4 Sure Shot Tips to Remove Fear of Anything

f your child is afraid of anything at school or at home, if you are afraid of any situation in your personal life or at workplace, here are 4 sure shot tips that can reduce your fear instantly. Try it out and let me know how it worked for you. It is a true story and has worked for me just last week..yet again...Read on..

Sunday morning, 8:30am, I was back after my daily morning fitness drill and was just relaxing on my bed. Lying upside down on my stomach, with my face staring the bedroom wall, I was thinking about the important tasks of this beautiful weekend day.

Just when I was about to get up to get going on my To Do list for the day, my daughter came by the side of the bed and also lay down along side me, in the same upside down straight pose - staring at the wall. After a few seconds, both of us looked at each other and smiled. She is used to getting up early even on a weekend, unlike her younger sibling, who sounded us yesterday night itself that no disturbance till 11 am today. Each child is so beautifully different. Enjoy every difference --> http://elevate-your-life.blogspot.in/2015/06/enjoy-differences.html

"Yes dear, how can I help you?" I knew it instantly that she has a situation at hand else she will not usually come and lie down relaxed. 

"I have a question." She asked, with both of us still facing the wall in front of our bed.

"Go ahead please."

"Dad, I have a speech to deliver on Monday morning. Though I have prepared for it well, I am not sure why I am still tensed?"

"That's just so normal. Everyone has an element of fear at some stage of our life. However there are a few things you can ponder on - which can make you feel a bit more relaxed. These fundamental principles of life are relevant not only to eliminate the fear of speech but any kind of fear in life."

"Wow, what are those?"

"Here you go:

1. Action Will Remove Fear.

The biggest antidote to fear is action because the first thing action does is, that it kills procrastination.

Action..action..action.

Rigorous action will remove any kind of fear. If you are afraid of going to the doctor, just pick up the phone and book your appointment. This simple act will result in instant fear reduction. Go and meet the doctor at the prescribed time, take the medicine - your fear is all gone. Try it out. It is simple, yet we make it complicated by thinking too much about it. If you are afraid of your exam, pick up your toughest subject and start practising that. If you are afraid of entering into a meeting with the client, just get to know more about the subject of the meeting or the background of the client and participants. Here is why action works so well against fear.

Our mind needs to focus somewhere. 

By taking action, you are directing your mind to focus on the solution, else it is natural for the mind to continue to focus on the problem. And mind is a very faithful slave. Wherever it focusses, it enlarges the situation. If it is focussed on the problem, the problem may sound too big, much bigger than what it actually is. Similarly, if you make it focus on the solution, it can come up with awesome ideas, which you never thought possible earlier.

So, if you are afraid of going to the stage and speak in front of a large audience, just start writing your speech script, just start practising your speech in front of me, your sister, your teacher, friends - who so ever - Every action that you take in the context of your situation will remove fear - almost instantly.
"Isolate your fear. Know exactly what you are afraid of, and then take immediate remedial action." ~ Dream On

2. Practise Being in the Present

This is a golden rule to eliminate all your worries, stress and anxiety. This is one of the keys to Happiness Unlimited - a state of endless joy where nothing external can snatch away your beloved happiness.

Life, and time, as they say, is only right now. Yesterday is dead and tomorrow is not even born. Make the best use of this very moment. 
We suffer from anxiety when someone dear is hospitalised because we tend to rush our thoughts to the future, trying to imagine unforeseen circumstances. We suffer from frustration when we remember our past school and college life, and start comparing it with our life today. Past and Future will hold all the negativity, never your present. So, practise as much being in the present and you will enjoy and love every moment of life, as it unfolds in front of you.
When you are practising for your speech tomorrow, don't bother about the things that happened during the last speech. Also, try and insulate yourself from what is likely to happen in the future if you are unable to deliver a great speech. Such negative thoughts are all in the future or in the past. Happiness resides in the present. Fear resides in past and future.

It is the same with all other aspects of life too !! Try dragging your thoughts from past and future, back into the present.
"Today is your whole life and you must make sure that you live well today" ~Happiness Unlimited

3. Focus on Effort and not on Results

In spite of our best intent, technique, skill and hard work, it is only the effort that is in our control and never the result. A mundane activity like reaching office in time may not always bear a positive outcome in spite of the same effort being put in. Result, since it is not in our hand, should never be the focus of our attention. Much against the popular norm, Result should never be a criteria of celebration. It should always be the effort, because that is the only thing you control. 
Remember your school exams wherein we always go out and celebrate your efforts rather than your results - much before your results are even announced.
If you focus on the effort, and not the result, the fear will just vanish -in a flash. Fear grows from the unknown and uncertainty. Result has all the uncertainty. Effort is more certain, more sure, more known - so bears less fear.
For your speech, therefore, focus on your effort that is required to give the best speech in the world, get equipped, get trained, practise hard and then be satisfied with your effort and celebrate it too - even before you actually deliver the speech. What is the final result should not be your botheration. Best speech or worst speech or anything in between is all relative, and not in your control.

