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It was October 8, 2007. The venue was CCR, Chennai – The Mighty Satyam Computer Services Ltd.’s tall stood near Nandanam Signal near The Park Sheraton. It was the first day of my career. The Induction in The Deccan Plaza, Opening up of bank accounts, Formal talk by great leaders who heads many IBUs now…were held.

After 2 years, today…after a small get together, when i look back my days…Many have changed, the people, their characteristics, the company, the leaders etc…etc…The once funfilled batch have become very dry…Many running for Walkins, Many struggling to crack CAT, Many attending the CAT classes and so and so…I feel only few were satisfied with my company…Are they demotivated? definitely not…

When i entered chennai i got X Rs as annual package, and so far nothing was changed in my salary except a few thousands. but what about inflation?

I remember that i had a quality unlimited food for Rs 22 on those days [Before 2 years], Chapathi 6 Rs. Dosa 6 Rs. and the price tag now is,

Meals – 32 Rs.
Chapathi – 10 Rs.
Paratha – 20 Rs [Previously 12 Rs]
Dosa – 9 Rs.

So, in order to meet up the needs, you have to climb up the ladder. Thats why people are hunting the jobs like anything…in chennai.

I really wonder about a company which have presence in Coimbatore is offering X rs in Chennai for certain role and X+Y Rs for same role in coimbatore…

It’s time for me to rethink about my decision after a week…

It was on October 2, 2009 evening, the crowd started flowing in. The stalls were open in CMS [Chennai Marg Square] Location of Mahindra Satyam. Stalls ranged from Bangles Shop, Parrot Astrology to Photo Exhibition. I haven’t visited every stall as i had work till that morning from previous day and i came late to office during evening as my shift was from 5:00 PM – 2:00 AM.

There was snacks shops from vada, pav etc… For kids, there were lot of items to enjoy right from tall people who tied some sticks inside their foot and rose upto half the coconut tree and started to walk in the premises. and they were professional walkers…Poikal Kudirai aattam was there…and a lot to name here.

There was a Magic show from Tirunelveli Raja…which was thoroughly enjoyed by Kids as well as the families of MSat.

Kids enjoying the Magic Show during MSat Family Day

It’s again a memorable day for MSat as the lost celebrations were slowly returning. We miss our old friends and colleagues whom we befriended here at the same place an year ago. Eventhough the attendees were in a large number, it didn’t outplaced the yester year’s crowd.

The Bold Pink Kid, Who sung, danced and participated in Magic Show

The Pink Kid whom i mentioned in the above photograph, has really rocked the stage. First i saw her on the stage when the magician called a kid who should be a bold girl. After the show with some scary magics which she never fear for, she came up again with a fantastic and sentimental song from Autograph, “Ovvoru Pookalume” and again she came up to stage for “Vaala Meenukkum ” song for a extremely fantastic dance along with Deepika, An Associate of Satyam.

I couldn’t click some of the rare photos as i didn’t noticed my battery for the camera was already drown.

Vincy Joseph presented the show very well, and for the people who know Vincy, i don’t have to tell or Praise about her. She’s an extremely talented and elegant lady who can influence anybody as she makes a strong presence in all minds in a very professional way.

I shall notice all Big People of MSat Chennai yesterday along with their families. SAP Global Head, GM’s Global Delivery Head, GM’s Global Head, Chevron Global Head and many were there along with their kids and families.

Eventhough everything was arrange perfectly, something was missing yesterday. That’s the Josh we had as Satyam Computer Services during yesteryear’s celebrations.

Anyway the ship is meant for sailing and it’s doing so forth…

Some snaps i clicked yesterday…forgive me..i had a very bad camera yesterday…:-)

During the Magic Show

The Pink Kid

The Stage

Finally, Vincy managed to get some very young babies who have just forgotten the smell of Milk. They started to sing and speak on the stage. The lights were set off as those kids shouldn’t get afraid. One kid started to cry when the Mic he hold was asked to return. It was really fantastic to watch as the parents had tougher time in returning the mic given to those kids. Some were singing, some were singing Rhymes, some were speaking something, some started to run in the stage joyously….Hope i should be here until the next year’s celebrations.

