Grabbon Acquisition in Et
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THE ECONOMIC TIMES BANGALORE MONDAY 28 JUNE 2010 CAREER & BUSINESS LIFE Kala Vijayraghavan & Labonita Ghosh MUMBAI M AYUR Singh doesn’t think of him- self as a poster boy for anything. But the 45-year-old, senior vice-presi- dent at HSBC Bank is certainly one within his organisation. Mr Singh, who spends six months of the year working at an eco-conser- vation project in Kemri, near Udaipur in Ra- jasthan, and six months in the HSBC office in Mumbai, has become the organisation’s best- known face for a recently-started HR initia- tive: the Flexible Work Arrangement (FWA). According to this, Singh and another 600-odd employees across the country can now decide how and when to pace themselves at work. They can decide when to come in, when to leave and when to take off and do some other things with their time. As long as work and productivity don’t suffer, of course. It’s a revolutionary idea that HSBC is spear- heading. And one that — all other things re- maining the same — will make for a happier employee, a happier workplace and also possi- bly turn HSBC into a much-sought-after em- ployer. “It is simply part of our goal to be the best place to work and be an employer of choice,” says Tanuj Kapilashrami, head, hu- man resource, HSBC Bank. “It is more of ‘need to do’ than ‘good to do’ initiative. The flexi- time plan works fine for us as a business case too, considering a good number of our cus- tomers are women. We also have the lowest attrition record in the industry.” An increasing number of employees in a bur- geoning workforce now want to bring some bal- ance in their work-life situation, take control of their working style and even opt out of a stereo- typed work culture-and-pay rise cycle. Realising this, HSBC first segmented its em- ployees into predominant, representative groups — working couples, singles, mature employees — and kept motivators and chal- lenges on stand-by to ease their transition into flexi-time. “We ensured that there is an organisa- tional readiness to under- stand employee needs and work around them,” says Kapilashrami. “For in- stance, among other things, there are more women coming out from business schools and we have to change work pat- terns to accommodate that.” When HSBC offered FWA to employees two years ago, an overwhelming number signed up for it. Today, around 10% of its 6,500 workforce is in some flexi arrangement or the other. Clearly, changing demographics, more and younger members in the workforce, more women and socioeconomic changes are leading mature organisa- tions like HSBC to amend rules and of- fer higher flexibility to care for elderly relatives or children. In 2009, Sudha Raviprakash, vice-president, sales (SME), currently based in Bangalore, de- cide to go on the FWA to help her son study for his board exams. For about three months, she would come in to work early, by 8 am, and only stay on till lunch time. After lunch, she would mostly work out of home — which was a hop away and meant that sometimes, if needed, Raviprakash could quickly hop back into the of- fice. “Since I’m in sales, I would make sure all my client meetings and team meetings were held in the morning,” says Raviprakash. “I kept all my other work, like replying to mails and such, to do from home,” she says. Similarly, HSBC’s team in the south, headed by Renny J Mampilly, vice-president, regional debt management, has taken the lead in opting for staggered work hours. Mampilly and his en- tire team — six members in Chennai and Hy- derabad and seven in Bangalore — either start work at 9.30 am rather than an hour earlier, or leave early in the evening. (This arrangement includes team leaders as well). “We found that most of the team either needed that extra hour in the morning, to drop kids to school or simply sleep in for a bit, or required some time in the evening to spend with their families,” says Mampilly. He himself leaves office by 5.30 or 6 pm, and “since I don’t hit traffic, I’m home in 10 minutes, and get to spend about two or three hours with my kids every day,” he adds. “Of course, we have to make sure there are no staggered hours or absenteeism during the peak of work, between 10 am and 4 pm.” Quite apart from satisfied workers, HSBC has a strong business case for flexi hours. Talent at- trition is apparently under control, and the FWA reveals that pro- ductivity has gone up in about 88% of employ- ees, while it has remained the same (but not gone down) with the rest of the workers. Use of the Flexible Work Arrangement has been well supported and encouraged by the corporate credit risk (CCR) leadership team across India. The arrangement has proved to be an innova- tive platform to help the bank retain top talent. Says Radhakrishnan B Menon, founder and MD of LBW Consulting, a leadership de- velopment consulting firm, and former HR head at Cadbury India: “Employees are ques- tioning regimentation at the work-place. So, employers are sitting up and taking notice of those who are confident of working at their convenience and meeting the organisation’s goals. The issues of urban lifestyles including travel, traffic jams and personal responsibilities has necessitated flexi-time work cultures. Sev- eral employees are meeting targets and seek- ing options that ensure more meaning in life. Work and fun can co-exist beautifully.” A significant driver of this change have been consumers demanding services they want at times that suit them best. And sectors such as fi- nance, retail, leisure and services are adopting non-traditional working hours to meet this consumer demand, Menon adds. Also, by mak- ing working hours less rigid, companies can be more flexible in terms of the service they offer to customers. “Flexi-time can mean that if, for ex- ample, a customer calls at 8 am or 7 pm, there’s a better chance of being able to speak to a man- ager. That translates into increased brand loyal- ty, and is the kind of differentiated