XLer as a Social Entrepreneur: Aparna Banerjee

April 11, 2008 (The Hindu BusinessLine): Big retail chains such as Reliance Fresh, Spencer's Daily and Big Bazaar have competition. Not from a rival business group, but from a Kolkata-based enterprising woman - Aparna Banerjee. An alumni of the prestigious Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI) in Jamshedpur, Bihar, Aparna, 36, retails her goods under the name of Project Sukanya.

Interestingly, the goods are not sold from huge showrooms, but from 54 roadside mobile kiosks, manned by 141 women who work in shifts. Another 3,500 women directly benefit from this project by making products such as handicraft items, edibles like papad , pickles and jams. Packaged spices and ready-to-eat lunches are also sold. And in the next six months 500 more `boucarts' would be deployed across 18 districts, again manned by women.

"When I got the idea of these mobile kiosks, my first step was to finalise the design and patent it under the Intellectual Property Rights Act.," says Aparna. The project was the result of extensive research based on material gathered from 62 villages across India during her studies on Anthropology at Calcutta University.

"I did my MBA in Logistics and Supply Chain Management from XLRI and realised during that time that I wanted to become a social entrepreneur. I then did a course in Anthropology to get a grip on human rights. I realised that women need financial independence to get freedom from restrictions, abuse and social taboos," says Aparna, who struggled to complete her studies under great financial constraints...

... The turnover for the Project, which started rolling in early 2007, has already reached Rs 1.05 crore. The target is to touch Rs 50 crore by 2009. "We market a range of handicrafts and home-made edibles under the brand name Sukanya. The organised sector never bothered to tap the potential of the cottage industry, but we are giving a brand identity to these products," says Sudakshina Sen, 43,Chief Coordinator, Project Sukanya.

Project Sukanya has a 20,000 sq. ft. common facility centre at Topsia. The rural women who supply the products come here with their samples.

The products are graded into three categories. Under A category, the product is immediately bought with a 10 per cent advance. For the B category products, Sukanya gives support for better packaging and then it is bought. Falling under the C category are products that have market saturation. Sukanya trains these women to shift focus to products that would have more market demand.

The edible products are tested and certified by the central government's National Test House. The success of the venture is obvious from the fact that several big retail chains have started making offers to buy out Project Sukanya as well as the patent for the mobile kiosks.

"But I am committed towards my social responsibility. Rather than entrepreneurship, it is the emancipation of women that is my primary concern. My venture helps several needy women take home a well-earned salary," says Aparna....

Full Article at:
Manned by Women, BusinessLine, April 11, 2008

XL Alumni Achievements '07-'08: A Round-Up

Compiling such a list will always remain an incomplete task...

Nevertheless, here is an indicative list of what XLRI Alumni have been upto during last year:
[Last Year's List is available here]

PL Barua (70PMIR) assumed charge as the Executive Director of the Indian Oil Corporation Limited (Assam Oil Division).

RS Thakur (72BMD) took over as Executive Director of TACO, the Tata auto-component company.

Jagdish Dore (73BMD) was appointed the CEO & Managing Director of Matrix Laboratories Ltd. (of Mylan Group).

Ninad Gupte (75BMD) took over as the Managing Director of Cheminova India, and was elected the Vice Chairman of the industry association, Crop Care Federation of India.

Rattan Bhavinani (75BMD) joined Cisco Globalisation Center East, Bangalore, as Director Head of AsiaPAC Vendor Management Services.

Madhukar Kamath (76BMD) Managing Director & CEO of the Mudra Group, was elected as the President of Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI).

S Nandkumar (76BMD) was elected the President of Institute of Management Consultants of India (Hyderabad chapter)

Bipin Lal (78BMD) was appointed as the Managing Director, Nitrex Chemicals India.

Prakash Puram (78BMD), President & CEO, iXmatch Inc., was appointed to the Advisory Council on Small Business & Labour of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

N Krishnakumar (81BMD) took over as the CEO & Managing Director of Mindtree Consulting.

Prabhakar Jain (81BMD) joined as the Chairman and Managing Director, Goodyear India Ltd.

Aneeta Madhok (81PMIR) joined as the Dean, Center for Human Resources (Dubai & Singapore), SP Jain Center of Management.

Deodutta Kurane (81PMIR) joined as the President (HR) of Yes Bank.

Kamlajeet Bhullar (81PMIR) took over as the Group Head (HR) of Anand Automotive Systems.