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF ANUPAMA BUGATHA, 39, Assistant Vice President (Manufacturing)

After dropping her two kids at school, Anupama Bugatha is at Satyam’s Chennai office by 9 a.m. Straightaway, she ploughs through the 50-odd e-mails waiting for her in her in-box. That done, Bugatha gets on the phone to talk to her accounts department for some invoices that need to be raised. It’s the beginning of the month and she is busy billing customers for the work done the previous month. Some of her colleagues from the onsite team are here today and she goes into a quick meeting with them. It’s an action-packed day, and Bugatha is having a good time. One reason why she joined Satyam via Sundaram-Clayton (two years) and TCS (six) was that, back in 1998, “it was a smaller organisation that was growing rapidly and one that would offer enough opportunities for growth”. And grow she has. From a project leader back then to an Assistant Vice President in the manufacturing vertical, with 150 people reporting to her. A computer science student, Bugatha now works more like a venture capitalist, responsible for multiplying ’shareholder’ wealth. As you must have guessed, she, as the ‘VC’, has five CEOs reporting to her. Their five units are among the 1,500 entities that are run like independent businesses with their own P&L accounts. But Bugatha wants to go farther. She is currently pursuing an MBA programme sponsored by her employer. So, by half-past seven in the evening, she’s walking out of the office door, but there may be a call or two to handle later in the evening. And going by her purposeful strides, you can tell that she’s eager to get back to work.

Importantly for Satyam, all its people initiatives seem to be making a difference. “I think the one thing we have achieved at Satyam now is making the entire set of people in the company aware of the business fundamentals. The focus has today shifted from a culture of manning a project to owning a project,” says A.S. Murthy, Director and Senior VP (Leadership Development Group). This is accomplished partly by an in-house handbook called ‘SatyamWay’, which forms the welcome kit for new employees and explains Satyam’s business fundamentals, and its aspirations and goals. The Leadership Development Group was created in April this year to give greater focus to leadership development. Murthy, who was earlier heading HR, was made its head and reports directly to Chairman Raju.

Like Hari points out, “It is important to generate business leaders at a pace that matches the business growth (which is 30 per cent per annum)”. Globally, he says, the industry tends to have only 50 per cent of the business leaders it needs at any given point. Satyam’s attempts at creating 1,500 business leaders, then, seems like a good strategy. Retaining them will require an even better strategy.

http://archives.digitaltoday.in/businesstoday/20061105/cover8.html

In any large accomplishment, Team work is the essential key for an astonishing success.

Every now and then, i have used wordpress for blogging. But i never wondered who is behind the WordPress. The thought arose me today. For the people who doesn’t have heard of Matt Mullenweg, the folowing paragraph is an introduction on him.

Matt is an ultracool enterpreneur [ I've seen some videos of him]. A former CNET employee. University Dropout. A guy who was rumoured to turned down a takeover of his Blog Czar for some millions. Founder of Automattic. Employees around a three digit heads mostly of open source freaks. Then what else??? i have to dedicate my entire day to write about him eventhough i didn’t met him or personally know him…

Matt is in wordpress. Matt is in Twitter. And http://ma.tt/ is his blog .

Its definitely a worth to visit his blog. A snapshot of it below…

Matt's Blog Page

It’s a clean chit passed to CBI…Come to power…get the people you want…who obey and wave their tail for their entire life for the promotion they got…do some idiotic name in the favour of person in command…in the name of loyalty and get the retirement as soon as possible…

Its the same department which had Mr. Karthikeyan and Mr.Raghavan once.

In January 2006, it was found that CBI had quietly unfrozen bank accounts of Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi, one of the prime accused in the Bofors scandal of 1986 which had tainted the Rajiv Gandhi government.[3] The Central Bureau of Investigation has been responsible for the inquiry into the Bofors Case. Associates of the late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi were linked to alleged pay-offs made in the mid-1980s by the Swedish arms form AB Bofors, with $40 million in kickbacks moved from Britain and Panama to secret Swiss banks. The $1,300 million arms purchase of 410 howitzer field guns involved in the sale were reported to be inferior to those offered by a French competitor.

“The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which defreezed Rs 21 crore stashed in a London bank in two accounts held by Bofors scam accused Ottavio Quattrocchi and his wife Maria in 2006, has facilitated his travel across the globe by asking Interpol to take him off the “wanted” list on 29 Apr 2009. Following a communication from the CBI, the Interpol has withdrawn the Red Corner Notice against the Italian. The development that comes barely three weeks before the end of the Manmohan Singh government’s tenure has brought back the issue of the Bofors scandal to the centre stage.” – source – Wikipedia

It is same CBI which have launched the case against Rajiv Gandhi & Gov [I don't even like to add a Mr. before his name] for the commissioned play between a country which have 100 Cr people. Didn’t Rajiv Gandhi thought this as a matter concerned with national security. I believe that the end for him was in a right way that means a end through security lapse for a guy who mistook and mishandled the people’s money.

