Spark Of The Corporate---- Shobhana Bhartia

Shobhana Bhartia

Chairperson and Editorial Director,

Hindustan Times

Way back in 1986, when Mrs. Shobhana Bhartia decided to actualize what she had been contemplating for years, and certainly been working towards it in her own little way, that of assuming the mantle of taking one of India’s leading media groups to what she thought was its rightful position i.e. top of the leader board, apart from expressing obvious surprise, some perhaps even disapproval owing to the fact that she was a female, no one could have imagined that she’d be soon brushing shoulders with the who’s-who of the industry, and admirably so, on her way to success and glory. The fact that she was able to transform the Hindustan Times from a single product entity to a multi-edition daily, besides exploring allied yet diverse segments of the media industry, and succeeding, bear testimony to her remarkable achievement of carrying forward a great legacy -in fact enriching it along the way- whose foundations lay in the vision of the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi. Her rise as a media baroness and as a highly successful entrepreneur is a reflection of her contribution to the industry itself as indeed of the changing times we are in, when women-power seems to be, after all, rising and making its mark in various spheres of life. The lady has been an inspiration and a guiding spirit for both her sons, who were inducted in the family business (Jubilant Life Sciences Ltd.), and who have, due course, chartered their own paths to success. They run the highly successful 'Dominos Pizza,’ franchise across the country and the 'Monday to Sunday,’ chain of convenience stores in Bangalore.

Early Days

Born to Krishna Kumar Birla, of the illustrious Birla clan, in 1957 in Kolkata, this granddaughter of Ghanshyam Das Birla had, despite her pedigree, a very simple childhood like any other girl hailing from predominantly patriarchal societies did. She had her schooling from Loreto House, a non-Birla-run school in Kolkata where her surname was not of much consequence. After successful completion of high school education, she enrolled into a B.A (Hons.) from Loreto College, Kolkata University. But this, expectedly, was also time for her betrothal to a successful suitor. She was married to billionaire Mr. Shyam Sunder Bhartia, the Chairman of Jubilant Life Sciences Limited. She dropped out of college upon insistence from her family but, eventually, completed her graduation through correspondence. So then, one would have thought her to lead a life of a normal house-wife, or perhaps dabble in some hobby that women in such positions usually resort to. That was all there was to it. Or so people thought.

Birth of the Spark

But for all we know, she had always nursed a secret ambition. Although marriage and family life (she had two sons) did serve as minor hindrances in realization of her long-cherished goals, she had not completely dropped-the-ball on her ambitions. She had merely held them back -only to reinvigorate them after she had children and the little matter of seeing through their infancy. It has to be said that no one, at this point, could have so much as hazarded a guess about what this progeny of the Birla’s had in mind vis-à-vis her career. Family and friends were both slightly taken aback when she informed them of her decision to take the plunge into the family business. More so as the field that her family plied their trade in was extensively male-oriented and, on top of that no one else, certainly not the girls, in the family itself had ever harbored such aspirations. Even so, when she started looking after the Sunday Magazine of the daily, all one thought was that she was being, at the most, her father’s apprentice. But soon, all of it was to change. And change like it had never been before. All of just 29 years of age and with very little experience to bank upon, Mrs. Bhartia’s entry into the highly competitive, risky yet rewarding field wasn’t much heralded. But, she was not to be perturbed by such notion. Though neither substantial nor adequate, her stint of supervising the Sunday mag as indeed scrutinizing the newspaper itself and giving feedback to her father, had taught her enough of the industry to feel confident of her success. She backed her instincts, education, knowledge, and importantly, her vision of where this prestigious newspaper had to progress to while at the same time respecting and retaining its standing in the eye of its millions of readers.

Her rise, and effect

The pursuit of her vision warranted that she could not have just tagged along with the then current structure and practices, and let things happen just as they did before. For sure, she had to break away from tradition and start to work toward realizing her vision, which she did with all the gusto, enthusiasm and earnestness one can employ. Before the advent of Mrs. Bhartia, the daily was run like a government bureaucracy, with very little leaning for either merit or professional management. And, if she had to see it reach the heights and achieve the goals she had set for the newspaper, then all this had to change. It was not going to happen over-night, as a complete shake-up was out of the question. Especially since, despite all the apparent lacunae, the daily had been doing quite well for itself and, also because her plans would be hugely dented owing to the characteristic aversion to change. But she adopted methods of her own, and so very masterfully ensured the newspaper turned over a leaf or two and treaded on a path she had envisaged for it. The fundamental strategy that she would employ to a great effect in all her business decisions and activities, and which would bring about unprecedented success and growth to the group were these: diversity as a focus, quality as a cutting edge, and global benchmarking and partnering as the media to create robust brands.

