Forbes India 29 November 2013 (e-magazine full)

forbes india Volume 5 issue 25 noVember 29, 2013
THe rise of miCromaX
rni reg. no. maHeng/2009/28102
www.forbesindia.com
miCromaX
grows up
THE TRANSFORMATION OF NAVEEN JINDAL/Pg.56
PRICE RS. 110. NOVEMBER 29, 2013
Once a scrappy
challenger,

the company
Rahul Sharma
co-founded is
now aiming to
dislodge Samsung
as India’s top
smartphone
maker
most
powerful
people
world’s
the
pg.72
Business.
Minus the paperwork.
You live on the go, travelling light.
You want things now,
not when the courier gets there.
You’re connected, 24/7,

and you want your reading at your fingertips.
INDI A
Tablet Edition
Welcome to the
In Association With

The Market
for Good Enough
T
he purpose of business is to create a customer
and keep him, said Peter Drucker. In India,
finding customers has been less of a problem than
keeping them. One reason is the sheer size of
the total market and its varied demographics, which makes
it easier for eagle-eyed entrepreneurs to spot untenanted
niches or even a motherlode of mass unmet demand.
From Karsanbhai Patel’s Nirma to Asian Paints’ mini-cans of
paint for rural India to the Re 1 Velvette shampoo sachet, Indian
entrepreneurs have found mass markets that were eminently
addressable with a little bit of price cunning and distributive
chutzpah. These and many other success stories were not the result
of great product or technological innovation, but an acute insight
into what loads of customers wanted: A good enough product at a
great or accessible price. The operative phrase is “good enough”.
This, in short, may be the story so far of Micromax, which
has emerged from nowhere to become No. 2 in the Indian
smartphones market. Its competitors dispute this, but their silence
on Micromax also suggests that they have begun taking this
upstart seriously. Seriously enough to not dignify it as an equal.
This is not to suggest Micromax is the cat’s whiskers in

smartphones. It is one thing to pump up volumes based on smart
pricing, and cheaper and commoditised components, quite another
to become a real contender for the top slot based on service
quality and innovative technology. It is easy to find a customer,
but tougher to keep her if you are not improving your game all the
time. The customer is not a fixed target, but a moving one with
constantly evolving tastes and rising sophistication. This is the
chasm between early success and long-term reality that Micromax
has to bridge. Read Rohin Dharmakumar’s fascinating story on
Micromax to find out how it is coping with this challenge.
Facing a dierent kind of perceptional challenge is politician-
businessman Naveen Jindal. An ambitious Congressman, Jindal’s
JSPL is embroiled in controversy and scandal, especially in the
wake of the Comptroller and Auditor General’s scathing report
on coal block allocations, of which Jindal was a major beneficiary.
But Jindal is a fighter, and he believes that this too shall pass. He
is sure he will play a bigger role in politics, even while running
a big business. In a nation where the nexus between politics
and business is only now beginning to be exposed, Jindal faces
twice the risk, as he is both businessman and politician. Prince
Mathews Thomas takes a close look at how Jindal is going
to let his two passions coexist without conflict. Read on.
The customer is
not a xed target,
but a moving one
with constantly
evolving tastes
Best,
R JAGANNATHAN
Editor-in-Chief, Forbes India

@TheJaggi
Letter from the Editor- in-ChiEf
NOVEMBER 29, 2013 | FORBES INDIA | 5
Volume 5 | Issue 25 | November 29, 2013
Contents
From left: Amit Verma; Michael Prince for Forbes
6 | forbes india | november 29, 2013
Upfront
Column
18 Story Power: The Hero’s Journey
Business should adapt the eternally
appealing plotline to tell stories
Features
Cover Story
26 Pretender No More
Micromax succeeded by addressing
gaps in the market. What lies next
26
What lies beyond: Michael Bloomberg
62
72 The List
The 72 most powerful people
on the planet

80 A Tale of Two Countries
How India’s and China’s richest
stack up against each other
enterpriSe
20 Zero Pesticide? You Must

Be Kidding!
FirstAgro, near Bangalore, promises
produce without pesticides

36 The Shetty School of Thought
Mahesh Tutorials standardised
teaching methods, and is now
looking to expand digitally
Corporate aCCount
50 What’s Cooking in the Prestige
Kitchen? Ideas
TTK Group fought competition
with innovation and customer
relationships
The smart phone
maker: Rahul Sharma
for the homegrown handset-
maker?
World’S moSt poWerful
people
62 Michael Bloomberg: The Exit
Interview
Will his power and inuence grow
once his term as NYC mayor ends?

66 Mexican Revolutionary
President Peña Nieto is set to
overturn the country’s notoriously
closed policy on oil

84
90

56 Naveen and the New Normal
Before becoming a full-time
public servant, Jindal has to
x his company
CroSS Border
25 Insider Trading For Talent
LinkedIn uses its own database
to hire smart. Here are some tips

42 How General Motors Was
Really Saved
The plan to rescue GM was hatched
within it, not by the Obama
administration
Regulars
10 Letters
11 Check-in
WE VALUE YOUR FEEDBACK.
Write to us at:

Letters may be edited for brevity.
Read us online at www.forbesindia.com
Cover Photograph by
Amit Verma
Subscriber Service: To subscribe, change address or enquire
about other customer services, please contact: FORBES INDIA,
Subscription Cell, C/o Digital 18 Media Ltd, Empire Complex,

414, Senapati Bapat Marg, Lower Parel, Mumbai - 400013.
Tel: 91-22-40019873 / 4001 9874. Fax- 022-24910804
(Mon – Friday: 10 am - 6 pm) SMS FORBES to 51818
Email: ,
To subscribe, visit www.forbesindia.com/subscription/
To advertise, visit www.forbesindia.com/advertise/
Building steam: TT Jagannathan
Dual mode: Naveen Jindal
More than just designs: Joan Behnke
17 World Watch
94 Thoughts
Life
reCliner
84 The Billionaires’ Curator
Joan Behnke educates her super
wealthy clients, before redesigning
their homes

87 Marketing to Your Nose
Scents and fragrances are being
used to build brand experiences
appraiSal
89 Phone: The LG G2 is Impressive
LG gets the premium feel right, and
takes on competitors spec for spec
nuggetS
90 Home Décor
A golden tea cabinet, a centre table
and a made-to-measure refrigerator
50