NS Rajan (83BMD), Partner (Human Capital), Ernst & Young, was chosen as Global Leader-HR Advisory of Ernst & Young. He was also elected the President (Northern Region), National HRD Network.

Jaspal Bindra (84BMD) took over as the Head-Asia Region, Standard Chartered Bank.

K Pandiarajan (84PMIR), Founder-CEO of MaFoi Consulting, was inducted into the Board of Madras Stock Exchange Limited as one of its Directors.

K Shankar (84PMIR) joined Airtel as the Director (HR).

Radha Krishnan Nair (84PMIR) joined as the Chief HR Officer of Tata Steel. He was also inducted into the Board of Governors of XLRI.

Sankaran Raghunathan (84PMIR) was elected as the President of IT SME Association, which represents 3,200 companies with exports of $10bn.

Vineet Nayar (85BMD) took over as the CEO, HCL Technologies Ltd from its founder, Shiv Nadar.

Mahesh Nair (86BMD) published his book of photographs Let There Be Light: Exploring Nature Through Light (Roli Books).

Ramesh Gudalur (86BMD) joined Mphasis is President – BPO, and Member of the Executive Leadership Team.

Sandra (Sequeira) Mahadwar (86PMIR), Sr Director (HR) with KLA-Tencor Corp., was selected to receive the 2008 YWCA’s Silicon Valley Tribute to Women Award, for Executive Leadership.

Arjun Trivedi (87BMD) was appointed the Head of Nokia Siemens Network, Indonesia.

Srinivas Duvvari (87BM-Eve) took over as the Managing Director of Rolls-Royce India Ltd.

Ernst Louise (87PMIR) was appointed as the Global Head (HR) for Essel Propack Ltd.

Ronald Mark D’Souza (87PMIR) took over as the Vice President (HR), Alcatel-Lucent (India).

Anurag Prashar (88BMD) took over as the Chief Officer, Customer Management Systems and Shared Infrastructure for all telecom businesses of Bharti Airtel Ltd.

M Shankar Prasad (88BMD) joined Tata Communications Ltd (formerly VSNL) as President, Broadband.

Amar Babu (89BMD) was appointed as the Managing Director of Lenova India.

Amitabh Jaipuria (89BMD) joined as the Managing Director of Monsanto India Ltd.

KR Ravi (89BMD) published his 2nd book Ten Minutes to Creativity (St Paul’s Publications).

Satish Nambisan (89PMIR) published his book The Global Brain: Your Roadmap for Innovating Faster & Smarter in a Networked World (Wharton School Publishing).

Sutapa Banerjee (89PMIR), Head of Private Banking at ABN Amro Bank, was nominated among 20 most successful, rising wealth managers in the world by leading international business magazine, The Institutional Investor.

Ajay Bagga (90BMD), CEO of Lotus India Asset Management Co Pvt. Ltd., was elected the Vice Chairman of Financial Planning Standards Board of India.

Ashish Khera (90BMD) took over as the CFO of Microsoft India

VS Sridhar (90BMD) was appointed the Chief Operating Officer of the VSNL Global Services.

R Chandrasekar (90PMIR) took over as the Group Head (HR) of the Noor Islamic Bank (Dubai Investment Group), Dubai.

Sudip Mall (91BMD) joined as Country Manager (Philippines), Kraft Asia.

Suprio Guha Thakurta (91BMD) joined The Economist as its Associate Publisher in India.

V Chandramouli (91BMD) was appointed as the Director (HR) of Cadbury India

Jayaram Philkana (91PMIR) took over as the Director (HR) of Cargill Inc.’s Health & Nutrition business at MN, USA.

NT Arunkumar (91PMIR) took over as CEO of Dun & Bradstreet.

Ramesh Soundarajan (91PMIR) joined as the Vice President (HR) of Trianz India.

Ravi Parmeshwar (91PMIR) joined Cargill India as their Director (HR).

Anurag Behar (92BMD) was selected to the World Economic Forum’s list of Young Global Leaders 2008.

Lokesh Jindal (92BMD) returned from USA to take over as Sr Vice President & General Manager of Computer Associate’s India Technology Center.

Leena Nair (92PMIR) took over as the Executive Director (HR) of Hindustan Unilever Ltd., thus becoming the youngest and the first woman director in HUL’s Board. She was also featured in the Business Today’s “25 Most Powerful Women in Indian Business List”.

