Bihar Calling ...

By now, Nitish Kumar with his seven member delegation including bureaucrats and representatives from Bihar Chamber of Commerce would be back from China visit. The delegation went to seek Chinese investments and JVs in tourism, infrastructure, trade and business. Innovative mantra and technology used by Chinese manufacturers to achieve quality at very competitive prices could be of use to Bihar. Dialogues on building infrastructure, efficient irrigation, methods to control floods, solar energy, tourism and Nalanda International University etc. can also open new avenues for the state.

With no major results from the CM’s previous foreign visits, Biharis have mixed expectations. It shouldn’t be surprising if a common man doesn’t understand the complexities and cycle time required in business discussions of this stature. However, whether or not this visit fetches any positive results, China can always be positioned as an example to catapult the growth of Bihar.

China pulls one percent of its population out of agriculture every year and puts them into construction and manufacturing (N R Narayana Murthy : A Better India, A Better World). Attempts for such large scale job creation have not yet been made in India. Although one can argue that IT sector has seen such a boom, it was a gradual revolution that happened after the doors were opened to foreign investments in 1991.

Bihar has population of over hundred million (103,804,637 : Census of India 2011, Bihar - Provisional Population Total) but lacks good human capital which is very much necessary for economic growth and prosperity. Majority of population is involved in agro-based livelihood. When patriarchal legacies couldn’t suffice to the growing family needs, people started fleeing to other states in search of livelihood. With one less earning member at the native, the families were still able to manage roughly the same income. In general, if a family of five working members can earn the same with four of them, can one person be pulled out for more skillful work? Will the fifth person look for options outside the state if there is an opportunity nearby?

The biggest question is – How to create this opportunity? How to produce a ‘Good Human Capital’, a population equipped with the skills and resources to participate in the economy?

Global organizations are funding the Government projects. NABARD, Jeevika and many more are working with SHGs at the grass root levels. The limitation is that each one is thinking in the traditional ways and innovative methods of effective livelihood promotion are yet to be discovered. Agriculture, horticulture, poultry, animal husbandry, tasar, handicrafts, handlooms and tourism are some of the most sought after areas. Organic farming is another futuristic vision.

Can the Chinese model be replicated to promote manufacturing in the state? Can the huge investments in skill development be channelized towards promoting manufacturing SMBs? Can the markets for these products be rapidly expanded beyond state and national boundaries? Seems unrealistic in the first thought, yet has practical possibilities.

Bihar has the lowest annual per capita income (`16,119 - The Economic Times, 9th March 2011) and provides the most economic labor force. Access to latest and global technology is not limited. Government is trying hard to attract investments. Law and order is gradually improving. Infrastructure has become a major thrust area. The impact of FDI in multi-channel retail is going to organize technology, logistics and services in tier-II and tier-III cities and towns. Finding the best market globally is no more that challenging.

This is merely an attempt to ignite a spark for those who have left Bihar and are thriving globally. More than your presence in the state, your thoughts from your global experiences can make a big difference. Guys!!! Do comment and share ideas, howsoever foolish they might appear in your senses. More important, if you feel it is worth, share this link with your friends & family, in person or through social media. Just click on any of these sharing links below.

Business Centricity : IT Balance

Continued from my previous article "Insights - Below the line"

Banking and Financial Services, Insurance, Telecom, Retail, Aviation etc. are some of the industries that thrive on huge volume of customers. Customer interaction channels – ERP/CRM Systems, Social Media and Online Systems etc. – provide ample data to understand various facets of customer behaviour. Vast data is analysed for personalized engagement with individual customers. Each customer interaction provides an opportunity to influence buying behaviour, churn and decisions that affect profitability. One who takes the lead is the organisation that can extract data driven insights faster, react faster than its competition while providing its customers with personalized experiences.

If market share or leadership position has any values for a company, can business wait for a report from the IT team? In case a critical report is delayed, can a blame-game between business and IT be avoided? Should the insight driven tactical decisions remain only in the hands of few – the senior management? Can analytics accelerate the operational processes? Is technical knowledge a mandate for career growth in this tech-savvy era? Accept it or not, these are some the questions people and companies are discussing today.

Unlike traditional BI in which the focus primarily used to be on ‘What happened?’, analytics is now focusing on ‘What will happen?’ and ‘What needs to be done to make it happen?’. The other fundamental shift is how the decision making insights are being perceived. BI used to facilitate senior management to make strategic or tactical decisions. Analytics is helping more into operational activities, empowering executives and mid management to take decisions. Also, it smoothens and speeds up the operational activities.

Analytics empowers business users to directly interact with data as they follow their instincts in uncovering customer behaviour embedded in transactions. Operational insights related to customer profiling, segmentation, predictive modelling, campaign management and ad-hoc analysis can be retrieved on the fly, in minutes or seconds, without any need of sophisticated programming, technical or SQL related knowledge. Users can assess selection and segmentation strategies by creating actual counts using easily manageable wide range of customized and complex marketing selection criteria rather than estimates. Insights are supported by charts, grids, Venn diagrams and variety of other data visualization tools with formatting & drill-down options. The results of analyses can be integrated directly into business processes like campaign management. Cause and effect of business activities can be understood to improve the planning and execution of marketing programs.

As users or marketers do right customer profiling and segmentation, they shift from mass marketing to more engaging conversations with individual customers. Customer Centric marketing leads to determining the right campaign per customer instead of the right customer per campaign. Speed and flexibility enable ad hoc, ‘train of thought’ analysis of anything against anything.  Users learn more about their business on their terms and in their time frame, reducing the overall cost of analysis. This ultimately results in increased sales; both up-sale and cross-sale, through the ability to run campaigns more frequently and with a higher degree of precision.

Paradigm is shifting. Technology is getting more business centric. Users, having business understanding and little common sense but no programming skills, are now able to use technology with ease. Dependence on IT is reducing. Can we do away with IT? Certainly not!!!

IT is the creator of these applications. Updates, patches, maintenance and administration etc. are some of the services we cannot do away with. For any BI or Analytical application, integration with multiple source systems, data loading, data cleansing, master data management and reporting through one or more applications are always going to be handled by IT teams. It’s the fine balance between IT and business that’s going to run a successful show. The question is, how do you define the fine balance between Business & IT?