More abour Results Vs Effort here --> http://elevate-your-life.blogspot.in/2015/03/is-it-celebration-time.html

4. Believe that Everything will happen for the good only

There is nothing that happens in this world for no reason. Even if your speech is a fiasco, remember that it was a good result. It was the intended result. HE wants to teach you something. Learn from it. Move forward. 

"Every setback is a little nudge from HIM for us to Dream On" ~ Dream On

HE does not have the time to do casual things in HIS world. Everything is planned in this universe. HE is giving his evidence as a teacher to come and personally guide you in your journey of life. Take his teachings and make the best use of them.
As long as you truly believe that the end result is always for the good, there is no question of any fear.

If you follow the above 4 tips and apply them in your area of fear, I can assure you of positive outcomes. Do let me know how your speech went about.

After 5 days of these tips 

My daughter proudly came home and announced that she won the 1st prize in the Speech that she delivered at school. 

"That's just awesome. We are all so happy for you dear. When will we see your trophy?"

"Very soon Dad, but I now realise that 1st prize or not, it was my effort which was worth the celebration."She smiled.

Not that she was not excited about winning the 1st prize, but she had learnt a very subtle life skill on conquering fear.

Source: http://elevate-your-life.blogspot.in/2015/10/4-sure-shot-tips-to-remove-fear-of.html (Author: Mr. Manoj Arora)

Off-grid solar power is gathering steam in Africa, what's next?

For years solar seemed like a potential solution for millions without access to electricity in Africa, but high costs and slow technology left it largely out of reach.

In the past few years, however, that has changed. With increased investment, cheaper products and innovative business models, solar is not only on the rise, but could transform the way the continent is powered.

It will be used to boost economic activity as businesses stay open late and students are able to study after dark, but it may also be used for unexpected purposes such as lighting a goat hut to keep prized animals safe from predators. And this growth is being driven by private companies who look at the 600 million people in Africa, or the 1.3 billion people in the world who lack access to power and see the vast market opportunity.

“Energy access and infrastructure are fundamental to eliminating poverty and improving people’s lives,” said Russell Sturm, global head for energy access at International Finance Corp. Advisory Solutions. “Building an electric grid and having centralized power is untenable for much of the world — particularly Africa.”

It’s a sentiment that seems to be echoed more widely these days. And there are examples across the spectrum — from inexpensive solar lanterns, to home solar systems, to microgrids or commercial-scale projects. Just in the past week the U.S. government announced millions of dollars in new commitment to off-grid solar and the U.K.’s Department for International Development launched a new Energy Africa initiative. And this week the off-grid solar industry is gathered for the 4th International Off-Grid Lighting Conference, organized by the Global Off-Grid Lighting Association.

Incredible progress

What’s helped create this progress is a mix of factors: technology costs have dropped making pricing more competitive, investment has increased and, in some cases, governments have created favorable environments for progress.

When IFC first began working to explore solar technology 15 or 20 years ago, home solar systems cost $500 to $1,000, which even with the most creating leasing model was still unaffordable to those living on less than $2 a day.

But between 2000 and 2013 the efficiency of these systems improved by about 10,000 percent and the costs of batteries, LED lights, and photovoltaic cells, all dropped more than 80 percent, according to Sturm.

LED lights, along with an an emerging set of appliances, are also dramatically more efficient. This means the same 40 watt solar panel that 10 years ago could power one 25 watt light bulb can today power four LED lights, a color tv, a phone charger and a radio.

As those prices went down and efficiency went up, a market opportunity emerged. If only those products could be marketed in a way that competed with products people were using (which in most cases were kerosene or battery-powered flashlights). That’s where some early funding from the development industry helped — IFC started working on setting quality standards, providing market intelligence, business assistance and education programs for consumers.

Dynamic developments

Several years ago innovation really started around solar lanterns and donor darlings like d.light drew attention and funding. While some might dismiss these solar lanterns — Sturm describes them as “underappreciated” — they are an important “first rung on the energy ladder,” he said.

From solar lanterns, consumers can step up to home solar panels or to microgrids, though their set up has proven more complex.

“What we see is governments slowly picking up that there is more to access than grid extension,” said Koen Peters, executive director of the Global Off-Grid Lighting Association. “The market is developing in a very dynamic way.”