56
Cheat Sheet
92 Alternative Currencies
The ones that preceded the Bitcoin

93 Tip-Off & F-Index
Jagannathan: Mallikarjun Katakol for Forbes India; Jindal: Dileep Prakash for Forbes India; Behnke: Ethan Pines for Forbes
november 29, 2013 | forbes india | 7
INDIA
MUST
-
READ BLOGS
/> />DAILY SABBATICAL
FORBES INDIA
Now Available
on iPad
Download the
Forbes India App
Life

Daily Sabbatical

Magazine

Upfront

Features

Multimedia


Blogs

Lists

News
www.forbesindia.com
YOUTUBE CHANNEL
/>Podcasts
/>8 | forbes india | novemer 29, 2013
The Gamification
of Education
The very concept of schooling
is like playing a game.
Here’s how we learn from
the games we play
Is It Diwali Time For
India’s Beleaguered
Telcos?
A merged entity could now
be permitted to hold up to 50
percent share of subscribers
in any telecom circle. That’s
far higher than what national
competition authorities
normally allow in any market
How Many Poultry
Farmers Do 1.2 Bln
People Need? — Part I
Urbanisation and
industrialisation continue

to reshape the world’s
economic order, creating a
global consuming class
The Economist: Thriving in
the Age of Digital Media
With the advent of digital media,
traditional print media publishers
have struggled to survive. The
Economist, however, has bucked this
trend and evolved to thrive on both
print and digital media platforms. In
this interview with Andrew Rashbass,
former CEO of The Economist, we
learn how the publication has come
out stronger despite the disruption
in print media
Innovation Requires More Than
Systems and Tools
Broad-based engagement in innovation has to
be carefully nurtured and actively monitored
Status: When And Why It Matters
Status plays a key role in everything from the
things we buy to the partnerships we make.
Professor Daniel Malter of Harvard Business
School explores when status matters most
Tune in to youtube.com/forbesindia
to watch the full video of Forbes India
Leadership Awards 2013.
Mohandas Pai vs
Harsh Mariwala

on where to invest
DEBATE
MICROMAX
GROWS UP
The 100
RICheST
IndIAnS
By Rohin
Dharmakumar
By Prince
Mathews Thomas
A Call to Action on Water!
The recent ooding of Bangalore lakes is due to the lack of
understanding and abuse of the water cycle
Bellandur Lake
Click Here
Click Here
April 22, 2012 | FORBES INDIA
9
Headline to
come here
Gopal Srinivasan, chairman and
managing director of TVS Capital Funds
talks about professionalism and values in
a business family
By writer name
Founder & Editor, Network18:
Raghav Bahl
President & Editorial Director, TV18:
Senthil Chengalvarayan

Editor-in-Chief: R Jagannathan
Managing Editor: Sourav Majumdar
Design Director: Anjan Das
Director-Online & Events:
Deepak Ajwani
Editor (Features & Special Projects):
Abhilasha Khaitan
Editor (ForbesLife India
& Social Media):
Peter Griffin
Senior Editor: Seema Singh
Senior Associate Editor:
Cuckoo Paul
Consulting Editor:
Sumana Mukherjee
Editor (Markets And Finance):
Pravin Palande
Editor (Telecom, Media and
Entertainment):
Rohin Dharmakumar
Senior Assistant Editor:
Prince Mathews Thomas
Assistant Editors: Udit Misra,
NS Ramnath
Senior Principal Correspondent:
Ashish K Mishra
Principal Correspondent:
Samar Srivastava
Writer-Associate: Shravan Bhat
Head of Desk: Sveta Basraon

Deputy Head of Desk:
Jasodhara Banerjee
Chief Copy Editor:
Kathakali Chanda
Copy Editor & Features Writer:
Sohini Mitter
Senior Data Analyst-Online:
Bhagwan Patil
Jr Web Programmer:
Aditi Satam
Art Director: Benu Joshi Routh
Assistant Art Director: Minal Shetty
Assistant Graphics Director:
Sameer Pawar
Principal Designers:
Hemal Sheth, Sachin Dagwale
Production Manager - Digital
Imaging And Print:
Sushil Mhatre
Production Supervisor:
Joroso Pereira
Designer (Pre Press):
Pandharinath Pawar
Deputy Head of Photo: Vikas Khot
Principal Photograper: Amit Verma
Sr Photo Researcher: Prakash Rasal
Columnists: Sanjoy Bhattacharyya,
Subroto Bagchi
Group CEO, Network 18 &
Publisher, Forbes India:

B Sai Kumar
Group COO, Network 18:
Ajay Chacko
CEO, Forbes India: Gurmeet Singh
ADVERTISING SALES
Senior Vice Presidents:

Vishal Srivastava
Maulik Thakkar, Kumar P,
Manavdeep Singh, S Shivakumar,
Fardeen Sayeed, Niraj Ladia,
Nitya Sharma, Atishay Singh,
Jaskaran Gulati, Preetika Mehta,
Mansi Shah, Rashmi Nath,
Vibhor Nigam, Prashant Shirke
& Kumar Kamble
EVENTS
Events Head :
Alpana Gulati
Shriram Narayanmurthy,
Girish Sharma, Sajjan Sharma
DISTRIBUTION
Forbes India Team Distribution
Head:
Sunil Nair
Sanjay Elisha
GM Subscriptions: Subhadra Bose
Subscription Operations:
Kaushal Pillai

NETWORK18 PUBLISHING TEAM
DGM:
Manoj Palsay
Sanjay Bhujle, Dinesh Devadiga,
Debraj Sur, Kamal Bisht, Kirupanand
S, Devaraju Gowda, Rahul Mankar
& Anant Shirke
Advertising Operations: Sudha Rao
Avinash Karkera & Prashant Rane
MARKETING
Marketing Head:
Priyanka Tiku
Tripathi, Neha Chimbulkar
Garima Lodha, Stuti Papneja
Group HR Head, Network 18:
Shampa Kochhar
Vice President, Operations:
Archana Karulkar
Corporate Development:
Saket Saurabh
Compliance: Yug Samrat
Group General Counsel:
Kshipra Jatana
Legal & Corporate Affairs:
Manisha Ahuja
Finance: Joy David
NETWORK18 MANAGEMENT TEAM
CEO, CNBC-TV18 & CNBC AWAAZ:

Anil Uniyal

Group CFO: RDS Bawa
CEO, Web18: Lakshmi Narasimhan
CEO, Network18 Media: Sanjay Dua
Director Operations, Network18 &
COO IBN Lokmat:
Sanjay Sharma
Operations Director & CTO
Broadcast:
Piyush Gupta
FORBES MEDIA LLC
Chairman & Editor-in-Chief:

Steve Forbes
President & CEO: Mike Perlis
Chief Product Officer:
Lewis D Vorkin
CEO / Asia: William Adamopoulos
Editor, Forbes Asia: Tim Ferguson
FORBES INDIA is published by Digital18 Media
Limited under a license agreement with
Forbes LLC, 60 Fifth Avenue, New York,
New York 10011.
“FORBES” is a trademark used under license
from FORBES LLC.
©2009 Digital18 Media Ltd • ©2009 FORBES
LLC, as to material published in the U.S. Edition
of FORBES. All Rights Reserved.
©2009 FORBES LLC, as to material published
in the edition of FORBES ASIA. All Rights
Reserved.

