Search results

The purpose of this article is to provide an interview with Professor M.S. Rao.

The interview is conducted by an independent interviewer.

Professor M.S. Rao is a leadership development practitioner with over 30 years' experience. He has written 16 books, including Secrets of Your Leadership Success – The 11 Indispensable E's of a Leader, and Smart Leadership: Lessons for Leaders. In his book Soft Leadership: Make Others Feel More Important, Professor Rao advances his model for soft leadership, blending characteristics of soft skills training with traditional leadership theory. This approach is endorsed by management guru David Ulrich, who provided the foreword for the book. Professor Rao also maintains two popular blogs, http://profmsr.blogspot.com (Where Knowledge is Wealth) and http://professormsraoguru.blogspot.com (Knowledge Grows When Shared).

The paper provides useful information from a leading figure regarding soft leadership.

General Management/Strategy.

Post-graduate/MBA.

Case A: Mr Grandhi Mallikarjuna Rao, founding chairman of GMR, was considering a proposal to bid for an upcoming international airport in Hyderabad, India. The strategic move would have marked GMR’s foray into the Indian airport infrastructure sector. GMR had been involved in the development and operation of power plants and had thrived on public–private partnerships for all its projects. Mr Rao is thinking: Should GMR make another major investment in infrastructure development by bidding to build the airport in Hyderabad, India? Further, how should the organization prepare itself for this strategic move? Case B: On April 4, 2013, the meeting of GMR’s Group Executive Council (GEC) was scheduled to take place. Srinivivas Bommidala, G.M. Rao’s son-in-law and Chairman of GMR’s airports business, was gearing up for the meeting. The meeting was called to discuss a proposal for bidding for an upcoming airport project in the Philippines. It had been more than a decade since GMR entered the airport infrastructure sector. The organization had built substantial airport operating expertise during that period. It adopted a joint venture (JV) model for expanding in the airport infrastructure business. Until now, the organization had always formed JVs for all its airport projects. JVs with existing airport operators were necessitated by the bid conditions that required a certain minimum airport operating experience for qualifying as a bidder for various projects. In some cases, a JV with a local player helped GMR with market knowledge for functioning in a foreign market. GMR also used JVs to access the capabilities it lacked for operating in this sector and gradually learnt from its partners for building capabilities in-house. The group now had the required operating expertise in the sector to qualify as a bidder. One of the key issues the GEC was contemplating was: Whether GMR should continue to form JV for bidding for the upcoming project or should it go solo? Further, if it had to form a JV then, in which areas should it seek a partner?

Case A: To understand the relationship between key concepts in strategic management, including diversification, capabilities and core competence. To help students understand the various factors managers consider when deciding on the diversification strategy of an organization. To create an understanding of the organizational processes required to facilitate diversification into a new segment. To teach students how to evaluate a potential market opportunity that may require a firm to take on a diversification strategy. Case B: To help students understand how companies use alliances as growth strategies. To understand the rationale for formation of various alliances. To explore various factors managers consider when deciding on alliance strategy of an organization. To understand the challenges associated with using alliances as a strategic option. To understand the pros and cons of internal development (i.e. going solo) vis-à-vis strategic alliances.

CSS 11: Strategy.

Marine exploration is becoming an important element of pervasive computing underwater target tracking. Many pervasive techniques are found in current literature, but only scant research has been conducted on their effectiveness in target tracking.

This research paper, introduces a Shifted Rayleigh Filter (SHRF) for three-dimensional (3 D) underwater target tracking. A comparison is drawn between the SHRF and previously proven method Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF).

SHRF is especially suitable for long-range scenarios to track a target with less solution convergence compared to UKF. In this analysis, the problem of determining the target location and speed from noise corrupted measurements of bearing, elevation by a single moving target is considered. SHRF is generated and its performance is evaluated for the target motion analysis approach.

The proposed filter performs better than UKF, especially for long-range scenarios. Experimental results from Monte Carlo are provided using MATLAB and the enhancements achieved by the SHRF techniques are evident.

This paper aims to target tracking in the marine environment is typically obtained by considering the measurement parameters like frequency, elevation and bearing. Marine environmental surveillance provides critical information and assistance for the exploitation and maintenance of marine resources.

With the use of intelligent sensor techniques like Hull-mounted and towed array sensors, convenient, precise and dependable three-dimensional (3D) underwater target tracking is introduced.

This research investigates a method to develop a reliable Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF) algorithm for enhanced underwater target tracking in a 3D scenario by using bearing, frequency and elevation measurements. In applications for underwater target tracking, uncertainty and inaccuracies are typically described by using Gaussian additive noise.

The proposed UKF algorithm is tested and analyzed using 100 Monte Carlo simulations with the Gaussian generated noise.

The purpose of this paper is to achieve sanctimonious status to the soft skills discipline. It explores soft skills in global organizations and educational institutions.

This paper explains the significance of soft skills and the methods to acquire these. It differentiates between soft and hard skills with examples and illustrations. It draws a blueprint to offer soft skills program. It unveils expository strategy, guided strategy and active strategy for teaching and training soft skills.

