synopsis-ci-infra-mgt-pradhuman singh-final

8/7/2019 Synopsis-CI-Infra-Mgt-Pradhuman Singh-Final

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EFFECTIVE INFRASTRUCTURE

MANAGEMENT

THROUGHCOMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE

[SYNOPSIS]

PRADHUMAN SINGH

DEPUTY MANAGER

RETAIL & CORPORATE SALES

EMAAR MGF LAND LTD



Acknowledgement

I would like to thank Dr Vikas Prakash Singh and Prof. Subir Ranjan Das from thebottom of my heart by guiding me in this most significant academic endeavor of my life. Iwould also acknowledge the support of my CEO Emaar MGF Ms Ananta Raghuvanshifor the motivation

Thanks again.

PRADHUMAN SINGH

DEPUTY MANAGER

RETAIL & CORPORATE SALES

EMAAR MGF LAND LTD



Index

1. Statement of the proposal

• Problem Statement

• Background

• Motivation/Need for the research

• Objectives

2. Research Methodology -

• Theoretical framework

• Sources of data

• Statistical tools,

• schematic flow diagram

3. Review of Literature

4. Tentative Structure / Chapter outline of the thesis

5. Bibliography

The Problem Statement

THE ORIGIN

India as a nation has witnessed unprecedented growth in the years post-Independencei.e. after 1947 in ways more than one. Although partition did have an impact on theoverall capacity of India to progress, the Nehruvian policies of pushing forward Industryand Research in Science and Technology made up for loss that occurred to the post-partition India. Till date, business and industry have sustained themselves in differentsectors with varying degree of support from the government. Besides providing cushionin terms of fiscal policies, the single most important component on which not only the



economy but the political and social security of a nation depends on, is the Infrastructureof a nation state.

THE GAP

Infrastructure, by far has been the Achilles Heel of the Republic of India when it comesto creating Competitive Advantage as an investment destination vis-à-vis other growingeconomies such as Brazil, Philippines, Ireland and especially PRC (People’s Republic of China). The visible impact of this great shortcoming translates into greater funds beingpumped into PRC from all the major corporations of the world despite the fact that Indiais a democracy and the level of transparency in various transactions is far better thanwhat exists in PRC. The direct reflection of the great gap is reflected both at the macroas well as micro level in almost all key sectors as well as sections of the Indian Nation.The national income takes a beating in ways more than one. The significant componentsof Infrastructure such a road networks, power systems, water replenishment, fuel supplychains etc are undergoing improvements at a far lesser rate than desired, in order tosupport the fundamental goal of national development. It is ironic to see a situation instates of India where one is experiencing drought and the neighboring state has a floodsituation at a distance of less than 10 kms.

THE IMPLICATIONS

More so to say, Infrastructure has great implications for strategic state of a nation ingeneral and the National Security aspect in specific. From the history of various warsfought in the numerous theatres in the past, it has become evident that Infrastructure isthe first and last line of Defence in a state of war. Also, it becomes the first target of anenemy’s first wave of assaults, due to being the basic framework of any nationsexistence. Post 9/11, it has witnessed major terrorist attacks causing unprecedenteddamage to property and life. Until sometime back telecom and Internet basedinfrastructure had been a non threatened aspect. However, even this has fallen prey tomultiple threats emanating from non-state and state sponsored actors.

Multiple shortcomings and vulnerabilities in the areas of planning, building, maintaining,securing and upgrading various infrastructure systems remains a challenge today to not

just India but a whole lot of free world democracies both in the developing as well asdeveloped nations. Despite all the engineering and management processes in place tomake things work, things continue to go wrong. Evidence suggests that there is a gapthat needs to be bridged through innovation and ingenuity, and not merely traditionalprocesses and procedures of design and development.



The Background

THE EXPERTISE

The excavations pertaining to the INDUS VALLEY CIVILISATION at Mohen-jo-daro andHarappa, presently in Pakistan, reveal the startling expertise that the society in this partof the world had in terms of planning, building, maintaining and even upgrading a civicinfrastructure system. As a Nation state from the ancient times, Indian subcontinent,which includes the states of Pakistan, Bangladesh and other confederations formed apart of a common cultural entity. There was flourishing trade from land and sea fromChinese, Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations. During the Gupta period, theroadways and the inland waterways were heavily utilized to facilitate commerce,business and industry. Never had it occurred to the erstwhile rulers and administrators



that these very passages that facilitate prosperity would bring forth with them greatcarnage and blood thirsty hordes from Eastern Europe to Central Asia.