service that pulls in the customers,” says Kapilashrami. There are challenges, though. Industry watchers say while virtual work often proves to be productive, it could hamper employee bonding. “Flexi-time also leads to issues such as alienation and isolation in the workplace since such employees do not fit into the regular em- ployee slot,” said the HR head of a consumer goods firm on condition of anonymity. “It is not always a smooth transition,” admits Kapi- lashrami. “We have had to pull up employees for indifferent productivity. But that is expect- ed in any change strategy. The upsides far outweigh the risks.” Adds Mayur Singh: “For me, the change has not been difficult to handle. I am copied on all mes- sages and constantly stay in touch. I can start back at the of- fice with just two days notice if necessary, and am never out of the loop. But more importantly, it’s refreshing to go away and then come back. I feel recharged every time I return.” Indeed, ma- ture organisations know this, which is why they are bending traditional rules to offer a more judicious work-life balance, says Kapilashrami. At HSBC they found it’s the only way to go. “A cigarette in my hand, I feel like a dead man”. Something that happened to a friend a few days ago reminded me of this old television commercial. He collapsed in office and had to be rushed to hospital, where he was diagnosed with lung cancer, a direct fallout of his smoking habit. On the same day, as I rushed in and out of hospital, a strange sight greeted me each of the three times I drove back into my office. Every single time I found a bunch of colleagues stand- ing at the gate, smoking. While they were different sets of people each time, there was one guy, who was there all the three times. That day, it struck me. If in a matter of four hours, I saw that individual out there smoking, three times, how much time in a day would he be spending, out there on the road, smoking. I de- cided to spend some time doing research. The next day, hidden from public view, I stood outside my office, timing the smoking breaks people take. In a matter of 45 minutes, I timed about 62 employees going out to smoke. On an average each smoking break lasted about 670 seconds (approx 11 minutes). This 670 seconds was only the time tak- en while smoking, and did not take into account the time taken to walk from their respective workstations, looking for someone to accompa- ny them, taking the lift down and trekking out of the office com- pound to the roadside, to smoke. Imagine an organisation with 1,000 employees, where 10% of the employees smoke an average of five cigarettes a day (for an av- erage smoker, this is a conserva- tive assumption). This translates into smoking employees wasting 10% of their daily working hours, taking smoking breaks and when you spread the time lost in smok- ing, over the entire workforce, it translates to over 2% of the total productive time of any organisa- tion lost in smoking. Krishna Rao, a non-smoker, is very critical, “Smokers tend to hold up meetings when they are out for smoking breaks. Responses to critical mails get held up, discus- sions get postponed. And what is most frustrating about smokers, particularly smoking bosses, is the fact that they drag along non- smokers with them, wasting their time, and probably risking their health too.” If you factor in Krish- na’s comments, the time lost be- cause of smoking during office hours can end up being a lot more than the 2% estimated above. Two percent of productive time lost every month is reason enough for HR to stand up and take notice. “I am aware”, says Rahul Bhat- tacharya, HR manager in a private bank. “But there is little I can do to control this menace. It’s viewed as a fundamental right of employees. And banning smoking may be a big demotivator.” While Rahul may be partly right I would like to point out that in these days where cost control and retrenchment are the order of the day, a smoking break, costs the organisation a lot more than just the time it takes to smoke. Organisations should seri- ously consider ways and means of controlling this menace. Anti-smoking campaigns, in- centivising people who stop smok- ing, smoke-free days and capping smoking breaks are initiatives which organisations can imple- ment, says Krishna, and I can’t agree more. While organisations can do a lot to curb this menace, nothing can be achieved without self realisation. And, to all the em- ployees who spend hours on the road smoking, my only message to them is to pause for a moment and think. You are in fact stealing com- pany time for your smoking breaks and in the process impacting your own productivity, and more im- portantly, your and your co-work- ers’ health. Is it worth it? Ravi Subramanian Banker and author of ‘Devil in Pinstripes’ NEW REGIME: GOODBYE TO REGIMENTATION For me, the change has not been difficult to handle. I constantly stay in touch. I can start back at the office with just two days notice if necessary, and am never out of the loop. More importantly, it’s refreshing to go away and then come back. I feel recharged every time I return MAYUR SINGH SENIOR VP HSBC BANK Productivity up in smoke Over 2% of total productive time of any organisation may be lost in smoking THE FLEXI-TIME PLAN WORKS FINE FOR US AS A BUSINESS CASE TOO, CONSIDERING A GOOD NUMBER OF OUR CUSTOMERS ARE WOMEN TANUJ KAPILASHRAMI HEAD, HR, HSBC BANK HSBC is spearheading a revolutionary idea where employees get to choose the hours they work Fleximode to happiness In 2009, Sudha Raviprakash, vice-president, sales (SME), currently based in Bangalore, decided to go on the FWA to help her son study for his board exams. INSIDE OUTSIDE We'd love to hear from you. Reach us at [email protected] CORPORATE Subhash Narayan MEXICO CITY STATE-owned Mexican oil compa- ny Pemex and India’s Reliance In- dustries may soon forge a partner- ship to develop a large capacity greenfield refinery in Mexico. The 3,00,000 barrels-a-day refinery will