Pallet of Life

In today's age of hyper automation, Autonomous Supply Chain is a key buzzword. But significant elements of the Supply Chain operations across industries are stuck in the industrial age practices of paper-and-pen or plagued with disjointed automation technologies, around core monolithic ERP systems. In such an environment, it's critical for both Supply Chain practitioners and leaders to understand the basic building blocks of process automation that can enable the vision or mega plan for a hands-free supply chain. Effect of COVID-19 In today's world plagued with the COVID-19 pandemic, the appetite for transformational change has significantly increased. And this includes changes in business processes and digitalization of traditional areas like inbound logistics, warehousing, outbound logistics and overall fulfillment execution till the last mile. This transformation includes need for touch-less operations, especially in high manual activity areas. For example, iden

Sustainability agendas across many industries are still stuck in only Board room discussions, analyst meets and Corporate Communications' multifarious outputs in the form of Annual reports, company website, e-brochures and promo videos. But what the planet at large, and increasingly consumers, business partners, employees, policy leaders and general public are looking out for is more meaningful action beyond the words. On one hand are climate activists, who rain anger at world forums to get a shot at the Nobel prize, and on the other hand are spin masters who perpetuate public guilt that switching of our home appliances, on time, is the bane for all evils.  But the reality is that the Corporate world that operate from the oilfields, farmlands and factories to the supermarket shelves and homes, have a far bigger contribution to reducing Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, eliminating plastics, preventing freshwater depletion and halting excessive consumption of rare materials, to name a

Anupam Rasayan India Ltd's plans to go public has rightfully triggered a frenzied desire to know more about this company. After all a Rs 760 crore IPO is bound to attract investor interest. To top it off, the Sensex seems to be on steroids. And added to the mix, is the recent success  of several speciality chemical companies to provide greater than 20% returns on Day 1 of listing. So when a relatively unknown Chemical industry player comes out in the open, there is reason for speculation, analysis and frantic search for information on this new entrant. Dynamics of contract manufacturing in the Indian Chemical industry: Anupam Rasayan has publicly declared its play in contract manufacturing for several customers including a few marque Japanese and European chemical companies. So it's important to understand how this space operates. Several mid-sized chemical companies have evolved and stepped up the value chain, via contract manufacturing. This is especially true for off pa

The world of consulting is about getting opportunities to add value, have a systematic process to deliver the envisaged value proposition and create the basis for a good reference for getting future business. Thus the “Engagement Cycle” in a typical consulting organization can broadly be categorized as follows: 1. Sales Cycle, 2. Delivery Process, and 3. Relationship Management All the above three engagement steps are spruced across any engagement cycle. Though overall the above steps are essentially one after the other, it is important to note that the engagement cycle is definitely not a sequential process and the first and third steps can occur intermittently. For example, relationship management is an on-going activity usually done by senior managers or partners of consulting firms. Similarly the sales processes could be spread over the entire delivery assignment because the meat is in mining more business from an existing client. Hierarchical Structure: Before understanding the de

It's often mentioned within B-school realms that a MBA education is a road to success. And success has by and large been quantified in financial terms - both on campus and in the media. This has distorted the image of B-school institutions and makes them appear as glorified Placement Agencies, rather than an apostle of a responsible leadership building institution. A-B-C of B-School Placements The fallout of the larger than life depiction of a B-school education is that the end has come to justify the means. Therefore Placement day, weekend, week, month/s - Duration varies in direct proportion to the ranking of the institution - has taken centre stage. Most of the brouhaha is at times created by the course participants themselves because the placement activities are usually driven by the student community in Indian B-schools. I guess there is no better way to exhibit a go-getter attitude than taking up the cudgels of one's own career. Thus the students decide the “Most Favoured