And this shift on the part of local governments — perhaps too for donor governments — has led to a slew of recent announcements and commitments designed to bring more funding and attention to the industry.

Several of these new investments by the U.S. government fall under the Power Africa Initiative, which with these announcements and other funding, is clearly now going to support solar, off-grid power. That’s a big of a departure from the early days of the initiative. While the launch of Power Africa included included both megawatt and access targets, many of the early announcements focused on large-scale, grid-connected generation.

“What I think has happened is there has been a maturity of business models for OPIC to credibly finance,” said John Morton, the Overseas Private Investment Corp’s chief operating officer. “We want to grow the access piece of our portfolio.”

Business models

While all those advancements in technology and plunging costs have opened up the market, what’s making it possible and leading to exponential growth for some companies is the innovation around business models.

Companies like M-KOPA Solar, which installs home solar systems and hit 250,000 sales in September, uses a pay-as-you-go system integrated with the M-pesa mobile money platform. This allows customers to sell solar power on a monthly, daily, weekly or even hourly basis.

The model seems to be working — the company had 60,000 customers in April 2014 — so there is a fast pace of growth.

In Tanzania, Off Grid Electric — which guarantees service for the lifetime of the product and operates a 24/7 call center to respond to customer needs — has deployed a leasing model and is adding 10,000 customers a month. The company estimates that 80 percent of the Tanzanian population could be potential customers and that their pricing is not only competitive with kerosene and phone charging, but is possible even for those living on less than $2 a day.

The company is now in its 10th cohort and recently expanded to a large new office building in Arusha, Tanzania. This was in part to house the Off Grid Academy: as they started building their workforce they recognized a need for more skilled employees, so they built one in-house and around 500 people have been hired through the training program.

“We’re hoping gather support around that, because it’s quite new to business,” said Jessica Eastling, business development manager at Off Grid Electric, adding that they are still working to improve it and get it right.

There are also many others, though most of the early success stories are coming from East Africa, which according to Peters is in part due to demographics but also as a result of market conditions. The pervasiveness of mobile money systems has made business models easier to develop.

Nova Lumos, which just received a $15 million loan from OPIC to finance its expansion, is one of the companies testing the waters in West Africa. The company works in Nigeria for a fairly simple reason — it’s the largest market in Africa. But what’s needed in the Nigerian market is somewhat different than the smaller home solar systems that have been succeeding in East Africa. Many potential consumers in Nigeria use diesel-powered generators instead of kerosene and have greater power needs. The Nova Lumos system provides the added capacity — it uses bigger panels — and the company has set up a unique arrangement with the country’s largest mobile network operator MTN. The systems are shipped directly to MTN storefronts and are sold through its existing distribution networks, with marketing also done by MTN.

In a country where mobile payments aren’t often used, Nova Lumos is allowing consumers to use phone credit to pay for electricity.

Looking forward

The industry is still young and the market opportunity is massive. That means that issues of financing, ensuring quality standards, developing metrics and enabling scale all need to be on the agenda.

And they are at the GOGLA conference.

Financing, particularly debt financing and working capital financing will be important. Many of the companies operating today need to reinvent their business models repeatedly in order to grow. “This sector is growing but is not fully commercial yet … [they] still need public sector support,” Peters said. “They don’t necessarily need subsidies anymore but they do need the public sector to help mobilize investment and build capacity.”

Nir Marom, Nova Lumos co-founder, said that the OPIC investment is important, not just for the money but as a commitment to prove that debt investments in the space can be successful. “Estimates are that the market is millions, you can’t do that without debt,” he said.

Similarly, companies — particularly in the solar lantern sector — are hamstrung by their ability to get access to working capital, Sturm said. In fact, sales of quality-verified solar products were flat based on a June year-on-year comparison.

So what’s the problem?

It’s not growth. There is money out there from investors, especially for the frontrunners who have shown they can deliver returns, but what’s been lagging is working capital. For companies that rely on cash sales and are selling devices to retailers it’s a critical component to operating and growing business. Companies have told Sturm they expect they could continue on the path they were on a year ago with 100 percent year-on-year growth if they had working capital.

IFC is working to help leverage additional financing, in part through its $10 million investment in ResponsAbility’s Energy Access working capital debt fund. The World Bank Group member would like to invest more in this area, according to Sturm, and is interested in working with local banks to create new types of financing to support customers who want to buy these products.

Government regulations can have a big impact on market growth. Countries that are not corrupt, have supportive business environments, don’t have a high kerosene subsidy, generally have low tariffs and import fees, and decent infrastructure will be the most appealing. Working with countries to change bad policies and encourage favorable ones will help future industry growth.