largely meet the domestic energy re- quirements of Mexico. “We are im- pressed with the refinery operations of Reliance. A team of senior gov- ernment officials will visit RIL’s site at Jamnagar to explore the possibili- ty of partnerships,” Mexican Energy secretary Georgina Kessel said while talking about country’s potential in the energy sector. It is expected that Reliance will be roped in as a service provider in the new refinery project to be developed by Pemex. “There would be no joint venture with RIL as the law does not permit that,” the minister said. Without specifying the date, Ms Kessel said she would be visiting In- dia and meet with energy ministers besides visiting the facilities of RIL. She also did not give details of the scale of investment needed in the re- finery but said that it would be used to meet needs of products for do- mestic market. She said Indian com- panies could also forge alliances for setting up refinery operations for ex- ports of products from Mexico. On the possibility of Indian com- panies exploring oil and gas reserves in Mexico, she said, it is not possible. However, the possibility of exploring oil and gas in third countries can be explored by Pemex and ONGC Videsh and other companies. While Reliance is operating one of the largest refineries in the world, ONGC’s foreign arm ONGC Videsh explores oil and gas in foreign coun- tries. Mexico has huge reserves of oil and gas and Indian companies are looking for partnerships that can al- low them to bring some products back to the country. Besides Reliance, Tata Motors is also exploring partnership with local auto company to meet the domestic needs of Mexico, said economy min- ister of Mexico without giving any further details. Sarah Jacob BANGALORE D ELHI-based marketing solutions company Jasper Infotech has acquired a Bangalore- based group buying firm, Grabbon, signalling growing M&A interest in the business of providing on- line discounted deals to consumers. Senior Jasper executives told ET that the company purchased Grabbon last week in a cash-cum-equity transaction. Financial terms were not disclosed. Group buying is an online retail service that aggregates de- mand from consumers to negotiate unbeatable dis- counts from merchants across restaurants, spas and other entertainment avenues. Last month, Group Buying Global, and Harish Bahl, the founder of inter- net solutions company Smile Group, acquired Mum- bai-based WanaMo.com. The daily deal site was re- branded as Deals and You in order to integrate it with the German firm’s lifestyle product portal Fashion and You, which targets the same consumer. “There are around 10 group buying firms in India and the segment is gaining momentum because it can be easily monetised by the power of social media. Group SMS service providers may also enter this seg- ment by linking together advertising with deals from merchants,” said Arvin Babu, partner with Greylock Partners. Unlike pure play e-retail which has failed to deliver across the 50-million internet user base in India yet, group buying is a low capital expenditure busi- ness. Its resultant high margins coupled with the con- sumer draw created by substantial value offering has led to a mushrooming of firms in the past nine months. Venture capital’s interest in the sector is also aiding growth. Greylock and Battery Ventures have committed $8.75 million to another Bangalore-based site Taggle.com, in tranches. The founders of private equity firm CX partners have also angel funded Delhi- based Mydala.com. While merchants gain by optimising capacity at his outlet and leveraging the branding on social media, the group buying firm picks up a marketing fee of around 20%-25% on each transaction. Many players now intend to extend this model into mobile phones to tap into a bigger base of impulse purchases. Part of the sector’s attraction lies in the nature of the business. “There are very few transaction-based businesses on- line where monetisation is directly through revenue and not just advertising,” Mr Babu added. Jasper, which uses its relationships with 15,000 merchants through its other businesses to offer discounts through Snapdeal, sees potential in developing a network of group buying firms. Founded by Kunal Bahl and Rahul Bansal, Jasper is the holding company of group buying arm Snap Deal and Moneysaver which offers co-branded discount cards and coupons on mobile. In Grabbon, Bahl said he saw a brand that had geo- graphical strength in Bangalore and was built by a team founded by XLRI graduates Tony Navin, Jackson Fernandes and Balamurgan Balasubramanian. The founders will continue to manage the company. Jasper intends to expand to Singapore by August and is exploring inorganic options across markets such as Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines. “It’s a buyers market internationally as most players are at the same stage of growth. The team becomes the clincher,” said Kunal Bahl. Group buying is also seeing some M&A activity in western markets where it is very well developed. Pioneer and the world’s largest group buying site Groupon, reportedly valued at $1.35 bil- lion, entered the European market by snapping up German competitor Citydeal in May. Pramugdha Mamgain NEW DELHI B UYOUT firm Blackstone may an- nounce the purchase of 12% of Monnet Power for Rs 300 crore as early as this week, said two people with direct knowledge of the plans. “The talks between the two companies are at an advanced stage,” the first person said. Another person who is aware of the developments said the deal may be signed this week. “We do not comment on industry rumours,” a Blackstone spokeswoman said in an e-mail. Monnet Ispat spokesman declined comment. Blackstone India run by Akhil Gupta will join private funds such as Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners which bought 44% in Asian Genco for $425 million and 3I Power in Adani, to benefit from the perennially deficient pow- er production in the country. With the economy