gave us unique business insights on �??How Re-positioning plays an important role�?? through the Growth Pangs Case Study.

After introducing us to the way he is going to go ahead with the case, he gave us half an hour to go through the case and present our understanding of the case.

We divided ourselves into groups and started presenting our understanding. He helped all of us in articulating our understanding and ideas in a better way and also showed us the other side of the case which most of us failed to locate. He brought in his own style of mentioning �??Gabbar and Sambha of Sholay�?? while elucidating about brand identity and brand image which we understood at a concept level. After Ravi�??s insight and real life experience examples we got on to the detailing of these terms in their true sense.

Ravi sat with all of us and encouraged us to raise questions on other�??s ideas as well as our ideas. He ensured we have a healthy discussion and that the session is in the right direction without making it evident.

By introducing us to this case and making us present our ideas he not only got us to understand business concepts but also showed us how important it is to hold the audience attention and say the right words at the right time.

He stressed on the importance of good communication; which is having the ability to deliver your thoughts in a crisp and clear manner as also communicating thoughts that are relevant to the subject your addressing.

Ravi made us realize that "It is the ability of an individual to correctly use the information he has in his hands".

He got out some really interesting facts from his Pandora�??s Box and spoke on various topics by giving live examples like the Reliance to MORE stores, BRIC to China by 2020 etc. He also mentioned how INNOVATION has been the major factor in "NANO" becoming a reality.

Ravi also stated that he believes in individuality and hence, every person is unique and as managers we should be willing to give an opportunity to every individual and his ideas.

Mr. Ravi Ramanathan is truly an influencing speaker, effective listener and a person with the ability to bring out the best in a person or an audience.

�??He or she who speaks less and sense, shouts louder!�?? These words will always be with us. We all wish to have Mr. Ramanathan at ZCBI, innumerous number of times to share more of his experience and to help to bring out the best in us.

By:- Anneish Gupta

Role of a Business Analyst: A view from Ms. G. Shobha

noreply@blogger.com (Zensar Center For Business Innovation) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 09:18:00 +0000

�??Business Analysts are the bridge between business team and IT technical group. More than your background what does matter is �??functional knowledge�?? .You have to grasp functional-knowledge. Everything is how you understand the business-requirements and communicate with client as well and development team. How well you listen and analyse problem to transform it in product�?? �?? says Ms. Shobha, Business Analyst, Zensar Technologies, Pune.

Yes, ZCBI�??ans had a face to face interaction with Ms. Shobha, who is currently working as Business Analyst for Zensar Technologies and have a good experience of IT projects with complete SDLC. Mr. S. Bala (CFO, Zensar Technologies) was also present and he also explained different aspects of IT business with real world examples.

As per Ms. Shobha, whether it is solution provider or product based IT Company, it needs functional or/and business specialists and based on project requirements, role of BA comes in picture i.e. whether he/she should be pure functional analyst or a Technical-business Analyst who plays both functional as well as a technical role to support QA and while deciding the Technical requirements of the project. You can say, Business Analyst works for clients being with the Solution developer company. He/She speaks clients/user language to design the right requirement.

If you have a specialisation in retail, finance or IT with some project experience, Business Analysis could be a choice of career in different companies.

Any IT project that follows SDLC generally has four steps: (1). Requirement Gathering (2). Application Development (3). Testing-QA and UAT (User Acceptance Testing) (4). Production /Live and then Maintenance/Support. Now-a-days, Requirement gathering, small Modules development and Internal QA are parallel process to reduce the total production time and to avoid the last moment blocker in full complex code. Business Analysts eye on each step and try to be part of QA by running their own test-cases. At the initial stage of a project, BA prepares Business and Functional Requirement-Specification and communicates with development team to come up with technical design documents to make a quality process. After delivery and Integration of the project at client side, they goes Live with the product delivered for few months and sometimes BA are also part of UAT. This is an extract from Ms. Shobha�??s session taken on �??role of a business analyst in IT industry�??. Responsibilities of a Business Analyst are lot more than I wrote here.

By - Rajiv Jain

Guest Lecture: Mr Lucose Eralil, Head, Credit Suisse IT centres of Excellence, Pune

noreply@blogger.com (Zensar Center For Business Innovation) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 05:58:00 +0000

ZCBI batch again got an opportunity to have an industry interaction and this time Mr Lucose Eralil, Head, Credit Suisse IT Centres of Excellence, Pune , shared his views on finance products and various aspects of banking and IT. Outstanding...lucose's enthusiasm and knowledge of his topic excited ZCBI�??ans and provoked a great deal of interest for the topic.

Credit Suisse Group, a world leading financial services company, advising clients in all aspects of finance, around the world, deals in Investment banking, Wealth and Asset management. Credit Suisse is also in IT development of different applications to cater the services mentioned above.

Mr Eralil started with an introduction and a two way interaction on what are Asset management and Investment Banking, advisory in wealth management and high net-worth customers. He also briefed about the financial market terminology like Listed product, Foreign exchange, Equity linked notes, Warrants, Derivatives (Future and Options) , Margin and Bonds. We had a detailed session on various processes involved in a daily online trading and how Credit Suisse system deals with these.

Mr Eralil gave a valuable insight of daily trading and different steps/processes involved in it like different types of transaction (Principal, Agency and Position transfer), Type of Orders (Parent and child orders), Execution and Allocation, Exchange link, different traders such as Sales trader, Dealers, Proprietors. On the other hand, how Order management system of Credit Suisse helps in Trading processing and how FIX (Financial Information Exchange) is used in making online orders? Client inserts orders into order management System electronically via FIX connection.

His passion and voice developed interest in finance and added value to the finance as well as non-financial participants. Almost 80 people had a chance to listen Mr. Eralil. His enthusiasm is best represented by the standing ovation and excellent Q & A session.

Mr Eralil - Your one day presence here has nurtured actions and attitudes that will have wide-ranging ripple effects. Your thoughtful, articulate and lively commencement session on various aspects of banking and finance brought distinction and significance to all of us.

Thank you for a great presentation and we owe a debt of gratitude to you for waking us up. Your remarks throughout the session were substantive and provocative, in a word, terrific.

By Rajiv Jain and Monty Ruchandani