As an industry association GOGLA is also working to identify minimum quality standards and will look for ways to hold those not in compliance accountable. IFC has been working on quality assurance for years and has worked to build its quality-verified system, which can be and is used as a benchmark, particularly for products like solar lanterns.

Having standardized measurement, particularly of social impact, will help get all companies on the same page when it comes to reporting. It’s an issue also likely to be discussed at this week’s meeting. And while innovation may happen at a slower place, there’s plenty of room for more — particularly in products and appliances like low-watt televisions and fans that consumers are demanding.

Because as people gain access to electricity they tend to want to move up the energy access ladder pretty quickly. So making that affordable, and providing the finance and the business models to make it happen, will be important.

Source: Devex

Foreign investment push into renewable energy segment

Investments of up to Rs 40,000 crore expected in next 2 years; however, implementation challenges need to be addressed, caution many

There seems a rush of foreign investors in India’s renewable energy (RE) sector, following the government’s stated ambition to add 175 Gw of capacity in this segment by 2022, to the existing 36.3 Gw.

Italian energy renewables entity ENEL Green’s $33 million buy-out of a majority stake in BLP Energy has followed US-based SunEdison acquiring Continuum Wind Energy for $650 mn three months earlier.

Ambit Corporate Finance, which is advising foreign strategic and institutional investors to invest in the sector, says Rs 40,000 crore of investments are expected in the next two years. This will be to build 7-8 Gw annually, at an average cost of Rs 4-5 a Mw.

"What is attracting investors is that rates are fixed for the useful life of an RE plant, usually 25 years," says Rahul Mody, managing director of Ambit.

UBS Investment Bank, financial advisor to BLP Energy for the investment from ENEL Green, is also expecting a surge. “We have already seen a significant fall in cost of power generation from RE sources,” says Sawan Kumar, executive director. “As the technology improves, economy of scale comes and efficiency improves. The hope is that cost of renewable power will become equivalent to that of conventional power in the next two to three years. It would also depend, he cautioned, on the behaviour of coal prices.

“Risk is not being appropriately considered right now. People are assuming the government is going to deliver on the challenges plaguing the power industry for long. if they do not, there will be a similar situation to that on the conventional side,” says Sumant Sinha, founder and chief executive officer at Goldman Sachs-backed ReNew Power. This entity claims to be the largest Indian player in the space, with 1,000 Mw in construction and operational wind and solar energy projects.

”There are concerns such as grid evacuation and financial health of distribution companies.  If these are not addressed simultaneously to the expected capacity addition, then perhaps the payment issues will start,” says Sinha.

The rush of foreign investors is also because India is attractive for large companies in the segment looking to diversify geographically into Asia. The Indian market is considered easier to enter than the Chinese one.

Renewable	Current Capacity (MW)	Target by 2022 (MW)
Wind Power	23,763	60,000
Solar Power	4,061	1,00,000
Small Hydro Power	4,102	5,000
Biomass power	4,419	10,000
Total	36,344	1,75,000
Source: Care Ratings

"Currently, the Indian energy generation market is considered risky, considering almost all of the Indian utilities are severely in debt; paying developers on time can make or break the market,''says Raj Prabhu, head of Mercom Capital Group, a global clean technology communications and research entity.

Source: http://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/foreign-investment-push-into-renewable-energy-segment-115092800464_1.html

Water sector - Privatisation or Remunicipalisation

Privatisation of urban water supply: The muddy picture

The municipal body’s financial losses from water works has reportedly increased by Rs 60 crore per annum, leading to demands, from both opposition parties and the local community, for the ouster of the private player.

