Should we start investing in crypto currencies ?

This is a question that has been bothering most of us for the past three years, ever since Bitcoin came on the scene and made waves in the financial world. People were vacillating whether to invest or not, will they invite government sanctions or not .. Will their investments be confiscated and whether they would have to face the wrath of the law. But some people in spite of this confusion and unclear policy guidelines did invest and hold fortune in bitcoin, the most famous of the crypto currencies. 

People keep asking me, is it the right time to invest in creptos ? We are losing time, there are thousands of crypto currencies already in the market. Which one would be a safe bet and which would give us attractive returns in the long run ?

Frankly speaking, it is a big question. 

To find more about this I did a search and came across this HBR fictional case study. (click here) in the publication of Nov 2021, where a CEO of an educational startup wants to decide on collecting fees and paying the vendors using bitcoin. After much deliberations and consultations, the startup decides to go for bitcoins, knowing fully well that an appreciation in the value could bring great gains for the company and a fall in value could even wipe it out of the market. Even the US government does not recommend its wid spread usage and users are doing it at their own risk.

A country like China has declared all crypto currency transactions to be illegal from September '21. (click here for a BBC report).

George..

Signing MOU with Toyota

 

It was a great occasion to rejoice on 13 November 2021 at Alliance University. After lot of communication and visits, Alliance University was signing a momentous MOU with Toyota Kirloskar Motors in Bidadi, near Bangalore. The Deputy General manager from Toyota Kirloskar Motors, Mr. Roshan R. (Roshan san) and the Pro Chancellor of Alliance University, Bangalore Mr. Abhay Chebbi put their signatures on the accord that will see many an Alliance student and faculty get trained in world class Toyota Production system and the Toyota culture. In the 25 year history of Alliance University, this is the most notable and proud achievement. Never have we had an MOU before with a Fortune 10 company of the world. Great leadership from Abhay Chebbi. A very big thanks for Surekha Shetty for making all this possible.

The MOU is mainly to help the students and faculty from Alliance University schools of Business and Engineering to learn the Toyota Production System, their working culture and superior manufacturing processes. 

 

A photo opportunity with Roshan san

Toyota may not be a market leader in India, but is undoubtedly the best in the world. What distinguishes Toyota from the competition are the following interesting points

• high quality
• high reliability
• low cost to own and maintain
• the way they treat employees
• safety 
• trustworthy

Denis Chambers in his book, How Toyota changed the world, writes of 7 points that has helped Toyota make a big difference in this world.

• humility 
• investing in the future
• immerse everyone in the corporate culture
• removing waste
• promoting cleanliness
• concentrate on flow of parts / assembly
• no complacency with success

Humility was writ well on the face of the Toyota senior officials. Toyota is ranked at position 9 in the Fortune list of global companies just ahead of Volkswagen at no. 10 and behind Walmart and Amazon at no 1 and no 3 respectively. (click here). 

 

The charismatic Roshan san

Toyota was established in 1939 in Japan after transitioning from the Toyoda textile loom company established in the beginning of 1912, before the first world war.  The second world war did a lot of damage to Japan and Toyota's factories were used to manufacture war planes for the Axis forces. Toyota products then were synonymous for poor quality. After the second world war and active support from US, the visit of Prof. Deming and Juran, there was no looking back for Japan and especially Toyota in the area of quality of manufacturing. The early 80s saw Toyota consolidating in Japan and also establishing itself as a small car manufacturer of the world, delivering quality vehicles for a global audience. 

 

The signing of the MOU with Toyota is a significant step in improving the academic environment in Alliance University, enabling delivery of high quality learning and training sessions both at Toyota premises and University premises for the students and faculty of Alliance University. 

 

The leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way - John C. Maxwell

 

Toyota is truly the leader we all look upto ..

Roshan san gelled well with students

We are more than committed to follow the leader and are much delighted about it. Immediately after the MOU ceremony, the first engagement we had was for about 50 students with Roshan San. Roshan San had a session on the Toyota Lean Practices. This session was so simple and full of practical cases and examples, the students really loved the session. On 19 th November, already a batch of 30 students had been to the Toyota plant for the first one day plant visit and training. Because of the heavy rains lashing Bangalore the previous night, the roads were all soggy, resulting in slow traffic, but for a shaky start, the training session of about 7.5 hours,, with a working lunch in the ISO 21000 certified canteen, was very much valuable for the students. It gave them an idea of what corporate training is all about. And they received it not from any ordinary trainer, across the road, but from the world's top automobile manufacturer, Toyota.  

From the time Alliance University was interested in signing the MOU with the active help provided by senior management and our visit to the Toyota campus, everything has happened for the good. The University and students are very thankful to Toyota for giving this great opportunity to them to know more about the Toyota way of life and culture.