THE INVASIONS

This loosely bound confederation of states was subjected to invasions from theKarakoram Pass other than internal conflicts. As the demographic character of thepopulation and its rulers changed, better road networks were established. Not only for movement of troops, but also reachability.In the Southern India, certain Kingdoms like the Cholas and Chalukyas had a powerfulnavy. In order to support the functioning of the military arm, sea ways also facilitatedinternal as well as external trade, in contradiction to the land routes, which otherwisebrought much carnage to the existing urban systems. In the latter half of the 9 th century,the European traders, pioneered by the Portuguese, had preferred the sea route toreach the Indian subcontinent. Although, in the later days, it proved crucial step in their colonization of India, it also opened up new channels of interaction and commercial tiesin a rapidly changing global scenario.

POST COLONIAL ERA

The British rule did bring in railways and communication systems to a vast expanse of the Indian people. The port cities of Bombay and Calcutta had assumed greater significance as commercial and political capitals of British India. Roadways in theHimalayan region improved significantly. The foundation that the British laid continues toservice the Indian masses till date.Post Independence India saw a growth in all major industrial sectors includinginfrastructure. However, on a global perspective, the Indian Infrastructure scenarioleaves a lot to be desired. India had a glorious past in terms of know-how in the fields of urban planning and architecture, as mentioned here. However, with constant invasionsand long period of Imperial and colonial occupation, the motivation to conceive and buildhad got lost down the way.

THE VOID

Undoubtedly, the impact has been very evident and self-explanatory.The government and the business and industry have recognized this fact andacknowledge the role of infrastructure as a supportive framework in the process of economic growth. Especially in a globally competitive environment, its relevanceincreases manifold.Thus, the urgency to create truly world class, state-of-the-art and future proof frameworks became more thought about than ever. How does one go about making thishappen other than just using technology, labour and capital is a burning issue whichneeds to be addressed immediately.



Motivation / The need for the research

THE NEED OF THE HOUR

India ,as a nation of more than a billion, is in a dire need of infrastructure framework thatcan not only complement but also sustain the 6.5 - 7.0 % Annual Growth Rate for adeveloping economy in a recovering global market. The greatest hurdle that almost allindustries as well as the government encounter is India’s current state of Infrastructureas well as its management. Huge spending on energy as well as its subsequentwastage takes a toll on the overall national income going waste. With the global



warming issue fast catching the attention of the whole world, the cleaner, leaner andgreener alternatives must be explored.

INFRASTRUCTURE-THE NEW DEFINITION

A few years ago, infrastructure referred to solid structures that were very much visibleand almost stationary in nature pertaining to their size and magnitude. Whether it wasthe roadways or the railway lines, buildings or ports, infrastructure was being implied toas something that a civil engineer does, i.e. built structures of steel, brick and concrete.However, today in the age of knowledge, Information and Communication Technology or ICT has taken a lead and thus forms a significant component of overall infrastructuresystems. Be it the Optical fiber networks or the satellites above the earth’s atmosphere,infrastructure evolves into a more dynamic picture of it selves. Thus, infrastructureassumes a much broader scope than what it used to in the era prior to ICT age.

INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT

Earlier, the systems being primarily static in nature, there was never a significantapplication of technology and management except the construction and maintenancepart. However, with newer threats emerging from terrorism as well as natural disasters,technologies like smart sensors as well as intelligent devices make operations of keycomponents of infrastructure much more streamlined and safer. This in turn, helps in

robust administration and management of infrastructure systems better than ever.Eventual translation into superior end user servicing thus becomes the goal of technology integrated management.

COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE-SEEING THE UNSEEN

Identification of threats as well a pre-emption may have been military terms until theindustry realized the significance of competition mapping as well as threat management.Threats emanate not merely from market or competition, but also the likely scenarios of

political, social and economic future near and far. Mere usage of mathematicalforecasting tools based on quantitative inputs may prove futile, if not backed by seriousand in depth insight into all possible scenarios from best case to worst case. CompetitiveIntelligence is a comprehensive system that fills this gap.



Objectives

IDENTIFICATION OF BEST PRACTICES

Within the Infrastructure sector, there are certain key processes and procedures thathave proven their effectiveness over a period of time. These methods need to be takennote of and thus documented, so that they can be studied upon and their applicationmay be done in other areas where other modes of action have not succeeded.

ACHIEVING AND SUSTAINING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE



While Competitive Advantage may be created through various strategies fromdifferentiation to pricing, it is sustaining that headway for a considerable period of time,is again, the single most challenging task. In order to build a lasting capability to winover competition, the unexplored areas would be identified and looked into.

