Skills That Effective Leaders Must Possess in Digital Age

The new-age digital world of work is different from how it was until a few years back, and in line with that, the definition of effective leadership has also undergone a sea change. In addition to inspiring and supporting people to achieve the desired outcomes, the digital era requires leaders to be more agile and nimble in adopting the new times, and yet be very grounded in ensuring the same human connect that brings people together to work efficiently.

This is why, developing great leaders is now one of the biggest agendas for chief executives across organisations. This hyper-connected, dynamic work environment now requires organisations to re-look at their long-held leadership-grooming models, and the foremost step in that direction is to redefine the traits of an effective leader in the digital era. Here are some key skills that leaders need to possess in the age of digital transformation.

Agility
This is one trait that has been really overhyped in how it has been used ins various contexts across business, while losing out its real essence and application in the real world. Agility in mindset, behaviour and actions is a key skill for leaders in the digital age. The ability to use iterative approaches to divide work efforts into short phases, for early and frequent evaluation; and the flexibility to pivot and transition between varied roles and activities is what makes one agile in the true sense.

Cross-functional dexterity
This is an important quality for leaders, to be able to effectively collaborate across a range of functions, ensuring interconnections and streamlined operations across the organisation. In addition, great leaders are capable of offering solutions to cross-functional challenges.

Design thinking
It is the ability to take a design-centric approach to work, while combining empathy, ingenuity and rationality, to address customer needs. This can be achieved by observing behaviour and drawing conclusions about what customers want and need.

Analytical/data-driven mindset
This is one of the most crucial and defining skills that leaders need to possess to be able to survive and be effective in the digital age. Using data and insights for better decision-making and the ability to take a balanced approach to make data-driven decisions have become vital to working in times of big data and analytics.

Virtual collaboration
With flexi-working and remote-working becoming increasingly common, the leadership rules for managing remote or virtual teams have also changed. New-age leaders need to be able to productively drive engagement and demonstrate the power of their presence, even as leaders of virtual teams. They need to be open to leveraging behaviours, practices, techniques and tools that facilitate efficient and effective cooperation among dispersed collaborators.

New media literacy
Being socially active and leveraging all media to effectively communicate is essential for leaders in the ‘here and now’ times. This skill entails the ability to leverage new media for persuasive communication and use techniques that target social networks and applications to spread brand awareness and promote products and services.

Computational thinking
This is a problem-solving technique that allows one to decompose a certain problem into smaller, more manageable fragments that are easy to analyse and then draw patterns to look for feasible solutions. It is the ability to understand and practise data-based reasoning, and translate data into abstract concepts. It is what makes leaders adept at finding effective solutions to complex issues in the digital era.

Passion for continuous learning
One trait that never fades out, but has become even more important in the fast-paced dynamic work environment now, is the zeal to learn more. The enthusiasm to seek out and acquire new information and knowledge coupled with a sense of curiosity and a willingness to continue to develop and grow is what will prevent leaders from getting outdated in times of digital transformation.

Team-based orientation
One of the evergreen and most essential skills that leaders need to display is the ability to understand and use behaviours, practices and processes that optimise team interaction and facilitate achievement of common goals. Being an accountable leader to the team and having a desire to achieve consensus and involve others in decision making is vital for any leader to succeed meaningfully in the present times, and more so in those to come.

Customer-centric orientation
A skill that is important for every employee in an organisation, but is a make or break for determining the efficiency of a leader is customer orientation. Great leaders consider customer experience above all. The skill involves using practices and techniques to identify and resolve pain points most critical to the customer.

In addition to conventional skills that never run out of importance, these skills here will redefine effective leadership in the times to come. They will determine how good leaders function and organisations need to consciously identify and develop their leaders with a strong focus on these skills.

 

GST- Good & Serivce Tax

Goods & Services Tax

- Article By

Palkesh Asawa

Charles Darwin had very correctly said–

The ones who are going to be the winners, are not those who are the strongest, or those who are the fastest; but those who are the most adaptive to changes.

We all have heard about Goods & Services Tax. It is one of the many legislatures that are pending in the list of changes that we might see in times to come. But GST is something totally different from all these. This tax is a consolidation of many indirect taxes already levied in India, thereby drastically overhauling the system of indirect taxes in India.

