Addwit Research

Family business ownership may not exactly fit in the definitions or expectations of professional entrepreneurship; reason: they do not ‘brand’, they are not aggressive and they do not appear and behave in a professional manner. Leaving the exceptions apart, majority of them really remain small, but as a phenomenon, Indian Family businesses have made a mark all over - sardaars, annas, bhaiyyas  and bhais are found in every part of world, with their own small joint – a shop, a restaurant, a garage, a motel, farming or providing some service. Living on own has been in line with Indian ‘agri’-culture of producing something: the essence of entrepreneurship.
This paper identifies what exactly makes Indian business families follow as their culture that makes them sustain decades of ups and downs within and beyond family, their business and environment / community they operate in. The insights drawn through the study are the ones based on time-tested Indian way of living and thinking, and can lead to usable and practicable set of conclusions for professional managers.

CSR is getting statutory in nature. Also, the general consciousness towards philanthropy by ‘doing well by doing good’ is catching up.  The need as well as desire to bring a positive impact on society is natural in a progressive society. The practice of discharging CSR in corporate sector is slowly taking shape as a standard business function like HR, Finance and Marketing Management; and is surely due to percolate to the MSME sector in due course (Government is even considering making CSR reporting mandatory for MSME sector).  In the December 2006 edition of Harvard Business Review, Michael Porter and Mark Kramer argue that by approaching corporate social responsibility (CSR) based on corporate priorities, strengths and abilities, firms can develop socially and fiscally responsible solutions which will also provide operational and competitive advantages.
This Paper is designed to reach the CEOs of 30 MSME in MIDC Thane Industrial Zone and find the potential trend and barriers in incorporating CSR in MSME.

The phenomenon of e-commerce was initially a technological development. It offered a new dimension to business, and new opportunity to creative people. However, not all the e-com ventures could be equally successful. There can be many factors, and the people element is surely one of them, which cannot be isolated from business. The people-power and that of fast-changing / emerging values is going to drive transformation in forms and formats of business in future; beyond e-com, social media and internet based marketing.
This paper is prepared in light of the ideas generated in a landmark book titled: MARKETING 3.0 – FROM PRODUCTS TO CUSTOMERS TO HUMAN SPIRIT by Philip Kotler, H Kartajaya and Iwan S. (2010) and is based on data collected from 37 respondents from Linkedin The paper gives insight of deep level changes happening inside the minds of high-end consumers with advent of irreversible globalisation and its impact beyond Internet based platforms This paper explores the relevance of those ideas for something we will call ‘P-Commerce’; (participation- commerce) in this paper.

This paper is a conceptual commentary. The idea generated on reading the UNDP Report on Human Development Index (March 2013) which placed India on 136th position among 186 nations, HDI is a composite figure that indicates three elements: education, prosperity and life-expectancy. The Inequality Index analysis shows that India lost maximum on account of education 42.4% compared to life-expectancy (27.1%) and Income 15.8%) Hence this paper is based on exploring the perception and scenario prevailing on name of ‘education’ in India. Researcher explored and reflected on fundamental questions: like unequal distribution of wealth, is there also unequal distribution of wisdom, what are the tiers of ‘education’ and is there a ‘portion’ of hierarchy in education missing in India, and alike. The paper is based on efforts to collate the mutual relationships between and among indicators, secondary data and information.

Business Management education sector experienced quantitative exponential growth in last two decades in India. Ever since the inception at IIM Ahmadabad as a premier educational program more than 35 years ago, management education branched off into many formats – from talent-intensive IIM model, to pay-and-get-a-degree model adopted by hundreds of Institutes and even Companies; vacant seats in Institutions are not news today. Why did the management education have such short life? Has there been some qualitative deterioration, or there has been some strategic error? Where exactly the ‘disconnect’ happen among the stakeholders: students, teachers, Institutions, employers and bankers / parents / promoters need to be studied from various angles. This study is one of those; where we propose to assess the experiences of Placement Officers, who are the pivotal link between corporate, students, and Institute.
Challenges ahead of management education are many: easy entry policy, leading to intake of students with unrealistic expectations from the program, distraction rather than dedication among students,  very, very dynamic business and policy environment that education could not keep pace with - are just a few to mention. Then, the fundamental questions like ‘is the placement an essential outcome, or a by-product of good education?’ – need to be asked because most of students and parents  look only at the past records and present promises, rather than the education itself or the suitability and preparedness at their own end for what they expect as ‘placement’
Placement process, on the other hand is seen as (and there is no harm in doing so) a service to the young student community. However, the major challenge remain in expectation management; expectations of corporate, promoters and students.  Those looking at placement as an event, rather than a process, forget the law of delayed gratification and want everything now! The tug-of-war never seems to take a side with no system of benchmarks and standards for each stage of placement in place.