CREATING INTELLIGENCE MODELS FOR A SMART INFRASTRUCTURE

Being in the ICT scenario of today, it is important to make the full use of availableresources that facilitate inflow of credible information to assist decision making andprompt action in real time. How the available technology can help create and moreimportantly manage infrastructure systems making them more intelligent and responsiveto the ever changing requirements of the end user is to be covered.

COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE APPLIED-THE INDIAN WAY

While Competitive Intelligence is heavily being made use of in the global markets inorder to achieve the minimal wafer thin margins, in India, most organizations areunaware of this very phrase. Certain organizations, such as Royal Dutch have broughttheir model from the parent markets, applied it and reaped the benefits of the same. Itsability to propel the growth of the infrastructure sector in India is yet to be fully utilized. CIhas been used as a tool of state policy in powerful nation states of PRC, USA andFrance extensively.

THE NATIONAL SECURITY PERSPECTIVE

Other than furthering a nation’s industrial and economic prowess, infrastructure is alsothe first line of defense. An absence of proper road network and accessibility to the Indo-Tibetan border regions had been responsible for the debacle of 1962. Other than that,

the possibility of looking into natural gas supply lines from Central Asia need to beexamined so as to minimize one’s dependence on sources of other fossil fuels whichindirectly fund the elements that threaten the national security.

THE RURAL MARKETS



Although last but not the least, the rural markets played a significant role in cushioningthe effects of recession. Its time they got their due attention. Schemes like PradhanMantri Gram Sadak Yojana and NREGA are all good work but there is a lot of room leftfor betterment.

Theoretical Framework

Early Warning System :

• Anticipating changes in the environment through a structured mapping of the

organisation’s landscape to help identify the critical key factors .• With the help of competitive early warning, decision makers can take timely and

relevant strategic action.

• Competitive early warning system can provide a base from which theenvironment can be better predicted ; A systematic process of gathering and



analyzing data , based on several indicators defined by the organisation andprepared after reviewing the different key factors in a specific environment .

There are two types of Competitive Early Warning Systems;

a) Proactive implies a two step approach .First seek and make choices about issuesthat are relevant for the organisation’s future, and then introduce those issuesinto the system of continuous monitoring.

b) Reactive approach takes a radar view of monitoring the environment, looking for unexpected changes that could result in losing out on the competitive advantage.

The changes identified by Competitive Early warning systems in the environment canbe perceived to identify the risk or the source of potential conflict with the organisationobjectives or it can be considered a business opportunities. A threat can become anopportunity if known well in advance and dealt with properly.

Scenario Planning :

• The knowledge of scenario planning is based upon the Human imagination andknowledge.

• A scenario planning process leverages uniquely Human capabilities; define thescope of the situation temporally and conceptually, identify the major stakeholders, identify the basic trends and identify the key uncertainties.

• The human mind excels in extrapolating and generalising from the experienceand making creative leaps.

Competitive Benchmarking:

• Competitive benchmarking is a tool of analysis to identify the weakness and toimprove our performance to overtake competition.

• A synthesis of analysis and stakeholder research provides valuable answers for understanding how they measure up to their competitors on a range of factorsfrom financial performance and management accessibility to other factors onemay identify for competitive benchmarking.



• Competitive benchmarking helps one manage our corporate reputation and brandimage by measuring the penetration of our proactive communications efforts,share of voice, favourability, and thought leadership perceptions compared to apeer group.

War-gaming:

• War Gaming is a role playing simulation of a competitive marketplace.

• It is used for general management training and team building or a tool to exploreand test competitive strategies for a specific firm to discover any weaknesses in aplan and to identify possible consequences of adopting such a plan.

• The idea of war gaming is to gain a perspective of the marketplace from outsidetheir own firm.

• The basic aim of a war game is to turn information into actionable intelligence byincreasing the quality of decision making.

• A business war game allows experimentation with new strategic directionswithout incurring real world costs and so widens the range of strategic planningoptions a firm may be willing to adopt.

Competitive Technical Intelligence (CTI):

• CTI is the process of identification of threats and opportunities emerging fromTechnological change in one’s environment and competition.

• In the Information age CTI has even touched the lives of organisations that uselittle or no technology as well.

• For organisations that are build upon knowledge and technology, CTI is a cuttingedge system that helps them gain insight inwards as well as obtain competitiveadvantage upfront in the market.

External Technology Watch

• Pioneered by Chevron, this is a more competitor-centric version of CTI where

newer technologies are learned and developed upon by gaining cues from marketas well as competition.

