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Turning your business outside in

2012-01-25T16:10:00.000+05:30

Managers who have an extra-industry view bring to their business ‘New to industry’ ideas, innovative solutions to old industry problems, and overtime, altogether new strategic directions

It is a common mantra that innovation is the only true source of competitive advantage, and that most new thinking comes from outside one’s own industry. But if by that we mean a vibrant research & development (R&D) pipeline or the much vaunted ‘blue ocean’ strategy, the pickings may be slim. Best-selling products and breakthrough innovations that take us into uncontested waters are rare.

Real ‘innovation’ means acquiring a critical, thought-provoking perspective on the fundamentals of your business model, market practices and core processes. Such a detailed analysis of your organisation can lead to rich possibilities which can be turned into performance enhancing advantage. Put it to managers that an external perspective is essential to the success of their business, they will always concur. Ask them how much time and energy they invest in creating that ‘outside in’ view and the answer is usually ‘not enough’.

What does this tell us other than that we sometimes say one thing and do another? Our research at Cranfield demonstrates that businesses need to have clear answers to two key questions: how much of an external view is needed, and what are the best methods of creating this perspective? Once we have the answers, deciding who in the business should be offered what development opportunity naturally follows. Consider the question, what breadth of external perspective is needed? For managers, it is certainly important to distinguish between three levels: ‘business’, ‘industry’, and ‘extra-industry’.

A business level perspective takes us beyond the functional boundaries of many managerial roles into the world of the customer, the market and the financial issues facing our business; in other words, towards an understanding of the underlying drivers of the business. The result? Better quality operational decision-making enhanced functional core competence, and improved contribution to business strategy. These are all possible, once managers have a business level perspective.

In contrast, an industry level perspective demands that you consider the impact of factors beyond the boundaries of your own business, taking us towards a wider knowledge that extends the range of possible business solutions and performance levels. The prize is ‘new to organisation’ ideas certainly leading to increased business performance together with greater ‘within sector’ competitive advantage.

At a broader level still, the extra-industry perspective contains the potential to create a sophisticated strategic understanding of the business life cycle: ‘what leads to what’ in the business environment; and a leadership mindset that may change the ‘rules of the game’. Managers who have an extra industry view bring to their business ‘new to industry’ ideas, innovative solutions to old industry problems, and over time, altogether new strategic directions.

As one would expect, each of these levels of external perspective requires different development approaches or processes. All of them demand managerial time and commitment. Developing a perspective beyond functional managerial boundaries requires initiatives such as cross-functional career moves, cross-functional networking, and company specific (customised) development programme. Creating an industry level perspective is best achieved through such opportunities as: inter-company career moves; exposure to the supply chain and other key industry components; attending industry forums and networks or benchmarking industry competitors.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

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Planman Technologies

“Boss, kuch solid creative banao jo hila de! Ghanti baja de!”

2011-12-23T17:12:00.001+05:30

What agency do you choose as the young, infirm, impressionable ad executive? Would you fall for the compelling promise of magic at the big brand ad agencies? Or would you take the plunge for the lucre love at the smaller sole proprietorships? I was young once – and I was courageous too. Here’s my story – but take your own decisions.

The big, burly ‘client’, chewing his favourite brand of pan masala (with three rings on his right hand and four on his left, along with various coloured strings gracing his wrist) dressed in a safari suit of dazzling maroon, seated on a massive, filmy, throne-like chair in a room filled with pictures of Gods, Goddesses, his late father, stared hard at the young, fresh-faced Account Executive from the agency they had hired. From time to time, the client sighed and nodded his head – left to right and back – indicating cosmic sorrow. Eventually, wisdom descended from those pan-masala-stained teeth. “Boss, kuch jama nahin! Kuch solid creative banao, jo hila de, ghanti baja de. Yeh sab to ghatiya, nonsense, rubbish, bakwas!!” With these encouraging gems, he flung the eight ads (which the agency had created in two hours, flat) towards the young man and began to speak again. “Beta, don’t take it personally. I like you very much and love your English-speaking and gyan on advertising, lekin kya hai, bijness to bijness hota hai, hai naa? Your boss is my very good yaar from college days. Kamaal ka tuning hai, to mana nahin kar sakta, hai naa? But you must brush up on creativity. Waise ek phone me ghumaoon to line lag jayegi Adwalon ki and you know it, lekin mind it, mein aisa nahin karna chahta hoon. Navar!” He paused for breath and another intake of pan masala. “My 17-year-old daughter Dimple can do much better. Believe nahin karoge, by gaad, she’s too creative! Angrezi poetry likhti hai, painting karti hai, aur kya GK hai, oye hoi! She only told me these designs are ghatiya, third class, not something that will hilao the junta!”

Totally shaken and bewildered at this bizarre onslaught, the young man – whose parents had invested their wholesome income into making the lad what this world would call “cultured, educated, soft-spoken” – made the appropriate, polite sounds and left the office. On the way, stopping by for a ‘cold drink’, he reflected upon his life. Who were these strange clients – completely uninformed, coarse, totally disconnected with anything to do with basics of good, effective advertising? Why was his agency boss always insisting on young, nubile, half-naked girls to be splashed as the main focus of his ads even when all the client was selling were locks? Why did these creatures never exist six months ago in his high-profile Mumbai agency, where he trained and spent two glorious years? Why did he even shift?... The lad was now beginning to feel the stress and pressure of working in an environment that was a million light miles away from where he came…

Back at the office, confusion became confounded! His boss – a proprietor who was all sugar n’ spice just a few months back while begging him to join – blew his fuse! “Yaar, who told you to give him bhashan on what is good for his product? Is he a fool? Pata hai, he is one of my langoti yaars who has successfully run his Papa’s business for over 20 years, making a huge profit. Also, by the way, he is the President of the Ad Club and active member of the PRSI and Press Club, samjhe?” And then, a sudden parallel track, “What an excursion he organised to Amritsar and Wagah border, maja aa gaya… anyway, he called me and told me not to fire you. But yaar be dedicated to your work. What are you doing? Chal, chal get back…” This was the tipping point. It all spooled over in a millisecond – his fantastic two years at the professional agency, then the rush of blood to join this sole proprietorship of an ad agency for the so-called ‘independence’, and then the nightmare – bah! The young man had had it and finally exploded. “You got me here luring me with big bucks and great promises of freedom with responsibility. From an A-lister, all I’ve become is a Z-lister! My fault is that I didn’t listen to my friends because I was dazzled by the ‘seniority’. However, I’ve started regretting my shift more than anything I’ve ever done – you constantly refer to clients as Mai Baap and Bhagwan, you continuously instruct me to improve my ‘setting-fitting’! What the hell are we here? Pimps? Ever-ready suppliers? Weren’t we supposed to be communication consultants, solution providers?!? Or am I supposed to now always be a yes-jee, no-jee buffoon? You will never, ever understand professionalism because for you, billing is god, not quality… and that is injurious to my health!” Shocked silence followed on both sides. And then the lad blurted out, “I am quitting here and now. Bye!” With that outburst that even surprised him, the young man stormed out of the office. Of course the boss was too shocked to react. No one in his 30-year stint of doing various businesses ever had had the guts to speak to him in this manner.

Experience Vs. Evidence

2011-12-14T16:26:00.002+05:30

Evidence-based advertising, founded on experimental studies, is the only path to improving the effectiveness of persuasive advertising procedures

Prior to the 1940s, if you had a disease, it made little difference which doctor you went to. There were so many diseases and so many conditions that doctors could not learn from their individual experience which treatments were effective. This changed when doctors began to rely on evidence from experiments. Further progress was made when medical schools began to teach evidence-based medicine. And things progressed even more rapidly when the Cochrane Collaboration for health care began in 1993. It now has 28,000 contributors to serve doctors and patients. Evidence-based medicine has had enormous beneficial effects on the average length and quality of life.

Management is in a similar situation today as medicine was prior to the 1940s. Managers rely on their own experience and on the experience of other managers to decide what actions to take. This works well in simple situations in which they get good feedback. However, many management problems are complex & uncertain, and in these cases, eight decades of research have shown that experience fails. Few people are aware of this research, and, when told, most believe that the conclusion does not apply to them.

When doctors learned that some of their treatments were based on incorrect knowledge or procedures, most reacted as people often do when presented with disconfirming evidence about important topics: They became upset and attacked the credibility of the source. Nevertheless, the pressures are strong to follow best practices in health care. Many patients are well-informed about the possible diagnoses and treatments when they go to their doctors. Many doctors have been sued for failing to adhere to evidence-based procedures.

I have been fascinated by evidence-based management since I began my career in 1960. Many useful management techniques and principles have been discovered. However, to my dismay, this knowledge was typically ignored by managers.

In 1980, I visited my friend Paul Westhead soon after he became coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. After spending a day with him as he took the team through practice, it dawned on me that if we could apply management science techniques to the Lakers, it might lead businesses to follow suit. Paul was enthused about the project, but the owner of the Lakers, Jerry Buss, was not. (The Lakers won the championship that year, without my help.)

Nevertheless, evidence-based methods are currently being used successfully across the sports world, by teams including the Dallas Cowboys, New England Patriots and Philadelphia Flyers. Half of the 30 NBA teams had at least one statistician on their staff in 2009-2010. Those teams won 59% of the 962 games they played in the first half of the 2009-2010 season, while those teams with no statisticians on staff won only 41% of 958 games.

150 awards (and not counting!)

2011-09-06T17:33:00.002+05:30

They have lived in Both Rural and Urban India. This helps them understand their audience better and craft communication that connects with them

They have been awarded for their creative work by Abby, One Show, D&AD, CLIO and Cannes Lions. But once the awards lineup reached 150, they stopped counting. Their middle-class family background has not enabled them to afford a ‘Creative flair-o-meter’, as they put it. But that does not stop them from executing ideas that resonates their passion and commitment. 4Ps B&M brings to you Manish Bhatt and Rahgu Bhat, Founder Directors, Scarecrow Communications who believe that it is the consumer who seals the fate of a creative creation.

Were you always thinking of setting up your own agency?
Manish Bhatt (MB): Not exactly. In our advertising journey, somewhere along the way, we started taking ownership of clients. We had a free hand and could carve ideas our own way using our own methodology. Also, the exposure to different agency cultures helped. I still remember that it was at Contract that we learnt the craft of print. Every piece of work had to meet a certain set quality standard. It was an everyday battle that the agency was engaged in to ensure this quality. O&M on the other hand, had a very practical approach. We wouldn’t fight over every dangler or poster with the client beyond a certain limit. O&M therefore was a new school of thought altogether. At Ambience, we put this experience to work even as we were learning to deal with clients. Later, when McCann called us in 2004, it was Prasoon, whose strengths we could learn from. This was also a larger, powerful agency platform to stand on.

So, when did this actually happen?
MB: It was at McCann that freelance offers started pouring in and we realised that our equity had gone beyond the four walls of the agency. That was the first spark of entrepreneurship. Reputed brands were offering us freelance work. Most agencies we went to had their own philosophy of how things should happen. We started developing, over the years, subliminally, our own philosophy. While there was no friction, we realised that our philosophy was clashing with those of the agencies we worked for. In 2007, we moved from McCann to Contract. There we started forming an opinion on the way communication should happen, and the way an agency should function. We got a feeling that the optimum level of knowledge acquired over the years could help us set up shop. We were ready to take the plunge.