As the government pushes for more private sector investments in urban infrastructure and basic service provision, it has chosen to showcase Nagpur as its model for water supply privatisation. At Smart City conferences in Delhi, officials have been hailing the Nagpur model as worthy of emulation. But the situation on ground is different. In 2012, the BJP-led municipal body in Nagpur handed over its water supply to a subsidiary of the French water corporation, Veolia, for 25 years. Since then, the project has seen allegations of corruption, four increases in water tariffs, cost overruns, and delays in plugging leaks. The municipal body’s financial losses from water works has reportedly increased by Rs 60 crore per annum, leading to demands, from both opposition parties and the local community, for the ouster of the private player. Nagpur was the first large city in India to hand over its entire water service to a private firm. Smaller experiments in privatisation in Khandwa, Mysore, and Aurangabad, among others, have followed similar trajectories. Social mobilisation against the introduction of PPP (Public-Private Partnership) projects in metros such as Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore have led to the plans being aborted. Although water is a state subject, the Centre’s proposed model concession agreement for PPP in water distribution will likely receive a leg-up from the emphasis on private funding in the flagship urban missions, Smart Cities and AMRUT. This will create an enabling environment for private participation in the urban water supply and distribution sector, which until now has remained the most essential of public services. The government’s move, however, runs counter to an accelerating global trend towards remunicipalisation of water supply. A 2014 study by the Transnational Institute lists 180 case studies in the last 15 years of public authorities wresting back control from private players — including in capital cities such as Paris, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Budapest, Kuala Lumpur and Bogota. 75% of these cases have been in high-income countries. The US has seen the largest number of cases — 59 — followed by France (49), home to the world’s largest water corporations, Veolia and Suez, and the country with the longest history of water privatisation. Forty-four cases were recorded in middle- and low-income countries. The smaller number has been attributed to the fact that these countries are more likely to be subject to conditionalities of multilateral lenders. Also, the transaction cost of remunicipalising often involves paying huge compensation to the private operators for lost profits. And yet, there have been instances such as Johannesburg, where the introduction of prepaid meters that stopped dispensing water until further water credit was purchased, triggered massive unrest in the slums; and Cochabamba and La Paz-El Alto in Bolivia, where intense water wars led to remunicipalisation. Closer home, the former Congress Chief Minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh, had handed over water services in his hometown of Latur to a private operator — but within a few years, the Maharashtra water supply department had to take back control after high tariffs without any improvement in water quality triggered strong protests. In all 180 cases, contracts were not renewed, or terminated abruptly, as private operators failed to fulfill obligations in terms of holding tariff lines, improving coverage and quality, reducing water losses, and ensuring financial transparency. Even Manila, which is claimed to be a success, has witnessed complaints of a 7- to 10-time increase in water tariff post-privatisation. The basic premise of the PPP model, promoted in the global South by the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation, is that water should be treated as an economic commodity whose full costs must be recovered from users, so as to ensure efficiency in service provision. Of all the arguments against treating water as anything other than a basic right, the most compelling has been its repercussions on the health of populations. In rural Ontario, immediately after water-testing was taken over by a private company, there was an E. coli outbreak that killed seven people. The company said that it had detected the contamination early on, but the test results were not made public as they were “confidential intellectual property”. Similarly, in South Africa’s rural KwaZulu Natal, where a couple of hundred died following a cholera outbreak in the early part of the last decade, studies showed the epidemic to be the direct outcome of private companies stopping free water supply from communal standpipes. This was replaced by a system of prepaid water meters, forcing the poor to use unsafe water sources. However, merely remunicipalising, or continuing public operators, will not necessarily help in plugging leakages or expanding coverage. In most successful models of remunicipalisation in France, Argentina and Spain, public operators significantly increased their investment in water systems, and kept charges low for the poor. An emerging alternative to the World Bank’s Public-Private Partnership model is Public-Public Partnership, which encourages global partnerships between public water operators in knowledge and technology sharing, as well as in capacity-building measures. The idea is supported by the UN Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation. India is currently on track in terms of the Millennium Development Goals target for sustainable access to clean drinking water. Under a system of publicly owned and controlled water utilities, the proportion of urban households with access to clean water sources has increased from 87% in 1990 to 95.3% in 2012. A staggering 65 million people live in urban slums in India, and any reversal of gains made so far in terms of access to water will also hit the modest gains in health, education and gender parity among the urban poor. 

- See more at: http://indianexpress.com/article/explained/privatisation-of-urban-water-supply-the-muddy-picture/#sthash.z5bjROrt.dpuf

Huawei’s Culture Is the Key to Its Success

Today, Huawei is the only Chinese company – out of the 91 mainland Chinese companies listed on the Fortune Global 500 list – earning more revenue abroad than in China. Huawei’s revenue from overseas markets exceeded that from the Chinese market for the first time in 2005. In 2012, Huawei surpassed Ericsson – at that time the world leader in telecommunications and networks – in terms of sales revenue and net profit, and this trend continued in the fiscal year of 2014 when Huawei reached an all-time high sales revenue of $46.5 billion and net profits of $4.49 billion.

Customer-First Attitude

Strong leaders provide a sense of purpose to their people, and Ren Zhengfei is no exception. His first and foremost concern is the customer. Many companies adopt a customer-focused attitude, but how many of them truly live it? Huawei distinguishes itself from the competition in this regard. In our conversation, Ren Zhengfei mentioned repeatedly how in the early years of Huawei everyone in the company had to turn their eyes to the customers and their backs to the bosses.

Another example of this customer-first attitude comes from another early episode in their history that’s since become something of a company legend. In desert and rural areas in China, rats often gnawed the telecom wires, severing customers’ connections. The multinational telecom companies providing service at that time did not consider this to be their problem, but rather that of the customer. Huawei, in contrast, viewed the rat problem as one the company had the responsibility to solve. In doing so, they acquired extensive experience in developing sturdier equipment and materials – such as chew-proof wires — which helped them later on to gain several big business accounts in the Middle East, where similar problems stymied the multinational firms.