Very early into her leadership role (she took over as Executive Director of the Group in 1991 - and was the first woman chief executive of a national newspaper in India back then), it was quite clear to Mrs. Bhartia that the plans that were laid out for HTs future by the change in guard meant that it had to have a fresh infusion of resources. Apart from garnering all the support and encouragement that it could get from both the industry and its readers, HT needed huge outlay of funds if it were to obtain the success envisaged. And she was upto it. As the readership and popularity of the newspaper grew and the business was in a position to bank upon its brand equity, Mrs. Bhartia was quick to make good of the situation. Expectedly, in 2005 she a floated a very successful IPO and raised about Rs. 400 Crores that have helped the group in effecting its fundamental strategy (discussed above) for success and growth, and in creating a niche for itself.

Achievements

Her achievements have been numerous: from launching new products and entering new markets to overseeing the IPO in 2005. Slowly but surely, Mrs. Shobhana Bhartia has transformed HT in the truest sense of the word; from being a privately held family run business to that of a professionally managed, publicly listed national powerhouse. A part of her vision was to see Hindustan Times as a reader-friendly newspaper without ever compromising on values for which it had stood for well over three-quarters of a century, or the quality of content, and also by dispensing with the mundane and brining in fresh perspectives.

Under her guidance and leadership, HT media has chartered new paths and explored new frontiers such as moving to outside of its traditional bastion of Delhi in to the fiercely competitive and risky media market in Mumbai, or extending further to bring out a business daily called 'Mint’ in collaboration with Wall Street Journal (they have an exclusive content-sharing deal) or aligning with Virgin Asia to launch FM radio (FEVER 104) channel and, importantly, seeing them become successful. What’s more, being a person with a futuristic vision and always aware of the dynamics of an evolving media industry, she has even gone ahead and joined hands with an adversary i.e. Beckett, Coleman & Co (Times of India) to launch Metro Now, a morning tabloid in Delhi aimed at younger readers, a space which is fertile for potential forays by other big players of the sector. That besides, the group has also expanded its activities into areas few other media groups dared to venture into like a social networking site (desimartini.com), media platform (HT Mobile), a jobs portal (shine.com), and an education portal (htcampus.com), to name a few. To her credit also goes the distinction of bringing in one of the first FDI ventures to the country.

Her extensive experience of the media industry spanning 25 years has seen her assume many roles and responsibilities, one particularly in the public life, which she has discharged with utmost sincerity and great success. While it may not be possible to list here all her accomplishments, few of them are noteworthy.

Her shrewdness and business acumen have won her praise and respect from one and all, manifest in her being instated to numerous significant positions of many corporates. While Mrs. Shobhana Bhartia presently serves as an Editorial Director and Chairperson (since January 2010) at HT Media Limited, Holding company of HT Music and Entertainment Company Limited, she has also been donning myriad roles such as the Independent Non-Executive Director of Hero Honda Motors Ltd., from August 22, 2005 to April 13, 2011, and its Additional Director since March 24, 2005. She also serves on the board of Indian Airlines Limited and on the North Regional Board of the Reserve Bank of India. She has served as Director of the Press Trust of India Limited.

Her best recognition came in February 2006 when she was nominated for the Rajya Sabha (The upper house of the Indian Parliament). Her not-so political career includes stints in various capacities such as Member of Committee on Finance (March 2006-Dec. 2006), Member of Committee on Empowerment of Women (April 2006 onwards), Member of Committee on External Affairs (Dec. 2006-March 2007), and Member of Committee on Defence Member, Consultative Committee for the Ministry of External Affairs (March 2007 onwards upto the end of her tenure as an M.P. in February, 2012), and Chairperson of Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) from 2006 to 2007. She has been a Member of the Council of Management of ABC since 1999 and served as Deputy Chairperson from 2005 to 2006.