Forbes India is published fortnightly, except
for the year-end double issue. Copying for
other than personal use or internal reference
or of articles or columns not owned by
FORBES INDIA without written permission
of Forbes India is expressly prohibited.
Editorial Office: Mumbai - Digital18 Media Ltd.,
New Era House, Mogul Lane, Matunga (W),
Mumbai - 400 016.
Tel:+91-22-6618 4400, Fax: +91-22-2436 6718.
Delhi - FC-7, Sector 16A, Film City, Noida,
Uttar Pradesh- 201 301. Tel: +91-120-469 1418.
Bangalore - Millennia Tower, Tower C, 6th
Floor, No.1&2, Murphy Road, Ulsoor,
Bangalore- 560 008. Tel: +91-80-4064 9191
Subscriber Service: To subscribe, change
address or enquire about other customer
services, please contact: FORBES INDIA,
Subscription Cell, C/o Digital 18 Media Ltd,
Empire Complex, 414, Senapati Bapat Marg,
Lower Parel, Mumbai - 400013
Tel: 91-22-40019873/ 4001 9874.
Fax- 022-24910804 (Mon –Friday:
10 am - 6 pm) SMS FORBES to 51818
Email: ,
To subscribe or advertise,
visit www.forbesindia.com
Forbes India is printed & published by
Mr B Sai Kumar on behalf of Digital18 Media
Limited & Printed at Print House India Pvt. Ltd.

R – 847/2. T.T.C. MIDC, Rabale, Navi Mumbai –
400 701 & Published at Empire Complex, 1ST
Floor, 414, Senapati Bapat Marg, Lower Parel,
Mumbai - 400 013.
Views & opinions expressed in this
magazine are not necessarily those of
Digital18 Media Limited (Digital18), its
publisher and/or editors. We (at Digital
18) do our best to verify the informa-
tion published, but do not take any
responsibility for the absolute accuracy
of the information. Digital18 does not
accept responsibility for any investment
or other decision taken by readers on the
basis of information provided herein.
INDIA
november 29, 2013 | forbes india | 9
Readers Say
Letters to the Editor
twitter.com/Forbes_India
facebook.com/ForbesIndia
linkedin.com/groups?gid=1959962
www.google.com/+ForbesIndia
10 | FORBES INDIA | NOVEMBER 29, 2013
Health Resources
Refer to ‘Health Check’
(November 15, 2013, issue). India
is said to have a low doctor-patient
ratio. But the distribution is not the
same across states. For example, the

state of Bihar has about four teaching
hospitals whereas Bangalore has
about seven teaching hospitals
(institutions). Overall the density
of doctors and health care facilities
is better in southern states. I have
not yet come across any infographic
on the differences in health care
facilities across places within India.
Chetan, on the web
Cotton Farming
Refer to ‘Farmer Suicides? It’s
State Policies That Are Suicidal’
(November 15, 2013, issue). I fully
agree with the article. Since inception
we have been growing Bt cotton on
my farm and we are getting good
economical benefits from this. In
the last 11 years, we have never sprayed
any pesticides to control bollworm
and that is the beauty of this tech-
nology. Those who are against this
awesome technology should visit my
village and take the survey there.
More than 5,000 acres of Bt cotton
are grown by 400 farmers here.
Politicians should not come under
the trap of vested interest groups
like NGOs that are opposing such a
good technology which is a boon

for cotton farmers.
Hitendra Rajput, on the web
Data Crunching
Refer to ‘The Geeks Are Back in
Business’ (November 15, 2013, issue).
Good to see India’s name in the
world map of analytics. Numbers
have always been a strong point for
people from the land of Aryabhatta.
Ritesh Das Singh, on the web
The Real Challenger
Refer to ‘The Art of Focus and
Refocus’ (November 15, 2013,
issue). Percentage comparison is not
the correct way; 100 out of 1,000 is 10
percent and 10,000 out of 100,000
is also the same. Still there is a size
difference in CTS and TCS in head-
count and numbers. TCS is still
leading in all terms. Let’s not talk
percentage here, size also matters.
Paras, on the web
I agree that given its size, TCS’s
performance is amazing but at
the same time Cognizant is not
minuscule (compared to TCS)
anymore. Today Cognizant is 70
percent of TCS and it is 20 years
younger than it. Cognizant’s
revenues from North America are

very close to beating that of TCS.
Not only in percentage terms,
Cognizant’s absolute incremental
revenues are higher (than TCS’s)
in the last three of the eight quarters.
That is the story of the company.
Cognizantlongtimer, on the web
Unpopular Bourses
Refer to ‘Market Maker’ (November
1, 2013, issue). I saw one of [Chitra]
Ramkrishna’s presentations in an
international seminar but wasn’t
quite impressed. Investors in
Indian capital markets have pulled
out substantially. What is the utility
of such a performance [by NSE]
if it ultimately fails to restore
investor confidence? Soon there
will be no retail investor, and thus
no NSE, BSE or Sebi.
Shila, on the web
Investors in
Indian capital
markets have
pulled out
substantially.
Soon there
will be no
retail investor
Check-in

Babu Babu / Reuters
$72,900,000
the cost of india’s mars
mission. It is about $30 million
less than the budget of Gravity—
a space-centred film—and
even lower than the Gujarat
government’s nearly $340 million-
plan for the construction of a
Sardar Patel statue in the state.
/ aperture /
India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C25),
carrying the Mars orbiter, lifts o from the Satish
Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, near Chennai
on November 5. It is India’s attempt to become a key
budget player in the interplanetary space race by
overtaking China which failed in its attempt in 2011.
NOVEMBER 29, 2013 | FORBES INDIA | 11
Check-in
Money on the Move
/ TOYS /
Indian Carriers Hit Air Pocket,
Losses Mount
/ eYe On The SkY /
this summer a 1954
Mercedes-Benz W196R
Formula 1 single-seat coupe
became the most expensive
car ever sold at auction,
commanding $30 million

at the Bonhams Goodwood
Festival of Speed sale in
England. It had won the
1954 Formula 1 world
championship with the
legendary Argentinean
driver Juan Manuel Fangio
behind the wheel and
was the only W196R left
in private hands. Here, a
collection of some of the
most expensive vehicles
ever sold at auction.
– hannah elliott
as two foreign airlines
girdle up for new
launches in India, the
five incumbent carriers
in the Indian skies are
battling tough times. The
two biggest carriers by
fleet size, Jet Airways and
Air India, are bleeding
the most. Jet has lost Rs
BOAT
1953
TIMOSSI-FERRARI
HYDROPLANE
$1.4 mln, 2012
The 600bhp “Arno XI”