Sabyasachi Nag (92PMIR) published his first book of poems Bloodlines with Writers' Workshop.

Salil Raghavan (92PMIR) took over as the Head (HR) of Great Eastern Shipping.

Ratnesh Mittal (93BMD) branched out to start his own firm, Market Entry Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

Sadashiv Nayak (93BDM) joined the Pantaloon Retail India Ltd, as the CEO, Food Bazaar.

Sharat Dhall (93BMD) was appointed as the Managing Director (India) of the travel portal Expedia.com.

NV Krishna (93BMD) joined EXL Holding Inc. (NY, USA), as the Vice President and Chief Sales and Marketing Officer

Amitabh Hajela (93PMIR) joined as the Vice President and Global Head of Human Resources of the ExlService Holdings, Inc, USA.

Uday Shankar Sinha (94BMD) took over as Executive Director of PepsiCo India.

Biplob Banerjee (94PMIR) joined Nokia Siemens Networks as Director (HR – Global Services, India).

Raj Ambekar (94PMIR) moved to the shipping & logistics company, Maersk, as the Head (HR) for South Asia.

Naveen Kumar (94PMIR) took over as the Vice President (HR) of Lehman Brothers, India.

V Satish (94PMIR) took over as Sr Vice President (Global HR & Recruiting) at AztecSoft.

Ramki Sundaram (95BMD) was appointed the CEO of Air Deccan.

Suman Bose (95BMD) joined Dassault Systemes (part of French Dassault Group) as the Country Head – India.

Brajesh Bajpai (96BMD) moved into an enlarged role as the Head of Middle East and North Africa Region of Marico’s International Business.

Zohmingliana Hualngo (96PMIR) joined as the Head (HR) of Airbus Engineering India.

Ketan Awalegaonkar (98BMD) joined McKinsey & Co. as Associate Principle & Leader for North American Operations Practice, USA.

Indraneel Roy (98PMIR) took over as the Global Head of Hewitt Leadership Consulting.

Gaurav Lahiri (00PMIR) was elected as the Partner, Hay Group. He also co-authored the book The Indian CEO: Portrait of Excellence (Sage Books).

Kulshaan Singh (01PMIR) took over as the Country Manager (Singapore), Hewitt Associates.

Tanmay Prusty (06BMD), Sales Manager with ITC, won the south zone BusinessToday ACUMEN 2007, and was the runner-up in the national finals.

Jishnu Dasgupta (06BMD), Sales Manager with ITC, and joined as bass guitarist and backing vocals with the Hindi Band “Swarathma”, which won the Best Band prize in All India City Radio Finals.

Amitabh Hajela (93PMIR) is EXL's new Global Head HR

NEW YORK, Jan. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- ExlService Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: EXLS), a recognized business solutions provider, today announced Amitabh Hajela has joined EXL as Vice President and Global Head of Human Resources.

Amitabh joins EXL from Celanese Corporation, a Dallas-based Fortune 300 Chemical company, where he served as the Director for Global Talent Acquisition and Leadership Development. Amitabh also led the talent acquisition and review process for Celanese in the U.S., Europe and China.

Before Celanese, Amitabh Hajela was based at American Express, New Delhi as the Vice President and Business Leader for Strategic Initiatives and Projects. He was responsible for providing leadership to the strategic development and implementation of operating strategies for the American Express controllership function in India.

Earlier, Amitabh served in several significant capacities with General Electric both in the U.S. and India. From 2001 to 2005, Amitabh managed GE's effort to establish organizational capability to support global sourcing from the U.S. which included outsourcing work to India. Amitabh is an alumnus of XLRI with a specialization in personnel management and industrial relations.

Commenting on Amitabh's hiring, Rohit Kapoor, President and Chief Operating Officer of EXL stated: "We are delighted to have someone with Amitabh's background join EXL at this stage in our growth and evolution. Amitabh's focus will be helping to ensure that we meet the future challenges of talent management and a higher level of employee engagement as EXL experiences rapid growth and the further globalization of our organizational footprint."

Vikram Talwar, CEO and Vice-Chairman of EXL, stated: "With his international exposure and his rich experience in talent acquisition, leadership development and organization restructuring, Amitabh is a valuable acquisition as EXL focuses on acquiring and retaining the best global talent within our organization. We are excited to have Amitabh join the senior leadership team of EXL..."