In spite of the factors that India has experienced Anglo-Saxon culture for more than 300 years, has enjoyed independence for about 65 years; English is ‘by default’ chosen as medium for child education; penetration of English is mere 10.5% in India as per David Graddol’s Report.
The author of this paper has relentlessly tracked various aspects of English learning that appeared on media for more than seven years. To mention a few of these aspects: is English necessary for employment, how are people trying to learn / teach English, who need to learn English, the scenario world over, what successful people have to say about English skills, the ‘political’ angle to policy-making, whether English can help solve caste-divide; etc.
Based on combination of opinions, facts and indicators from these articles and essays, coupled with reflective questions and keeping in the background conceptual framework, this paper explores the possibility of developing new, pragmatic methodology suitable for mass approach for learning and teaching English
[This Paper has been published with Cambridge Scholars' Press; check the two links]

There are questions being raised about suitability for employment of MBA students passing out from tier-II / III business schools. There seems to be clash of interests and priorities among the three key stakeholders - employers, trainers and students. More than 80% of students come to tier-II / III B-Schools from vernacular background, without language skills, without the required business aptitude and with expectation of getting a job quickly. Most of them lack in soft-skills as well as willingness to engage wholeheartedly in process of self-development.
The author, as part of his ongoing doctoral research in area of challenges involved in student development in professional colleges has developed a 4-Q model that can reduce ambiguity in perceptions and approach of stakeholders on much-needed soft-skill development among youngsters.  This paper is based on pilot testing (survey) done on experimental research design to find how effective the 4-Q model can be, and how can trainers / employers and students use this model.

For more information about the research through which 4Q model emerged, visit Executive Summary page at
https://www.academia.edu/18130157/Doctoral_Thesis_Executive_Summary_Soft-skills_Training_Arvind_Agrawal

There are sufficient statistics, statements and concern about how suitable (rather unsuitable) most professional college students are in our country.  While there are numerous factors that account for this scenario, we take up one of them here for exploring further; that about English skills. We notice that in tier-II and III institutions, the intake is up to 70+% from vernacular backgrounds – students who never used English in their everyday life. They enter a professional program with fair hopes of making a career and usually struggle with English during their studies and placement process.
Although a study like this could take shape of a linguistic research, however, the researcher maintained a purely application oriented approach, considering English skills as a soft-skill – how do students perceive English and English learning, viz-a-viz its significance for success in starting and building a professional career. Through a series of four quick surveys on fairly large sample size (150+) we find indicative ‘habits’ ‘perceptions’ and ‘patterns’ that professional students fall into with regards to learning English or being conscious about it.
(Some of these surveys were sponsored by Addwit Learning, www.addwit.org)

PROBLEM UNDER STUDY:
Issue of employability is just one of many symptoms. “Study of Developments and Challenges involved in Soft-skills Training in Professional Colleges” explores the close interdependence between employability and soft-skills. Management institutions are typically expected by students / parents to ‘provide good placements’ as an outcome of MBA program. Due to increasing interest among youth in tier-II / III towns for entering an MBA program, coupled with mushrooming of management institutions, there is hardly any scope for ‘quality control’ at intake stage, and students enter program without prior work experience, without clarity of employers’ expectations, without satisfactory communication and grooming, and to worsen the situation, without any preparedness to realise significance of the process in which they need to involve: for most of them who travel away from family, two years pass in a blink, as if it were a ‘paid vacation’. Employers are also frustrated with level of skills and commitments from freshers’ lot.

4Q Framework for Career Skills - 2 Semester University Program  is a 11 chapter methodology that can be used in University Programs for career skill development.
A Video Tour of the book is available at LinkedIn Article https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/4q-framework-campus-employment-entrepreneurship-arvind-agrawal/
It can be procured from - https://addwit.org/shop/the-4q-framework-for-skill-development/ or from Amazon.

This book sits at the cross-section of abstract wisdom of the past and theorized knowledge of present.
This book draws a lot form current researches in psychology on 'transformation'; how people change.
This school of psychology has established the fact that when a subject experiences NDE and returns, he is no more the same old person; he is transformed; he has - almost intuitively - been able to 'see' the purpose, utility and significance of life.
Each of us does not need to experience the same NDE, we can rely on conclusions and put the new idea to application: this is how entire scientific R&D based businesses (pharmacy, etc.) work.
This book is a bold dialog about our default postulates about death and our awareness about Inter-Life processes - keeping it very scientific and logical; making it a an idea that can be put to use.
*Suggested only for broad-minded readers.