V-12 racer set a record
for classic wooden
boats at an auction in
Monaco last year.
PlAnE
1929
FORD 4-AT-E
TRI-MOTOR
$1.2 mln, 2009
The “Tin Goose”
launched Henry Ford’s
short-lived attempt to
branch into aviation.
only 199 were built.
BUS
1950
GM
FUTURLINER
$4.3 mln, 2006
Just a dozen of these,
conceived by the leg-
endary designer Harley
Earl, were made for
GM’s parade of progress
traveling exhibit.
mOTORCYClE
1915
CYCLONE BOARD
TRACK RACER
$521,000, 2008

A Vincent Black shadow
that was the world
speed record holder
in 1948 went for $1.1
million in 2011, but
not at auction.
TOY BOAT
MÄRKLIN
LUSITANIA
OCEAN LINER
$194,500, 2010
It had been owned by
Malcolm Forbes, who
set the previous record
when he bought it at
Sotheby’s in 1983
for $28,600.
Sources: Car: Bonhams; Boat: Hagerty, Woody Boater; Plane, Bus: Barrett-Jackson Auctions; Motorcycle: Thevintagent.com; Toy Boat: Sotheby’s.
From Air Deccan to IndiGo: How the Share
of Low-cost Airlines Is Growing
0
97
3
14
34
41
49
66
67
70

66
86
66
59
51
34
33
30
34
200
2005 2006 2007 2008
2009
2010 2011 2012 2013
400
600
800
1,000
1,400
1,200
1,600
1,800
Low-Cost Capacity
Full-Service Capacity
Figures in %
Weekly Seats Flown (thousands)
Data Source: May OAG
1,400 crore in the first
two quarters of 2013-14,
more than it has earned
in the past 10 years.

The national carrier,
on the other hand, has
projected losses of Rs
4,000 crore for the year,
while SpiceJet has lost
Rs 609 crore in the first
six months of the fiscal.
The two others, market-
leader IndiGo and GoAir,
are unlisted and don’t
report quarterly numbers.
As the airlines struggle
to stay profitable,
domestic capacity is
rapidly shifting to the
low-cost model. But
it seems that charging
for meals and baggage
aren’t enough to oset
higher fuel prices and
a depreciating rupee.
The only silver lining:
The December quarter is
traditionally the best time
of the year for airlines.
All the five carriers are
reporting better revenues
and higher margins.
Other than GoAir, all
the others are launching

new foreign routes that
will bring in higher
dollar earnings. This is
good news as it oers a
natural hedge against the
volatile rupee and fuel is
also cheaper overseas.
–CuCkoo Paul
Mercedes-Benz: Simon Clay / Bonhams; Boat: Courtesy of RM Auctions; Plane and Bus: Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction Company; Motorcycle: Paul D’orleans / The Vintagent.com
12 | FORBES INDIA | NOVEMBER 29, 2013
/ pe report /
There is a preference for deal-by-deal engagement, allowing investors to decide on a case-to-case basis
the fund-raising
sentiment for PE firms
globally seems to be
improving. This is borne
out by the fact that a
majority of the world’s
top PE executives are
either positive or neutral
about the fund-raising
environment this year,
a marked improvement
from last year. This is one
of the key findings of a
global survey conducted
by Grant Thornton. As
many as 54 percent of
those surveyed said they
were either positive or

neutral about this year’s
environment, compared
New Roadmap Emerges for PE Fund-raising
How do you
View the
Current
Fund-raising
Environment?
2013 2012 2011
Very Positive
0 1 4
Positive
29 11 24
Neutral
25 15 26
Negative
33 33 33
Very Negative
13 39 13
Source: Global Private Equity Report 2013/14, Grant Thornton
Figures in %
to just 27 percent a year
ago. The Global Private
Equity Report 2013-14
is the result of in-depth
interviews conducted
with 156 senior PE
practitioners worldwide.
Even as sentiment
improves, a new PE

roadmap seems to be
emerging. The survey
shows 56 percent of
GPs (General Partners)
predicting an increase
in alternative fund
structures over the
next three years as LPs
(Limited Partners) prefer
options other than the
traditional 10-year blind
pool fund. The preference
now seems to be for
deal-by-deal engagement,
where investors are
presented opportunities
on a case-by-case basis.
The survey also
shows the lines between
fund-raising and investor
relations are blurring.
Fund-raising is now
being seen by PEs as
a constant process of
engagement. With
the power clearly
shifting in favour of
LPs, they are being
wooed by concessions,
co-investment rights,

advisory board seats
and fee discounts.
– Sourav MajuMdar
/ FUND SpeAK /
Will midcaps outperform the large caps in the next one year? Which sectors are expected
to do well? Pravin Palande asks the experts.
  
Index has
underperformed
the broader
market by
almost 18-20
percent due to sluggish demand,
high interest costs and cost
pressures. We expect these
factors to ease in the coming year.
Midcaps are trading at a discount
of about 20 percent to large caps.
With better earnings growth and
the valuations gap closing, we
expect them to perform better.
We also expect the consumption
cycle to continue on the back
of strong rural demand.
sanjay chawla,
CIO, Baroda Pioneer AMC
 
impacted more
by broader
economic

factors: They
are likely
to suer in a downturn and
perform well when a recovery
sets in. The economy is likely
to see greater stability next
year and the probability of
midcaps outperforming the large
caps is high. Export-oriented
segments are expected to do
well. Companies focussed on
long-term demographic plays
in FMCG, retail and financials
will oer good opportunities.
nilesh sathe,
Director & CEO, LIC Nomura MF
 
and the small
cap stocks start
moving up only
after the initial
euphoria moves
up large cap stocks. That’s
because in the midcap stocks,
liquidity is not as high as large
cap stocks. A sector-specific
approach may not work as there
are many midcap companies and
the size of the segment is large.
Yes, they would outperform