Amar Babu (89BMD), the new Managing Director of Lenova India

Nov 27th: Lenovo today announced the appointment of R K Amar Babu as Managing Director, Lenovo India. Amar will be responsible for the overall business and growth for Lenovo in India.

Amar Babu has more than 17 years of multi-functional experience of which over 10 years have been in leadership roles. He was most recently the Chief Service Delivery Officer of Idea Cellular Ltd., and a member of Idea Cellular’s Executive Committee.

Prior to this, Amar served as Managing Director (South Asia), Sales & Marketing Group, Intel Technology (I) Pvt. Ltd., and was in charge of Intel’s business in South Asia (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh), as well as all sales and marketing operations. As an integral part of the regional management team, Amar’s mandate included driving business growth and strengthening Intel’s brand and presence.

Before that, Amar was Vice President (Operations) for HCL Information Systems, where he was involved in all key strategic decisions and responsible for consumer, channel and retail business. Amar’s achievements at HCL include leading the marketing and operations resulting in significant business growth, and re-establishing HCL’s Toshiba business...

...Amar has also worked at Citibank NA and HCL Hewlett Packard Ltd. Amar is a Management Post Graduate from XLRI, Jamshedpur and has an Engineering degree in Electrical & Electronics from PSG Tech, Coimbatore.

XLRI Homecoming 07: The Idli Boy Steals the Show

Jamshedpur Nov 18th (The Telegraph): A packed Tata auditorium listened with rapt attention to Sarathababu Elumalai, who was here to share his rags-to-riches story during the XLRI annual Homecoming ceremony.

The other speakers on the topic "Entrepreneurs - Carpetbaggers or Nation-Builders" included, Mr S Sivakumar (Chief Executive, ITC Agri-Business), Mr Manish Sabharwal (CEO-Founder, Teamlease), Mr Gautam Mallick (CEO-Founder, LSI Financial Services).

The youth from Chennai, an IIM graduate who refused a brilliant job to start a catering service, said: “I was born in a family of five children in Chennai and my mother worked with the government’s mid-day meal schemes. The money was not sufficient to sustain the large family, so she set up a small idli shop near our home in one of the slum areas of Chennai.”

The founder of FoodKing Catering Services, which today serves home-made hygienic food to offices in Ahmedabad and Goa, recalled how in Class IX his teachers had to persuade him hard not to quit studies.

From selling idlis on the pavements of Chennai to binding books for students, Elumalai had done it all till he reached BITS, Pilani. “I had never heard of the institution as we never got such an exposure. Someone told me that if I study there I will get a job,” he said.

After the engineering degree and a three years’ stint in the corporate world, Elumalai moved to IIM (A).

“The kind of salary and position an IIM graduate is offered is very difficult to turn down. But if I had not taken such a decision, I would have never been able to start my business,” he said.

The business, which started with a mere Rs 5,000 and a small kiosk at Ahmedabad, has today spread to over six branches employing over 175 people whose only job is to supply nutritious home-made food to corporates.

“It was an idea that I chanced upon during my internship at Pilani when I learnt that 30 per cent of the country’s population go to bed without food,” he said.

“More than working for somebody I wanted to give jobs to people like me, who did not have other means of livelihood.”

Soon his company would venture into other cities and provide employment to at least 15,000 people.

And while Sarathababu surprised everybody with his stories, XLRI today too put its first step in the same direction. After almost three years of negotiations, the much talked about Social Entrepreneurship Trust (SET) was formed today.

Aimed at funding and supporting innovative social entrepreneurship ideas, the trust which is the first of its kind would also work for different tribal upliftment projects in Jharkhand and would provide scholarships to tribal youths for further studies....

XLRI alumni set for homecoming with ethical recharge

Jamshedpur, Nov 14 (Financial Express): In a world where alomost everyone wants to earn more profit by any means, the alumni of XLRI, spread all over the country and abroad, are set to gather here for the fourth 'homecoming' this Saturday. Amid fun and nostalgia, they will recharge themselves with ethics, values and care for the society at large--things they learned here during their student days.

"It's a homecoming where they touch trees and visit fond places of their student days…" said Bushen Raina, president of the National Alumni Association of XLRI.

Like the previous three occasions, this year too around 250 former students representing six decades of the B-School will be here. They will also be representing various famous groups and companies spread across the world.