You have been together for more than a decade now. But how was the first encounter?
Rahgu Bhat (RB): We first met on the 3rd floor mess of Contract’s Delhi Janakpuri office in January 1996. I was a management trainee in Contract Direct. I was at my table, alone, having paneer pasanda, which was floating in oil. Manish joined me at the table and said (pointing to the paneer), “Lagta hai, aaj ka khana has been sponsored by Shell.” (One of Contract Delhi’s clients at that time). We decided to work together on a road trip to Bikaner and Bharatpur. While having a chai along with ‘mirchi ke pakode’ at a thela in Bharatpur, I got to know that Manish was not hitting off that well with his copy partner. I asked if he would team up with me. I was any way ‘single’. His only condition was – he wanted to participate in the ideation process and not limit himself to art direction. I had no problems. By the time the trip ended, I had no money in my pocket but I had a new art partner.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM Best B School India
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM's Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
IIPM in sync with the best of the business world.......
IIPM Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri on Internet Hooliganism
Arindam Chaudhuri: We need Hazare's leadership
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri - A Man For The Society....
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management

“It’s about literally connecting with Indians”

2011-08-11T17:16:00.002+05:30

Etihad’s growth as the fastest growing Airline in the world has been legendary. Ward’s marketing strategies have paid off in many markets. In India, Ward tells Shephali Bhatt about the need to do a lot more in future

Andrew Ward
VP, Marketing, Etihad Airways

7 years ago, Etihad Airways made a humble beginning with around $100 million in revenues. Last year, the airways reaped US $2.3 billion. The man at the helm of marketing, Andrew Ward, VP, Marketing, says, “For an airline, the most important thing is to differentiate itself since over the last decade, with the introduction of local carriers, airlines have become general commodities. The consumer is now prepared to buy an airline ticket just like he would buy a train or bus ticket. We have to upgrade the offer so that most people would fly with us for a longer time. We have to offer a higher degree of service, so that when the consumer looks at the price equation, he realises that he is getting good value for money. We need to ensure that the consumer doesn’t switch to any other airline.”

For Etihad and its marketing man, India is an important market in that Indians are spread all over the world. One would find huge numbers of Indians in every continent. For example, even UAE, the key country for Etihad, comprises 30% Indians. Ward comments that he has positioned Etihad as one of the premium offering members of the market. To that effect, he adds, “Etihad Airways has been the fastest growing airline in the world over the last six years. That has been our strength. We have taken new aircraft orders, new spa services, first class private suites and what not. We have been on the path of continuous innovation in order to position ourselves as the luxury premium airlines.”

In this year, Ward has ensured that there be a stronger focus on digital marketing. He has significantly increased expenditure in the digital arena on an year on year basis. The aim is to create Etihad’s own online service environment. According to Ward, although standard banner advertising would always stay there, the most effective mechanism to advertise these days is through the internet. Certainly, there are different stages of development in terms of internet penetration, and Ward is not blind to it – one reason his offline advertising strategy stays fixed.

But given that Etihad is not as well known as certain other airlines in the Indian market, how does Ward plan to distinguish his brand? Ward accepts, “We have to push the brand awareness of Etihad in this market. A good way of doing that is finding a property that is already well known. In some markets, it can be sports personalities but here in India, it’s definitely Bollywood. It’s all about how we connect. We had to find somebody who is famous, in this case, we found Katrina Kaif. We now have to link the airline with her, get her to represent us and thus benefit from her popularity. We have already started a viral marketing campaign online with the video we’ve shot in Abu Dhabi airport. We are going to have her travelling to all our important markets where we’ll have specific events targeting our target and trade audience so that we can work on a B2B basis with travel trade.”

Discover Travel ->TLC!

2011-07-19T15:44:00.003+05:30

The rebranding bug has hit the lifestyle entertainment channel segment too as the race to provide trendier, bolder channels with new faces, new genres and new places goes on. Discovery Travel and Living, with more than 60% market share in the same category, has been rebranded with a new name – TLC! Rahul Johri, Senior VP & General Manager, India, Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific said, “TLC marks the beginning of a refreshing journey. It will add a new dimension to lifestyle programming by introducing innovative formats, spunkier hosts and swankier locales.” TLC will come up with new offerings which include ‘Shimmy’ and ‘Exxtreme Sommer’ and will also extend seasons of the already popular ‘World Cafe: Middle East’, Vir Sanghvi’s ‘Asian Diary’ & ‘Living with a Superstar-Shahrukh Khan’. While the exercise is a radical attempt at fortifying gained ground, it would also go a long way in adding newer viewers. On the whole, the rebranding and reprogramming will be initiated from September 1, 2010.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

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Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri
Planman Consulting

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Professor Arindam Chaudhuri - A Man For The Society....
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management

BREAKING BARRIERS TO EXPRESS AND EXPAND

2011-07-08T15:56:00.001+05:30

A brand that had the first movers advantage in India and still commands the highest subscriber base, Airtel has moved on to ‘express’ itself on the global stage post one of the biggest acquisitions in Africa while preparing for imminent 3G war

One dream can change the world....one raised finger can break a billion hearts, two can win a world war. A whisper can inspire hope, a touch can instill faith, some voices can move a nation, some can dissolve boundaries. One act of defiance can spark a revolution, one hundred thousand candles can end a war - the power of human expression and the brand that has always asked us to Express Yourself, Airtel has grown leaps and bounds in the last few years to become one of the global telecom giants today. With a turnover in excess of $7 billion, it has become the 5th largest mobile operator in the world in terms of subscriber base and the 3rd largest, single country mobile operator. The brand has won an array of awards including “Most Preferred Cellular Service Provider Brand” award for six years in a row that only touches the tip of the iceberg!

“The power to keep in touch” started Airtel’s communication in the early years which stood for efficiency and unflinching strength of service. The “Touch Tomorrow” campaign soon followed with a consumer appeal and established a bond with consumers. “Live every Moment” took shape of the ‘leadership of more’ – of a brand that promised unlimited freedom to communicate spontaneously, not only in words but through exchange of ideas and emotions. The brand espoused the idea that consumers could now live every dream, every desire, every ambition, every thought…in essence they could ‘live every moment’.

Express Yourself, Airtel and arguably, Indian telecom’s most famous campaign ended up taking an encompassing view of telecom services as a whole and thereby creating a leadership in consumer mindspace as well. But, despite the continuity of Express Yourself, Airtel’s breakthrough campaign “barriers break when people talk” touched chords from the individual to the humanitarian level. A R Rahman’s impeccable Airtel signature tune has immortalized the brand and it remains one of the most downloaded ring tones in India. Prasad Narsimhan, ex-CMO of Virgin Mobile comments on branding in telecom, “Recent customer research confirms that branding is the single most important factor in customer choice and telecom brands further need to strengthen their differentiation in manners that are more relevant, desirable and defensible”.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM ranked No 1 B-School in India
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs
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Professor Arindam Chaudhuri - A Man For The Society....
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management

Apple's new OS Lion & iCloud introduced

2011-06-13T16:18:00.004+05:30

Apple CEO Steve Jobs came out of his medical leave again on Monday to announce the company's latest operating system Lion, which will make Mac feel a lot like the company's iconic tablet, the iPad.

The company also announced its pioneering iCloud cloud computing offering, besides new OS for mobile devices — iOS 5 for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. iPhone and iPad users will now be able to edit their pictures within the device itself thanks to iOS 5.

But the most revolutionary change to Apple device users will be felt with iCloud. Jobs said iCloud will replace the company's existing service called MobileMe that allowed users to sync their contacts, calendar, and mail with a virtual harddisk for anywhere, anytime access. Unlike MobileMe, iCloud will also allow users to sync their apps, documents, music and photos along with contacts, calendar and mails. This means that users will be able to use apps purchased using iPhone on iPad as well as restore them using the cloud service if something goes wrong.

The iCloud will allow users to sync their iTunes music library across several devices running. "This is the first time you've seen this in the music industry. Multiple (music) downloads to different devices for no charge," said Jobs while announcing iTunes in Cloud. Earlier, Google and Amazon had announced music services based on cloud-computing. The conference began with Philip Schiller announcing Apple's newest operating system Lion. Schiller, a member of Apple's executive team, is senior vice-president of Worldwide Product Marketing and reports to Jobs. The Lion OS X for Apple's Mac computers has multi-touch gestures built into all trackpads just like the iOS that runs iPhone and iPad. It can also support full screen apps which matters on notebooks. Mac OS X Lion is the eighth major release of the OS with over 250 new features and 3,000 new developer APIs, which will be available to customers in July as a download from the Mac App Store for £20.99.

"The best version of OS X yet, Lion is packed with innovative features such as new Multi-Touch gestures, system-wide support for full screen apps, and Mission Control for instantly accessing everything running on your Mac," he added.

Apple also announced in-app purchases which will be available in the built-in Lion Mac App Store. Other features include Mac App Store adding push notification; auto save for everything; sandboxing for security and delta updates to reduce download size of updates.

Yet another feature of Lion would be file-sharing service called Air drop whereas a user in a peer-to-peer Wi-Fi network can easily drag-and-drop the files for sharing. There are over 54 million Mac users worldwide whereas iPad has sold 25 million units since it was launched 14 months ago. However, the company did not give the exact breakup of sales of iPad 2 which continues to be out of stock in many US stores. According to Forstall, there are 200 million iOS devices in the world put together, including iPads and iPhones.

The features of the new iOS include News Stand, using which the user can collate new issues of subscribed magazines and newspapers automatically. It has a new Notification Center, which can be accessed by swiping down from the top and includes stocks and weather notifications.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM ranked No 1 B-School in India
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs
IIPM: Management Education India
Prof. Rajita Chaudhuri's Website

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IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management

Why Ford loves the ‘licensing‘ game in India

2010-07-06T16:42:00.001+05:30

Ford Motor Company is one name that counts amongst the top believers in the power of brand licensing. Mark Bentley on the how, why and what of Ford’s licensing program

Licensing has played an important role in Ford Motor Company’s marketing mix for nearly 20 years now. Established in 1991, the Ford Global Brand Licensing program has grown from two dozen companies to over 350 licensees worldwide in 2009. Annual retail sales of Ford licensed products were recently projected at over $1.5 billion. Our key partners include Mattel, Fisher-Price, Aramis, Electronic Arts, Microsoft, Sony and Franklin Mint. The “3 Ps” form the foundation stone of Ford’s licensing program. In order of importance, the team focuses on the following basic rules: 1) Protect the brand; 2) Promote the brand; and 3) Produce revenues.

It is no small task to protect an iconic, 106-year-old company’s trademarks. Ford and its agency partner, The Beanstalk Group, work hard to ensure that the company’s intellectual assets are being used properly. Key trademarks such as the Ford Blue Oval, Ford Mustang, Model-T, Ford Thunderbird, Ford Racing and “Built Ford Tough” trucks are constantly monitored in the marketplace. If necessary, Ford takes additional steps through its brand protection and legal teams to settle trademark infringement matters.

Ford leverages licensing as a platform to create additional brand exposure. Licensees indirectly promote Ford brands by creating millions of additional brand impressions and consumer touch points. For example, over 150 licensed toy and videogame companies annually produce Ford products allowing consumers of all ages to experience the brand in ways that reach far beyond traditional advertising.

Consumers also indirectly advertise corporate trademarks by wearing Ford brands on their apparel. Ultimately, positive brand exposure may lead to the purchase of actual Ford cars and trucks.