Since then, there have been other projects where Huawei experienced severe climate challenges, such as building the highest wireless communication base station in the world (6,500 meters high on Mount Everest) and building the first GSM network within the Arctic circle. These, too, have helped acquire useful knowledge. For example, when Huawei expanded their 3G market in Europe, they noticed that European carriers expected base stations to be more compact, easier to install, greener, and more energy efficient, while offering wider coverage. Based on these customer needs, Huawei became the first company to launch the concept of distributed base stations that enables radio access for large to small private networks. This innovation made it cheaper for carriers to deploy base stations, and was popular with European carriers.

Employee Dedication

Huawei emphasizes that the only way to obtain opportunities is through hard work. For example, in the early years of the company, every new employee was given a blanket and a mattress. Many of them would work late into the night, then sleep in their offices, perhaps taking a catnap during lunch again the next day. As one Huawei employee said: “The pads were to us a representation of hard work in the old days and this idea has now been translated into the spirit of being dedicated to do the best in anything we do”.

Knowing that a dedicated and committed work force makes companies more competitive is not a too difficult concept to understand. The way to promote dedication and make it accepted by its employees – as it is the case in Huawei – is, however, a more difficult nut to crack. Huawei does it in part with the type of incentive performance system the company employs. Huawei is not a public company, and is in fact owned by the employees. Ren Zhengfei’s shares account for nearly 1.4% of the company’s total, and 82,471 employees hold the rest (as stated in Huawei’s 2014 Annual report). This employee shareholding system is referred to within Huawei as the “silver handcuff.” It is a system that is different from the more common stock option arrangement, which is often termed the “golden handcuff.” The idea underlying this scheme is that Ren Zhengfei wants to share both responsibilities and benefits with his colleagues. As he puts it, he wants everyone to act like the boss. Important to note, however, is that that only those who perform well enough qualify to participate.

There’s a shared belief within the company that an IPO would result in only a few people getting very rich, and the majority losing their motivation. Ren Zhengfei has emphasized that avoiding an IPO and hewing to the current employee-ownership structure is what helps the company maintain a strong collective fighting spirit.

Long-Term Thinking

The employee-ownership arrangement not only helps Huawei attract and retain dedicated employees, but also allows the company to plan for the long term. Ren Zhengfei has also credited it with allowing them to stay close to their goals and long-term vision. For example, Huawei plans the development of the company by decade, whereas most of their competitors such as Ericsson and Motorola plan it by financial quarter or year. Being privately held has allowed Huawei to work on its 10-year plans, while its competitors struggle to follow near-term fluctuations of the capital market.

For example, Huawei has introduced the use of a rotating CEO system in which three deputy chairmen take turns acting as CEO for six months each. At the same, time Ren Zhengfei maintains his oversight role, acting as a mentor and coach for the acting CEO. This innovative management structure is inspired by a book on new leadership calledFlight of the Buffalo (authors James Belasco and Ralph Stayer). While it will make the company less vulnerable if one chief fails or derails, it’s hard to imagine a publicly held company getting away with such an unusual plan.

Gradual Decision-Making

Ren Zhengfei is known for avoiding quick decisions and forcing himself to take time to reflect. His company reflects these traits. Again, he ties this in part back to their ownership structure: it keeps the decision-making power under company control – no outside investor will gain relative control over Huawei. As we’ve seen, they have much more freedom and less pressure from the market to consider their next steps to take. Their system of rotating CEOs helps support a gradual, more democratic decision-making process. It also helps Ren Zhengfei make a gradual decision about his ultimate successor.

Huawei also emphasizes what they call “the power of thinking.” The company philosophy is that the most valuable thing is the power to think. For example, efforts are made to ensure that intellectual exchange happens as a matter of routine. Executives are urged to read books outside their area of expertise and books have to be present in each office. Furthermore, ideas are communicated frequently to every employee by both senior executives and Ren Zhengfei. Importantly, however, and demonstrating the international character of a once-Chinese company, feedback is always invited across the company to improve those ideas that will ultimately feed the future vision of the company.

As many people know, Ren Zhengfei is a man with an army background – he served in the People’s Liberation Army – an experience he credits for his drive to fight and survive, qualities that are reflected in one of his favorite slogans in the early days of Huawei: We shall drink to our heart’s content to celebrate our success (ren sheng de yi xu jin huan), but if we should fail let’s fight to our utmost until we all die (ju gong jin cui, si er hou yi). So far, Huawei has had many successes to celebrate.