The finding of this study reminds that the world is shifting from knowledge economy to self-knowledge economy and of the importance of soft skills with the advent of artificial intelligence. It enlightens that a judicious blend of hard and soft skills is essential for achieving professional and leadership success. It implores not only to build hard skills but also mind soft skills. It concludes that soft skills are essential for everyone from janitors to chief executives to achieve the desired outcomes.

This paper explains from the academic and organizational perspectives only.

This methodology can be applied in any industry and in any size of organization globally.

The social implications of this research suggest that educational institutions and global organizations can adopt these methods and strategies to impart and improve soft skills.

This research explores tools and techniques to measure soft skills. It encourages experiential learning to impart soft skills. It coins an innovative evaluation tool – Meka’s five-level model – to measure soft skills training. It outlines a few sample questions to measure soft skills training. It crafts course curriculum for soft skills. It unveils a list of soft skills essential for leaders.

Nowadays advancement in acoustic technology can be explored with marine assets. The purpose of the paper is pervasive computing underwater target tracking has aroused military and civilian interest as a key component of ocean exploration. While many pervasive techniques are currently found in the literature, there is little published research on the effectiveness of these paradigms in the target tracking context.

The unscented Kalman filter (UKF) provides good results for bearing and elevation angles only tracking. Detailed methodology and mathematical modeling are carried out and used to analyze the performance of the filter based on the Monte Carlo simulation.

Due to the intricacy of maritime surroundings, tracking underwater targets using acoustic signals, without knowing the range parameter is difficult. The intention is to find out the solution in terms of standard deviation in a three-dimensional (3D) space.

A new method is found for the acceptance criteria for range, course, speed and pitch based on the standard deviation for bearing and elevation 3D target tracking using the unscented Kalman filter covariance matrix. In the Monte Carlo simulation, several scenarios are used and the results are shown.

The purpose of this paper is to offer innovative tools and techniques to ensure employee engagement.

The paper outlines the reasons for employee disengagement and enlightens the advantages of employee engagement for both employees and organizations. It unfolds several research findings on employee engagement and illustrates with the examples of global companies including Cummins, DHL Express, Southwest Airlines, Google, and Virgin.

It concludes that employee engagement is a two-way street.

The tools and techniques adopted by leaders can be applied in any industry and in any size of organization.

The social implications of this research suggest that leaders can ensure employee engagement by following these innovative tools and techniques.

It implores both employers and employees to take ownership of their roles and responsibilities to achieve organizational excellence and effectiveness.

This study aims to practically determine the optimum proportion of aggregates to attain the desired strength of geopolymer concrete (GPC) and then compare the results using established analytical particle packing methods. The investigation further aims to assess the influence of various amounts of recycled aggregate (RA) on properties of low-calcium fly ash-based GPC of grade M25.

Fine and coarse aggregates were blended in various proportions and the proportion yielding maximum packing density was selected as the optimum proportion and they were compared with analytical models, such as Modified Toufar Model (MTM) and J. D. Dewar Model. RAs for this study were produced in laboratory and they were used in various amounts, namely, 0%, 50% and 100%. 12M NaOH solution was mixed with Na₂SiO₃ in the ratio of 1:2. The curing of concrete was done at the temperatures of 60° and 90 °C for 24, 48 and 72h.

The experimentally obtained optimum proportion of coarse to fine aggregate was 60:40 for all amounts of RA. Meanwhile, MTM and Dewar Model resulted in coarse aggregate to fine aggregates as 40:60, 45:55, 55:45 and 55:45, 35:65, 60:40, respectively, for 0% 100% and 50% RAs. The compressive strength of GPC elevated with the increase in curing regime. In addition, the ultrasonic pulse velocity also displayed a similar trend as that of strength.

The GPC with 50% RAs may be considered for use, as it exhibited superior properties compared to GPC with 100% RAs and was comparable to GPC with natural aggregates. Furthermore, compressive strength is correlated with split tensile strength and ultrasonic pulse velocity.

Hormonal contraceptives are complicated reproductive technologies – both biologically and socially. Deeply embedded in global political-economic agendas and historically underpinned by eugenic movements, hormonal contraceptives have a social life often beyond their intended or imagined uses. Because so much of the discussion around contraceptives focuses on their complex history and volatile present, there has been minimal space to talk about the future of hormonal contraceptives. In this chapter I show that while the past and present are complex, the future is even more so!

As the threat of climate change becomes more palpable, two key anxieties (re)surface. First, a fear around growing populations in the Global South (while in reality Total Fertility Rate (TFRs) are in decline) and second, that of a hormonal body out of sync in the face of environmental changes. Similar anxieties have historically mobilised draconian ‘family planning’ measures in countries (like India) in the first instance. And in the second instance, hormonal manipulations to find ‘balance’ in the body, as opposed to balancing (or coming to a reckoning with) contemporary environments with/in which the body exists.

This chapter is an attempt to bring to the fore the importance of studying hormonal contraceptives in environmentally unstable times. To imagine a space beyond coercion or ‘choice’ as variously imagined, when it comes to reproductive justice vis-à-vis hormonal contraception. I suggest that, just as contraceptives have allowed us access to conversations about both women's autonomy and reproductive control, they now allow us to unpack the limits and potentials of hormonal management via the hormonal contraceptive pill.