Finally, licensing unlocks brand equity by allowing the company to receive a steady stream of royalty revenue. Ford creates brand value and consumer goodwill by annually spending billions in marketing and advertising. Inspirational designs and high quality products also contribute greatly to the company’s success. The licensing team is responsible for leveraging these marketing and design efforts by extending the brand into many categories including die-cast vehicles, videogames, apparel, technical publications, gifts and vehicle accessories.

Ford Global Brand Licensing plans to replicate its licensing successes far beyond its core North American market. In 2009, foundations were laid in India, China and Latin America. Although licensing is still in its infancy in many emerging markets, Ford is poised to capitalise on future global growth in the sector.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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The Madison Plot Thickens

2010-04-01T16:12:00.000+05:30

Exclusive In chat with Society Magazine - Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri

Having long outgrown his previous beliefs relating to size and scale, Sam is now depending on Lara Balsara, his 28-year-old protégé and daughter to deliver the next frontier for Madison. On her part, despite being born with the proverbial silver spoon, the petite and pretty Lara has not found it easy to live up to her Balsara surname. Five years ago, when Sam inducted the then 23-year-old Lara into the business, she was armed with just a Masters degree in Marketing from UK and had little credentials as an advertising person. In fact, by her own admission, Lara spent her first year at Madison, simply sitting in on meetings, taking meticulous notes and learning the ropes. As Madison World’s business development and diversification manager today, Lara is keeping a full schedule, negotiating multi-crore mergers and joint ventures, both within and outside the country. From merely five units in its kitty when Lara first walked into the office (Media, Creative, PR, Rural marketing and Outdoor), Madison World today spans 20 units across ten specialisations (see Madison’s organisational chart on page 70). The team of 350 in 2004-05 has inflated to accommodate nearly 800 people within its folds today.

“We have grown 300% since I joined Madison and my own contribution has been in setting up new units organically or via acquisitions and getting the right talent,” says Lara, who’s first acid test was to launch MATES as Madison’s entertainment solutions arm a few years ago. Crucial partnerships with both clients and production houses are already under MATES belt today, and even a few EMVIES have dropped into its lap. Next came Platinum – a parallel brand for Media, Outdoor and PR units respectively, to accommodate client conflicts – followed by units in Sri Lanka and Bangkok. And these days when Lara is not jetsetting across the country to identify new business areas, she concentrates her energies on Madison’s Retail unit, which has most recently designed Croma’s new small store format.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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D-UA.H

2009-09-09T11:30:00.000+05:30

Downloader-UA.h is another one in the series of downloader viruses that have begun this month to unleash its fury onto the uninformed netizens in a perfect game of deceit. Many music and video websites, especially www.fastmp3player.com contain links to files like the following which are enough to attract the attention of adolescents and young adults for obvious reasons (as evident from the names): preview-t-3545425-adult.mpg, preview-t-3545425-changing times earth wind .mp3, et al. When a user attempts to load one of these MP3 and MPG files, they are directed to download a file named PLAY_MP3.exe. When the user downloads and runs PlayMP3.exe, a 4,800 word (End user License Agreement) is displayed. The installed file, PlayMP3.exe from PlayMP3.biz, in reality acts as a browser control wrapped in an exe, which loads a webpage running the Wimpy MP3 Flash player.

All the personal information of the user can be gathered and sent to unidentified locations over the internet on the activation of the Trojan. The best way to remove the virus is to switch off the System Restore utility in the Properties section of My Computer.

There were the five online pests that have destroyed many working PCs in the recent past. We pray, do keep away; rather, stay protected!

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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KAMAL NANDI, VP SALES & MKTG, GODREJ

2009-08-21T12:38:00.000+05:30

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1. Bajaj’s ‘Buland Bharat ki... humara Bajaj’ campaign
2. Amul’s ‘The Taste of India’ ad campaign
3. Vodafone’s campaign where the dog follows the little girl
4. LIC’s ‘Zindagi ke saath bhi, zindagi ke baad bhi’ campaign
5. Asian Paints’ ‘Wah! Sunil babu’ campaign

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A reality check on the “feel good” factory

2009-08-03T13:54:00.000+05:30

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Brand: India Shining
Agency: Grey Worldwide

What began as a goodwill campaign transcended into a full-fledged election slogan. And while India Shining was unable to pull off an electoral win for the then ruling BJP; it nevertheless worked its magic on its original target audiences viz. the global community. India’s image as a land of snake charmers & elephants changed forever, thanks to that one campaign. TAM reports suggest that the Rs.500 crore campaign was aired 9,472 times on TV in December and January, next only to ads for the government’s polio campaign.

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A ‘Complete’ faux pas

2009-07-22T13:07:00.000+05:30

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What comes to your mind when we say ‘The Complete Man’? With definite conviction, the answer is Raymond. Yes, for several decades, Raymond has been cajoling the desi Adams, through this phenomenally successful tagline. But it spelled disaster for it when suddenly, in the first half of 2007, the company decided to roll out woman’s suiting material. Agreed, that the company was trying to cash in on the credibility generated by the brand Raymond and venturing into woman’s suiting material was just a part of its brand extension strategy. But then, how on earth did Raymond planned to do it without doing away with its famous tagline. Even brand pundits would agree that a masculine positioning is strictly no for a feminine product. So what’s up with the venture now? That’s anybody’s guess!

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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It developed entirely new food processing methods

2009-06-22T14:40:00.000+05:30

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The burger conglomerate’s special relationship with its suppliers has a unique history. As McDonald’s Chairman Fred Turner expanded the chain in the 1970s, he came across a supply hurdle. The traditional food processing biggies of the industry were either unwilling or unable to supply the food goods that McDonald’s demanded. So, as journalist John F. Love points out in his book - McDonald’s:Behind the Arches – “It developed entirely new food processing methods” by relying on small suppliers. Over the years, the system’s suppliers have grown into some of the world’s largest food processors. Keystone Foods is now a $1billion company and the largest producer of hamburgers in the world; Jack Simplot has become the french fry king of the globe and Schreiber Foods supplies over 65% of the cheese consumed by McDonald’s annually. All these guys did was to shake hands with McDonald’s pioneer Ray Croc in the 1960s & ‘70s and the rest is history.

Decades later, when McDonald’s decided to hit the Indian market, it took them six years (and an investment of Rs.4 billion) to put their supply chain in place. The abundant caution seems to have paid off as today, it’s the only QSR brand in the country that has never been disrupted due to inadequate flow of products or lack of suppliers. The slowdown may be forcing some fast food chains in India to shut down loss-making stores, but McDonald’s is certainly not among them. As was the case globally, the key suppliers for McDonald’s even in India were relatively little know players till about a decade ago. Dynamix Dairies in Baramati (Maharashtra), for example is the key supplier of cheese to McDoanld’s restaurants and began as a largely cooperative movement in 1995. Schreiber, McD’s global cheese supplier gave the initial technological help and Dynamix today has become one of India’s largest dairy companies, with a more than 2.8 million lbs./day fluid line processing facility. Schreiber now also holds a 51% stake in the company. “We help our supply chain partners to grow along with us and even introduce them to our global partners for technological assistance and new processing methods,” explains Upadhye.

Besides, global supply partners like McCain (for frozen French fries) and Vista Processed Foods (for lettuce) have also entered India over the past few years. “McDonald’s helped us to come and set up our plant in India,” avers Jaideep Mukherji, Country Manager, McCain Foods India, which also supplies to Yum! Brands and Nirula’s. The reason why these suppliers have even caught the fancy of rival food chains is because of their quality and reliability. So how do they maintain the exclusivity of McDonald’s success recipe, we asked Vista, which is also a vendor for other 5-Star hotels. “Whatever we are manufacturing for McDonald’s, its exclusively for them and we don’t share it with anyone,” reverts Bhupinder Singh, CEO, Vista Processed Foods. When we visited the McDonald’s sprawling distribution center – run by Radhakrishnan Foodland (another vendor!) – located in Greater Noida, cartons of buns, cheese and eggs were lined up in sub-zero temperature (to lock nutrition), each labelled ‘Made for exclusive use of McDonald’s.’ In fact, McDonald’s is the only QSR chain that has a standing record of having the same logistics partner – Radhakrishnan Foodland Pvt Ltd - for more than a decade.

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A right beginning to a bright future

2009-05-06T16:07:00.000+05:30

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Though exchange-operated currency futures are still at a nascent stage in India, it can go a long way in helping us duel with global risks and uncertainties

Although a risk management system to hedge the currency risk has long existed in India in form of over-the-counter (OTC) market, the ever-increasing frequency and scale of risk exposure has necessitated a more transparent and efficient mechanism in the country. To overcome this problem government decided to allow futures trading in currency beginning August 2008. Currency derivatives trading picked up since then beating the expectations of many.

The country’s derivatives turnover for 2007 was about 29 times its national commerce estimated at $440 billion. Though this is a significantly large figure, it falls fairly short of the size of the global derivatives market that was 40 times the international commerce of over $63 trillion in the same year.

The large size of the Indian derivatives market is very much commensurate with the country’s ever-growing exposure to various global risks, high price volatility, and an increased number of asset classes such as equities, commodities, and currencies. In this context, it is pertinent to look at the scale of risk only the traders are exposed to in terms of the price and exchange rate volatility. India’s international commodity trade for 2007-08 stood at more than $272 billion. With an annualised volatility at 14% as found in the composite index of prices (COMDEX) and 6% volatility in Indian rupee during the same period, Indian traders were exposed to a massive risk of $55 billion/annum due to commodity price and exchange rate fluctuations. It is quite evident that the unhedged positions with regard to either type of risk would mean a big blow to the competitiveness of traders. The recent development involving the palm oil importers amply illustrates this. The importers were caught on the wrong side of the fence by a sudden crash in the international benchmark prices by the time the forward contracts they had entered into matured for delivery. No wonder, they ended up defaulting on their import obligations, thus hurting their credibility in the global market.

The incident emphasises the need for hedging both price and exchange rate risks efficiently in order to stay competitive. As for hedging against the price risk, an efficient risk management instrument in the form of commodity futures has been available since 2003, thanks to the burgeoning growth and spread of the country’s online national commodity exchanges. However, despite a huge daily turnover of $34 billion in the OTC market, until August 2008 when the futures trading in currency was started, there had not been a transparent and efficient hedging avenue for entities facing the risk of exchange rate fluctuations.

The exchange-traded currency futures overcome many of the flaws that plague the OTC market. First, the exchange-traded currency futures offer a single quote for a specific contract to all the participants at any given point of time, while in the OTC market contract prices vary depending on the relationship between the issuer and the client. Second, the cost of trading at these fully transparent exchanges is relatively low. The high liquidity build-up on these state-of-the-art electronic exchanges, through the leveraging of their robust technology and best risk management practices, results in lower cost of participation and more efficient price discovery. Additionally, the counter-party-risk, which is a major limitation of the OTC market, is fully taken care of by the exchange operated derivatives.

These are, however, still very early days for the exchange-operated currency futures in India and the market has a long way to go. As they evolve along the way at par with other derivative markets, and as participation and product portfolio grows with the likely permission for the participation of increased number of heterogeneous stakeholders to come on board on the exchange platform attracted by relevant products, the benefits to businesses and the economy would multiply. No doubt, strengthening derivative markets would also make us more confident in taking on one of the major challenges of an open economy i.e. spreading global risks, in a seamless manner.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

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The ark is sinking...