"Focus on ethics, values and the society at large that the institute inculcated in us are very important tenets to become successful as managers," said Raina, himself an XLRI student of the 1973 batch.

During the first 'homecoming' in 2004, a debate on 'Ethics in business is an oxymoron!' was organised. Wipro CEO Azim Premji and ex-CEO of Indal/Haldia Petrochemicals Tapan Mitra were among the panelists. This year, the debate will be on 'Entrepreneurs: Carpetbaggers or Nation-Builders', and the four-member panel will include E Sarathbabu (founder of Food King Catering Services Pvt Ltd), Manish Sabharwal (founder & CEO of TeamLease Services), S Sivakumar (chief executive, ITC agribusiness/e-choupal) and Anjan Dutt (a social and cultural entrepreneur-cum-director/producer). Business World deputy editor Rajeev Dubey will act as the moderator.

According to Prof Madhukar Shukla, OB & strategic management teacher at the B-School, even today every batch is sent to interiors of Jharkhand/Orissa for a month to gather experience on rural economy and to help people residing there. These trips are arranged in association with NGOs.

An XLRI team had recently designed a model course for computer-illiterate young people of Jamshedpur to give them an idea of how to operate a computer.

"Priests used to play a major role in our education here by way of setting examples by offering their services to society," recalled Radhakrishnan Nair (a 1984 batch student), chief human resource officer of Tata Steel.

The National Alumni Association and its Jamshedpur Chapter have set up the XLRI Social Entrepreneurship Trust, a registered one, enabling the alumni to contribute for good causes.

The association is set to institute the Distinguished Alumni Award from next year, criterion for which will be laid down and announced during the November 17-18 meet.

4th XL Alumni Homecoming Invitation

XLRI Across Ages... Documentary

To all XL Alumni:

Invitation from K Pandiarajan (84BMD)

The following is the invitation from K Pandiarajan (84BMD),

...the Founder MD of Ma Foi Management Consulting, Director of Madras Stock Exchange, recepient of Eisenhower Fellowship for Leadership...

...among his many other achievements....

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

Dear XLers

I have pleasure in enclosing a cordial invitation to attend the first Anniversary of our Ma Foi Foundation (MFF) in Chennai on the 26th Sept 2007.

We presently have adopted 1130 poor children from the Sivakasi and Chennai areas from 46 schools – they get scholarship, mentorship and career education from 5th standard to college completion ( Rs 1200 pa upto 10th std, Rs 1500 pa during higher secondary and Rs 5000 pa during college). All our Corporate Social Responsibility efforts have been integrated under MFF since last Sept.

We run a School for the underprivileged in Chennai with about 650 children.

We have taken micro-finance to about 8000 women through Self-Help Group and fostered about 450 tiny enterprises.

We also run a network of about 172 NGO’s under the CIOSA (Confederation of Indian Organisations for Service and Advocacy) banner.

We have also recognized 10 Young Achievers (unmined gems) every year during this function.

You can get more details about this in http://www.themafoifoundation.org/

The function will start at 6.30 pm and will see a creative expression by some of our Disha Scholars, recognition of achievements, performance by young artists led by Abhaswaram Ramji/Venky (Venky Monkey fame) and networking. I look forward to your support and wishes,

Regards,

Pondy
K Pandiarajan (84BMD)

Leena (Menon) Nair 92PMIR: among "25 Most Powerful Women in Indian Business"

HR High Priestess
FMCG giant Hindustan Unilever's first, and youngest, woman Executive Director is an HR ace.

Leena Nair
37/ Executive Director (HR), Hindustan Unilever
Education: BE Electronics and MBA from XLRI
Work Experience: 15 years
Career High: First woman ED at HUL
Hobbies: Bollywood movies, reading, outdoor sports and travelling
Success Mantra: Look for a win-win in every situation



It's a hat trick, in some sense. Leena Nair isn't just the first woman to make it to Hindustan Unilever's Management Committee (mc), but also the youngest Executive Director (ED) and that too one in charge of not a profit centre, but human resources. As the HR boss, Nair heads a team of 250 people who look into the well-being of about 15,000 employees across 70 different locations in the country, including 45 factories and four regional offices.

The 37-year-old Nair joined Hindustan Lever (as it was known until recently) straight out of XLRI, Jamshedpur, 15 years ago, and has risen quickly through the ranks. From being a factory personnel manager to management development planning manager to hr manager for the detergents business, Nair has been there, done that....