the large cap stocks, though not
all midcap stocks are expected
to beat the large cap ones.
v balasubramanian,
Vice president & fund
manager—equity, IDBI AMC
Stability in Sight, Midcaps to Perform Better
NOVEMBER 29, 2013 | FORBES INDIA | 13
14 | FORBES INDIA | NOVEMBER 29, 2013
The
Working
Dead
/ highest-paid celebrities /
Check-in
michael jackson raked
in $160 million over the past
year, by our estimate. The
most successful star who still
breathes, Madonna, didn’t come
close. She made $125 million,
according to our Celebrity 100
list. How did the King of Pop
do it? He’s making a mint from
two Cirque du Soleil shows:
Immortal, which has grossed
more than $300 million since
opening in 2011, and One,
which brings him back from
the dead with a hologram-like
doppelgänger performing ‘Man

in the Mirror’. He also profits
from sales of his recordings
and from his half of the Sony/
ATV music catalogue, which
owns the copyright to hits by
superstars including the Beatles,
Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift.
He reclaims the No. 1 spot from
Elizabeth Taylor, who died in
2011. Her earnings plunged
from $210 million a year ago,
after a series of big auctions,
to $25 million this year.
–Dorothy Pomerantz
anD zack o’malley GreenburG
For the third time in ve
years the world’s highest-
earning celebrity isn’t

even living. Here are the
top moneymakers from
beyond the grave
2. elvis presley Singer, actor
$55 million Died: Aug 16, 1977 Age: 42
Graceland gets 600,000 visitors a year.
3. charles m schulz Cartoonist
$37 million Died: Feb 12, 2000 Age: 77
There’s still gold in Peanuts.
4. elizabeth taylor Actress
$25 million Died: Mar 23, 2011 Age: 79

White Diamonds fragrance
earns millions.
5. bob marley Musician
$18 million Died: May 11, 1981 Age: 36
More than 75 million albums sold since death.
6. marilyn monroe Actress
$15 million Died: Aug 5, 1962 Age: 36
The new face of Chanel No. 5.
7. john lennon Musician
$12 million Died: Dec 8, 1980 Age: 40
Thriving from both recording
and songwriting.
2
8
12
3
8
4
Note: Earnings from October 2012 to
October 2013, except Madonna’s earnings
(from June 2012 to June 2013)
november 29, 2013 | forbes india | 15
1. michael jackson Musician
$160 million Died: June 25, 2009 Age: 50
Can make $200,000 from a single
Cirque performance.
8. albert einstein Scientist
$10 million Died: Apr 18, 1955 Age: 76
Montblanc’s Einstein pen sells for $3,000.
8. bettie page Actress

$10 million Died: Dec 11, 2008 Age: 85
The pin-up girl has a chain of boutiques.
10. theodor geisel Author
$9 million Died: Sept. 24, 1991 Age: 87
Dr Seuss’s 2012 The Lorax grossed
$349 million.
10. steve mcqueen Actor
$9 million Died: Nov 7, 1980 Age: 50
Deals with Tag Heuer, Persol and
Lucky Brand.
12. bruce lee Martial artist, actor
$7 million Died: July 20, 1973 Age: 32
A CGI Lee stars in a Johnnie Walker ad.
12. jenni rivera Singer
$7 million Died: Dec 9, 2012 Age: 43
She’s sold 880,000 records since her death.
1
10
10
6
7
5
12
Illustration: John Ueland for Forbes
16 | FORBES INDIA | NOVEMBER 29, 2013
The Pursuit of Happiness
/ INDUSTRY ATLAS /
Check-in
% of workers who are happy
>30%

20%–30%
10%–20%
<10%
SINGAPORE
9%
TAIWAN
9%
SOUTH KOREA
11%
POLAND
17%
MEXICO
12%
COLOMBIA
26%
VENEZUELA
18%
ISRAEL
5%
CZECH REPUBLIC
8%
UNITED STATES
30%
AUSTRALIA
24%
CANADA
16%
JAPAN
7%
SPAIN

18%
SWEDEN
16%
FRANCE
9%
NETHERLANDS
9%
GDP per hour of work
GERMANY
15%
UK
17%
BRAZIL
27%
1,200
0 $20 $40 $60
1,400
1,600
1,800
2,000
2,200
2,400
Hours worked per year
Sources:
Gallup; The Conference Board
human resources people worry a lot
about worker productivity and ‘engagement’,
aka happiness. But are the world’s happy
workers the most productive? Do they work
a lot or a little? The circles, representing

countries, are larger where workers
are happier. The horizontal axis shows
productivity (GDP per hour worked); the
vertical, hours worked per year. The US is
happiest, with 30 percent of its workforce
engaged, while its GDP per hour is a high
$63. Outside the US two of the happiest
nations—Colombia and Brazil—are not all
that productive. The French and the Dutch
put in short workdays and boast high GDP
per hour, yet fewer than 10 percent of them
are happy. It’s good to be an American.
Through her many professional
lives—as First Lady, US senator,
secretary of state, lawyer, author and
presidential candidate-in-waiting—
Hillary Clinton can be linked by a
very short chain to nearly all Forbes’s
World’s Most Powerful People. It’s
a small world after all. These are
some of the direct connections.
upfront:wor ld watch
Friends
of Hillary
8. King Abdullah bin
Abdulaziz al Saud
21. Sonia Gandhi
6. Bill
Gates
29. Michael

Bloomberg
35. Christine
Lagarde
51. Lakshmi Mittal
43. Bill
Clinton
56. Virginia
Rometty
68. Jill
Abramson
1. Vladimir
Putin
2. Barack
Obama
71. Mo Ibrahim
12. Carlos Slim
Helú
54. Bernard
Arnault
13. Warren
Buffett
22. Jamie
Dimon
27. Lloyd
Blankfein
25. Jeffrey Immelt
33. Rupert
Murdoch
5. Angela
Merkel

7. Ben
Bernanke
11. David
Cameron
15. Jeff Bezos
20. Dilma Rousseff
61. Robin Li
59. Margaret Chan
57. Shinzo Abe
42. Laurence
Fink
50. Jim
Yong
Kim
38. Mukesh
Ambani
3. Xi Jinping
32. Ban
Ki-moon
72. Janet Yellen
First Lady Senator / Presidential CandidateSecretary of StatePrivate Citizen
by caroline howard
Photographs: Getty Images; Reuters
NOVEMBER 29, 2013 | FORBES INDIA | 17
upfront: column
T
he year’s surprise
megahit movie is Gravity,
starring Sandra Bullock
and George Clooney.