Source: Harvard Business Review, June 11, 2015

Will AIIB Change Asia's Multilateral Financing Landscape?

It is a well-known fact that for any country to achieve sustainable economic growth a strong infrastructure is a key foundation, both in terms of quantity and quality. Asia, the giant who has led the tremendous economic growth since last decade (6.7% annually from 2000-2012) and increasingly assuming central role in world economy, is under severe pressure to improve its infrastructure needs and scale up to meet the global standards if it were to sustain its remarkable economic growth rates.

The changing demographics, the distinct shift of population from rural to urban areas, the rising economic power status and the growing inter-connectivity and dependence with the developed regions has led to immense pressure on creating a world class infrastructure in Asia. Currently, the inadequacies in infrastructure is proving to be a bottleneck in Asia's rapid economic growth, a threat to competitiveness and an impediment to reduction in poverty. And, the major challenge in bridging the infrastructure gap (normally defined as the difference between country's development goals and its actual capability to achieve those goals), is the lack of investment financing. The lack of public investment in infrastructure due to fear of adding to fiscal burden, the dearth of private-sector participation and deficiency of long-term capital market financing has enlarged the existing infrastructure gap.

According to the 2014 WB report, Reducing Poverty by Closing South Asia's Infrastructure Gap South Asian countries will have to invest as much as $2.5 trillion over the next ten years: one-third to be spent on transport, one-third on electricity, and the remainder on water supply and sanitation, solid waste management, telecommunications, and irrigation. And according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB), infrastructure investment needs in Asia could reach $750 billion annually during the period 2010-2020; while ADB's estimated lending approval each year is just around $13 billion! 

Thus, realizing the importance of fulfilling Asia's infrastructure financing needs, China, in October 2014, announced the launching of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) backed by an initial paid- up capital of $50 billion and with authorized capital of $100 billion. The AIIB has approved 57 countries as founding members as on March 2015. The 57 founding members cover five continents, including Asia, Oceania, Europe, Latin America and Africa. 

The AIIB's main focus is to provide funding exclusively for infrastructure projects such as roads, ports, dams, bridges, railways in underdeveloped Asian countries, which differentiates it from the ADB's broader mission of reducing poverty. Besides, with the rise of trade in value-added and production networks in the Asian region, contributing to industrial upgrading and competitiveness for many countries, it becomes essential to move beyond the national projects and create a steadfast network of cross-border infrastructure. And AIIB intends to also move in this direction by developing and financing the cross-border regional connectivity infrastructure projects like road systems, ports and telecommunications network.

Though AIIB has been able to garner initial attention, it remains to be seen how far the bank will be able to deliver in terms of good governance, flexibility, transparency, predictability, which will, in the long-run determine its eventual success!

Source: www.guizzetti.org

One year of Modi govt: A glass half full

In the run-up to the 16th general election, opinion on Narendra Modi was polarized. Once again, as Prime Minister Modi prepares to celebrate his government’s first year in office, the view is split down the middle.

Constant critics, like Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi who gave Modi a zero rating, would have us believe that this is a nowhere regime which has belied the electoral expectations aroused during the campaign. Supporters, on the other hand, would equally belligerently argue: the new regime is off to a good start and that the best is yet to come.

Obviously both are extreme views and the truth is somewhere in between. Here again the assessment would differ: whether the glass is half empty or half full. It is my argument that the glass is half full. Here is why:

First off, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) inherited a severely damaged economy along with a nation severely traumatized by allegations of corruption in public office. If this was not enough, within a few weeks it was apparent that not only was the annual monsoon projected likely to be deficient, there were also fears of the onset of a drought (both of which actually panned out). However, there were offsetting factors too. The global commodity super cycle had ended and along with it came the fall in crude oil prices.

In response, the government undertook several measures, some of which were pure fire-fighting efforts. To a large extent the NDA’s majority win—the first in 30 years—worked to calm nerves all around. It also provided a certitude to decision-making in government, something that was totally absent from the previous regime. The oil price fall cushion was used wisely—unlike in other countries, the government did not pass on the benefits to consumers in the form of reduced prices; instead it burnished its green credentials by increasing the indirect taxes on fuel prices and the exchequer pocketed the extra returns to fund the fiscal deficit burden.

Even better, growth is on the mend and inflation is on the wane—hopefully it will convince the Reserve Bank of India to cut interest rates and set the ball rolling afresh on investments, especially in manufacturing and infrastructure.