In addition, she was also a Member of the High Level Group comprising of 18 persons chosen by the Secretary-General, United Nations to work on "Alliance of Civilizations"; Member of the Board of International Press Institute (an apex Global Press Body), and a member of the Commonwealth Press Union International Press Institute, Vienna, besides being a Member of the Board of Governors, Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), PIlani, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and the National Institute of fashion Technology (NIFT).

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Wisdom Job’s 5P’s for a Job seeker’s Career Growth

Wisdom jobs is a unique 4th generation job portal came in to existence with more knowledge and more jobs. Wisdom jobs has created its impact on job world its unique products Pragnya meter and e-University. Pragnya meter is a knowledge raring meter with a motto to rate a job seeker’s skills and presenting their technical ability to the prospective employer. E-University is a new trend in e-learning process with an instant access to over 6000 skillsets including 2000 interview questions and more than 5000 multiple choice questions.

Wisdom 5P’s concept gaining prominence in the market to gain more opportunities and to strive in the job world.

1. Planning

• Start your job search process with wisdomjobs.com
• Over 22 million resume data base in wisdomjobs.com
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2. Practice

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3. Preparation

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4. Presentation

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Do you know what the things you should never say to your boss are?

Most of the times, some employees have to coordinate with their bosses in order to perform their daily duties. It is very important for employees to have good communication with their boss, because going against boss may badly affect their career. Thinking before speaking is a good policy. Here are the things you should never say to your boss:

• I want a hike: One should never talk about salary hike by telling their financial problems to the boss. Your boss may not care about your financial problems and only reward high performing employees. If you are really a high performing employee, then raise a request with an evidence of what all you have achieved for the company and also show what people with your responsibilities earn.

• It is not at all possible: Your boss might call you and assign you some work, thinking that you are capable of doing that work. But you go and simply say to your boss that “it is not at all possible”. This is not the right way. While you are talking to your boss, think in terms of solving a problem for him/her rather than putting problems.

• I am not comfortable or I am not able to adjust: Having conflicts with co-workers in the work place is common. But complaining about your co-workers personality or performance to your boss, will affect you more than your co-worker. If you really have a problem with your co-worker and if you want to raise a complaint then first speak with the management. Keep your tone professional and the focus on work, not personal issues.

• I don’t know: Your boss might be a asking a question and he/she is expecting a right response from you. At this point of time you may simply say as ‘I don’t know’. If you really don’t know the answer, then instead of saying I don’t know, tell them that you will find a right way.

• Can you write that down for me?: If you are in a meeting with your boss and he/she is telling you some important points to be implemented later. You dint carry your notes and you ask your boss to note that points for you. Remember that he/she is your boss and not your subordinate. It’s your duty to make a note of all the points that are told to you.

• That’s not my job: Sometimes when the company has some deadline to meet and the boss is asking for your support to complete the work on time. At this point of time, you should not say ‘that’s not my job’. The work assigned to you may not be related to you in any way, but extending your support may make you more valuable.

• It’s not my fault: You may have worked on a project with a team and some problem occurred while executing that project. Boss might call you for a clarification. You may be wrongly blamed for a problem, but still don’t say that ‘It’s not my fault’, rather say as ‘what can we do to make it right’.

Some of the other things that you should never say to your boss may include: ‘I know that’, ‘but we have always done it this way, ‘I can’t do this because I have some other work to finish’, I have another offer, can this job match up with that’, ‘but I emailed you about that last week’ etc.

What is Background Checks while joining a company?

Background checks will be done by employers on job candidates for employment screening, especially on candidates seeking a position that requires high security or a position of trust, such as in a school, hospital, financial institution, airport, and government. These checks can be performed by employer itself and some companies are assigning to private agencies which charge a nominal fee. Results of a background check typically include past employment verification, credit history, and criminal history.

Background check differs from company to company as some employers evaluate a candidate’s qualifications, character, fitness, and to identify potential hiring risks for safety and security reasons. However, these checks may sometimes be used for illegal purposes, such as unlawful discrimination (or employment discrimination), identity theft, and violation of privacy.

1. Criminal History

Companies will conduct searches whether the candidate is having any criminal history throughout the state or nation. You need to check each state for its policy. Only information of public record is available.

2. Civil History

Similar to criminal history and includes whether the job candidate is/was a plaintiff or defendant.