Prime Minister and his cabinet is so much loyal towards the Gandhi family. It’s just a shame on him. CBI’s responsible ministry reports directly to PM. Did he thought that the pay and fees paid for handling this case is costlier than the amount paid for this business man.

Beware India…There is one more foreign lady being added up to Gandhi Family. That might allow another foreigner to loot our land’s money.

Humble Request to BJP and Communist Party of India. Please make a rule that disallows a foreigner or a fellow citizen through foreign roots shouldn’t hold a single post in government / Politics. Please make it…Atleast our future generation will be in the shadow of better leaders!!!

It was around 3:00 PM evening on 19th September, 2008. The day i got a call from the prestigious client of our Satyam computer Services Ltd. I couldn’t believe myself that i got a telephonic view call from Fortune 6 Client. I went into meeting hall with a paper and a pen and have answered most of the questions from Struts, Java, JSP, Servlets JDBC etc…I was asked to come to our Karapakkam location immediately. On the way i remember that i prayed to a goddess on the way [near OMR tollgate].

The original situation was, i have been eliminated by Honda’s first interview, I didn’t prefered to attend Honda’s second interview as i was hesitating then to work for Japanese client, Because of my attitude, i got rejected by Caterpillar [We have argued over the opensource and monopoly of microsoft in the interview which i regretted for it later. I turned down the offer to get into SBI Project. I was eagerly waiting for getting into Railcorp or eBay at that time. Railcorp recruited experienced whereas eBay project was in pipeline for a longer period. it was almost 8 months in bench for me...from february till september...

That was the period that i was desperately looking for some project. I was ready to even sweep the floors of satyam at that time. I feared for not getting into project. My confidence started to melt at that time. when i got the call i spoke very confidently with an aim that i should definitely get that project.

Another important thing was i became very senior in bench at that time excluding the laterals[experienced]. The guys who worked along with me during learning center days too got into the projects. infact, i was ashamed of myself. but i grabbed the final opportunity. I wonder if i haven’t grabbed that opportunity i would have gone out of satyam without project experience and don’t even find time like this to blog…after completing my night shifts.

Coming back to the point where i left with prayers….it was sweet surprise that i had no more rounds of interviews and was directly introduced to my Project Manager and then introduced to our Front Office Manager Todd from Canada.

The next three months were really hectic…Without knowing what a client project is, without knowing a design pattern i got a KT on the application for just half an hour and was asked to work on it from monday.

My PL told me that since it’s my first project, she gave me the easiest module to me. i have used to standalone java programs and very small web applications. but its a massive web application for entire Fortune 6 Client’s canada division. I read through the SRS, AOD etc..etc… finally thought that i should complete it at any cost. The funniest thing was nobody knew the real complexity of it.

My fellow teammates were 1. Experienced lady from Verizon who worked for Honda in Satyam 2. An Experienced guy from Virtusa 3. DBA of 8 yrs exp with profile inclusion of Polaris and a retail & logistics. 4. Another guy from Honda Project 5. Karunya university’s 2007 year gold medalist 6. Another experienced women 7. Another ELTP like me and then PL and PM.

The Canadian Manager’s language seems to be an non-english for me. I got a lot of scoldings from my PL and infact i was verymuch afraid of my PL then. later when deadline crossed [8 days time for 2800 hrs estimated work:D] i complained to my PM that i couldn’t withstood the pressure and stress from PL. She told not to speak publicly as it might spoil the team’s reputation. later it was divided and identified it was the toughest part of entire project and finally the whole team worked on it and we even make it a success finally after a lot of escalations.

During the project i had an average sleep of 3-5 hrs per day including the weekends. I along with few others were retained for warranty phase from january to march. It was on January 7, when we went for official break i.e. team outing for a movie ‘Vaaranam Ayiram’ and returned, we were informed of resignation of our then chairman Mr.Raju.

After that incident we suffered a series of blows and unexpected happenings beyond anybody’s imagination. Yes. Satyam was believed to be ‘no more’. There were series of emails, signboards etc…which really boosted many people like me to work beyond our capacity. We were provoked by own competitors.