poised to expand more than 8% annually, the short- age may worsen with most utilities unable to meet the generation target. Monnet Power, a subsidiary of steel maker Monnet Ispat, plans to build a power plant in Angul, Orissa, to generate 1,050 megawatts of power. That may require Rs 5,000 crore, which partly will be met from the stake sale to Blackstone. The first phase of 525 megawatt is expected to be commissioned by June 2012 and next by September the same year. The latest fund raising would help it attain financial closure, vital to commence construction. It also plans to build two thermal pow- er projects in Gujarat and two solar power projects, one each in Rajasthan and Karnataka, the size of which are not known. It may sell shares in an initial public offering to fund these projects, one of the per- sons said. Blackstone has said it plans to invest about $3 bil- lion in India in five years with a portfolio consisting of power, media and IT services companies. S Sujatha & Sangeetha Kandavel COIMBATORE | CHENNAI AFTER playing hide and seek for a very long time, Bermuda-headquar- tered Bacardi is finally entering the Tamil Nadu market. The world’s largest family run spirits company has tied up with Chennai-based SNJ Distilleries for a bottling plant in Tamil Nadu. To start with, the company is planning to manufacture around 20,000 cases per month and then ramp up production as and when the need arises. Sources close to the de- velopment told ET that if all the ap- provals are cleared by July, the first brand of Barcadi White Rum would hit the market by the first week of August. “Bacardi has got a green sig- nal to make three brands here, of which two are White Rum and Vod- ka,” the source said and remained tight lipped about the third item. “Everything is on track and the company is waiting for price fixation. Once the price is fixed Barcadi would be the first multinational brand that would be bottled in the state,” an offi- cial from Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (Tasmac), which con- trols wholesale and retail liquor trade in the state, said on condition of anonymity. “Tasmac had a board meeting on June 18 to dis- cuss this issue, but the outcome has not been dis- closed to anyone. Once its out, the government will issue a go and then the brand would get registered here,” another person connected to the project said. Bacardi now imports 20 cases of Black Rum and Carta Blanca Rum every month from Delhi and these two brands are available at all the Tas- mac stores in Tamil Nadu. The capacity of each case is around 9 to 12 litres ap- proximately. The company also has its own plant in Karnataka. Bacardi Martini India president and CEO Mahesh Madhavan confirmed to ET that the company has tied-up with SNJ Distilleries for a bottling pact and is waiting for government approvals to start manufacturing its brands in Tamil Nadu. “We are not spending money to build any plant so it is difficult to give out any statistics,” he added. Industry and market sources hinted that Barca- di would be paying SNJ a fee for every bottle made in the plant. Bahwan Cybertex plans to enter India’s energy sector CHENNAI: Bahwan Cybertek, a part of the Oman-based Bahwan Group, is planning to foray into India’s energy sector, a top company official said. “The power sector has the most potential in India and we are sure to make our mark in this segment,” Bahwan Cybertek CEO Durga Prasad said in a statement. He said that the company, which reported a revenue of Rs 475 crore in financial year 2009-10, aimed to grow at 20% this financial year. The company has inducted Mohanbir Sawhney in the board of directors with immediate effect. Prior to his new post, Sawhney was a consultant to Bahwan Cybertek. In his new post, he would handle strategy, marketing and innovation, it said. The company would recruit about 200 employees this year, it added. Pemex, RIL may sign pact to develop refinery in Mexico Jasper Infotech buys Grabbon Move Signals Growing M&A Interest In Business Of Providing Online Discounted Deals To Consumers Cheers! Bacardi to enter TN market, finally Blackstone likely to pick up 12% stake in Monnet Power for Rs 300 crore this week GIVE & TAKE Monnet Power plans to build a power plant to generate 1,050 mw of power. That may require Rs 5k cr, which partly will be met from the stake sale to Blackstone We are impressed with the refinery operations of Reliance. A team of senior government officials will visit RIL’s site at Jamnagar to explore the possibility of partnerships GEORGINA KESSEL MEXICAN ENERGY SECRETARY GROUP BUY ● Group buying is an online retail service that aggregates demand from consumers to negotiate unbeatable discounts from merchants across restaurants, spas and other entertainment avenues ● Group Buying Global, and Harish Bahl, the founder of internet solutions company Smile Group, acquired Mumbai-based WanaMo.com ● Unlike pure play e-retail which has failed to deliver across the 50-million internet user base in India yet, group buying is a low capital expenditure business 8 PHOTOS: NITIN SONAWANE, N NARASIMHA MURTHY
Transcript of Grabbon Acquisition in Et
THE ECONOMIC TIMES BANGALORE MONDAY 28 JUNE 2010 CAREER & BUSINESS LIFE
Kala Vijayraghavan & Labonita Ghosh
MUMBAI
MAYUR Singh doesn’t think of him-self as a poster boy for anything. Butthe 45-year-old, senior vice-presi-
dent at HSBC Bank is certainly one within hisorganisation. Mr Singh, who spends sixmonths of the year working at an eco-conser-vation project in Kemri, near Udaipur in Ra-jasthan, and six months in the HSBC office inMumbai, has become the organisation’s best-known face for a recently-started HR initia-tive: the Flexible Work Arrangement (FWA).According to this, Singh and another 600-oddemployees across the country can now decidehow and when to pace themselves at work.They can decide when to come in, when toleave and when to take off and do some otherthings with their time. As long as work andproductivity don’t suffer, of course.