Sources of data

• DATA GATHERING



It is highly likely that maximum data sources will be secondary in nature. Due to ahigh degree of Information Security being exercised by organizations, mostorganizations would not part with their key processes and procedures that givethem short term or long term competitive advantage. However, all the data that isavailable in the open source will be acquired as and when available.

– AVAILABLE TEXTS ON Infrastructure Management(IM) & CompetitiveIntelligence (CI)

Some of the key texts for CI have already been mentioned in the Bibliography.There is ample literature available on Competitive Intelligence, all by non-Indianauthors. The same cannot be said for infrastructure since the texts are either centered on civil engineering or IT Infrastructure. However, pertaining to thecurrent scenario, some data will be collected on Infrastructure from Primarysources themselves.

– INTERNET

Internet by far may not be the most reliable source of data, however some ideamay be sought for further precision. Certain publications or new items will proveuseful on web based newspaper tabloids and discussion forums.

– OTHER SECONDARY SOURCES

Publications by International Consultants such as Jones Lang La Salle Meghraj,CB Richard Ellis, Knight Frank as well as Research organizations like India

Infrastructure would be utilized.• FEASIBLE SITE VISITS

Certain projects that are unique in nature would demand a site visit. If permitted,overseas projects would also be studied on site.

• PERSONAL INTERVIEWS WITH KEY PERSONNEL FROM INDUSTRY ANDACADEMICS

One to one meetings with executives who have been managing infrastructure in

their respective industries would be sought. Also, interactions with the academicsthat have been on the forefront of research in infrastructure would be tremendousutility.

• SURVEY

To be mentioned on the sampling page.



• INFORMATION GENERATED AT THE PARENT ORGANISATION AND UPES

The parent organization i.e. Emaar MGF has been on the forefront of building keyresidential and retail projects. With access to tenders and other businessproposals, an idea of the shape of things would be obtained. At UPES, access to

University faculty as well as the library would be optimally utilized.

• INFORMATION ACCESSED FROM OTHER ORGANISATIONS ANDUNIVERSITIES

Key collaborators and contractors who work for competitors as well as publicsector documentation available in the public domain will be made use of.Interaction with students and former colleagues would facilitate greater insight.

Sampling

- Most of the data collection would be secondary in nature. However, wherever thespecific need arises, primary collection would be sought.



PRIMARY DATA COLLECTION

OBSERVATION METHOD

- Certain primary data will be gathered by observation method.

QUESTIONNAIRE

- Structured questionnaire would be prepared in case wherever specific informationis sought.

o Identification of required data

o Preparation of questionnaire

o Testing of questionnaire

o Editing required

SAMPLING METHODS

- Wherever primary data needs to be collected, both Random as well as Non-Random Sampling may be used as per convenience and degree of accuracysought.

- (A) In case where Random Sampling is used, Simple Random Sampling throughlottery method will be carried out.



- (B) In case of Non-Random Sampling, Judgment Sampling will be carried out.

Statistical tools

• A judicious use of all the data representation devices will be made use of, as and

when required.

A) Numerical Data will be collated in simple tabular form

• The tools that may be used for visual representation would find usage in acomparative analysis.

A) Histograms/Bar Diagrams will be used wherever there is a comparativeanalysis carried out with respect to each other. eg Annual Revenues.

B) Subsequent frequency polygon would be plotted.

C) Pie diagrams will be used to represent fractional quantities. egrespective market share of various infra organizations.

• Whenever variation in one variable is ascertained with respect to another,correlation analysis and Karl Pearson’s coefficient for the same may becalculated.



• Probability distribution and forecasting based on interpolation may be predicted.

Schematic flow diagram

o Study of various aspects of

Competitive Intelligence

o its business applications in

sectors other than

Infrastructure

o Study of existing

Infrastructure Sector

o Gap identification in current

Infrastructure Management

o Creating CI based modules to

fill the Gaps

o Building a robust CI framework

for Infrastructure Management

Start

End



Review of Literature

- While there may have been various studies carried out on Infrastructure relatedissues, there has been very little or none carried out in the field of CompetitiveIntelligence.

- In the global context, amongst the few case studies done, there have beencertain organisations which are engaged in Infrastructure related businesses or functions.

- Not only organisations, but also countries have been using CompetitiveIntelligence as a tool of state policy.

- For Instance, the Department of Competitive Intelligence in France or L’Intelligence Économique reports directly to the President’s office due to itssignificance.

- In countries like PRC or People’s Republic of China, there has been an unethicalusage of CI thus making it Industrial and Technical Espionage.

