Chak De India!

I saw a movie in an Indian Theatre after two years, and the movie was Chak De India.
Awesome movie, I enjoyed watching it. Here are five reasons why I liked Chak De India



1) SRK and the girls:You go to the theatre to watch SRK. But you'll be surprised that it is the 16 girls that steal the show. SRK has given a tight and restricted performance and ensures that the girls are the ones who manage to keep the audience involved.

2)Good direction: No scene is extended (expected from a typical bollywood flick). It is fast and crisp. Knowing that it is a Yash Raj production, one would have expected some pompous sets and this would have made the film look unreal. Have a look at the training camps, the hostel where the girls practice in the movie, and you will know what I am talking about.

3)Itz about hockey and not cricket.: And this is just another reason I liked it. This movie will for sure create some awareness and at least lure some youngsters to have a serious look at the game. The national sport of India is always given a second rate treatment, and the success of the movie will for sure motivate a few young folks to take up the sport. One of the radio channels in Bangalore organized a hockey match on Independence day, and it was nice to know that there were several girls who had signed up for it.

4)Some good management fundas: I won' be surprised if the movie makes it to the Indian B Schools as case study. Lagaan was a long movie and had lot of songs etc. This movie talks about determination, discipline, strategy, keeping your cool, and placing the needs of the team before self. Good stuff!

5)Powerful dialogues: And they hit you hard. There is a scene when one of girls in the firm ("Nethra Reddy") gives a fitting reply to answer what is the difference between Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. In Bangalore, where I was watching this movie, there was a thunderous applause from the audience for that dialogue. Another one was when SRK says that there can only be one bully in the team . Reminded me of Denzel Washingtons' statement in Remember the Titans "Now, you know who your daddy is, don't you?

The movie is refreshing. It is fast paced. There is no love angle. All the girls have done very well to look and act like hockey players. I had gone to see the movie with not many expectations, but I was pleasantly surprised to watch a unique bollywood flick.


A few days back, I read a quote that said "Failure reminds you of one thing - that the determination to succeed was not strong enough". Shahrukh "Kabir" Khan in the movie was determined to coach a team so that they could win the world cup. He had to restore his lost pride and there were several challenges lined up for him. The movie beautifully describes a man's lone journey at restoring his pride and a team's belief that they can achieve a dream.I liked SRK in Swades and Paheli. Here is another movie of his that I liked. The maturity with which he acts will make you realize why he still commands the leadership position in Bollywood. More well crafted roles for SRK please.!

Some Bollywood Sports Movies:Iqbal,Bend it Like Beckham,Lagaan,Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander, Saheb,Hip Hip Hooray,Shatranj ke Khiladi,

Hollywood Sports Films:Remember the Titans,Hoosiers, Caddyshack, Ragin Bull, Chariots of Fire, Rocky, The Hustler,Body and Soul, National velvet, The Natural, When we were kings

Queen's MBA Information Session in India

Here are the dates:
-Delhi, September 29, 2007
-Chennai, October 1, 2007
-Bangalore, October 4, 2007
-Mumbai, October 6, 2007

You can find more information here

AMBA students turn creative.

The Accelerated MBA program at Queen's have got createive. As a part of the course, they have come up with a 20-second Commercial for the creative course.. Herez one of them. Itz called "AMBA, the AMBASSADOR of Energy!"

Watch it here

The challenge before Infosys, TCS, Wipro

Spending on R&D, an attempt to move up the value chain, H1 visa restrictions and threat from the growing success of Accenture and IBM in India, it certainly looks like that the desi companies ( TCS, Wipro, Infy, Satyam etc) have some testing times ahead.

Nice article by one of my favorite writers: Manjeet Kripalani

India Charges Ahead: Time Special Report, 60 years of Independence



Time states :" It faces challenges the size of an elephant, but the world's largest democracy is living upto the dreams of 1947"

Do check it out.
Articles here

Queen's MBAst student in BWeek.


Alison Borrajo, PhD MBA
Project Manager, Engineering & Physical Sciences
University Technologies International
Queen's School of Business, Queen's University at Kingston, Canada. MBA for Science & Technology,
Class of 2004

Facilitating Technology Transfer :An MBA in science and technology helped this Queen's graduate realize she wanted to champion the business side of scientific research
Read the article here

The Tata Car

A recent edition of Business World ( a popular biz magazine in India) had a cover story on the Tata's mass market car.
It tried finding answers to various questions.....from the design, look of the car..to safety standards..to environmental concerns etc.

Do check out the story here:


Some interesting points from the article:

"

Tata Motors is putting in place a distributive manufacturing plan for its Rs 1-lakh car, where dealers spread across the country will receive car kits that they will assemble in local workshops for their customers.

While most cars today are front-engine designs, the Tata dream car will hark back to the first-ever “people’s car”, the Volkswagen Beetle, and sport a rear-engine. And at a time when the market is gravitating to high-powered engines, with even entry models from Maruti moving from 800-cc engines to 1,000-cc-plus engines, Tata’s car will have only 667-cc of power — not much more than the 500-cc powering Royal Enfield’s Machismo motorcycle.

A low cost car, by its very nature, is unlikely to have a net margin of more than 5 per cent (Rs 5,000 per unit). At that level of profitability, Tata Motors would need to sell at least 4 million units to recoup the $450 million it is estimated to have invested in the small car.

There are concerns over the ultra-low cost car’s quality, safety and emission standards. Since Tata Motors has had to squeeze out every penny from suppliers’ manufacturing costs, potential customers are now questioning the reliability of the parts they will deliver.

The car would use plastics, steel and non-ferrous alloys.. But industry sources say the car will make more use of cheaper plastics and composite materials than any other vehicle on the road, mostly in an effort to keep the car light

.


A unique distribution system:

Ratan Tata insisted the small car would be built using a distributed manufacturing system. Under this, a completely knocked-down kit of the car will be built at three Tata-owned plants.The kits will then be ferried to warehouses across the country, where they would be assembled by dealers. The idea is that a dealer would have a warehousing terminal to house the semi-knocked down kits, an assembly plant and a sales office where a few vehicles will be displayed. As soon as a customer placed a firm order, the dealer would withdraw a kit from the warehouse, assemble it at his plant and deliver it to the customer. This is unheard of in the automobile industry, especially since multiple manufacturing locations require multiple vendor bases, which affect the viability of suppliers due to the additional capital expenditure of setting up the plant. The closest example of a similar practice is in the furniture business, where small packages of home furnishings can be assembled at home with little help from the manufacturer.

Tata hopes to make use of the first mover advantage
http://www.businessworld.in/content/view/2201/2269/


Environmental Concerns
http://www.businessworld.in/content/view/2200/2268/
According to the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the number of cars in India will triple to eight million by 2015, spewing out 319 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. That is 88 per cent more than current levels.