It’s a revolutionary idea that HSBC is spear-heading. And one that — all other things re-maining the same — will make for a happieremployee, a happier workplace and also possi-bly turn HSBC into a much-sought-after em-ployer. “It is simply part of our goal to be thebest place to work and be an employer ofchoice,” says Tanuj Kapilashrami, head, hu-man resource, HSBC Bank. “It is more of ‘needto do’ than ‘good to do’ initiative. The flexi-time plan works fine for us as a business casetoo, considering a good number of our cus-tomers are women. We also have the lowestattrition record in the industry.”
An increasing number of employees in a bur-geoning workforce now want to bring some bal-ance in their work-life situation, take control oftheir working style and even opt out of a stereo-typed work culture-and-pay rise cycle.
Realising this, HSBC first segmented its em-ployees into predominant, representativegroups — working couples, singles, matureemployees — and kept motivators and chal-lenges on stand-by to ease their transition intoflexi-time. “We ensuredthat there is an organisa-tional readiness to under-stand employee needsand work around them,”says Kapilashrami. “For in-stance, among other things,there are more women comingout from business schools and wehave to change work pat-terns to accommodate that.”
When HSBC offered FWA toemployees two years ago, anoverwhelming number signedup for it. Today, around 10% ofits 6,500 workforce is in some flexiarrangement or the other. Clearly,changing demographics, more andyounger members in the workforce,more women and socioeconomicchanges are leading mature organisa-tions like HSBC to amend rules and of-
fer higher flexibility to care for elderly relativesor children.
In 2009, Sudha Raviprakash, vice-president,sales (SME), currently based in Bangalore, de-cide to go on the FWA to help her son study forhis board exams. For about three months, shewould come in to work early, by 8 am, and onlystay on till lunch time. After lunch, she wouldmostly work out of home — which was a hopaway and meant that sometimes, if needed,Raviprakash could quickly hop back into the of-fice. “Since I’m in sales, I would make sure allmy client meetings and team meetings wereheld in the morning,” says Raviprakash. “I keptall my other work, like replying to mails andsuch, to do from home,” she says.
Similarly, HSBC’s team in the south, headedby Renny J Mampilly, vice-president, regionaldebt management, has taken the lead in optingfor staggered work hours. Mampilly and his en-tire team — six members in Chennai and Hy-
derabad and seven in Bangalore — either startwork at 9.30 am rather than an hour earlier, orleave early in the evening. (This arrangementincludes team leaders as well). “We found thatmost of the team either needed that extra hourin the morning, to drop kids to school or simplysleep in for a bit, or required some time in theevening to spend with their families,” saysMampilly. He himself leaves office by 5.30 or 6pm, and “since I don’t hit traffic, I’m home in10 minutes, and get to spend about two orthree hours with my kids every day,” he adds.“Of course, we have to make sure there are nostaggered hours or absenteeism during thepeak of work, between 10 am and 4 pm.”
Quite apart from satisfiedworkers, HSBC has astrong business case forflexi hours. Talent at-trition is apparently
under control, and the FWA reveals that pro-ductivity has gone up in about 88% of employ-ees, while it has remained the same (but notgone down) with the rest of the workers. Use ofthe Flexible Work Arrangement has been wellsupported and encouraged by the corporatecredit risk (CCR) leadership team across India.The arrangement has proved to be an innova-tive platform to help the bank retain top talent.
Says Radhakrishnan B Menon, founderand MD of LBW Consulting, a leadership de-velopment consulting firm, and former HRhead at Cadbury India: “Employees are ques-tioning regimentation at the work-place. So,employers are sitting up and taking notice ofthose who are confident of working at theirconvenience and meeting the organisation’sgoals. The issues of urban lifestyles includingtravel, traffic jams and personal responsibilitieshas necessitated flexi-time work cultures. Sev-eral employees are meeting targets and seek-ing options that ensure more meaning in life.Work and fun can co-exist beautifully.”
A significant driver of this change have beenconsumers demanding services they want attimes that suit them best. And sectors such as fi-nance, retail, leisure and services are adoptingnon-traditional working hours to meet thisconsumer demand, Menon adds. Also, by mak-ing working hours less rigid, companies can bemore flexible in terms of the service they offer tocustomers. “Flexi-time can mean that if, for ex-ample, a customer calls at 8 am or 7 pm, there’sa better chance of being able to speak to a man-ager. That translates into increased brand loyal-ty, and is the kind of differentiated service thatpulls in the customers,” says Kapilashrami.