2009-03-14T14:18:00.000+05:30

It had been a fair while. I wasn’t sure if she’d remember. But was she gorgeous… a flame haired beauty with the most soulful eyes in the world… though a child I was, I knew what I had felt then was something not far from the neighbourhood of love. Her name – Pinky, was the only dampener. Nothing against the name … just didn’t suit her. But I didn’t care… I remembered the first time we’d met… I remembered her touch… that gentle caress as she held my hand. No words, but we did have a moment there…

I burst through the gates and ran towards the doorway where I had last seen her… it had been a bit like that scene from “Dilwale…” She’d walked away into that dark corridor, and just before crossing into her cell, she had turned back… and looked… for a moment that had seemed like it would last an eternity, and it had… As I ran towards that same dark corridor, my heart beat to strange rhythms… there was joy, anticipation… and fear… it surprised me. It wasn’t an emotion I had expected… perhaps I was worried - would she still remember me? Would she still be there? Of course she would, I told myself… where could she go…?

Breathless and exhausted, and with my heart pounding away, I threw myself on the walls of the precinct and peered over the edge... she wasn’t there… I went around the back, towards the corridor… not there either. I walked up to the guard. He seemed bored… “Pinky?”, he pondered, and then, as he dragged the very last wisp of smoke from his bidi, he added “Woh toh gayi, sir… she’s gone.” Where to? I was shocked… was she… “Dead!” he said. “Ab to kaafi time hogaya…” I looked around at the empty cell in disbelief… my legs felt wobbly and I felt my eyes well over… the warm wet tears a strange comfort in the cold dry November winds… How could she die? She was only 15, young, even for an Orangutan… I trudged back through the zoo, back the way I’d come. I was sad and miserable. And the place seemed depressing… In that moment, I’d grown up and had begun to see the zoo for what it was…

I must have been 14 or so, but until that day, in a zoo, I’d been like Alice in Wonderland, enchanted by the proximity of beasts and birds, hitherto, unaware of the terrible crimes this institution had been committing on its inmates. And inmates they were, incarcerated for life and destined to die, well before their years, of illness and disease if lucky, or boredom if not. Pinky, I was told died of both… ....Continue

Writing on the wall

2009-02-23T11:24:00.000+05:30

Unmet expectations lead to discontent, discontent to confrontation and long unsettled confrontation to wars. But thankfully, there also exist evidence of rationalisation and human goodness to counter this logic of wars. And it is so, more thankfully, not just in the hearts of an enlightened though voiceless few, but also in the minds of an articulate and creative fraternity of individuals.

This is how hopeful and secure I felt for all of us at the Jaipur Literary Festival this year. While last year, it was the prospect of meeting the creators of some eminently treasurable books and movies that got me going, this year was different. To begin with, the theme centering on “Terrorism, Fundamentalism and Pakistan”, as William Dalrymple mentioned, set a serious tone already. The first sounds of we-are-here-for-a cause resonated when I heard Nadeem Aslam, the young Pakistani-origin author of "The Wasted Vigil", address a jam-packed hall, “I had never seen myself in light of being a Muslim, but after 9/11, I did. I told myself that I am a Muslim and we look like this too. And, I thought, I am not going to let Osama Bin Laden define the way we Muslims are.” He said he was aware that “people down here (at the citizen level) know we are all the same but people up there (referring to the establishment) don’t” and was looking to bridge the gap by means of his writings. While he blamed many for injecting arms and weapons into third world countries like Afghanistan, Tarun Tejpal, head of the Tehelka news magazine and author of “The Story of My Assassins” overtly expressed anger against India, “How can you live in India and not be angry? If my book sounds it…I am happy.” Referring to the Bhagawad Gita as a book of choice for Indians that acts as the touchstone to discern the moral from the murky, he added, “We are the most complex and contentious society of the world. Hinduism’s strength is its weakness too. The good isn’t differentiated from bad the way it is in Islam and Christianity. We have an extraordinary gift of genuflecting to the rational and genuflecting to the irrational and see no contradictions between the two. Even the most brilliant thinkers and scientists are like that.” Clarifying to the audience about his differing stands as a journalist and a writer he said, “A journalist is like a warrior. He knows what’s right and wrong but to the same question an author may fumble and scribble and give a bigger picture. It is a great privilege to do both and there is no dissonance.” Certainly no mean task.....Continue

Lotteries won, but homes stay locked

2009-02-16T15:47:00.000+05:30

But like everything else, recession has hit home and personal loan policies of all banks. Things are better for government servants but not for those in the private sector. In fact, a bank official says there are verbal orders asking banking officials not to sanction new loans if the loan seeker and guaranteer are both not in government service, and failure to pay up means the house would be have to be returned to the Mhada.

The situation worsened ever since Mhada came out with its Malvani offer. Thirty per cent of those who have won the lottery and have been allotted homes haven’t got their loans cleared, confided a Mhada official. Meanwhile, the builders have earned mega profits by exploiting customers, as the per square-foot rate put up by Mhada is 40 per cent less than the one offered by builders. Apparently, more than half of the profit margin goes to politicians and government offcials.

The recent mega scandal that has rocked Delhi Development Authority has shaken Mhada. And not taking any chances, Mhada is taking precautions by upgrading its lottery system.....Continue

Ain't nobody like this desi girl...

2009-02-10T11:02:00.000+05:30

A lot is being said about how different you look? Is it plastic surgery?
It's just the confidence that comes from finding acceptance. When you're accepted you become more comfortable in your space. And that shows in your personality. Every actor goes through this metamorphosis and has shown it in the way he or she looks. Why am I being singled out? I've only now begun to understand camera angles. I know which side of my face and physique to present to the camera within the range of character.

When did this metamorphosis happen?
I think I grew conscious of my best angles and ability during "Drona". It actually began when I focused on looking like two different characters in "Love Story 2050". "Drona", "Fashion", "Dostana" and "Kaminey" made me realise my potential.

Did you enjoy working with Shahid Kapoor in Vishal Bhardwaj's "Kaminey"?
Oh he's a smashing actor.
I've already wrapped up "Kaminey". Now I'm shooting with Harman in "What's Your Raashee".

This has been the year of Priyanka Chopra?
The fact that my films did well made me happy. Every time my film flops, my heart breaks. Whether it was "Love Story 2050" or "Drona", I worked so hard on every project. I hate it when people say I've sleepwalked through a film. I've never had the chance to go to acting school. I've learnt everything I know about acting on the job. It took me a long time to come into my own. In 2008 I finally began to understand the craft of acting. I watch people like Kay Kay Menon and Jayaji on the sets and I feel I'm still taking baby steps.....Continue

Bachi Singh Rawat, BJP MP, Uttarakhand

2009-01-29T11:44:00.000+05:30

Both his pair of school clothes – and he got only two pairs every year – would invariably have betel leaf-shaped patches on them. Trudging up and down hill tracts would see them get torn many times and so his mother would stitch those patches. “Now I make sure that all my clothes last at least 10 years!” says Bachi Singh Rawat. He adds, “On passing school, my father gifted me his wrist watch, which till date is my best prize and I still have it.”

Despite having donned the garb of the minister of state for defence, he has not made an increment of even a square yard in his father’s sparse farmland. But he is always aware of what grows on his two pieces of land in Thapla and Ranikhet. For he is in the farm most often to meet people when he visits home. He can be seen working on the land and even asks some visitors to put in a hand. He can barely stay in Delhi for than a month at a stretch. Then, he runs off to his native village for a clean hill breeze. After graduation, he studied law, during which he came under the strong influence of Jan Sangh, and later, via Janata Party, he came into BJP and became an MP in 1996. “My friends made in all these years fund my poll campaigns, which is why my expenses are so low. I don’t contest elections, my party comrades do.”

His monthly savings are Rs 40,000, but let that not startle you. “Our needs for my three-member family is just about Rs 20,000 a month, so the rest of my MP’s salary is saved, and I spend it on serving tea and snacks and paying for the travel expenses of the poorer people visiting him from his constituency.” As for the ADF, most of that is spent in upgrading schools in his locality.

Once he had been offered a big position and a fat purse to induce him to join Congress. “I told the person that my principles do not find echo in Congress party!”....Continue

This one's on the House

2009-01-13T11:16:00.000+05:30

Though the rise of income has guaranteed food and clothing to the average Indians, a major portion of them still remain deprived of the third basic requirement – shelter. India has been unable to provide better, safe housing to its over 350 million middle-class population. And the demand is only increasing with another hundred million coming out of poverty, thanks to the high growth of corporate sector and its better economic performance. However, the exponential increase in demand for housing but slow pace of supply is widening the demand-supply gap rapidly, which clearly calls for immediate attention and intervention from the concerned authority.

A close analysis reveals a few basic maladies – bad management and inadequate regulations. To start with, average Indians are least motivated for home-credit, and somewhere it reflects the government’s failure to encourage people to opt for credit. Innumerable economic researches reveal that housing is one of the investment options which directly contribute to the economy in any situation. Well, our government and bureaucrats perhaps forgot that. The proportion of housing loan as a percentage of India's GDP went up from 3.4 per cent in 2001 to 7.25 per cent in 2006, yet it remains abysmally low when compared with other countries. The same in US is 54 per cent, 57 per cent in UK, 40 per cent in the European Union, and 37 per cent in Malaysia, according to the National Housing Bank, a wholly owned subsidiary of RBI. Along with this, limitations in infrastructural development and geographical differences are other primary hassles.....Continue

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Setting the pace

2009-01-08T17:14:00.000+05:30

The elephant moves slowly but firmly. Its motionless figure is often undistinguishable from the brown background of forests, especially in the summers, till one reaches well within its striking distance. Bahujan Samaj Party seems to have acquired some such qualities of its election symbol. The party doubled its vote share in all the four state Assembly elections in the Hindi heartland – Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Delhi – touted as the semifinal before the General Elections due within next six months.

So will it repeat the feat in the finals as well – in the general elections that are due in six months time? It pretty well might. For consider: it took the BSP – founded in 1984 – four Assembly polls (with a single-digit tally each time), three Parliamentary elections and a pre-poll tie up with the Samajwadi Party in 1993 to make its presence felt in Uttar Pradesh. The party had brief stints at power there with the Bharatiya Janata Party’s support in 1995, 1997 and 2002, before it secured a complete majority in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election last year. Those who smirk at the BSP’s tally this time – two seats each in Delhi and Chhattisgarh, six in Rajasthan and seven in Madhya Pradesh – need to wake up to some facts that are not so clearly written on the political wall. Its vote share in Delhi rose to 12; in Madhya Pradesh to 11; in Rajasthan to eight; and in Chhattisgarh to six.

Significantly, all these states have traditionally been two-party states, with almost no space for a third party. The Bahujan Samaj Party still bagged well over 10,000 votes in nearly half of the constituencies it contested in Delhi, and a quarter of those it did in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. “In Delhi, it demolished the notion that the BSP would damage only the Congress,” conceded a senior BJP leader, who naturally did not wish to be named. And he added that but for the BSP, the Congress would almost certainly have registered an even more emphatic win in Rajasthan than it eventually did.....Continue

Dmitry’s tango in us backyard

2009-01-07T12:20:00.000+05:30

Russian President’s visit to South America may well have been pegged as intended to unfasten business prospects for Russian business interests, but in reality it was to demonstrate that Moscow could manoeuvre in the US backyard in the midst of apprehension over Washington's interest in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus. Dmitry Medvedev wrapped up a week-long tour of Latin America last week with a meeting with Fidel Castro premeditated to reinstate a coalition and reinforce his country's position in the region.