The need for GST

We begin by elaborating on the important concept of – cascading effect of taxes. It is also, logically, referred to as “taxes on taxes”. It is simple to illustrate – say A sells goods to B after charging sales tax, and then B re-sells those goods to C after charging sales tax. While B was computing his sales tax liability, he also included the sales tax paid on previous purchase, which is how it becomes a tax on tax.
 
This was the case with the sales tax few years ago. At that time, a VAT system was introduced whereby every next stage dealer used to get credit of the tax paid at earlier stage against his tax liability. This reduced an overall liability of many traders and also helped to reduce inflationary impact this had on the prices.

Similar concept came in the duty on manufacture – The Central Excise Duty – much before it came for sales tax. The CENVAT credit scheme (earlier known as MODVAT) was also a welcome move by trade and industry where credit of excise duty paid at the input stages was allowed to be set-off against the liability of excise on removal of goods. With effect from 2004, this system was extended to Service Tax also. Moreover, cross utilisation of credit between excise duty and service tax was also permitted. To a huge extent, the problem of cascading effect of taxes is resolved by these measures.

However, there are still problems with the system that have not been solved till date. We shall talk about these problems now. The credit of Input VAT is available against Output VAT. In the same manner, the credit of input excise/service tax is available for set-off against output liability of excise/service tax. However, the credit of VAT is not available against excise and vice versa. We all know that VAT is computed on a value which includes excise duty. In the same manner, CENVAT credit is allowed only for the Excise duty paid on inputs, and not on the VAT paid on the input raw material. This shows that there is a tax on tax!

Excise duty and service tax are levied by the Central Government, while the VAT is levied by the State Government, which is one of the reasons why such a cross-utilisation of credits was not allowed. However, this does not constitute a valid reason that justifies the cascading effect of taxes. For the people, it makes no difference if a tax is levied by the Centre or the State – a tax is a tax, and there is a tax on tax. The GST is introduced to combat this problem, among many others.

The Present System of Indirect Taxes

Let us first understand the various indirect taxes that are presently being levied by the Central & State Governments. 

Ref.	Tax	Levy by	Nature (Levied on) -	Can be Set-off against	Covered by GST
1	Central Excise	Centre	Manufacture	1,2	Yes
2	Service Tax	Centre	Providing services	1,2	Yes
3	Customs	Centre	Import	-	No
4	CVD* under Customs	Centre	Additional Import duty (compensating Excise)	1,2	Yes
5	SAD* under Customs	Centre	Additional Import duty (compensating Sales Tax)	1,2	Yes
6	CST	Centre	Inter-State sales	-	Yes
7	VAT	State	Sales within a state	7	Yes

 (* CVD – Countervailing Duty; SAD – Special Additional Duty)

The GST shall subsume all the above taxes, except the Basic Customs Duty that will continue to be charged even after the introduction of GST. Other indirect taxes, such as stamp duties etc shall also continue. India shall adopt a Dual GST model, meaning that the GST would be administered both by the Central and the State Governments. This makes it the first tax of its kind in India!

The Dual GST Model

We begin by stating the dual GST model and the taxes levied on each kind of transaction. See these abbreviations before we understand them-

SGST – State GST, collected by the State Govt.

CGST – Central GST, collected by the Central Govt.

IGST – Integrated GST, collected by the Central Govt.

(The names may change in the actual law; our purpose is only to understand their nature)

Now look at the chart that follows:

Transaction	NEW system	OLD System	Comments
Sale within the state	SGST CGST	VAT & Excise / ST*	Under the new system, a transaction of sale within the state shall have two taxes, SGST – which goes to the State; and CGST which goes to the Centre
Sale outside the state	IGST	CST & Excise / ST*	Under the new system, a transaction of sale from one state to another shall have only one type of tax, the IGST – which goes to the Centre

* It is worth mentioning here that the levy of Excise or Service Tax was not dependent on the levy of VAT/CST, as they were governed by different laws.

These are the taxes that shall be levied under the new system of GST. How this shall operate, and how can we have cross utilisation of credits can be seen in the discussion that follows – 




How GST operates?