There are challenges, though. Industrywatchers say while virtual work often provesto be productive, it could hamper employeebonding. “Flexi-time also leads to issues such asalienation and isolation in the workplace sincesuch employees do not fit into the regular em-ployee slot,” said the HR head of a consumergoods firm on condition of anonymity. “It isnot always a smooth transition,” admits Kapi-lashrami. “We have had to pull up employeesfor indifferent productivity. But that is expect-
ed in any change strategy. The upsides faroutweigh the risks.”
Adds Mayur Singh: “For me, thechange has not been difficult to
handle. I am copied on all mes-sages and constantly stay intouch. I can start back at the of-
fice with just two days notice ifnecessary, and am never out ofthe loop. But more importantly,it’s refreshing to go away andthen come back. I feel rechargedevery time I return.” Indeed, ma-
ture organisations know this,which is why they are bending
traditional rules to offer amore judicious work-lifebalance, says Kapilashrami.At HSBC they found it’s theonly way to go.
“A cigarette in my hand, I feel like adead man”.
Something that happened to afriend a few days ago reminded meof this old television commercial.He collapsed in office and had to berushed to hospital, where he wasdiagnosed with lung cancer, a directfallout of his smoking habit. On thesame day, as I rushed in and out ofhospital, a strange sight greeted meeach of the three times I drove backinto my office. Every single time Ifound a bunch of colleagues stand-ing at the gate, smoking. While theywere different sets of people eachtime, there was one guy, who wasthere all the three times.
That day, it struck me. If in amatter of four hours, I saw thatindividual out there smoking,
three times, how much time in aday would he be spending, outthere on the road, smoking. I de-cided to spend some time doingresearch. The next day, hiddenfrom public view, I stood outsidemy office, timing the smokingbreaks people take.
In a matter of 45 minutes, Itimed about 62 employees goingout to smoke. On an average eachsmoking break lasted about 670seconds (approx 11 minutes). This670 seconds was only the time tak-en while smoking, and did not takeinto account the time taken to walkfrom their respective workstations,looking for someone to accompa-ny them, taking the lift down andtrekking out of the office com-pound to the roadside, to smoke.
Imagine an organisation with1,000 employees, where 10% ofthe employees smoke an averageof five cigarettes a day (for an av-erage smoker, this is a conserva-tive assumption). This translates
into smoking employees wasting10% of their daily working hours,taking smoking breaks and whenyou spread the time lost in smok-ing, over the entire workforce, ittranslates to over 2% of the totalproductive time of any organisa-tion lost in smoking.
Krishna Rao, a non-smoker, isvery critical, “Smokers tend tohold up meetings when they areout for smoking breaks. Responsesto critical mails get held up, discus-sions get postponed. And what ismost frustrating about smokers,particularly smoking bosses, is thefact that they drag along non-smokers with them, wasting theirtime, and probably risking theirhealth too.” If you factor in Krish-na’s comments, the time lost be-cause of smoking during officehours can end up being a lot morethan the 2% estimated above.
Two percent of productive timelost every month is reason enoughfor HR to stand up and take notice.“I am aware”, says Rahul Bhat-tacharya, HR manager in a privatebank. “But there is little I can do tocontrol this menace. It’s viewed asa fundamental right of employees.And banning smoking may be abig demotivator.” While Rahulmay be partly right I would like topoint out that in these days wherecost control and retrenchment arethe order of the day, a smokingbreak, costs the organisation a lotmore than just the time it takes tosmoke. Organisations should seri-ously consider ways and means ofcontrolling this menace.
Anti-smoking campaigns, in-centivising people who stop smok-ing, smoke-free days and cappingsmoking breaks are initiativeswhich organisations can imple-ment, says Krishna, and I can’tagree more. While organisationscan do a lot to curb this menace,nothing can be achieved withoutself realisation. And, to all the em-ployees who spend hours on theroad smoking, my only message tothem is to pause for a moment andthink. You are in fact stealing com-pany time for your smoking breaksand in the process impacting yourown productivity, and more im-portantly, your and your co-work-ers’ health. Is it worth it?
Ravi Subramanian
Banker and author of‘Devil in Pinstripes’
NEW REGIME: GOODBYE TO REGIMENTATION
For me, the change has notbeen difficult to handle. Iconstantly stay intouch. I can startback at the officewith just two daysnotice ifnecessary, andam never out ofthe loop. Moreimportantly, it’srefreshing to goaway and thencome back. Ifeel rechargedevery time Ireturn
MAYUR
SINGH SENIOR VP
HSBC BANK
Productivityup in smoke
Over 2% of total productive time of anyorganisation may be lost in smoking
THE FLEXI-TIME PLANWORKS FINE FOR US AS A BUSINESS CASETOO, CONSIDERING AGOOD NUMBER OF OUR CUSTOMERS AREWOMEN
TANUJ KAPILASHRAMIHEAD, HR, HSBC BANK
HSBC is spearheading arevolutionary idea whereemployees get to choose
the hours they work
Fleximode to happiness
In 2009, Sudha Raviprakash, vice-president, sales (SME), currentlybased in Bangalore, decided to go on the FWA to help her son
study for his board exams.