Warning: I’m about to spoil the
plot. Stop reading if you want to
see the movie with fresh eyes.
While orbiting Earth in a space
shuttle, Bullock and Clooney survive
a collision with debris. Clooney, the
veteran astronaut, and Bullock, a
medical doctor and space rookie, now
must find a way to get back to Earth.
Their plan: Get to a Chinese space
capsule and blast home. Things go
haywire, and Clooney sacrifices
himself so that Bullock has a chance
to live. But she is overwhelmed by the
challenge of getting back to Earth by
herself. She accepts her fate and turns
o the oxygen in the space capsule to
begin a painless death by hypoxia.
The movie doesn’t end with
Bullock’s suicide, of course. It ends
rather heroically, which is why
Gravity has been such a smash
hit with men and women, old and
young. It’s an updated version of a
classic plotline: The hero’s journey.
John Ford, the great Hollywood
film director of the mid-20th century,
had a favourite saying. Every good
movie Western, Ford said—and he
made dozens of them— shared the

same story: “The bad guys show up
while the hero is still evolving.”
Don’t you love that? It’s the short-
est and best summation of what the
late scholar Joseph Campbell called
the hero’s journey. In fact and fiction,
as well as in religion and secular life,
the hero’s journey is an eternally
appealing story: Abraham Lincoln,
Jesus Christ, Luke Skywalker, a near
crippled Kirk Gibson hitting a game-
winning home run for the Dodgers in
the 1988 World Series opening game.
The mystery is why businesses
are so reluctant to tell their stories
in this way. Most businesses do
the opposite. They take good raw
material about their customers and
turn it into Barbie doll stories, fake
and plastic. An example is that old
yawner, the customer case study. As
told by most corporate marketers, it
goes like this: “The customer had a
problem. Our company’s complete
suite of [snore] and [zzzzzz] solutions
was implemented. The customer was
happy and went on to greater heights.”
Really, that’s it? No sweat? No
arguments? No false starts and false
dawns? No harrowing walk through

the valley of the shadow of death?
Everything just worked, right from the
start, as if by immaculate conception?
Such is never the truth. Even worse,
it’s boring. Stories drive change.
As story expert and executive con-
By rICh Karlgaard
STORY POWER
the hero’s journey
It is a mystery why businesses don’t follow this eternally appealing plotline
sultant Nancy Duarte told me, “For
thousands of years story has been
used to transfer insights and morals,
keeping entire cultures knit together.
And this is preliteracy—thousands
of years of preliterate people.”
In our personal lives we think in
stories, talk in stories, communicate
in stories and even dream in stories.
When we’re asked what we did over
the weekend, we don’t provide some
analytical abstraction—we tell a story.
When asked about our dinner out last
night or our vacation, we tell a story.
And these stories have characters,
multiple plots and plenty of drama.
No matter the form, a good story-
teller describes a conflict. The main
character, the hero, is called upon
to make decisions, take action and,

ultimately, discover a new truth.
“With storytelling, in particular,
the thing that we love is watching
someone transform,” says Duarte.
“The three-part story structure
is clear: One, you meet a likable
person; two, that person encounters
roadblocks; three, that person
emerges transformed. Storytelling
creates a tension and release that is
so important to creating change.”
What does this have to do with
business? Well, business is terribly
competitive. Who doesn’t wish it
were easier? Blame slow growth, the
march of cheap technology, internet
transparency—which erodes pricing
power—or global competition. Stellar
strategy and execution once oered
protection, but these can be copied.
What survives? The best stories.
Rich Karlgaard is the publisher at Forbes
18 | FORBES INDIA | NOVEMBER 29, 2013

Features: EntErprisE
20 | forbes india | november 29, 2013
Photographs: Mallikarjun Katakol for Forbes India
Zero
pesticide?
You must

be kidding!
FirstAgro’s KN Prasad (left)
and Nameet MV. In its third
year of operations, FirstAgro
is shipping nearly 30 tonnes
of vegetables every month to
top retailers and fine dining
places in Bangalore
NOVEMBER 29, 2013 | FORBES INDIA | 21
N
ameet MV mildly frets
about the tomatoes
lying in the beds on his
farm. Mildly, because
if these white, purple, chocolate
and yellow tomatoes don’t reach
the retail shelves or chefs’ kitchens
in Bangalore, they would go for sun
drying or seed making. The torrential
rains, much more than what the
region had experienced in previous
years, had hit the Heirlooms, the San
Marzanos, the Romas and 15 other
varieties of tomatoes that Nameet
grows on his farms. Many plants still
have full bunches; the strawberry-red
cherry tomatoes are luscious with
just the right mix of sweet and tart.
In contrast, and true to their
fiery nature, the pepper plants stand

firm in nearby patches. Bishops
Crown, the UFO-like green and
red peppers, guard the corners.
Like a gastro-masochist, Nameet
introduces the chillies: “This is
Bullet, grown commonly in the
UK; this is Badmash—the green-
purple chillies pointing up are more
pungent than their downward
pointing cousins. Don’t these Jasmine
bouquets (o-white chillies in
green leafy bunches) look classy?”
In dazzling colours and crazy
shapes, the chillies look lovely. So
does the 45-acre farm in Talkaad, 110
km from Bangalore and a popular
scenic weekend getaway for city
When even WHO
doesn’t seek zero
chemical traces,
FirstAgro’s ultimate
health food has people
excited. Can it achieve
scale with the speed its
customers want it to?
BY seema singh
Features: EntErprisE
22 | FORBES INDIA | NOVEMBER 29, 2013
dwellers. Most of the patches in
Nameet’s farm have not been tilled

for several years. Nameet, his brother
Naveen and cousin KN Prasad, who
founded FirstAgro in 2010, look for
near-virgin lands even though they
are harder to till. But it’s the first step
in growing zero-pesticide crops. In
India, where crop production suers
from systemic overuse of chemicals,
with pesticide levels ranging from
5 to 150 times higher than world
standards, setting global benchmarks
in pesticide-free horticulture is
almost like setting a counterculture.
It hasn’t been easy. “It took us six
crop cycles of experimentation, of 90
days each, to get farming methods
and input proportions right,” says
Prasad, who is chief operating ocer.
But the founders, who have invested
nearly $2 million from friends and
family money, are in no hurry. There
was no “venture capital[ist] hanging
like a sword over our head,” says
Prasad. In its third year of operations,
FirstAgro is shipping nearly 30 tonnes
of vegetables and exotic greens
every month to top retailers and fine
dining places in Bangalore, including
the two hip hotels that opened in
the city in the last two months—

