Candidate interviewing in their own offices!

Today's Economic Times has an article on CEO's giving recruitment interviews in their offices. With the war for talent getting hotter in India, this is not a new phenomenon, atleast not for Headhunters like us. For a recent search for a CEO for an Asset Management firm, which I was leading, I actually interviewed a few candidates in their offices. This works better, as the Corner office in most firms are usually spacious and private and candidates have ample time to speak on their backgrounds. But, today's article talks about Head's of HR of competing firms walking into offices of competitors to interview candidates is definitely interesting.

Read the full article here

JP Morgan sets up Asia fund

Article on JP Morgan is bringing back private equity in Asia. The bank has committed $750 Million for Asia Pacific Region. Interestingly, JP Morgan Partners was the earlier Asian avatar of their private equity business, where they would up the India business and moved it to Hongkong as CCMP Capital.
With the talent crunch of professionals in the private equity space, JP Morgan has hired Varun Bery and John Troy of TVG Capital Partners, an asia based TMT fund. This gives JP Morgan an access to the entire team of TVG Capital Partners. This should give the bank a ready deal flow and access, to hit the ground running in India.
More details at this release

Some Interesting Blogs I read...

Domain Maximus
Sidin Vadukut, an ex consultant with AT Kearney, better known for his post on "The Travails of Single South Indian men of conservative upbringing", is a blast to read. His newest venture is quitting his well paid job at AT Kearney to start a career in writing has been well accepted by the blogging world. Wishing him the very best in his future endeavors and look forward to some good posts!

Student Sermons
A.K.A the Monk, is a student doing his 2nd year in REC Trichy (Now known as NIT Trichy). Interesting read for all those engineers who have endured 4 years of engineering college hostel! Highly witty writing style!

Youth Curry
Rashmi Bansal - Editor of the Jam magazine runs and amazing blog... Must read material!

S. Anand
Another interesting blog from Anand, who works with Infosys Consulting in UK. A highly geeky blog but with some very interesting stuff!

Billmonk

I came across this start-up called Billmonk, a company founded by Gaurav Oberoi and Chuck Groom, both Ex Amazon. Its a service which allows people to easily keep track of financial debts among friends! Its a simple concept and works very well, if you are keep borrowing money only to pay it back next month or eating out with friends, so that someone knows who has to pay next! My guess is that this would work interestingly well in the Indian subcontinent, since most people are usually finicky about who's paying. Off course, its necessary for the community you connect with to have access to the Internet... well.... this product is certainly good, but will probably need a lot of work to get started to something like this in India. Pity, they don't have currencies in INR. I think there could be a sea of change in tracking social money between friends... and girl-friends too... :-)

Back from Vacation...

Back from a two week vacation in the south. Was in Chennai for 3 days... the weather now is fantastic. I was actually able to roam around Mount Rd, without perspiring! Shopped for some hard drives and graphic cards at Ritchie Street, the mecca of electronic goods in chennai.

It takes some time from a long vacation to settle back in at work! Deleting spam is a favorite pastime of mine.. enables me to take a break and think! One of my clients, an early stage VC firm, has finally decided on the candidates he wants to go ahead! I was right... McK consultants are good candidates for PE/VC role. More PE searches in the offing... Need to roll my rolodex.

Finally found some time to Blog... Will be back!

Tuticorin!

Its been a while since I blogged! Am enjoying my yearly vacation at Tuticorin in Tamilnadu. Its a sleepy little town on the coast, with a decent port. Last couple of years, has seen a bustle of commercial activities.

Its good to be back home, dialling on-to the internet on a VSNL dial-up, which is pretty decent compared to what it was a couple of years back!

Foods been overwhelming, with me pigging out on the "South Indian Chicken Curry" and Rice! Yet to meet my friends from around here!!

Will be here till the 7th of Jan....

Lunch at Gajalee, Lower Parel

Today was a team lunch, at a sea food place at phoenix Mills. The Eight of us had to wait for atleast 15 to 20 minutes, before they could find a place to seat us all. That's pretty good, compared to the half hour waits one encounters at this place.

Gajalee is strongly a mangalorean sea food joint in Mumbai, with another branch at Vile Parle. Their sol kadi is definitely a must have. Its sharp and goes well with the food. All their sea food items are brilliant and definitely must be tasted. Try their neer dosa and clams curry. Its awesome.

Would definitly recommend this place for the sea food it serves.