The rest is history. I have tried to thank personally to Honorable Former Corporate Minister Shri PC Gupta but i couldn’t get his email id. I was able to wish the speaker when he announced his retirement from politics but couldn’t thank CA Minister.

Later i moved to same project’s Maintainence and Support Team which i am working on it still. Our project got its termination letter during February and during November its going to signoff officially. Everybody was poached by Capgemini. Many agreed on the fears that they dont have future here. They have families to run and kids to take care. I, being a bachelor rejected the offer on my wish for working for Mahindra Satyam until it is stabilized. I got a 10% hike even during the toughest time[So Called by Profitable Companies] + 20k signing bonus and a guarantee of considerable hike during january appraisal theirs. I went to their office and had a discussion with their Regional Delivery Manager and HR. They have even communicated my discussion to my present FLCLs and asked whether i have accepted the offer. I had a discussion with our Delivery Manager who insisted me to join CG. My FLCL [PM's Manager] insisted me to join. My PM told me he couldn’t believe that i didnot joined. Everyone looked at me with a question that why this guy is so crazy? but poor people doesn’t believe that Mahindra Satyam doesn’t depend upon a single client’s project. We still have Fortune 6 Client’s direct projects, Fortune 6 Client’s Projects partnered with HP.

Within 365 days i have faced a lot more than noted above. I cherish my every experience here. I would like to taste that sweeter time here and it is not too far. I am glad to show how i have many good friends who send emails whenever they see a happy news about Mahindra Satyam. I am blessed to have such friends. Our employer is blessed to have such well wishers allover India who are connected with Mahindra Satyam in no means.

A Wellwisher intimating a goodnews to me.

Read from Bottom Up – as per the time stamp. His tweets on his remarks “Cattle Class”.

# ShashiTharoor i now realize i shldnt assume people will appreciate humour. &u shouldn’t give those who wld wilfully distort yr words an opportnty to do so11:56 PM Sep 17th from web

# Shashi Tharoor i’m told it sounds worse in Malayalam, esp out of context. To those hurt by the belief that my repeating the phrase showed contempt: sorry11:54 PM Sep 17th from web

# Shashi Tharoor it’s a silly expression but means no disrespect to economy travellers, only to airlines for herding us in like cattle. Many have misunderstd11:47 PM Sep 17th from web

# Shashi Tharoor learned belatedly of fuss over my tweet replying to journo’s query whether i wld travel to Kerala in “cattle class”. His phrase which i rptd11:46 PM Sep 17th from web

# Shashi Tharoor Mine was 1st Indn ministerial visit in 38 yrs. Africa is a real priority for us and presence is the best way to prove it. Brought bsns delgn11:45 PM Sep 17th from web

# Shashi Tharoor India offers help in capacity-bldg, training, trade, investment & IT. Donated 25 buses and 2 “hole-in-the-wall” computer educn centres.11:43 PM Sep 17th from web

# Shashi Tharoor terrific mtgs today with President Sirleaf and most of her Cabinet. India extends hand of friendship & solidarity as Liberia rebuilds11:39 PM Sep 17th from web

# Shashi Tharoor Warm welcome from Foreign Minister and 25 minute mtg at airport immediately upon landing. Dinner w Indian community ldrs (1500 desis here!)11:38 PM Sep 17th from web

# Shashi Tharoor Greetings from Monrovia! it took all 24 hours on Wed 16th to get here from Delhi, hence no tweets. Blackberry doesn’t work in Liberia either11:37 PM Sep 17th from web