INSIDE OUTSIDE
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CORPORATE
Subhash NarayanMEXICO CITY
STATE-owned Mexican oil compa-ny Pemex and India’s Reliance In-dustries may soon forge a partner-ship to develop a large capacitygreenfield refinery in Mexico. The3,00,000 barrels-a-day refinery willlargely meet the domestic energy re-quirements of Mexico. “We are im-pressed with the refinery operationsof Reliance. A team of senior gov-ernment officials will visit RIL’s site
at Jamnagar to explore the possibili-ty of partnerships,” Mexican Energysecretary Georgina Kessel said whiletalking about country’s potential inthe energy sector.
It is expected that Reliance will beroped in as a service provider in thenew refinery project to be developedby Pemex. “There would be no jointventure with RIL as the law does notpermit that,” the minister said.
Without specifying the date, MsKessel said she would be visiting In-dia and meet with energy ministersbesides visiting the facilities of RIL.She also did not give details of thescale of investment needed in the re-finery but said that it would be usedto meet needs of products for do-mestic market. She said Indian com-panies could also forge alliances forsetting up refinery operations for ex-ports of products from Mexico.
On the possibility of Indian com-panies exploring oil and gas reservesin Mexico, she said, it is not possible.However, the possibility of exploringoil and gas in third countries can beexplored by Pemex and ONGCVidesh and other companies.
While Reliance is operating one ofthe largest refineries in the world,ONGC’s foreign arm ONGC Videshexplores oil and gas in foreign coun-tries. Mexico has huge reserves of oiland gas and Indian companies arelooking for partnerships that can al-low them to bring some productsback to the country.
Besides Reliance, Tata Motors isalso exploring partnership with localauto company to meet the domesticneeds of Mexico, said economy min-ister of Mexico without giving anyfurther details.
Sarah JacobBANGALORE
DELHI-based marketing solutions companyJasper Infotech has acquired a Bangalore-based group buying firm, Grabbon, signalling
growing M&A interest in the business of providing on-line discounted deals to consumers.
Senior Jasper executives told ET that the companypurchased Grabbon last week in a cash-cum-equitytransaction. Financial terms were not disclosed. Groupbuying is an online retail service that aggregates de-mand from consumers to negotiate unbeatable dis-counts from merchants across restaurants, spas andother entertainment avenues. Last month, GroupBuying Global, and Harish Bahl, the founder of inter-net solutions company Smile Group, acquired Mum-bai-based WanaMo.com. The daily deal site was re-branded as Deals and You in order to integrate it withthe German firm’s lifestyle product portal Fashion andYou, which targets the same consumer.
“There are around 10 group buying firms in Indiaand the segment is gaining momentum because it canbe easily monetised by the power of social media.Group SMS service providers may also enter this seg-ment by linking together advertising with deals frommerchants,” said Arvin Babu, partner with GreylockPartners. Unlike pure play e-retail which has failed todeliver across the 50-million internet user base in Indiayet, group buying is a low capital expenditure busi-ness. Its resultant high margins coupled with the con-sumer draw created by substantial value offering hasled to a mushrooming of firms in the past nine
months. Venture capital’s interest in the sector is alsoaiding growth. Greylock and Battery Ventures havecommitted $8.75 million to another Bangalore-basedsite Taggle.com, in tranches. The founders of privateequity firm CX partners have also angel funded Delhi-based Mydala.com.
While merchants gain by optimising capacity at hisoutlet and leveraging the branding on social media,the group buying firm picks up a marketing fee ofaround 20%-25% on each transaction. Many playersnow intend to extend this model into mobile phonesto tap into a bigger base of impulse purchases. Part ofthe sector’s attraction lies in the nature of the business.“There are very few transaction-based businesses on-line where monetisation is directly through revenueand not just advertising,” Mr Babu added. Jasper,which uses its relationships with 15,000 merchantsthrough its other businesses to offer discounts throughSnapdeal, sees potential in developing a network ofgroup buying firms. Founded by Kunal Bahl andRahul Bansal, Jasper is the holding company of groupbuying arm Snap Deal and Moneysaver which offersco-branded discount cards and coupons on mobile.
In Grabbon, Bahl said he saw a brand that had geo-graphical strength in Bangalore and was built by ateam founded by XLRI graduates Tony Navin, JacksonFernandes and Balamurgan Balasubramanian. Thefounders will continue to manage the company.Jasper intends to expand to Singapore by August andis exploring inorganic options across markets such asThailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines. “It’s abuyers market internationally as most players are atthe same stage of growth. The team becomes theclincher,” said Kunal Bahl. Group buying is also seeingsome M&A activity in western markets where it is verywell developed. Pioneer and the world’s largest groupbuying site Groupon, reportedly valued at $1.35 bil-lion, entered the European market by snapping upGerman competitor Citydeal in May.
Pramugdha MamgainNEW DELHI
BUYOUT firm Blackstone may an-nounce the purchase of 12% ofMonnet Power for Rs 300 crore
as early as this week, said two peoplewith direct knowledge of the plans. “Thetalks between the two companies are atan advanced stage,” the first person said.
