KACHARAGADLA

Last month was a quiet watershed in debt capital market history, reversing the decades-old, untrammeled legal privilege of rating agencies to express their credit views. Superficially, the cases were very different—one in Hong Kong involving emerging market corporate research, another in the state of California involving a highly structured money market type investment—but both featured substandard credit information and spillover volatility into related, non-credit markets. The essence of the California case was whether ratings are automatically protected by the American Constitution, even if negligently produced. In a nutshell, the California courts said “no.” The essence of the Hong Kong case was whether its securities regulator, the SFC, had jurisdiction over credit research published by the agencies it licenses. In a nutshell, the Hong Kong Tribunal said “yes.” On March 9, 2016, Moody’s Investors Service agreed to pay $130 MM to settle a 2009 $1 billion lawsuit by the Califo

One thing I’ve learned along my entrepreneurial journey is that business is evolutionary. Risk in particular, never really goes away. In just evolves and takes new and different forms. To understand the evolutionary nature of risk is to understand the lifecycle of your business. Good leaders understand the how risk changes and can focus their skills and efforts accordingly. While there are an infinite number of different risk phases that business will go through over the course of its life, I think that there are three main “epochs” to which every business owner can relate. Each has its set of challenges and opportunities, and it’s incredibly important for entrepreneurs to recognize where they stand about them. Existential Risk The first risk epoch is existential in nature. This occurs during the early stages of business when entrepreneurs have to prove out the viability of their product or service. During this period, the primary focus of the business is the determination of w

Reports of the death of performance reviews are exaggerated IN RECENT months the business press has reverberated with cheers for the end of performance reviews. “Performance reviews are getting sacked,” crows the BBC. They “will soon be over for all of us”, rejoices the  Financial Times . Such celebration is hardly surprising. Kevin Murphy, a performance-review guru at Colorado State University, sums up the general feeling about them: an “expensive and complex way of making people unhappy”. The problem is, they are not in fact being scrapped. A survey in 2013 by Mercer, a consulting firm, of 1,000 employers in more than 50 countries reported that 94% of them undertook formal reviews of workers’ performance each year and 95% set individual goals for employees; 89% calculated an overall score for each worker and linked pay to these ratings. It is true that a number of big companies have announced that they are abandoning annual performance reviews; this month IBM did so, joining

With Apple’s grand event expected to launch within a few weeks, rumors have surfaced over the products to be launched. Some are claiming the new iPhone would be launched along with a new iOS 10, while others are also claiming a new iPod and iPad model would also be released to the public. However for once, we are thoroughly impressed with the new iPad Pro and its applications for businesses. Combined with as much power as a small laptop, the mean machine is still in the line for all our computing needs at the moment and for the first time ever, Apple fans are also claiming the device needs no upgrade at this point in time. Here are top reasons why an iPad Pro is currently the best portable device you’d need for your business according to me: Processing power you can brag about Earlier tabs were used only for their shinier screens and browsing through media or a large display. Sure, you could also team it up with a smoother browsing experience than a small screen phone but ope

Organisational agility is a core differentiator in today’s rapidly changing business environment. Organisations should be agile enough to anticipate fundamental marketplace shifts and reshape their business priorities in response to the market movements. Thus, it is always of vital importance for companies to gauge market views of the overall business climate on the local, regional and global level before they devise and execute their business expansion plans. Top Destinations Favourable for Business Expansion According to The Executive Centre’s survey of more than 800 companies in Asia Pacific, on the global level, similar to last year’s findings, about half of the respondents expected the global economy to remain roughly the same as the previous year’s. But the level of confidence in the economic outlook for the Asia Pacific region as a whole dropped significantly, registering only 64 per cent of respondents confident or very confident in the region’s prospects for 2016, do

At the heart of successful leadership and great business is great communication. The way you communicate as a leader is important. The right tone, the right voice, the right body language--these elements are as important as the words you say, sometimes more. Having a leader who understands the principles of great communication can make the difference between a collaborative team and one that goes in circles. If we can get our communication right, we can build strong teams, be persuasive with clients and generally accelerate our business. Here are some principles to remember. 1. Customize your communication. Consistency is important, but that doesn't mean you should speak the same way to everyone. Customize your messages in light of what you know about the listener. Some people like details, some like the big picture, and some people want to hear only about the bottom line. Pay attention to their cues and tailor your communication accordingly. 2. Acti

If your company lacks the cash to survive the next six months, think about these cutting back on these nine expenses. "The First 90 Days" is a series about how to make 2016 a year of breakout growth for your business. Let us know how you're making the first 90 days count by joining the conversation on social media with the hashtag #Inc90Days.​ Stocks have plunged since 2016 dawned. It is unclear whether this plunge is a result of investor fear or its cause. But one thing seems certain: The uncertainty could spell trouble for companies seeking to raise capital from investors. If you run a company that was counting on raising capital that has been delayed due to these market conditions, you will need to tighten your company's belt. How should you do that? Here are nine costly items your company can live without. 1. Money-losing product lines. If you don't know which products are profitable and which are losing money, you need your finance departmen

Every single private coaching client who comes through our company’s doors gets the assignment to get a journal and write in it. It sounds basic and it is, but sometimes we need to get back to basics. We live in our heads. We have six or eight conversations and projects going on in our heads at any moment. We have our normal to-do list and then another list behind that one, called When I Get To It. We have our big goals and dreams to mull over and of course the daily fires that break out and have to be stomped out or drowned with buckets of water. We have way too much going on in our heads. We don’t have enough time even to register what comes into our mental inbox, much less deal with it all. I get lost in my head and my kids say “Mom, are you listening to me?” and I say “What?” which is mom-speak for “No, I’m not listening, I’m replaying a conversation from three days ago.” That’s no good. The here and now is more important than the conversation from three days ago. Kid-time is