- However, in case of Japan, organisations like JETRO and MITI constantlyengage in the same for economic superiority keeping ethics in place.



- In the Indian context, no organisation practices Competitive Intelligence in anorganised manner since most of the organisations in India look inwards for guidance with the exception of Royal Dutch Shell India Ltd.

- The Indian government so far has refrained from using this model of ethical and

legal mode of accessing Competitor Information, however the Ministry of Externalaffairs continues to assist the Indian Industries investing abroad.

- The Competitive rivalry between Boeing and Airbus has targeted the Indianmarket in the recent times.

- Currently, the biggest defence deal in the world today that involves the sale of 127 Medium Multi-role Combat Aircrafts(MMRCA) to the Indian Air Force hasbeen a major exercise in Competitive Intelligence where the players have pitched

their respective products to the Indian Ministry of Defence, namely being

o Boeing: FA/18 Raptor (US)

o Lockheed Martin: F-16 Falcon (US)

o Dassault Systems: Rafael (France)

o Saab: Gripen (Sweden)

o Eurofighter (UK, Germany, Spain, Italy)



(A) Following Organisations employ a dedicated CI function.

(B) The summary of their respective capabilities is given below.

IBM

Key Points:

• CEO’s Aspects

o Customer Base At Risk

o Loss Of Market Share

• Response

o Improve Customer Relationship

o Sharpen focus on Competition

• Developed Resident Experts called Virtual CI Teams



o Need Of leaders for Virtual CI Team to Focus and Direction

o Every Aspect of competition needed to be assessed

o Quick communication was need of the hour for strategic purpose

o Expertise to know how to motivate to maximum level

o CI amalgamation with strategy with tactics

• IBM was to analyse and treat the information so that it can be used to make rightstrategic decision at the right time before the competition or as an offensive tacticto a competitive positioning.

Key Result : Greater customer reachability

Royal Dutch Shell

• Convergence of Competitive Intelligence and Knowledge Management.

• The 3 Major Components are:

o Level set components

o Research components

o Knowledge Management components.

• Areas catered to

o Demographics and Statistics

o Financial Comparisons

o Emerging markets study

o Investment analysis

o Executive Hiring



Key Result : Better Business Integration

Xerox Corp

• Integration of CI into Project design and development.

Best Practices

o Decentralizing Intelligence networks to leverage experience, expertise and

resources across the organization

o Incorporating IT to help collect, sort , organize and disseminate vast amount of

intelligence in Public domain

o Interrelating customer needs, feedback evaluation and implementation to

maximize CI usage.

o Using analytical frameworks to test Hypothesis and develop

recommendations.

Key Result : More competitive and robust products.

The other organisations that have successfully applied the CI model are as follows:

(A) Proctor & Gamble

(B) Motorola Corp

(C)Daimler Chrysler

(D)Astra Zeneca Pharma

(E) Lexis-Nexis

(F) Deloitte Consulting

References

1) Society for Competitive Intelligence Professionals(SCIP) Journal 2001-2005



Tentative Structure

(Chapter outline of the thesis)

1. Introduction

2. Synopsis

3. Current Issues

4. Competitive Intelligence

5. Competitive Intelligence applied

6. Infrastructure Sector

7. Infrastructure Management Practices

8. Gap identification

9. Competitive Intelligence based Solutions

10. Comparative analysis of ideal CI frameworks

11. Bibliography

12. Appendix



BIBLIOGRAPHY

1) The Arthashastra by Kautilya

2) The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi (Translated by Victor Harris)

3) The Art of War by Sun Tzu (Translated by Lionel Giles)

4) The Tao-te-Ching by Lao Tse (Translated by James Legge)

5) Competitive Intelligence by Larry Kahaner

6) Business and Competitive Analysis by Craig S. Fleisher and Babette E.

Bensoussan

7) The Red Queen among Organisations by William P. Barnett

8) Proven Strategies in Competitive Intelligence by John E. Prescott and Stephen H.

Miller

9) Early Warning by Ben Gilad

10) Competitive advantage of nations by Michael Porter

11) Competitive Strategy by Michael Porter

12) Competitive Intelligence for the Competitive Edge by Alan Dutka

13) Executive Intelligence by Justin Menkes

14) Scenario Planning: The Link Between Future And Strategy by MatsLindgren, Bruce Pilbeam & Hans Bandhold



15) The Art of the Long View by Peter Schwartz

16) Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman

17) Competitive Advantage through Information Technology by Jack D

Callon

18) Monthly Publications from India Infrastructure.

19) Leveraging the new Infrastructure by Peter Weill

NOTE: More books will be added in the Final Thesis.

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