Ritz Carlton and JW Marriott.
For most retailers the buck stops
at regular red tomatoes and green
lettuces. Now that they see varieties,
there’s no pausing at Double Lola
Rosa and Triple Lola Rosa (a type
of purple lettuce) or Komatsuna
(Japanese mustard spinach) and
Mizuna (Japanese mustard).
Supply isn’t keeping pace with
demand. Retailers say zero-pesticide
produce is flying o the shelves.
In the startup world, this is an
enviable situation to be in. But
when you are FirstAgro and decide
to go even beyond the World
Health Organization standards
of pesticide-free crops, scaling
up is the biggest opportunity as
well as the toughest challenge.
‘Short-termism’ is not what chief
executive Naveen MV lives by. He’s
looking at 10-15 years from now
when FirstAgro would create a
niche category in the country. The
startup will close at Rs 6.8 crore
in revenue in March 2014 and has
ambitious plans to clock $75 million
by 2018 through 16 agro clusters
across the country. For the sons of

the soil, the toil has just begun.
GERMINATION
The idea had its genesis in 2008 in
San Francisco when Naveen and his
younger brother Nameet got together.
Naveen was then handling the Asia
Pacific business of Hewlett-Packard;
Nameet was a commercial pilot in
Vancouver, Canada. Slowdown was
squeezing Nameet’s flying time, and
he had an entrepreneurial idea they
could pursue. Flying over large green
houses in Canada, he had fallen in love
with horticulture. He often flew red-
eye planes which gave him day hours
to work with small local farmers. He
collected agri knowledge and some
farm wisdom too. (In Canada, even
the smallest farm exceeds 100 acres.)
Naveen left the IT industry
and Nameet gave up flying to start
FirstAgro. Cousin KN Prasad, a
supply chain professional with
experience in various industries,
Fennel bulb, which
hotels are sourcing from
FirstAgro. These are used
as part of do-it-yourself
salad/seasoning or to
create a garden ambience

in dining spaces
NOVEMBER 29, 2013 | FORBES INDIA | 23
joined them later. The trio brings
complementary skills to the farm.
In boots and shorts, Nameet looks
like the tech-loving farmer he is. He
even knows why his three dogs like
Japanese cucumber more than the
Indian varieties. Prasad, who comes
from a farming family, is the manager
on the ground. In jeans and flip-
flops, he is as relaxed accosting stray
visitors to the farm as handling the
local power or water supply glitch.
The savviest among them is
Naveen. Largely based in Japan, he
runs an IT management consultancy
there. He is now scouting for local
farm opportunities to supply to
the local market. “We don’t have
export ambitions, but we plan to use
FirstAgro expertise to serve some
Asian markets, especially in the
hospitality sector,” he says. He visits
Bangalore and Talkaad every quarter
but don’t mistake him for a roving,
long-distance chief executive. His
Excel sheets reflect precisely how
many beds in how many patches grow
what crops and when they are due

for harvest. “If I make any changes
here,” says younger brother Nameet,
“he calls to inquire the next day.”
“This is part of the standardisation
plan. I bring the IT industry’s systems
and processes,” says Naveen. If they
proceed as per their plans, they
will have a 90-100 acre cluster in
16 locations, all within motorable
distance from major cities so that
the farm produce reaches the
market within five-six hours.
India is the second largest
producer of fruits and vegetables in
the world, but with farm wastage,
urbanisation and increasing
disposable incomes, these products
seem to be in perpetual short supply.
Increasingly, people don’t blanch
at higher prices if the quality is good.
In FirstAgro’s case, the maximum
retail price is 15-20 percent higher
than regular produce. “We’ve
developed loyal customers and they
stick with this brand… The base is
small but it’s growing nearly three-
fold,” says Ashutosh Chakradeo, chief
merchandising ocer of HyperCITY
Retail which stocks premium products
and is part of the Raheja group.

He thinks FirstAgro is filling a big
hole in the broad organic products
category where retailers don’t know
where the produce is coming from.
In retail’s dynamics, traceability
is also important for forecasting. If
a store sells 100 kg of tomato, then
it needs to stock 110 kg. “For regular
stocks, I am dependent on the mandi.
I might require 100 kg of cauliflower
but I might get only 80 kg. With
professional brands like FirstAgro,
I can forecast my requirement,”
says Chakradeo, who also does
category awareness for customers.
DIFFERENTIATION
The organic movement of the 20th
Century is big business today. The
well-being of the soil, the crops
and of the people who consume the
produce, form the basis of organic
agriculture. For some it is a spiritual
quest, for others it is a way to be
environmentally sensitive. It is
catching up in India too, moving
from being a fad to a conscious
health choice. However, very few
growers certify their produce.
Retailers say they have to work
with organic suppliers to get them

certified; some don’t know while
others wear the label casually.
Nameet likes to describe them as
“students who study for 10th grade
but never care to pass the exam”.
“Very few organic growers go to the
lab,” he says. In such everything-goes-
in-the-name-of-organic environment,
FirstAgro has set itself up for stringent
public scrutiny. Its products not only
comply with the CODEX standards
prescribed by the WHO (which food
exporters in India have to follow),
but go a step further and declare
themselves totally pesticide free.
To keep the standards and the
farming rigour high, the founders say
they would never do three things:
Contract farming (which could
compromise compliance); digress
from zero pesticide (which could
dilute the brand); retail directly or
sell loose (which could adversely
influence their farming practices).
BLOOM
If there is one community that loves
this seemingly-crazy idea of zero-
pesticide horticulture, it is the chefs.
Internationally, farm to fork is a
proven model and most chefs worth

Features: EntErprisE
24 | FORBES INDIA | NOVEMBER 29, 2013
their ingredient grow some bit of
herbs and greens. They like to know
where their stu is coming from.
Anupam Banerjee, chief chef of
Ritz Carlton, who has relocated to
India after 15 years and is India’s
first Michelin Star-rated chef, is
delighted. After visiting the farm, he
has been working to synchronise his
menu with Nameet’s seeds and crop
cycle. “If we can sustain two-three
dishes in each restaurant [at Ritz],
it’d be a good start,” says Banerjee
for whom FirstAgro has developed
a patch in the hotel on Residency
Road, an upscale Bangalore locality.
At JW Marriott, executive chef
Surjan Singh Jolly, or Chef Jolly as
he is popularly known on various
TV shows including MasterChef
India, says when he relocated from
Renaissance in Mumbai to Bangalore,
he missed his agri patch terribly.
He isn’t complaining now. “In less
than six hours the produce from the
farm is in my kitchen. It also helps
me plan my menus. If I plan for my
next palm hearts [a baby cabbage