Earlier last week, Medvedev and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez together gave the preliminary shot for a combined marine exercise in the Caribbean. The two nations also signed a nuclear collaboration accord. Also, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is visiting Ecuador to talk about nuclear collaboration with Quito.

Analysts say Russia wishes to reinforce ties with socialist regimes in Latin America in retort to US procedure to build a missile shield in Eastern Europe. Medvedev is the first Russian President to visit Cuba since 2000. Russian representatives refute that Medvedev's trip is intended to aggravate the US, but the voyage incorporated get-together with Washington's staunchest adversaries in the region.....Continue

Inclusive growth needs to be given one more fillip to help arrest ultra movements

2009-01-02T15:16:00.000+05:30

While the politicians are expected to do no better, what is, indeed, disturbing is that even our intellectuals, media experts and/or political analysts sometimes begin to speak their language. That’s how this dominant, hegemonic political discourse becomes a form of social and intellectual discourse, too. Sometimes, I’m compelled to believe that Bollywood offers a much better, sharper and more critical understanding of our social and political issues than our politicians, media experts and analysts put together.

Neeraj Pandey’s recent movie, “A Wednesday”, scores over several other movies on the familiar theme of ‘terrorist violence’ for two different reasons. One, because it helps us understand that one should never underestimate either the patience or the anger of a common man. If pushed too far, he may choose to find his own weird solutions to the growing menace of terrorism. Two, because it succeeds in putting human face on terror, almost inviting us to sympathise with the ‘characters’ we have only learnt to hate over the years. Neeraj Pandey doesn’t leave us in any doubt that the real question is not whether the terrorist is a Hindu or a Muslim, because he only practices the ‘religion of hatred and terror,’ something that all religions unequivocally denounce. The real question is that a terrorist, too, was a human being much before he became a terrorist. In other words, it’s the denial of social justice coupled with economic deprivation that often compels a human being, regardless of his religion, to pick up the gun. In a way, when an individual takes to terrorism, he is making a loud statement. He wants to scream and tell the society: ‘You have pushed me into the oblivion, and here I return, in my new found anonymity to throw your orderly, patterned lives into absolute ruin and anarchy.’ Terrorism is the last outpost of a civil society, triggered off by the failure of dialogue between the citizen and the state, especially when the state fails to deliver. It’s an utterly helpless scream of those citizens who wish to be heard and seen, even ready to enter a system that delivers or assures them a decent place in the mainstream. Be it Kashmir or Nagaland, Assam or Punjab, ‘terrorism’ has reared its ugly head in all those places where the process of development has given common people a miss, or wherever it has substantively failed to transform the lives of the people at the grassroots. Rather than indulge in useless rhetoric, let us give development and inclusive growth one last chance. Also let us give our people, no, not just vague promises (for they have had surfeit of these already), but a genuine reason to believe that justice is possible for all, regardless of their status, position, caste or religion. Who knows, somewhere it may help us minimise, if not eliminate, the ‘horrendous impact’ of this ‘national problem’!...Continue

Bangladeshi migrants

2008-12-22T14:04:00.000+05:30

The situation in Assam, meanwhile, continues to be grim. There are around six million illegal Bangladeshis. The Gauhati HC had earlier this year said that “Bangladeshis had become kingmakers in Assam”, and stressed on the need for a “strong political will” to remedy the situation. Some 855 students had died in the Assam Agitation in the 1970s and ‘80s, a movement aimed at forcing the government to identify and deport illegals. The situation, however, shows no sign of improvement even after the SC scrapped the controversial Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, 1983, a piece of legislation that was tailor-made to protect the illegal Bangladeshis in Assam.

Arunachal Pradesh, on the other hand, seems to gain immensely from the inner line permit provision that it has, being a sensitive border state, a provision that was often seen as an obstacle in the state’s development. Here too, however, the political will is striking compared to the scenario in Assam, which through full page advertisements declared that hundreds of alleged Bangladeshis, who had been pushed out of Arunachal and Nagaland a few months ago, were in reality Indian citizens, something that should have left to the judiciary to determine. “So far as our government is concerned,” said Tsering Gyurme, parliamentary secretary and principal adviser to Arunachal Pradesh CM Dorjee Khandu, ”the inner line permit does not allow even Indians to settle in our state. So there is no question of outsiders. We even insist on Arunachalis travelling out of the state to carry identity papers.” There is an increase in the number of illegal Bangladeshis now working in Itanagar. And what of the fact that the Tarun Gogoi government had declared that the suspected illegals pushed out of Arunachal were Indians? “That’s Gogoi’s problem,” Gyurme told TSI. All Bangladeshis who were working in Arunachal Pradesh had been identified and “could be shunted out anytime”, he added. “This is not like Assam where people can come in anytime, settle and get permanent resident certificates.”

The All Nyishi Students’ Union (ANSU) had served a quit notice on alleged Bangladeshis in September this year. The students then physically removed a number of alleged illegals, which led to the All Minority Students’ Union in Assam blocking National Highway. While Arunachal home minister Jarbor Gamlin had at that stage said that there were around 8,000 illegal Bangladeshis in Arunachal, the state unit of the Congress had come out in support of the movement by Arunachali students. “We support any move to free the state of migrants,” Nabam Tuki, president of the state unit of the Congress had said at that point. Support for the innerline permit meanwhile only grows. He blamed the Border Security Force for letting in Bangladeshis. “No one goes from Assam to bring Bangladeshis into Assam,” he said, “the paramilitary forces simply let them in.”

And just how far are these governments willing to go to protect the rights of it heir people? One indicator would perhaps suffice: asked about the 1974 Indira-Mujib Pact, which has turned out to be a major impediment in so far as repatriation of Bangladeshi illegals from India is concerned, and which groups such as the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) in Assam demand that the government renegotiate with Bangladesh, Lyngdoh was clear of his government’s stand: “Our state laws do not permit even Indian citizens to buy land in our district councils. So the Indira-Mujib Pact will not work here,” he said....Continue

About the ‘buzz’

2008-12-18T17:01:00.001+05:30

When a mosquito buzzes around you, something quite fascinating is happening. When any insect flaps its wings, the air above the wings swirls around and creates a pocket of moving air above the wing which has less pressure than the air below, lifting the insect upward. These little whirlpools are known as leading-edge vortices. Birds are able to fly the same way.....Continue

Sheila Dixit

2008-12-17T12:22:00.000+05:30

Delhi: Congress is likely to retain power. Sheila Dixit’s horoscope has good planetary positions. Since I haven’t seen VK Malhotra’s horoscope, I cannot say with certainty that Dixit will continue as CM, but if she loses, she will be appointed Governor of some state.

Rajasthan: Vasundhara Raje will face more opposition from within BJP than the Congress. But because of her strong horoscope, she will still sail through.

Madhya Pradesh: Uma Bharti’s good planetary position turned positive on October 7, 2008 and will continue till March 20, 2009. She will again become powerful. If she cooperates with the BJP she might come to power.....Continue

Can more than one Superpower work together for a better world?

2008-12-13T12:41:00.000+05:30

This friction got heated up after Russia deployed its strategic bomber over the Caribbean and participated in joint naval exercises with Venezuela. The tasks took place immediately after the US aid delivery reached Georgia, post war. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez stated (September 11, 2008) that these moves point towards "a multi-polar world". He said, "The Yankee hegemony is finished." Since the activities are happening in US-influenced regions, the next wave of cold war might spread to the Middle East. This hypothesis is evident from Syrian President Bashar Assad's statement (with reference to US-Russian confrontation) that appeared in Middle East Times on October 13, 2008, “Flames from one part of the world spreads to other regions and the fire becomes twice as strong.” It requires no rocket science to comprehend that Middle East would never want to get crushed between Russia and the US.

Leaving all this geo-politics at bay, it’s beyond doubt that world powers (and emerging powers) have wasted a lot of time in keeping the war hot. These powers could have easily solved many global conflicts to an extent, if not entirely....Continue

State HC orders unusual step to record victim's version

2008-12-05T16:02:00.000+05:30

"How can the courts be helpless in recording evidence of a deaf and dumb person when a number of sign language experts are available to help to communicate?" Justice Ranjit Singh wondered while holding that evidence of prosecutrix (victim) recorded in this manner would be permissible under law.

No wonder, Sundari was enabled to depose due to judicial intervention which made this mode of deposition permissible under law, a development that can impact such cases in future. Inquiries indicate that the victim gave a graphic description of the incident with the help of sign language experts but against her will. However, the sign language could not go farther to provide details of the accused. But encouraged by historic HC orders about legal validity of the use of sign language and the interpretation flowing from it, Sundari was not far from recognising the accused. The trial court did not appreciate the sensitivity of the issue but the HC lent a voice to the victim to rescue her in time....Continue

Reversed: Diversity in unity!

2008-12-01T15:33:00.000+05:30

IIPM Publication
‘Pride’ goes regional. First it was Gujarati Pride, then Maharashtrian Pride and now finally, Bihari Pride. ‘Pride’, the synonym of ‘identity politics’ rains votes, a realisation to which Bihari politicians had recently woken up. Not long ago, it was a cardinal sin to discuss ‘unity’ with Bihari politicians. But the landscape has changed after Bihari students trying to take a railways test in Mumbai were battered by Raj Thakreys goons. Now they all stand together. What a sight: Rashtriya Janata Party supreme Lalu Prasad, Janata Dal (U) top gun Nitish Kumar and Lok Janshakti Party leader Ram Vilas Paswan addressing the same press conference and speaking the same language!

But the dream did not last. The bubble burst when Chief Minister decide to go one up and sent word to all his five Members of Parliament to resign on the issue of Biharis’ being harassed in Maharashtra. And they did. Their resignations were accepted by Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee on November 11. An enraged Lalu Prasad has challenged that if JD (U ) is at all serious about Bihari pride, they should ask even their MLAs and Council members to resign!...Continue

IIPM Editorial

2008-11-06T12:43:00.000+05:30

Even those who make such doomsday predictions and projections privately admit that their forecasts are grossly exaggerated. Take energy security. Sure nuclear energy will be a big plus, once it is fully operational around 2020 if the deal goes through now. If basic reforms in the sector are not implemented now, power cuts will anyway cripple India long before nuclear power arrives. And who says that the deal can never ever be revived if it fails this time? Nobody seems to be talking about that. Then again, it will be good for Bengal if the Nano project is kick started at Singur. But will its relocation forever destroy Bengal as an investment destination? If the state, like India, can provide the right environment, the right infrastructure and a lucrative market, investors – both domestic and international automatically flow. And one nuclear deal and one Nano project will not permanently change that equation.....Continue

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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MICHAEL WE ARE STILL WAITING FOR THE ANSWER

2008-10-21T16:08:00.000+05:30

If one thinks about icons that led to the evolution of the IT industry, two prominent names that immediately flash into mind are Bill Gates and Michael Dell. They both started their entrepreneurial ventures at the early age of 19, both were academic drop outs and both managed to create mammoth wealth for themselves and their compaies.

Guess their string of similarities ends at that though. While Gates, who is the software giant known for his ‘soft’ heart (philanthropy work) and his graceful exit from the day to day working of Microsoft this year, Michael Dell, who ruled the hardware industry for more than a decade, is known for his tough talking and ‘hard-core’ managerial skills, as well as his need to retain an iron fist over the company he created. Michael is currently pegged at just $16.4 billion in net worth (Forbes, March 2008) as compared to Bill Gates at $60 billion. We proceed to analyse the ‘Dell’ road and why, despite being an exceptional genius in his own right, Michael could take some notes from the Microsoft man....Continue

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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Invest in e-bonds!