Assets gained by an Ex-CM in his 5 years as Ex Chief Minister

* Raheja Corporation land allocation for Infrastructure ( 200 acres in first phase and 300 acres in second phase)- EX CM’s son gets 50 percent share
* 500 acres in the 1000 acres allocation to Gangavaram port
* Brahmani Steels investment – Rs.40,000 crore – EX CM’s son gets 50 percent stake
* Indu and Brahmani Infotech companies get 250 acres with 50 percent stake to EX CM’s son.
* Rs.3500 crore investment for a six million tones Cement factory at Kamalapuram in Kadapa district.
* Rs.6000 crore Hydro electric project -1200 MW in Sikkim – EX CM son gets 50 per cent stake
* 1000 acres bought in and around Bangalore – land cost Rs.Three crore per acre.
* Rs.250 crore commercial complex on Bannerghatta Road in Bangalore
* 25 acres land in Hyderabad, Kukkapally Housing Board location.
* 90 acres in benami bought in IT corridor area of Gacchibowli .
* 151 acres of granite mining lands in Prakasam district ,Cheemakurthi (world famous for its black and gold granite stone ) in benami company (Gimpex ).
* Mauritius shell companies 2 I Capital , Flury Emerging Capital purchase 125 crore worth shares in Sandur Power Ltd -
* Benami subsidiaries : Bhagavat Sannidhi, Carmel Asia Holdings, Harish Infra, Classic Realty, Janani Infra,Marvel Infra ,SiliconBuilders, Capstain Infra, Shalome Infra, Inspire Hotels
* Purchase of Assigned lands -1000 acres in Kandur village and 500 acres in Chitwel village of Kadapa district
* Sakshi , newspaper with EX CM’s son as chairman with investment of Rs.600 crore.
1. 40 companies from Kolkatta, Gujarat, Chennai, Bangalore,Maharashtra invest in Sakshi venture
2. Such unheard of investments from all over India in a Telugu news paper venture .
3. Two investors in Sakshi – Artilians Bioinnovations and Stocknet International listed in global stock markets- the share priced at less than Rs. One and promoters stake only 0.3 percent
4. But both companies pay premium of Rs.350 for Sakshi scrips .
5. All companies which invested in Sakshi and Jagati publications get Government projects – Vanpic,SEZ,Mining licenses.
6. Price Waterhouse Cooper ( PwC) of Satyam Computers Scam fame are auditors of Jagati Publications.
7. PwC certifies that Sakshi has a circulation of 12 lakhs daily to beget Govt Ads .
8. AP Govt giving Ads to Sakshi without ABC certificates.

* Ex EX CM’s son has 50 percent stake in Rs.1200 crore 3000 MW power project in Arunachal Pradesh in collaboration with the AP Genco and M/s Athena Power energy and Ventures pvt Ltd .
* Tandla Solutions , another benami unit of EX CM’s son purchased 250acres in Ranga Reddy district with an investment of Rs.500 crore.
Illegal occupation of thousands of acres in Kadapa District
* Though owned only 120 acres in Idupulapaya Estate EX CM family grabbed over 1000 acres and built a compound wall .All these lands belonged to assigned lands of poor, tank bed lands, temple lands, forest lands and even roads .
* 1000 acres in Kondur village and 500 acres in Chitwel village in illegal occupation of EX CM’s family.
* Bungalow constructed at Pulivendula over 5 acres land at a cost of Rs.Three crore.

Y.S.V Reddy

* Chief Ministers brother and Ex MP from Kadapa constructed a complex over 2000 sq yard land in front of Hitech City in Madhapur worth Rs.25 crore belonging to Ghatkesar Gurukul Trust and rented to a software
company .

Y V S Reddy

* Buillt a Hydro project on Tungabhadra river near Rajolibanda diversion location and affected drinking water source for Mahbubnagar district .
* Encroached 1000 sq yards of Jublee enclave of Jaibheri in the name of Swarnalatha Reddy and illegal lay out approved over surplus land declared .

CM’s brother S Reddy ( son-in-law of C C Reddy , Govt Advisor)

* He is a partner in a project for mining Illuminate mineral extraction from beach sand in North coastal Andhra coast in collaboration with an Switzerland company Bothlitrade Inc .

B. Y Reddy (YS cousin)

* Reports of embezzlement of Rs. 2.60 Crore in the Yuvraj Chit funds by Yuvraj Reddy.

R Reddy, brother-in law of YS

* Tried to grab farm lands in Denduluru village of West Godavari district in the name of setting up a fertilizer factory .
* He was instrumental in getting the irrigation contract of Sarvarayasagar-Vamikonda -Galeru nagari second phase works to IVRCL through Gamon India ltd.
* Encroached 3084 sq.ds of land in Survey No 67 of Madhapur ( IT corridor ) , regularization as land of Kothaguda instead of Madhapur.