 

We are sure this is an alliance which Toyota will never regret having entered into. It is going to be a synergising and mutually beneficial one.  Sudhakar san who accompanied Roshan san was a great support for all of us and we hope will be into the future too.

George.

What is all this fuss about COP26 ?

What is climate change ?

Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. These shifts may be natural, but since the 1800s, human activities have been the main driver of climate change, primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels (like coal, oil, and gas), which produces heat-trapping gases - UN '20.

Climate change describes a change in the average conditions — such as temperature and rainfall — in a region over a long period of time.

 

What are the 5 effects of climate change?

1. More frequent and intense drought, 

2. storms, 

3. heat waves, 

4. rising sea levels, melting glaciers 

5. warming oceans can directly harm animals, destroy the places they live, and wreak havoc on people's livelihoods and communities.

 

What are the 3 main effects of climate change?

Effects that scientists had predicted in the past would result from global climate change are now occurring: loss of sea ice, accelerated sea level rise and longer, more intense heat waves.

10 Climate Change Impacts That Will Affect Us All

• Damage to your home. ...
• More expensive home insurance. ...
• Outdoor work could become unbearable. ...
• Higher electric bills and more blackouts. ...
• Rising taxes. ...
• More allergies and other health risks. ...
• Food will be more expensive and variety may suffer. ...
• Water quality could suffer. 
• Outdoor exercise and recreational sports will become more difficult
•  Disruptions in travel

UNFCCC Rio Earth Summit, 1992 (UN Framework Convention of Climate Change)

What is the COP?
The COP is the supreme decision-making body of the Convention. All States that are Parties to the Convention are represented at the COP, at which they review the implementation of the Convention and any other legal instruments that the COP adopts and take decisions necessary to promote the effective implementation of the Convention, including institutional and administrative arrangements. (click here for more)

COP1 Berlin 1995 (Conference of the Parties)

COP21 Paris Climate Summit 2015

COP26 Glasgow, England

One of the most famous COP summits have been the one in Paris  in 2015, COP21. Lot of countries came to a conclusion, US and China joined hands. The world took a decision to control the global temperature rise to within 1.5 deg C. Even at COP 26, the countries have all been saying about controlling the global temperature rise.

COP26 climate summit - The basics

• Climate change is one of the world's most pressing problems. Governments must promise more ambitious cuts in warming gases if we are to prevent greater global temperature rises.
  
  
  
  
  
• The summit in Glasgow is where change could happen. You need to watch for the promises made by the world's biggest polluters, like the US and China, and whether poorer countries are getting the support they need.
• All our lives will change. Decisions made here could impact our jobs, how we heat our homes, what we eat and how we travel.

In the role play we had in the class, the class of 10 was divided into 3 blocs, China - the largest polluter in the world, US - the highest per capita annual polluter of 27 T and second largest global polluter and India - world's third largest polluter, with each country trying to speak about their commitment to contain the temp change due to global climate change to within 1.5 deg C by 2050. 

 

The role play also ended by enacting the COP26 failure as India and China were not ready to restrict usage of coal as primary energy source and the shifting of near-zero country Carbon commitment of China to 2060 AD and of India to 2070 AD, while US stuck to its promise of 2050 AD for net zero Carbon commitment.  

 

The focus on extreme global weather events was missing in COP26.

 

Lot of learning, it made all students understand about the dangers of climate change and form an informed opinion of their stand on the global climate crisis.

George 

 

 

Learning should be part of our daily routine ..

The generation of today will be the people set to lead the industry of tomorrow. It is essential that the present younger generations get to understand  what are the major changes going to happen into the future and how to cope with them.

active learning thru doing

This classroom activity came out of reading the HBR document of Nov 2021 titled, Make learning part of your daily routine (click here) as part of a creative classroom engagement.

I divided the class into pairs of 4 groups and asked them the propelling questions, part of the HBR article, which got them to think more into how their learning, unlearning and relearning activities into the future needs to get conditioned.

Click here for my presentation on propelling questions. 

I asked the 4 groups these propelling questions in order, one after the other and wanted them firstly hold pair wise discussion  in their group and then discuss their finding and points with the class.

1. Imagine it’s 2030. What three significant changes have happened in your industry?

2. How might you divide your role between you and a robot?

3. Which of your strengths would be most useful if your organization doubled in size?

4. How could you transfer your talents if your industry disappeared overnight?

5. If you were rebuilding this business tomorrow, what would you do differently?

When these 5 questions were asked to the students in the particular order, there were perceptible apprehensions in the class as to how humans needed to learn, unlearn and relearn aspects and features of work in the future world, which will still be relevant in 2030.

Asking propelling questions is a tool in the unlearning stage, which helps the participants to understand how their work skills and areas will get overrun by modern technologies or events, to identify the specific areas and skills that will remain untouched by the impact of exponential technologies.