2008-10-11T15:08:00.000+05:30

With e-marriages you now get to choose your guy or gal just as you’d choose some gadget... list out the specifications you need, click and you get what you want!

Jerome P. Crabb had once said, “Getting married is like permanently grafting your hand to the cookie jar. No matter how sweet those cookies may taste, you can’t help but wonder what would have happened if you’d chosen some other dessert – brownies, for instance, or frozen yogurt, or maybe chocolate strudel.” And while some keep wondering about their choice, there are a lot more who get their hands into the cookie jar without even knowing whether they are interested in the sweets. For them convenience matters more than the end choice that they make, a choice that leads to marriag–that calls for life-long commitment. Marriages, till date are quite a family affair. So, while the debate on arranged marriage vs love marriage is still going strong, and will probably go on forever, the latest craze happens to be self-arranged: e-marriages.

For laggards, self-arranged e-marriages are about the ‘wannabe’ brides and grooms, who log onto web portals where they shortlist a match for themselves based on criterion like religion, caste, personality traits, pay packages, family details and photographs. With more and more marriage portals like Shaadi.com and Bharatmatrimony.com, e-marriages are in vogue and have given a new meaning to the concept of arranged marriage.....Continue

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

Read also :-

2008-10-07T16:13:00.000+05:30

Godrej’s success in FMCG will depend a lot on its push strategy

Guess what Adi Godrej (Chairman of the Rs.75 billion Godrej Group) is eying these days? The Rs.450 billion Indian FMCG industry. This was visible when he revealed his plan on April 26, 2008 to garner Rs.80 billion from the FMCG sector by 2012. So what’s his contention? “Last year, food was driving the FMCG sector, but this year there will be growth in all segments of FMCG, the highest among all the other sectors,” reasons Adi. With an aggressive profit growth target of 25-30% ahead of him, he’s coupling a brand makeover exercise with a plan to roll-out oodles of products from Godrej’s stable. Sources from the company also confirm that Godrej has set its eyes on foreign acquisitions during 2008. The multi- billion dollar question is: will just portfolio expansion & M&As make the day for Godrej?

There is a rough patch on its path, though, as analysts argue that as compared to others, Godrej has missed out on supporting its new launches with 360 degree promotion in the past. However, with a budget of Rs.1 billion per year for ‘big’ promotional activities hereon (like a logo change), Godrej wants to make up for years lost.....Continue

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

Read also :-

Lighting up a new flame?

2008-10-03T14:02:00.000+05:30

On several fronts, Venu Srinivasan of TVS has decided to take on Rajiv Bajaj of Bajaj Auto. It’s the former’s bid to emerge as the No. 2 player in the two-wheeler segment. By karan mehrishi

When M.K. Stalin, the son of DMK leader, M. Karunanidhi, and a few other paragons of politics visit a corporate event, it becomes an emotional affair in Tamil Nadu. As we arrived at the Chennai Trade Centre, the venue of TVS Motor press conference, we realised that this wasn’t the usual glitzy event. This special event on March 9, 2008, had ‘unanticipated’ special invitees, which included hundreds of auto rickshaw drivers and their families. And it seemed more unexpected, when Stalin and Venu Srinivasan, CMD, TVS Motor Company, sat in an auto rickshaw and posed for the press photographers.

The event not only invited the auto rickshaw fraternity, referred to as ‘the chauffeurs of middle-class Indians’, but also doubled as an exaltation ceremony for honouring their bravery and selfless service towards society. There were special schemes and insurance programmes announced by TVS for these unsung heroes, a cause which has not been addressed yet......Continue

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

Read also :-

L. K. Advani’s dumbing down

2008-09-22T14:55:00.000+05:30

BJP’s strongman opts for a face-lift to achieve his ultimate political dream of being India’s PM
The BJP’s parliamentary board, which ratified L.K.Advani’s candidature as the Prime Minister in waiting, is in the throes of another ticklish query: while the party, allies and cadres accept Advani as their supreme leader, will the country, and more specifically Muslims, do the same when the time comes? Therefore, members of the parliamentary board have asked the state BJP chiefs to carry out an internal survey in various states for the consumption of their cadres and other party leaders. The question they have to address: what can be done to reform Advani’s hardline image and steps that need to be taken to improve and liberalise his image.

This operation is to be headed by BJP vice president, Mokhtar Abbas Naqvi. His brief: to find out why Advani, who has a hardline Hindutva image, has been unable to make an impact on the common mass of public in the same way as Sonia Gandhi or Atal Behari Vajpayee. The question rankling the BJP top brass is despite conducting five rath yatras between 1990 and 1997, Advani is not quite considered a man of the masses. At several meetings of the parliamentary board, office bearers have told state chiefs that Advani’s name and public programme, if any in the state, should be given wide publicity. His pronouncements and statements needed to be played up and his entire programmes need to be highlighted well.

But like most leaders who have aspired to lead India, Advani is very keen to undergo an image change, from being a leading Hindutva factionalist to a moderate leader with middle-of-the road views and wide acceptability. The man chosen to conduct this face change is Naqvi, a Shia, who BJP leaders say has acceptability amongst Muslims. According to one strategy being planned, the virulent anti-terrorist rhetoric, at least at Advani’s meetings is going to be tempered down. The meetings, to be uniformly christened as anti-terrorist rallies, will be held throughout the country.

ptullah was first considered for the assignment, but since Naqvi is an old favourite of the Sangh, he got the nod over her. According to the BJP assessment, the fight in the next Lok Sabha is going to be a tough one and in a tight contest, it is important not to acquire the hostility of the Muslims. Even if a small but significant portion of that vote bank moves towards the BJP, the NDA would become a strong contender for the title fight. For the record, the BJP denies anything anything out of the way. “Advani does not need any props. He can win an election on his own,” Naqvi told B&E.

Senior leader and Rajya Sabha member, Arun Jaitley, told B&E: “Advani is our leader and we are going to go to elections under his leadership.” In fact, according to Naqvi, if all goes according to plan, then Advani would have toured all of the 500+ parliamentary constituencies by the end of 2008.

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

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Retail revolution

2008-09-20T15:44:00.000+05:30

After losing out market share to competitors, India’s PSU bank is slowly becoming a one-stop financial shop. By asif ahmed

One down, six more to go! That’s what O.P. Bhatt, the Chairman of State Bank of India, must have thought as he prepared himself for Herculean task in front of him. On that particular day, he was supposed to interact with the boards of SBI’s six associate banks to consider the biggest merger in the history of Indian banking industry. Of the bank’s seven associates, the merger of the State bank of Saurashtra with the parent bank had already been approved; the remaining would happen soon, thought Bhatt.

But that fateful day never came. Intense opposition from the Left parties that supported the UPA Government at the Centre, and bank trade unions forced Bhatt to never attend the crucial meeting. In fact, the meeting wasn’t held at all, and the proposed merger was indefinitely postponed. However, this is one credit that Bhatt would like more than anything else. This is despite the fact that the SBI chairman has changed the way India’s largest bank interacts with its customers.

How the times have changed for SBI in the past few years. As competition intensified, SBI was hit by falling market share, had to raise funds for expansion, and look for new avenues for growth. For instance, in 2004, the State Bank Group (SBG) accounted for 27.8% of the total banking assets, which fell to 23.3% in 2007. In terms of deposits, while SBG controlled 27.6% of deposits in 2004, the figure shrunk to 23.5% in 2007. But still, Bhatt is thinking in terms of a banking mega merger.

The reason: Bhatt knows that size matters. If SBI can become a banking and financial powerhouse, it will be in a better position to combat private and foreign players. It’s only when it becomes bigger and better will SBI be able to arrest its falling market shares in various categories. Apart from the proposed merger, Bhatt has sought organic growth for SBI in India, and other neighbouring countries. The strategy was unlike that of his predecessor, A.K. Purwar, who believed in acquisitions-related growth.

Under Purwar’s chairmanship, SBI acquired three small banks - Indonesia’s PT Bank IndoMonex, Mauritius-based Indian Ocean International Bank and Kenya’s Giro Commercial Bank. As a part of the overseas-driven strategy, SBI focused on developing foreign market that had substantial Indian population. During his tenure, SBI also made it to the coveted list of Fortune Global 500 list; he made the bank a member of the $1 billion revenues club, and was the first Indian bank to join it.

Bhatt comes from a different school, and thinks differently. According to him, the domestic market still offers immense opportunities to expand, and there are far more critical issues to be dealt with. “Overseas acquisitions can wait,” he said the day he took over as the chairman of SBI. However, Purwar’s legacy still lingers around. For example, during Bhatt’s time, SBI became the first Indian bank to open a fully-fledged branch in China. “Being India’s largest bank, it is only befitting that SBI should be the first to open a branch in mainland China,’’ said Bhatt. But this isn’t a focus area.

Keeping in line with the local mindset, Bhatt expanded the bank’s network in India. He tied up with other banks and institutions to cross-sell banking and financial products. S. K. Mishra, General Manager (Marketing and Cross-Selling Department), State Bank of India, explains, “In the Indian financial markets, mutual funds are rapidly gaining ground among retail investors due to various advantages such as professional management, diversification, and liquidity. For us, the tie-up will open up opportunities to provide our vast client base with a wider choice of products to meet their diverse financial needs and give boost to our fee-based incomes.”

Over the next three years, SBI plans to offer more financial services products like general insurance, custodian services, venture funds, wealth management, and pension-fund management. Given its size, number of branches, and growing customers’ base, it will not be difficult for the bank to woo customers for the new products. At the same time, SBI is the only Indian bank to have got the approval to manage the government’s pension fund. That, in itself, will be a big boon to future revenues and profits.

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

American in-laws…

2008-08-11T15:26:00.000+05:30

…will they accept the Indian affair of Hollywood?

The Oscar winning flick Elizabeth earmarked the debut of Indian cinema on the American silver screen. Ever since, the on and off flings between Bollywood and Hollywood have always been there. But it seems those flirtatious affairs between the two are now taking shape of a serious romance. Be it Anil Ambani’s aggressive Big Motion Pictures (a part of Reliance Big Entertainment) or Ronnie Screwvala’s consistent UTV, the chase for the Hollywood cheese is really heating up among the Indian corporate production houses. But what is it that has kicked off this romance?

What will be the compatibility quotient between the two? More importantly, will the American in-laws be able accept this ‘Indian affair’ of Hollywood? The vital statistics of Hollywood are one of the biggest bait enticing the biggies of Bollywood to invest in the industry. Sample this: The American Media and Entertainment (M&E) industry is worth a mind boggling $612 billion (in contrast to a paltry $13.6 billion Indian M&E industry) accounting for 40% of the M&E industry in the world. The movie business alone in America is worth $35 billion (compared to $2.4 billion of the Indian film industry) and contributes the lion’s share of 42% to the world film business worth $84 billion. Talking about the Indian production house’s Hollywood stint, Naresh Gupta, Head, Planning, Publicis India says, “This was bound to happen… Hollywood is the biggest film market in the world. How can one not target such a lucrative market?”

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

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From creating adequate infrastructure to cashing-in on lucrative business opportunities, this state is writing newer benchmarks.

2008-08-08T13:28:00.000+05:30

IIPM Ranked No. 1 B-School In Global Exposre - Zee...

From creating adequate infrastructure to cashing-in on lucrative business opportunities, this state is writing newer benchmarks. Call it the ‘Andhra’ benchmark! angshuman paul explains why...