dish] or if I want my candy beets,
I can work with them,” he says.
Not just big hotels, even smaller
restaurants are happy. After suering
for years for want of the right
heirloom tomatoes for pasta sauce
or right daikons or fresh jalapeños,
Vibhuti Bane is now experimenting
with menus. “Nobody is growing zero
pesticide crops. The kind of flavours
you get from this farm is really good,”
says Bane, corporate chef at three
fine dining restaurants including
City Bar in chic UB City Mall, whose
garnishes come straight from Talkaad.
Internationally, restaurants
grow their own “living wall”, which
treat customers to do-it-yourself
salads or seasoning. Nameet is just
getting around to growing these
“walls” with micro-greens, herbs
and other salad ingredients. Some
want it circular, some vertical and
some are even going for hydroponic
walls (where plants are grown in a
nutrient solution) which have inverted
tomatoes. All in the name of taste,
style, and, of course, dierentiation!
Chefs like to think of their dishes
as fables. They spin yarns. And

when there is a passionate grower
like Nameet who likes to tell stories
about his seeds and farm practices—
how he learnt to kill black moth
using basil or how touch-me-nots
repel insects—it is a feast for all.
ROUGH WEATHER
In the near term, FirstAgro customers
see no challenge, though most retailers
would certainly want bigger and more
regular stocks. Their stocks disappear
in no time, says Hari Menon, co-
founder and chief executive of Big
Basket, an online grocery store in
Bangalore. FirstAgro has just moved
from twice-a-week supply to thrice-a-
week supply but that is not sucient.
In a consumer’s grocery budget,
fruits and vegetables constitute 25
percent of the budget but for modern
retail stores these categories make
up only 6-8 percent of stocks. “It’s
fundamentally a supply chain issue
and our aim is to drive it up to 10-15
percent at Big Basket,” says Menon.
Nameet and Prasad are trying
hard to increase production. They
intend to invest $20 million in the
next five years, mostly from debt
and internal accruals. Nearly 45

varieties are in production, 40 more
are in field trials. But this isn’t run-
of-the-mill farming. Apart from the
standard crop rotation and resting
period, a patch of land requires at
least six-eight weeks to prepare.
It’s not dicult to understand why
troubles of farming have led nearly
2,000 farmers, going by 2011 census,
to quit cultivation virtually every day
for the last 20 years. The brothers
are also aware that as they expand,
land acquisition—though they are
open to long-term leasing—would be
a challenge; as would be water and
power availability. Menon suggests
they work with local governments to
speed up things. But the promoters
are wary, lest their business acquire
any political tinge. After three years
of Talkaad, their next cluster is
coming up in Pali in Maharashtra.
It is not just land and sta that
require preparedness. Customers
and retailers need education as well.
Prasad still looks aghast when he
describes how a retailer rejected
four crates of wild rocket (a kind
of lettuce used in gourmet food)
because some leaves had holes,

which is a hallmark of the rare wild
variety, not of pest infestation. Or,
how another store rejected ripe
green cherry tomatoes saying green
meant raw and wasn’t ready to sell.
Naveen believes the new Food
and Safety Standards Act which
has come into eect will drive
awareness. This year the national
CODEX contact point has become
active in educating growers and
retailers about food safety.
Back at the farm, you look at
damaged lettuces and strewn tomatoes
and wonder if the founders have
bitten o more than they can chew.
Having nature play a decisive role in
your business is a risk factor. “You
can’t fart against a thunderstorm. We
know what we’ve gotten into…Nothing
goes waste here,” says Nameet, with
a jovial wave of his hand, pointing
to the seeds and compost pit.
THEy INTEND TO
INvEsT $20 MILLION IN
THE NExT FIvE yEARs.
NEARLy 45 vARIETIEs
ARE IN pRODUcTION
NOVEMBER 29, 2013 | FORBES INDIA | 25
Features: Cross Border

LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner knows how
to exploit his own network to hire smart.
Here are the house secrets
BY george anders
InsIder
TradIng
For TalenT
“Y
ou probably want
to know if we
eat at our own
restaurant,” says
LinkedIn chief executive Je Weiner,
with a smile. Tapping into LinkedIn’s
databases has become second
nature for big companies battling for
talent. Organisations as diverse as
Dell and National Public Radio use
its most expensive search tools.
So what about LinkedIn itself?
Weiner runs a fast-growing
operation—revenue was up
59 percent last quarter—and
constantly needs more engineers,
salespeople and corporate
managers. Sure enough,
LinkedIn’s own recruiters
have a lot to teach others
through their incessant and
demanding use of house

products, constantly testing
new features in search of
more powerful results.
Start with something as
fundamental as where to look.
LinkedIn’s databases can generate
heat maps of the US, showing
local variations between job listings
and available talent for specific
industries. So while LinkedIn still
does much of its software engineer
hiring in the obvious places such
as Silicon Valley, Seattle and New
York City, it is alert to “hidden gem”
markets such as the Washington, DC
metro area and Dallas/Fort Worth.
To catch candidates’ attention,
LinkedIn’s first moves are disarmingly
low-key. Anyone who happens to
glance at a LinkedIn employee’s
profile is likely to see a nearby ad
or piece of sponsored content from
LinkedIn sharing a bit of itself. The
goal is to induce these site-surfers to
“follow” LinkedIn’s company page.
Once that happens, it’s easier to aim
job ads or more content at them.
Such digital serenades are known as
“adding warmth”. In a recent hunt
for systems-infrastructure engineers,

Weiner’s team discovered that more
than 35 percent of leading prospects
were people who were already
digitally acquainted with LinkedIn.
Another lesson learnt the hard way:
Just because you can create a fussy list
of criteria for candidates doesn’t mean
you should. When LinkedIn hunted
for its first data-centre manager, the
company’s own site originally found
only seven identifiable people on Earth
who met all conditions. So LinkedIn
loosened up. It lopped o four dubious
requirements, such as insisting that
candidates have spent at least three
years in their current jobs. Voilà!—126
candidates. Within a few months, the
job was filled. “We don’t need eight
to ten years of people doing x,” says
Weiner. “In fact, we may not want
someone who has spent too much time
working in a large-company culture.”
Even in data-rich LinkedIn, Weiner
emphasises intangibles that don’t
show up on a résumé—leadership,
resourcefulness and humour. When
he interviews candidates, he often
asks how they want to see their career
in 20 to 30 years, to discern who is
well-aligned with LinkedIn’s culture.

“It’s a lot like M&A. People sometimes
get too caught up in getting the deal
done, when maybe they shouldn’t be
doing the deal at all,” Weiner says.
Jonathan Sprague / Redux