3. National Wants and Warrants

It is very important aspect of back ground check. It checks whether the candidate is in “wanted,” list or not. If the candidate is in wanted, it will appear through the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) system, but this information is not frequently requested.

4. Credit Report

This is a very common item for Back ground checks. Companies will search for pay slips of an employee to confirm the details submitted by the employee.

5. Social Security Reports

Social security reports check will be done to clarify where the candidate has lived for the past seven years. They will examine the residence proof certificates to verify addresses and locations are genuine or not.

6. Previous Employer Verification

Previous employer verification activity will be carried down to check whether the submitted details of previous employers are correct or not. Due to the increasing frauds and false information in the resumes has created more confusion among employers.

7. Drug Tests

Earlier back ground checks may not contain this test but now nearly 15 to 20 percent of all Back Ground checks including a drug test. Back ground checks typically contract with local medical clinics to conduct the test.

8. Reference Verification

Reference verification is an important part of back ground check. The employer will contact the references provided by the candidate to confirm the details submitted by the candidate.

9. Education

Back ground check clarifies attendance, academic certifications and degrees earned. This has become a common Back ground check as a result of eliminating the frauds. Make ensure that you have provided the genuine details as you cannot mislead by giving wrong details.

Social Media and its impact on Youth

“Social Networking that matters is helping people archive their goals. Doing it reliably and repeatability so that over time people have an interest in helping you achieve your goals.” – Seth Godin

1. What is Social Media?

Social media, basically defined as grouping of internet based an application that builds on the ideological and scientific foundations for transforming communication, in to an effective and interactive conversation between different societies and individuals. Social media is one of the easiest means and includes media and social networking sites like face book, twitter, Google+ etc. This is creating lot of boom in the current generation as it is one of the exceptional resources in conveying the information. Using social media will help in improving contacts and thus increases business. Social media may comprise of different forms like magazines, Internet forums, weblogs, social blogs, micro blogging, wikis, podcasts, photographs or pictures, video, rating and social bookmarking.

But now the trend of getting information has totally changed as most of them are using internet to acquire information. Social media is different from the usual traditional media which include newspapers, television, radio and films etc. This social media is less expensive when compared to the traditional media and is also easily accessible. This is not only used for communicating and interacting with people worldwide but is also one of the best ways to advance in business. Almost 70% of the business is done online because this will reach to the customers/audiences soon, all over the world. This is also one of the biggest pools of information.

2. What are the types of Social Media?

Social media can be categorized in to six types and they are: Joint projects like Wikipedia, blogs like Twitter, content communities like YouTube, social networking sites like Face book, effective game worlds like World of War craft and virtual social worlds like second life. Other than this social media technologies may include: blogs, picture-sharing, vlogs, wall-postings, email, instant messaging, music-sharing, crowd sourcing and voice over IP and many more.

Whole of social media is managed using the seven functional building blocks and they are: Identity, conversations, sharing, presence, relationships, reputation, and groups. Main purpose of using these building blocks is to get better idea on the essential needs of the social media viewers and these building blocks may differ with the type of social media. For example users of LinkedIn mainly focus on identity, reputation and contacts whereas YouTube building blocks are sharing, conversation, groups and reputation.

3. What are the advantages of Social Media?

One of the main advantages of social media is that it reaches millions of people in just a couple of minutes. One thing that is needed for any social media network is associates, as they are the commodity and they create value, not only to the site but also to the society. Some of the benefits are listed below:

• Reach: It is proved that this social media can reach huge audience across the globe. Industrial media uses a nationalized framework for grouping, manufacturing and broadcasting, whereas social media is more decentralized, less hierarchical and renowned by multiple tips of manufacture and service.

• Accessibility: Accessibility for industrial media is governed by government or it may be privately owned. Social media tools will be available to the public at a very low cost or sometimes at free of cost.

• Usability: Social media when compared to the industrial media does not need expertise skills and training, but it only needs the reinterpretation of existing skills. It is very easy to operate and access social media for a person with minimum knowledge of computer operating and one can easily avail the vast services provided by social media. Social media is known for its ease of use.

• Immediacy: Social media is capable of conveying information in just a span of seconds. People or audience can get quick updates on the latest news with just a single click.