In fact, cajoling investors by pro-actively supporting them has been the growth mantra for Andhra. Walk into Andhra Bhavan in the national capital if you need a psychological proof of the same where giant hoardings greet you, claiming what the Government has done to develop infrastructure and how it’s keen to help investors. Even Balvinder Singh Kalsi, President & CEO, DuPont India, who is investing Rs.1.5 billion by November 2008 to set-up a sprawling knowledge centre in Hyderabad confirms, “The Andhra govt. has been very co-operative and compared to other states, it has been politically peaceful. In fact, Andhra is one of those states where investors find no political disturbances.”

Infrastructure development, cashing in on lucrative businesses supported by enticing investors, Andhra is proving wrong every critic that doubts its status as the Best Marketed State in India. Christened as Vision 2020, Andhra has also planned out its investment inflow targets till 2020 – a super-collosal $750 billion! However, this state has an Achilles heel – tourism! Beyond Hyderabad and pearls, it has missed out on highlighting its costal tourism spots. The result is that while on one hand, it can boast of the highest count of domestic tourists (with the figure at a respectable headcount of 12.79 crore in 2007), its foreign tourist count is pathetic; proving why the state misses out on the thick revenue stream. And though it’s making efforts today as Ram Narayan, Tourism Minister, Andhra Pradesh claims, “Our efforts are to make Andhra Pradesh a leading state with regard to inbound foreign tourists as well.” Andhra has one last opportunity left untapped, for which it has also tied-up with Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Organisation (CHTHO).

Really, critics talk about the sudden spurt in capitalistic interests of Andhra and its pitfalls, but one thing’s for sure – it takes a lot to walk away with the glorious crown! Andhra is crowned the 4Ps B&M Miss India State 2008; what a moment of pride for all Andhrites!!!

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

Read these article :-
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B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
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Success is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration... Believe it?

2008-08-06T15:31:00.000+05:30

RNSSL displays the many weapons in its arsenal to 4Ps B&M

Money grows on the tree of persistence! And Rane NSK Steering Systems Limited’s (RNSSL) persistence (in supplying steering systems) over the years has proven this Japanese adage to be true. Rising input costs and lower profitability have hit the automotive industry where it hurts the most. But as an exception, RNSSL with their breath taking technology is surging ahead steadily with sheer determination of making its mark and ‘steering’ the industry.

In 1997, RNSSL kicked off as a 50:50 JV between Rane group (India) and NSK Ltd (Japan) with an equity capital of Rs.179 million. Today, it boasts of manufacturing plants in Chennai and Bawal (Haryana). The company has pumped in Rs.377 million in the recently opened Bawal plant which has an annual production capacity of two lakh electric power steering systems. “We have decided to invest in this plant keeping in mind with our overall strategic growth plans. RNSSL will grow in its chosen segments through expansion, upgraded technology and synergetic diversification,” says L. Ganesh, Chairman, Rane Group.

The company has done well on the balance sheet too. Over the last 3-5 years they have recorded a CAGR of 20% in terms of revenues and have won numerous awards including Gold award from Frost & Sullivan and Zero PPM award from Toyota in 2007.

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Indian pharma companies

2008-08-05T14:42:00.000+05:30

So does it mean that Indian pharma companies have lost their appetite? Or is it capital constraints giving them hiccups? “No”, says Anindya Acharya, Deputy Director, Drugs and Pharmaceuticals, CII. “It’s a well planned strategic move by the Indian pharma companies targeted towards improving their portfolios by entering certain niche segments rather than gobbling-up the entire portfolio of the prey.” Certainly, domestic pharma market is going through a transformation phase, led by strong underlying growth drivers and has witnessed robust growth over the last couple of years. According to a KPMG-CII Pharma Summit 2007 Report, the industry has grown at a CAGR of 13% from 2002-2007 and is further expected to grow at over 16% over 2007-2011. So there’s no dearth of future growth in the sector.

Indian players are also focusing on capturing emerging opportunities in certain niche specialties which offer higher and more sustainable margins to compete with their international counterparts. Moreover, the strategy also compensates for the intense pricing pressure that the generics segment is witnessing these days. But then, “what really holds promise?” seems to be the billion-dollar question.

“While areas like diabetics, cardiovascular hold great promise, some of the traditional sectors like respiratory, anti-infective et al are segments where the Indian companies have an edge over their counterparts as these segments are not well researched globally and have higher success ratio compared to other therapeutic segments,” avers Sarabjit Kour Nangra, VP Research, Angel Broking. Even a recent Deutsche Bank report says, “Currently the most important segment on the domestic market is anti-infective; they account for 25% of total turnover. Next in line, and accounting for one-tenth each, are cardio-vascular preparations, cold remedies and pain-killers”. Thus by gaining dominance in any of theses therapeutic areas, the Indian companies want to make up with what they seem to have lost as result of increasing generics competition.

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Many a hurdle on its path to glory

2008-08-04T15:18:00.000+05:30

But this emerging force faces many a hurdle on its path to glory. One of them are the bigger fish like Reliance, Dabur, Future Group et al which are charting out massive plans to grab ailing customers with their pharma retail stores. Then there is also the bitter truth about those ‘huge’ planned investments by ‘bigger’ players. So will it be a threat for MedPlus? Madhukar denies it as, “Others are focussing on both pharma and personal care, while we are/will be purely into medicine. Also, we have a massive expansion plan for every metro in South India. So by the time they come in, we will already have captured enough shelf-space!”

Fast and furious, MedPlus is venturing into other domains of medicine and healthcare as well. Not compromising with its image of being low-cost and at convenient locations, it is creating family clinics which comprises a network of 50 physicians. And there’s more geographical expansion on the cards with the company planning to add 1500 stores to its current count by the end of March 2008.

Adds Madhukar, “Many of these stores will be in northern India. We are trying out the franchisee route also, because now MedPlus has been able to create a brand of its own.” Sure, with north India too under its control, the bigwigs will need to watch out for this doctor; lest he prescribes the ‘exit’ pill for them!

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Read these article :-
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
IIPM makes business education truly global (Print Version)
The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
IIPM Campus

Indian consumers are reshaping

2008-08-01T15:50:00.000+05:30

With the 9%-plus GDP growth rate resulting in higher per capita and higher disposable incomes, the aspirations and mindsets of Indian consumers are reshaping. No longer is he interested in doing what others do. Engineering and medical profession that were once looked upon with highest reverence are considered traditional and boring. Fashion designing, microbiology and other non-conventional professions are popular because everyone wants to be perceived differently – ‘unique societal positioning’! Similar changes are reflected in consumption patterns. “People no longer want to own a Nokia 6600. It’s too common. They love their latest wine red W910i (Sony Ericsson), which is peppy and suits their personality,” says a senior marketing guy, with a leading telecom player.

Launching products for the 300 million-odd great Indian middle-class was once the dream of every marketer. But that class has now fragmented into individualistic consumers flaunting their respective differences. Tune into the rest of this story to gain more insight into this new trend that mass marketers can surely afford to ignore, but only at their own peril!

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Read these article :-
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
IIPM makes business education truly global (Print Version)
The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
IIPM Campus

Multiplier effect From 0 to 20,000 in 11 months

2008-07-31T16:14:00.000+05:30

Aggression pays in the long run, and Reliance Money is ‘cashing in‘ on CEO Sudip Bandyopadhyay’s aggressive stance to expand ADAG’s financial services foray. By neha saraiya

“Let’s get it done,” gushes the dynamic Director and CEO of Reliance Money, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, when asked to comment on his leadership mantra. The line is reminiscent of Bandyopadhyay’s brazen aggressiveness to accomplish what many of his peers can only dream about. He has successfully led Anil Dhirubhai Ambani’s foray in the financial services domain, to emerge as one of the leading brokerage firms in the country today. Within just eleven months of its launch, Reliance Money (an offshoot of Reliance Capital, which crossed a total customer base of 14 million this financial year, recording a three-fold jump in one year) has been rated as the largest broker house with a distribution reach of 20,000 plus across 10,000 touch points, with a pan India presence in nearly 4000 towns/cities. The company has also bagged the recognition for being the top brokerage house in the Starcom Worldwide India Investor Survey for the year 2007.

“At Reliance Money, our approach is completely different. We don’t charge any brokerage as our security is unique. We have a security token, a trading clause and a mobile portal,” avers Bandyopadhyay, detailing qualities that makes Reliance Money distinct form others of its ilk. And Bandyopadhyay should know. He has been at the forefront of this initiative right from the very beginning. A commerce graduate and a chartered accountant and cost accountant by qualification, Bandyopadhyay has worked with HUL and ITC (as head of treasury & investments) before joining at the helm of Reliance Money. Ever since, he has been consistently working to bring out innovative investment models for large and small investors, eager to make a buck.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Investee: DLF Assets Ltd.

2008-07-30T16:54:00.000+05:30

Investor: D. E. Shaw & I PCC

Investment Value: $600 mn (cumulative)

Says, Naveen Jain, Real Estate Analyst, Emkay Share, “DLF Assets holds property and earns its bread and butter from the capital appreciation and rents from various properties that it has acquired from DLF. The infusion of growth capital will help DLF Assets to acquire more and more assets. DE Shaw & I PCC are betting on the Singapore listing (and may exit at the time of listing to rake in handsome returns) for which DLF Assets still needs to provide a lot of clarifications. For now, DAL is aggressively adding more properties to its existing portfolio, with plans to spend $1 billion annually for acquiring properties.”

DLF Assets Ltd. (DAL), a sister concern of DLF, sprang a surprise last year, striking it rich with not one but two PE deals, one with Hedge Fund D.E. Shaw for $400 million and the other with New Opportunities I PCC (sponsored by Lehman Brothers) for $200 million. The deals give DAL requisite growth capital and investors will gain by selling their stake in DAL through the proposed listing as a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) in Singapore Stock Exchange. They plan to raise as much as $2 billion by the listing. “The process of listing is in advance stages and pretty soon other details will be revealed,” offers a source in DLF. Both investors will get a seat on the DAL board and will play a critical part in future decisions. In HY ’08, sales to DLF Assets accounted for a huge 47% of DLF’s total income. DLF Assets has acquired more than 5.5 million square feet from DLF. To further boost its portfolio, DAL also plans to acquire SEZ assets.

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Sinewy Mark, accosts ‘Hurd’les!

2008-07-29T16:52:00.000+05:30

He salvaged HP from the Fiorina storm, but will he be able to braze out weaker PC market and strong competition from the likes of Dell?

The day NCR put out a release about Mark Hurd’s quitting circa 2005, NCR’s stocks dipped southwards by 17%. It was that kind of respect that this man drew at the Wall Street before accepting to be HP’s knight in shining armour post a debacle known as Carleton S. Fiorina, the brain behind HP’s Compaq takeover.

And Hurd continues to be the board’s favourite man since his era began. A contrast to flamboyant Fiorina, Mark Hurd is a man who’d pass a crowded metro station without anybody noticing him. But in Hurd is also a man who’d like to roll up his sleeves and get on with the job rather than elaborating on a futuristic vision of a typical ‘visionary’ CEO.

Hurd moved to HP at a time when shareholders were screaming in his ears for that rarity called profits. And he got on with the job hands on. Being an operations man certainly has its pros and cons. Hurd chose the pros first. Throwing a slew of cost cutting measures, Hurd cut down costs that rang a bell on Wall Street when an increase of 17% in profits was announced last year to the tune of $7.3 billion. And revenues rose 14% to $104 billion.