Case 1: Sale in one state, resale in the same state

In the example illustrated below, goods are moving from Mumbai to Pune. Since it is a sale within a state, CGST and SGST will be levied. The collection goes to the Central Government and the State Government as pointed out in the diagram. Then the goods are resold from Pune to Nagpur. This is again a sale within a state, so CGST and SGST will be levied. Sale price is increased so tax liability will also increase. In the case of resale, the credit of input CGST and input IGST (Rs. 8) is claimed as shown; and the remaining taxes go to the respective governments.

 
Case 2: Sale in one state, resale in another state

In this case, goods are moving from Indore to Bhopal. Since it is a sale within a state, CGST and SGST will be levied. The collection goes to the Central Government and the State Government as pointed out in the diagram. Later the goods are resold from Bhopal to Lucknow (outside the state). Therefore, IGST will be levied. Whole IGST goes to the central goverment.

Against IGST, both the input taxes are taken as credit. But we see that SGST never went to the central government, still the credit is claimed. This is the crux of GST. Since this amounts to a loss to the Central Government, the state government compensates the central government by transferring the credit to the central government.
 
Case 3: Sale outside the state, resale in that state

In this case, goods are moving from Delhi to Jaipur. Since it is an interstate sale, IGST will be levied. The collection goes to the Central Government. Later the goods are resold from Jaipur to Jodhpur (within the state). Therefore, CGST and IGST will be levied.

Against CGST and SGST, 50% of the IGST, that is Rs. 8 is taken as a credit. But we see that IGST never went to the state government, still the credit is claimed against SGST. Since this amounts to a loss to the Central Government, the state government compensates the central government by transferring the credit to the central government.
 
Advantages of GST

Apart from full allowance of credit, there are several other advantages of introducing a GST in India:

• Reduction in prices: Due to full and seamless credit, manufacturers or traders do not have to include taxes as a part of their cost of production, which is a very big reason to say that we can see a reduction in prices. However, if the government seeks to introduce GST with a higher rate, this might be lost.
• Increase in Government Revenues: This might seem to be a little vague. However, even at the time of introduction of VAT, the public revenues actually went up instead of falling because many people resorted to paying taxes rather than evading the same. However, the government may wish to introduce GST at a Revenue Neutral Rate, in which case the revenues might not see a significant increase in the short run.
• Less compliance and procedural cost: Instead of maintaining big records, returns and reporting under various different statutes, all assessees will find comfortable under GST as the compliance cost will be reduced. It should be noted that the assessees are, nevertheless, required to keep record of CGST, SGST and IGST separately.
• Move towards a Unified GST: Internationally, the GST is always preferred in a unified form (that is, one single GST for the whole nation, instead of the dual GST format). Although India is adopting Dual GST looking into the federal structure, it is still a good move towards a Unified GST which is regarded as the best method of Indirect Taxes.

Points to Ponder: Food for Thought

The GST is a very good type of tax. However, for the successful implementation of the same, we must be cautious about a few aspects. Following are some of the factors that must be kept in mind about GST:

• Firstly, it is really required that all the states implement the GST together and that too at the same rates. Otherwise, it will be really cumbersome for businesses to comply with the provisions of the law. Further, GST will be very advantageous if the rates are same, because in that case taxes will not be a factor in investment location decisions, and people will be able to focus on profitability.
• For smooth functioning, it is important that the GST clearly sets out the taxable event. Presently, the CENVAT credit rules, the Point of Taxation Rules are amended/ introduced for this purpose only. However, the rules should be more refined and free from ambiguity.
• The GST is a destination based tax, not the origin one. In such circumstances, it should be clearly identifiable as to where the goods are going. This shall be difficult in case of services, because it is not easy to identify where a service is provided, thus this should be properly dealt with.
• More awareness about GST and its advantages have to be made, and professionals like us really have to take the onus to assume this responsibility.

To Love is To Care,
And Care is To Share.

- Rahul Durge

3 Types Of Bosses And How To Deal With Them 

- Article ByAnisha Sahijwala TOI

Identifying certain dominant traits of your boss could be the key to handling him/her in a tactful manner. Here are the types of bosses you could come across and how to deal with them. 