Second, it very early showcased its ability to think out of the box and willingness to back politically risky initiatives, presumably something that exudes from the sense of power the BJP draws from having 282 elected members in the Lok Sabha. Among the earliest decisions which Modi undertook—actually within the first 18 hours after taking office—was to invite the leaders of neighbouring countries for the swearing-in ceremony. In one stroke he demonstrated vision, as well as the fact that foreign policy would be a key element of his administration. It is another matter that subsequent events have not panned out to script, but nonetheless, India conveyed its desire to reset relations in South Asia.

Third, it has rewritten the lexicon of governance in Delhi—previously defined by a cosy self-serving cabal of politicians, bureaucrats, middlemen and journalists—and undertaken initiatives to transition the country to a rules-based regime. The successful conduct of the auction of coal mines is a perfect example, where discretion in policy implementation was given a quiet burial.

Fourth, it has ensured continuity in policy, even while pursuing its own version of change, and more importantly, not allowed churlishness to define its policy choices. It has therefore retained good ideas promoted by the preceding Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA). Aadhaar, the plan to equip every resident of India with a unique identity number, spearheaded by Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani, is a good example of continuity with change. Similarly, it brought forward the financial inclusion agenda proposed by the UPA, rechristened it the Jan Dhan Yojana and put the entire political might of the government behind it.

Fifth, the NDA has hit the reset button on the fiscal polity of this country by accepting the recommendations of the Fourteenth Finance Commission. Not only has the share of states in the centre’s tax receipts been raised to 42%, they have also been given the power to customize their expenditure—as opposed to the previous one-size-fits-all policy pursued by centrally sponsored schemes. In short, the NDA believes that the states no longer need hand-holding.

Sixth, the government has eschewed any doublespeak on business. Traditionally, most politicians and governments shy away from any overt claims (something that has invited the sobriquet of suit-boot ki sarkaar). It discovered ideological justification in its slogan: pro-poor and pro-rich. Accordingly, it has worked towards improving the ease of doing business, including repealing nearly 1,000 redundant laws.

A lot of reform initiatives in this context so far have been incremental in nature. Largely aimed at improving the plumbing, these have been panned by several critics as a waste of social capital. But then think of the consequences of a clogged drain and the objectives will be clear. Yes, it may still be a halfway house, but the improved plumbing will ensure less wastage and consequently a bigger bang for the buck.

Seventh, this government has taken the first steps toward creating a social security infrastructure for all. The idea of financial inclusion is that eventually every household will be part of the economic mainstream. Similarly, the pension and accident insurance schemes introduced in the Union budget go a long way towards strengthening the social safety net.

The idea of Swachh Bharat, which is yet to acquire a concrete blueprint, will be crucial if the country has to turn the corner on common diseases like diarrhoea; most Indians in lower income groups are considered to be just a disease away from falling back into poverty.

These initiatives are consistent with rapidly growing aspirations in society. Unlike in the past, the preference is no longer for entitlements. People would rather be taught how to fish than be given a fish—exactly why initiatives like the skills programme (again an inheritance from the UPA) are key to empowerment across classes.

By now you must be wondering why the glass should only be half full. I would argue that it is also a fact that the NDA has been wanting on some fronts.

First, it seems to have misread the rural distress. It is one thing to firefight to mitigate the damage to the farmer due to unseasonal weather. But it has failed to gauge the structural fault lines in the agrarian sector and as a result,its response has been underwhelming (in an interview to Mint on Page 5, BJP president Amit Shah maintains that a long-term response is being debated within the government).

The current crisis in agriculture has been triggered by the drought last year, the collapse of the global commodity super cycle and fears of another bad monsoon this year. The shrinking spending on social sector programmes—or death by neglect, as in the case of the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme—has only compounded the problem.

In addition, the nature of farming has undergone a major overhaul. For example, horticulture has emerged as the dominant segment of the agrarian economy. Horticulture production (268.9 million tonnes) surpassed foodgrain output (257 million tonnes) for the first time in 2012-13. Given its perishable nature and link to the price cycle, it is prone to volatile risk behaviour—and this can’t be addressed by short-term fiscal sops.

Second, the BJP has been unable to shut out the distractions served up by fringe groups of the party. Not only are they fodder for their political opponents, they tend to take the sheen off the progressive image that the party seeks to project. Uncontrolled, they can undermine the best efforts.

Third, it is one thing to launch a great initiative, quite another to guarantee implementation. To be fair to the NDA, though, one year is too short a time to gauge its ability to deliver. Just like the opposition is judging it by the electoral promises that were made, the NDA will be assessed on how it delivers on all the initiatives in the next four years.

In the final analysis, it is clear then that taken together, the glass is half full. A complete verdict—when India heads into its 17th general election—will, however, take another four years.

Author: Anil Padmanabhan

Source: Live Mint, May 24, 2015