Another person who is aware of thedevelopments said the deal may besigned this week. “We do not commenton industry rumours,” a Blackstonespokeswoman said in an e-mail. MonnetIspat spokesman declined comment.Blackstone India run by Akhil Gupta willjoin private funds such as MorganStanley Infrastructure Partners which bought 44%in Asian Genco for $425 million and 3I Power inAdani, to benefit from the perennially deficient pow-er production in the country. With the economypoised to expand more than 8% annually, the short-
age may worsen with most utilities unable to meetthe generation target. Monnet Power, a subsidiary ofsteel maker Monnet Ispat, plans to build a power
plant in Angul, Orissa, to generate 1,050megawatts of power. That may require Rs5,000 crore, which partly will be met fromthe stake sale to Blackstone.
The first phase of 525 megawatt isexpected to be commissioned by June2012 and next by September the sameyear. The latest fund raising would help itattain financial closure, vital tocommence construction.
It also plans to build two thermal pow-er projects in Gujarat and two solarpower projects, one each in Rajasthanand Karnataka, the size of which are notknown. It may sell shares in an initial
public offering to fund these projects, one of the per-sons said.
Blackstone has said it plans to invest about $3 bil-lion in India in five years with a portfolio consistingof power, media and IT services companies.
S Sujatha & Sangeetha KandavelCOIMBATORE | CHENNAI
AFTER playing hide and seek for avery long time, Bermuda-headquar-tered Bacardi is finally entering theTamil Nadu market. The world’slargest family run spirits companyhas tied up with Chennai-based SNJDistilleries for a bottling plant in TamilNadu. To start with, the company isplanning to manufacture around20,000 cases per month and thenramp up production as and when theneed arises. Sources close to the de-velopment told ET that if all the ap-provals are cleared by July, the firstbrand of Barcadi White Rum wouldhit the market by the first week ofAugust. “Bacardi has got a green sig-nal to make three brands here, ofwhich two are White Rum and Vod-ka,” the source said and remainedtight lipped about the third item.
“Everything is on track and thecompany is waiting for price fixation.Once the price is fixed Barcadi wouldbe the first multinational brand thatwould be bottled in the state,” an offi-cial from Tamil Nadu State MarketingCorporation (Tasmac), which con-trols wholesale and retail liquor tradein the state, said on condition ofanonymity. “Tasmachad a boardmeeting onJune 18 to dis-cuss this issue,but the outcomehas not been dis-closed to anyone.Once its out, thegovernment willissue a go and then the brand wouldget registered here,” another personconnected to the project said.
Bacardi now imports 20 cases ofBlack Rum and Carta Blanca Rumevery month from Delhi and thesetwo brands are available at all the Tas-mac stores in Tamil Nadu. The capacityof each case is around 9 to 12 litres ap-proximately. The company also has itsown plant in Karnataka.
Bacardi Martini India president andCEO Mahesh Madhavan confirmed toET that the company has tied-up withSNJ Distilleries for a bottling pact and iswaiting for government approvals tostart manufacturing its brands in TamilNadu. “We are not spending money tobuild any plant so it is difficult to giveout any statistics,” he added. Industryand market sources hinted that Barca-di would be paying SNJ a fee for everybottle made in the plant.
Bahwan Cybertex plans to enterIndia’s energy sector CHENNAI: Bahwan Cybertek, a part of the Oman-based Bahwan Group, isplanning to foray into India’s energy sector, a top company official said. “Thepower sector has the most potential in India and we are sure to make ourmark in this segment,” Bahwan Cybertek CEO Durga Prasad said in astatement. He said that the company, which reported a revenue of Rs 475crore in financial year 2009-10, aimed to grow at 20% this financial year. The company has inducted Mohanbir Sawhney in the board of directorswith immediate effect. Prior to his new post, Sawhney was a consultant toBahwan Cybertek. In his new post, he would handle strategy, marketing andinnovation, it said. The company would recruit about 200 employees thisyear, it added.
Pemex, RIL maysign pact to developrefinery in Mexico
Jasper Infotech buys GrabbonMove Signals Growing M&A Interest In Business Of Providing Online Discounted Deals To Consumers
Cheers! Bacardito enter TN
market, finally
Blackstone likely to pick up 12% stake inMonnet Power for Rs 300 crore this week
GIVE &
TAKEMonnet Powerplans to build apower plant togenerate 1,050 mwof power. That mayrequire Rs 5k cr,which partly will bemet from the stakesale to Blackstone
We are impressed with the
refinery operations of
Reliance. A team of senior
government officials will visit
RIL’s site at Jamnagar to
explore the possibility of
partnerships
GEORGINA KESSELM E X I C A N E N E R G Y S E C R E TA R Y
GROUP BUY
� Group buying is an onlineretail service thataggregates demand fromconsumers to negotiateunbeatable discounts frommerchants acrossrestaurants, spas and otherentertainment avenues
� Group Buying Global, andHarish Bahl, the founder ofinternet solutions companySmile Group, acquiredMumbai-basedWanaMo.com
� Unlike pure play e-retailwhich has failed to deliveracross the 50-millioninternet user base in Indiayet, group buying is a lowcapital expenditure business
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