As a professional, you are likely to deal with varied kinds of bosses, some easy to work with, while others, for the lack of a better word, a nightmare. While you may understand that the only option you have is to work around your boss' tantrums, the same can take a toll on your productivity. Here is a list of the boss species and what you should keep in mind when working with them:                                                                                                                LAID-BACK
Laid-back bosses are known to be most comfortable to work with. While they do keep an eye on the work being done by the team, they usually stay aloof and only interfere when absolutely needed.Usually, this boss species understands that the quality of work matters and not the process. Mr. Naik, copywriter agrees, "With a laid-back boss, you take initiative to improve yourself. That's because he doesn't interfere with your work. He gives you the freedom to work in a setup that you are most comfortable in, and when the work is done on time, the boss knows he made the right choice by allowing that freedom. Laid back bosses never take your credit, unlike most other boss types. My boss simply wants the work to get done. He doesn't care about anything else as long as that keeps happening." In a nutshell, laid back bosses are realistic, practical and believe in getting the task at hand completed without interfering in their team's creativity.

Work Tip: Though your boss doesn't interfere, always keep him in the loop and seek suggestions to avoid issues in the future. UNTRUSTWORTHY
A boss who hovers over every step taken by his team mates, an untrustworthy boss is probably the most difficult to deal with. Not only are such bosses hyper, but they also tend to constantly pick on unreasonable issues, disguising them as mistakes and trying to correct them.Consequently, the attrition rate of such bosses is high. Shares Mr. Jain, who works with a travel agency based in Mumbai, "My manager would constantly pick on team members, often without a concrete reason.

Since we are a travel planning agency, most of our work depends on a client's needs. But unfortunately, my boss refuses to understand this and often imposes his decisions on us, and in turn, on the client. This has not only led to a loss of business, but also hindered us from meeting our targets. His lack of trust is a major factor for the number of people quitting the team."

Work Tip: Before beginning an assignment, seek their guidance and constantly update them about the progress to avoid team clashes and criticism.  MICROMANAGER
The trait of a typical micromanager is someone who wants to be a part of each task that his her team undertakes.Right from why a team mate is late to work, to wanting to know the details of even the smallest work undertaken.Working with a micromanager, though daunting at most times, can sometimes be positive. Mr. Shah, who works with a telecommunication company, says, "My boss insists on knowing the details of the work we put in every hour.Whether it is answering simple client queries to how we are preparing for a multi-team presentation, he needs to know it all. I have been questioned a number of times on why I came to work a few minutes late, an issue other team managers would never consider."

While most professionals are not comfortable with being micromanaged, most often, a continuous evaluation by the boss helps them meet their targets and also allows them to pitch for a better annual appraisal. Though a few micromanagers are harsh on their team, often breaking their team morale, most of them keep a hawk's eye on the work undertaken to maintain the quality and meet deadlines.

Work Tip: If you are aware that your boss wants to be a part of everything, make sure he or she is well informed about the work you do, your weekly work plan as well as your achievements on a regular basis. This will help avoid conflict.    
 

Here is What Recruiters Scan in Your Resume for 6 Seconds

 

Most of us never come to know about what actually went wrong for not being selected for a job interview. According to a recent quantitative study of recruiters on the job behavior conducted by The Ladders research, figured out that the recruiters spend an average of six seconds before making the initial decisions of whether the candidate is fit for the job or not

The whole finding provided data mainly on specific details that captured the recruiters’ attention, how long they spent on reviewing each resumes, how quickly their eyes moved from one item to another and what was the main contents that were over looked by them.

The entire study was conducted using a scientific technique called “eye tracking” on 30 professional recruiters. The entire research was conducted to figure out, analyze where, and how long do recruiters focuses on a single resume. As per the research, it found out that the recruiters spent just 6 seconds reviewing each individual’s resume. 

In that six seconds recruiters focus on the name of the candidate, previous company’s name, previous position is joining and quitting date, present name of the company, current position is starting and ending dates, and the educational qualifications. Based on these six data, recruiters did further more scanning for some of the keywords that matched the opening position.

So, as you all have got to know that the recruiters spend just around 6 seconds to scan your resume, you need to prepare your resume in such a way that it will be easier for recruiters to figure out the relevant information easily. So, prepare your resume in a clear hierarchy and avoid including any further visuals, which can distract the recruiter as it, place a very important role in recruiters decision making.