The outcome of the class activity was interesting. The students were of the unique opinion that all work mundane, repetitive and daily decision making will get automated and done by robots, but 

• infrequent decision making, 
• motivation, 
• leadership, 
• conflict resolution, 
• new product development, 
• research and development areas where emotional quotient will have a major role to play, will be untouched by robots or autonomous machines.

The relearning aspect on the above noted skills needs to focus on these aspects of our work to better adjust to the changes of the future.

George..

iD Fresh Business model

 

It is great to see iD fresh, the company that made the best South Indian breakfast and snack dishes of Vada, idlis, parathas and dosas better at affordable rates, has come a long way. They have set up a INR 50 crore plant in Anekal with generous help from Azim Premji ventures.

In the present day world, there is better awareness of what is good quality in foods to consume. The Food processing industry is getting all the more important with each passing day with better health awareness of the population and processed food industry is bound to have excellent growth in the coming decades.

Food processing is the transformation of agricultural products into food, or of one form of food into other forms. Food processing includes many forms of processing foods, from grinding grain to make raw flour to home cooking to complex industrial methods used to make convenience foods. Wikipedia

Click here  for a Harvard uty doc on why processing of foods is done, the different types of processed foods, advantages and disadvantages etc .

Idfresh idli dosa vada batter does not have any added preservatives and has to be used within 3-4 days and is to be stored in controlled refrigerated environments. Storage and transportation is a problem which prevents the massive growth of this business model. 

 

Processed food is any food that’s altered during preparation to make it more convenient, shelf-stable or flavorful. Some foods are much more processed than others. 

 

There are lots of discussions on what foods are better - minimally processed ones or the maximally processed. Without any extra reasoning, it can be concluded, if you read the following passage.  

Minimally processed food vs heavily processed food

A bagged salad or pre-cut green beans technically count as processed, but it’s only minimally processed because its natural state hasn’t changed. 

In other words, it looks pretty much the same as you’d find it in nature. Bottled water is minimally processed.

A box of macaroni and cheese or a microwavable dinner or biriyani on the other hand, are considered heavily processed (also called ultra processed) because they’ve been chemically altered with artificial flavors, additives and other ingredients. A bottle of coke or Pepsi on the other hand is heavily processed - ihsfna.org

George 

A $12 trillion business opportunity in next 15 years ..

To address the realities of climate change and the ways in which we are increasingly overrunning planetary boundaries, we must shift our mindsets, technologies, and business models away from incremental thinking. 

 

We urgently need to find real breakthroughs — the kinds of things that will have 100x impact on a billion or more people. Doing so means shifting our mindsets from linear thinking to exponential thinking; chasing technologies that will help us overcome resource constraints and create a world of abundance; and finding business models that are more social, lean, integrated, and circular. 

 

According to UN estimates, if we can meet key stretch goals in just four areas — food and agriculture, cities, energy and materials, and health and wellbeing — we could open up market opportunities worth up to $12 trillion a year in less than 15 years.

UN says saving the planet is a $12 trillion opportunity for next 15 years. That is a terrible amount of investment brewing up .. Click here for the HBR paper ..

It makes great sense for the entrepreneurs of tomorrow to concentrate on the field of saving the planet from an ecological disaster.

UN Global Compact - what and how ?

The UN Global Compact is a call to companies to align their strategies and operations with ten universal principles related to 

1. human rights

2. labour

3. environment and 

4. anti-corruption and take actions that advance societal goals and the implementation of the SDGs

The ten principles of UN Global Compact

Human Rights

Principle 1: Businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights; and

Principle 2: make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses.

Labour

Principle 3: Businesses should uphold the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining;

Principle 4: the elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labour;

Principle 5: the effective abolition of child labour; and

Principle 6: the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.

Environment

Principle 7: Businesses should support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges;

Principle 8: undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility; and

Principle 9: encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies.

Anti-Corruption

Principle 10: Businesses should work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery.

 ---------------------------------------------------------------

12,000+ signatories in over 160 countries, both developed and developing, representing nearly every sector and size.  Participants in the UN Global Compact include over 12,000 companies and 3,000 non-business signatories, making it “the world's largest corporate sustainability initiative.” Participants commit to Ten Principles covering human rights, labor, environmental protection, and anti-corruption. www.unglobalcompact.org

By incorporating the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact into strategies, policies and procedures, and establishing a culture of integrity, companies are not only upholding their basic responsibilities to people and planet, but also setting the stage for long-term success. These points which comprise the UN Global Compact are non-legally binding.

The fees for joining the different action platforms ranges from $20,000 (for companies with revenues more than $5 billion) to $1250 (for companies with revenues less than $25 million).

The basic purpose of the UN Global Compact is to ensure that all governments and corporates of the world voluntarily collaborate and partyicipate to adhere to the 17 SDGs and finally restrict the global rise in temperature to less than 1.5 deg C.

George.