EX CM’s relatives (Biradari)

* Four acres of land worth Rs. 50 crore in Pokkalavada of Manikonda in Rajendranagar Mandal of R R District given to close relatives of YS in the name of Genus Sajarath Ministries for setting up a Orphanage and Old
age home, prayer hall and recreation at a lease of just Rs. 40,000 per annum for 33 years .
* Relatives Y S Madhusudhan Reddy, Venugopal Reddy , Pratap Reddy grab 3.15 acres of land valued at Rs.15 crore in survey no 682/4.684/4, 700/2 near S V Subba Reddy college in Kadapa town

Outer ring Road scam

* Bharati Reddy ( wife of EX CM’s elder brother )
1. Bought 8.35 acres in Kolluru in 2005 September in survey no 148 and paid Rs.35.5 lakhs but now valued at Rs.13 crore.

* Y V Subba Reddy – Relative

1. Two acres ( survey no 25 ) in Osman sagar

2. 68.8 acres in Survey No- 117,119,121,122,123,124,125,126,131.132.134,136,141 . Land valued at
Rs.20 crore when closer to the ring road but now valued at Rs.125 crore after alignment of the Ring Road altered to benefit them .

* Ramasubbamma ( Another close relative)

She bought 3.28 acres in Kolluru Survey No-194/B and paid just Rs.22.20 lakhs but today valued at Rs. Six crore.

LAND GARNERED BY THE YS RELATIVES AND FAMILY IN AND AROUND OUTER RING ROAD IS 79.3 ACRES AND EXPECTED TO GAIN RS.100 CRORE.

Same story in Visakha Pharma city

* Parthasarathy Reddy, chairman of Hetero Drugs is a close associate of Chief Minister.
* Hetero Drugs could get land in Visakha Pharma city and Jedcherla Formulations SEZ at throw away prices .
* Hetero drugs later within days invested Rs.13 crores in the Jagati publications enterprise of EX CM’s son .

Ramky gets cheap land
* Aeros Project , a subsidiary of Ramky an IT company also invested Rs7.77 crore in the Jagati Publications.
* Ramky got favors from the Government in various forms. Given land allocations in Visakha Pharma city , exempted from land taxes in the lands near Shamshabad airport . Got 19 acres from Housing board for throw away price .Blessings of the Govt in its real estate business.

Jedcherla to Jagati

* Another pharma company that benefited from investment in Jagati is Arabindo Pharma .
* The Trident Life Sciences , a subsidiary of Arabindo Pharma invested Rs.6.8 crore in Jagati publications.
* In turn it could get the Jedcherla formulations SEZ .
* Hetero drugs and Arabindo pharma are managing the Jedcherla SEZ.

Nadargul operators in Jagati:
* Potluri Hariprasad, the key architect in Nadargul land scandal has also invested Rs.48.61 crore in the Jagati publications .
* Bogus companies and benami individuals mortgaged the lands of Nadargul for a loan of Rs.800 crore.

Cement Syndicate:

* AP government favored Dalmia Cements, India Cements and Penna Cements to sell cement at Rs. 200 per bag in turn for their investments in Jagati Publications.

——–

This is an email received from one of my friend. The information disclosed is not spread because of hatredness or to provoke people or because of enemity. This is just to compare where we stand economically.

I am very sure that my CM must be atleast twice wealthiest as him because it is his 4th term i guess. Long live Indian Politicians and wishes for their service to our Nation.

Student Profile: Case Study

Sumana Chatterjee ‘08
Authored a case study about slavery in the cocoa industry that will be used in SOM classes

Sumana Chatterjee

The phone call came from a congressional staffer just one day after Sumana Chatterjee ’08 and her colleague Sudarsan Raghavan at Knight Ridder’s Washington bureau had published an investigative series on child slavery on the cocoa farms of the Ivory Coast. The pair had spent months digging into the use of forced labor in the country that supplies more than 40% of the cocoa beans for the more than $13 billion American chocolate market. Their discoveries — including one child sold into slavery for $28 — received prominent play throughout Knight Ridder’s chain of newspapers and caught the eye of Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), who took to the floor of the House of Representatives to demand that American companies stop buying cocoa grown with slave labor.

“It was definitely surreal,” said Chatterjee. “In journalism, you put a story out there, people read it, and hopefully they think about things they haven’t thought about before. If they act on it, then, great. My job was to spark the thinking process. In this case, the story took on a life of its own. It was something I hadn’t imagined before.”