• Permanence: Social media can always be altered with comments or suggestions which are provided by the industry experts or the audience. Social media will undergo rigorous change to cope up with the latest technology that is exploring in today’s generation.

Apart from the above mentioned benefits, other benefits are mentioned below:

• A flexible media: Social networking sites like facebook, twitter, google+ help users to find and connect with friends worldwide, easily with a quick process. These will also be helpful in promoting business by increasing contacts. Using these sites is very easy because they are designed in a way to reach the targeted audience and new features and functions are constantly developed so as to make the site more flexible in satisfying user needs. Many famous personalities for example celebrities, business men and famous personalities create their own blogs to promote their business or to express their views. This will make their work easier in reaching huge audience in a very less time.

• Network building at free of cost: When compared to journals and reports, social media will easily connect to the users. This will take less time in reaching the audience whereas the journals, reports will take lot of time as it is a tedious process. Social media also helps in promoting scientific researches which will be very helpful to mankind. Every service rendered by these social networking sites is provided at free of cost for its users.

4. What is the impact of Social Media on youth?

Social media has become a part of everyone’s life that it can’t be ignored. Social media has both positive and negative impact not only on youth but also on elders and children. Let us see some of the positive impacts of social media:

Positive impacts:

• Friends: Making friends has become easier with these social networking sites like facebook, google+ and twitter etc. in olden days it was a bit tough to make friends unless and until one has personal interest of going out and making friends. Later after in the decades of 70’s and 80’s mobile phones helped in connecting and improving conversation with people. And now the exploration of social networking sites sprang up and it has changed the whole idea of making friends once more and forever. We can make unlimited friends worldwide and chat with them without any time limit and even at free of cost. Now a day’s even we can have a video chat which is also available for free of cost. This can be considered as one of the best advantages of having social networking sites. We can connect with friends whom we missed out in out childhood.

• Empathy: By connecting with friends through social networking sites we share all of our good and bad experiences with friends. This will improve the relationship between friends and thus creating good bonding. Thus by sharing both good and bad experiences with friends, we will be able to empathize with each other. Sharing one’s experiences with friends will also give mental relaxation.

• Rapid communication: Everybody is becoming so busy with their lives that they don’t even have time to communicate with their family members. Our time is getting thinner and thinner with busy work schedule and family commitments. Social networking sites give us a chance to communicate in a speedy and effective manner. Writing in face book, Google+ and twitter will reach as many people as we want just in a span of seconds and with no cost. These sites will allow us to live a life which is unhindered with a small talk.

• Be in touch with the world: Not only communicating with friends within the circle but we can also make friends worldwide easily. We can build a network of friends and we can share our ideas, photos and videos through these sites. Through this we can have updated news of friends and family members. We can emphasize our location by using location based services like foursquare and gowalla.

• Building relationship and finding a common ground in an open society: We can make a strong relationship with friends and relatives through these sites. This can help foster friendship and more besides strengthen us. Because friend is the only person with whom we can share everything related to our life. Connecting with groups will help in improving one’s own business, thus creating profits. Professional sites like LinkedIn will have many groups based on different criteria. Through LinkedIn people get jobs and some promote their business.

Negative impacts:

Social media, now a day’s is leaving a negative impact rather being positive. Most of the youth spend lot of time on the internet to visit and check their single or multiple accounts. This will affect students, youth and productivity of work because of the extreme use of technology. The risks of using social media may also include mental health, cyber bulling, texting and revelation to problematical and unlawful content and privacy violations.

• Cyber bulling: Usage of social media may create a chance for emotional distress in getting frightening, irritating and degrading communication from another teenager which is called cyber bulling. It’s been proved that cyber bulling will build advanced levels of depression and anxiety for victims and also resulted in youth suicide. Most of the females become victims of this cyber bulling.

• Texting: Texting is used to harass people. Using cell phones and social networking sites for instant messaging to threaten, and hassle relationship partners is increasing day by day. One in three teens in relationships has been text messaged up to 30times an hour by a partner to know where they are, what they are doing, or who they are with.

• Privacy: Most of the teenagers are not aware of the website policies when setting their profiles and they may not be even aware of disclosing the information to the third parties like the advertisers. Most of the teenagers like to post their information publicly which will affect them when the hackers or people with cruel intension may use their information for wrong purposes.

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