In working on the stories, Chatterjee had traveled to Philadelphia, Chicago, and London to dig into the cocoa industry, while Raghavan worked angles in Africa. The details in the report were chilling: “Most of them are between the ages of 12 and 16. Some are as young as 9. The lucky slaves live on corn paste and bananas. The unlucky ones are whipped, beaten, and broken like horses to harvest the almond-sized beans that are made into chocolate treats for more fortunate children in Europe and America.” Chatterjee said the nature of the exploitation affected her personally. “I really like good chocolate and it was horrifying to think about children being enslaved and forced to harvest these beans that were making it into my hands,” she said. “So some of the questions I asked the industry were from a perspective that any consumer would come from. ‘Here’s my chocolate. Can you guarantee that it’s not tainted by slavery?’ It’s a question I repeated over and over.”

The series went on to win a number of awards, including the George Polk Award for International Reporting, which is seen as second only to the Pulitzer Prize. For any young journalist — especially one like Chatterjee, who had reported from Kashmir, Myanmar, and Turkey — the stories could have been the platform to even bigger things in the industry. For Chatterjee, though, working on such an important issue actually helped push her away from journalism. Just putting a story out there wasn’t good enough anymore. Chatterjee didn’t want to be an observer; she wanted to have an impact.

After a stop at a nonprofit organization called Women for Women, International, Chatterjee decided to get an MBA. She came to SOM expecting to concentrate on ethical supply chains and corporate social responsibility, but found herself drawn to the innovation and building of early-stage companies. She spent her summer internship at the Chart Group, a corporate advisory firm specializing in M&A and strategy, and now is pursuing venture capital in media.

Even though seven years had passed since the cocoa series, Chatterjee still felt drawn to the subject matter. In 2001, the cocoa industry had pledged to change how it acquired beans, and Chatterjee wanted to see if they had followed through. She approached SOM’s case writing team about doing a case on child slavery on cocoa farms and how well companies — and African governments — were doing with their promise to eliminate the practice. Jaan Elias, director of SOM case writing, said the subject makes for a great business case, with the focus on the British confectionary Cadbury. “It addresses a compelling social issue that presents special management difficulties spanning nearly all business disciplines,” he said. “Management must contend with opposing political pressures from national governments and the NGO community. It must find a way to discipline its suppliers through complex certification procedures and operational controls, all while reassuring the public about the source of its chocolate. In Cadbury, students are able to see the company’s resolve to work through these issues and bear the costs of doing so.”

Elias saw the case as a perfect match for a course on corporate governance. The connection to Cadbury came via Ira Millstein, the senior associate dean for corporate governance at Yale SOM and a senior partner in the international law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, and Anne Simpson, executive director of the International Corporate Governance Network. Millstein and Simpson teach a new course titled Governing the Corporation, which debuted at SOM in the fall of 2007. It turned out that both know Sir Adrian Cadbury, whose family founded Cadbury. Charterjee flew to London during the fall semester to meet with Cadbury, who is not currently affiliated with the company, Cadbury-Schweppes. Cadbury showed her around Bournville, a town the company built beginning in the 1890s, and introduced her to a Cadbury executive in charge of ethical supply lines. Chatterjee hadn’t reported in the series on Cadbury, since it’s not an American company, but she immediately recognized the executive. “He had been in all the meetings I staked out in London as a reporter,” she said. “But he refused to speak to me at the time. When we finally sat down I got a chance to find out a lot more behind-the-scenes information about what was going on and what the discussions were. It was really fascinating, because I had been on one end of it, and now I got to hear the insider’s perspective and about the challenges companies face under duress.”

The executive provided Chatterjee with a blow-by-blow account of a crucial meeting she’d been barred from entering. It helped illuminate the differences between American and British interests in dealing with the problem. Mostly what she learned was how difficult it’s been to solve the problem since the series came out, as cocoa prices slid and the Ivory Coast fell into civil war. “The industry over-promised what it could accomplish,” she said. “There are a lot of stakeholders involved in a very complicated issue. There’s no way it could be solved with the snap of a finger.”

When she returned from London, Chatterjee worked with Elias to pull it all together. The final product will be taught first in Millstein’s course next fall. While Chatterjee’s role in the case stemmed from her experience as a journalist, she said it was facilitated by the entrepreneurial spirit of SOM. “The school is such a small community that if you want to do something out of the ordinary, it’s not difficult to do so,” she said. “I’m lucky that at SOM, it’s not difficult to kind of push the envelope and try something new.”

Taken from the below URL.
http://mba.yale.edu//news_events/CMS/Articles/6332.shtml