“The story really for us has been in the past two years, we have been able to keep our costs flat. However, if you were just to look at a simple piece of paper, it would say, costs are the same at HP in 2007 that they were in 2005. Difference is $18 billion dollars more revenue on the top line….,” had said Hurd at a keynote address last year.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Pull

2008-07-22T13:00:00.000+05:30

They’ve attracted consumers like bees to a rose garden. Being the highest spending advertiser in the Indian milieu has only helped them succeed

HUL has been a marketing organisation that has morphed its marketing manner in sync with the needs, wants, desires and aspirations of the market at large. This is true of both the channel management strategies of the company, as well as the customer management process altogether. In fact, HUL has not always been a pull-led company. In the past, its efforts have been to seed the market when the concept of a detergent was alien to the Indian consumer. Having initially seeded the thought, the company moved on to manage the channel of distribution in depth. This was all about a push-led strategy that sought to load the shelves in a bid to create big displays that actually led to big offtakes. These offtakes were related to the ability of the retailer to push stocks out to the consumer as his shelves were loaded and inventory was high.

The next phase was a pull-led effort. The pull-marketing focus was all about ensuring that consumers actually came to see the loaded shelves. Advertising took off at this stage. The advent of colour television and the penetration of the television set all over with the HPTs and LPTs set up for the Asiad, were catalysts to this pull-led movement of HUL. Today, the company uses a healthy mix of it all. Above-the-line that causes the pull, below-the-line that continues to cause a mix of pull and push, and trade-related activity that helps in the push. The company has mastered this mix.

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative
Read these article :-
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)

IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)

IIPM makes business education truly global

The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)

IIPM Campus

A heated argument!?!?

2008-07-21T12:58:00.000+05:30

No worries. The dehumidifier is ready to fan out the heat

In an increasingly globalised world, businesses want innovative solutions as and when required, and companies that identify lacunae can reap the benefits infinitely. Dehumidification services are one such gap as there is tremendous potential in this sphere. Even though it may not be a business proposition making headlines, it is an important solution today. In a world, where safeguarding expensive technologies and equipment from atmospheric humidity is important, the use of dehumidification techniques becomes paramount. Bry-Air Asia enters the picture here.

A global solution provider in humidity control, drying and air-gas purification, Bry-Air has a presence in all the five continents. With a 90% market share in India & Asia Pacific (APAC) region, its operations in APAC need a special mention. “In India and the subcontinent, we have been pioneers in bringing the concept of humidity control through dehumidification. We have been educating and growing the market for over 25 years,” explains a confident Deepak Pahwa, MD, Bry Air. Bry-Air is one of the few Indian companies, which had gone global early on. The company has bases in high-potential markets such as China, West Asia, Europe and South-East Asia. With almost four offices and a manufacturing plant in China, Bry-Air has established itself as a competitive force in the dragon country.

Just like the food industry, aeronautical industry is highly dependent on demoisturising techniques in a major way, in functions such as aircraft maintenance, engine storage and landing/take-off. With an impressive list of satisfied customers, that include corporations like Taikoo Aircrafts Engineering and Airport Authority of India, Bry-Air is surely going places. Surprisingly, even after setting up an additional plant in Malaysia, to cater to the fast-expanding South-East Asian market, the company was not satisfied with its expansion spree. So, it acquired Germany-based, A+H Hamburg, to become the first Indian HVAC&R (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning & Refrigeration) company to acquire a foreign company. According to Pahwa, “We are actively looking at a couple of other acquisitions in Europe. With a licensee in Brazil and an associate plant in the US, we have our network all over the world.” Not bad for a company that expects to touch a turnover of Rs.230 crore in the FY-09 and Rs.400 crore by 2010-11.

As a party pooper though, Bry-Air will feel the heat of competition, as the marketplace will soon be flooded with other low-cost manufacturers. But Pahwa added that “our mantra has been and continues to be to provide the best international technology to the customer. The market opts for better technology, better support and a reliable product.” On a relentless drive to move further, the company is experimenting with more advanced and cutting-edge technology. Not satisfied with its already well-proven track record, Bry-Air is looking at greener technologies and services as well, as its sister company, DRI is ready to make foray in this direction. Perspiring with all the action here? No worries, we have the dehumidifiers ready for you. Still feeling hot?

Edit bureau: Karan Mehrishi

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

Read these article :-
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
IIPM makes business education truly global
The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
IIPM Campus

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Public Private Partnership

2008-07-18T13:45:00.000+05:30

For decades, analysts and activists have been crying hoarse about the private sector forging a strategic alliance with the public sector to build the badly needed infrastructure for India. GMR is finally making it happen

The Rs.2,500 crore GMR Group has placed immense faith in the Public-Private-Partnership model for infrastructure development in India – a faith that seems to be paying rich dividends too. Take the airport space, for instance. Winning the bid has awarded it a 30-year operation, management and development agreement for the highly lucrative Indira Gandhi International Airport at New Delhi, as well as build, operate, develop & maintain rights for a Greenfield international airport in Hyderabad. Though the proposal for a second international airport is proving to be damp squib, the PPP approach for airport infrastructure seems to be spot on thus far.

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Read these article :-
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)

IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)

IIPM makes business education truly global

The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)

IIPM Campus

Global biggies like Wal-Mart

2008-07-12T12:43:00.000+05:30

For now, the demonstrations, violent protests, ransacking of existing stores in certain states, has made certain that Ambani’s ambition to usher in retail revolution in India, ahead of global biggies like Wal-Mart, has hit a road block of sorts.
With this, time has turned a full circle. Big Indian retail aspirants, who had lobbied hard with policymakers to not allow Wal-Mart entry into India till home-grown companies build their respective capacities; are being haunted by the same Frankenstein monster. Only now, it’s no longer FDI versus desi players; instead it’s simply big versus small. “They behaved like the Bombay Club in retail; lobbied to build their own capacities in the face of foreign competition and suddenly the ball has turned against them,” avers an industry insider.

How and when Ambani senior will realise his pursuit and passion for being India’s retail king is still in the realm of speculation. Yet, it is beyond doubt that he is indeed the country’s retail crown prince. Whether or not, 14 years down the road, he will thump his chest with pride (like Sameer Jain?) for having fought and won the various intermediaries in India’s food & grocery supply chain, we do not know. But for sure, Wal-Mart or no Wal-Mart, if Ambani is around till then, he’ll make sure he’s the reigning king in the inimitable Ambani ishtyle. Are you listening carefully, Mr. Walton and Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal?

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Construction Chemicals Division states

2008-07-11T14:34:00.000+05:30

Pidilite Industries, which brought out Dr. Fixit, has utilised the online medium to get closer to the customer and empower them with information on its products in cities (Dr. Fixit Centres) and small towns (Dr. Fixit Shoppees). On the online initiative, Anantha Subramaniam, Team Head – Marketing, Construction Chemicals Division states, “The new Dr. Fixit website is primarily targetted at technologically aware consumers, enabling them to get all the basic know-how and solutions to household waterproofing, tiling and repair problems.” The website also provides contractors’ and builders’ information on different choices of products et al.

Saffola, the popular cooking oil brand from Marico’s stable has come up with Saffola Healthy Heart Foundation. It aims to educate people on heart-care via health talks, heart check-ups & education programs. They also have an interesting food festival by the name of Haanrir Khabar Bhojbaji in Kolkota every year on the theme of healthy food. On World Heart Day (September 25), Marico promotes the “Saffola-healthy way of life” in Mumbai through the famed dabbawala network. On that day, a Saffola Pledge Card is sent with every tiffin, which encourages people to adopt healthy living. Saugata Gupta, Head of Marketing, Marico states, “Today, people working in stressful environments are prone to obesity, stress, hypertension & blood pressure. And dabbawalas supply tiffins to these very people. So who better than them?”

Another instance is HLL with Sunsilk, which launched an all-girl community & coined “Gang of Girls”, offering a unique experience for Indian girls to interact and have a lot of ‘girly’ fun. It includes an interface that helps girls upload their photographs online and have a makeover done. The concept of looking your best and enjoying life is the attribute that HLL wants girls to associate with the brand Sunsilk.

Increasing tendency of brands to involve target audiences more and more is also visible in the media industry. The trend has moved from taking opinion polls and feedback to the concept of citizen journalism. Reuters, for instance, has recently tied up with Yahoo to encourage people to make their own news and click photographs of events in their vicinity. With mobile cameras in vogue, that’s not at that tough! Moreover, it’s a nice way to involve the general public in your newspaper or TV channel; they also feel that they, as individuals, have a voice.

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Wi ‘Pro’ acquisitions!!!

2008-07-10T16:39:00.000+05:30

If it was Infosys that found a place in the bestseller, ‘The World is Flat’ by New York Times columnist Thomas Freidman; the cooking oil company turned IT giant Wipro too has an admirer – Steve Hamm, Business Week’s Software Editor. He has penned an entire book on Wipro’s key success principles titled, Bangalore Tiger. Indian companies have truly gone places! Inorganic growth has been the core to Wipro’s long term growth in the recent past. “As part of our global strategy, comprising organic and inorganic growth, we have signed a deal with Nokia Siemens Networks in Germany to provide all radio access R&D activities performed by the latter,” says Azim Premji, Chairman, Wipro.

“Infocrossing buyout is strategic to us as it helps to position ourselves as a key player in the next orbit of large total outsourcing deals,” Premji noted. Well, Wipro was cash-light by $600 million when it acquired US based Infocrossing in August this year. No sooner did Wipro acquire Infocrossing, the new entity bagged a $275 million multi-year outsourcing deal to provide BPO and IT services. The company also announced strategic partnership with Oki Electric Industry of Japan to acquire its Singapore subsidiary - Oki Techno Centre, including its IPRs. The gamble played in the last couple of years has started bearing fruit as the “acquisitions of the company contributed Rs.25.4 crores to revenues,” read the second quarter result filing by Wipro. Strive for continuous improvement, obsessed with customer satisfaction and the man they call Azim Premji, have been the key to Wipro’s success, says Steve Hamm. Well, we don’t disagree either!

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist)

Blue-eyed British ‘Guy’!

2008-07-09T13:21:00.000+05:30

He is not too shy; in fact, he loves to pose in front of the lens. He is not scared of questions; in fact, his answers are fearlessly spontaneous, meet JWT’s not so shy ‘Guy’...

The wait was undoubtedly long, our restlessness growing by the minute; but then our small prayer was answered and how! Unlike many, he believes in keeping conversations short and sweet (saving us time), but simultaneously demonstrating a strong presence of mind and crispness in answering all our queries. When you meet this man, the first aspect that meets the eye is his semi-casual attire along with his semi-casual behaviour (neither very formal nor very laidback). In short, his no-frills attitude made us feel really comfortable in the true sense of the term. This is how Guy Murphy, Worldwide Planning Director, JWT, presents himself to us, and no differently to the world.

A British citizen with a beefy British accent, he preferred to repeat the questions and take the nodding approval rather than going wrong at any point. Having been a part of the advertising field for over two decades, and swearing by JWT’s Stephen King, Guy emphasises on creativity. He aspires to create highly networked team of media planners in the industry by leading and supporting the JWT planners across the globe and binding them through the social networking site, Facebook. Guy here proudly points out, “The one thing that differentiates us from other advertising agencies is that we are hugely in touch with the culture that shows in the powerful JWT network.”

All good things indeed come in small packages (at least that’s what we’ve heard in the past), but for a huge agency like JWT, which has numerous branches across the globe, the bigger it gets, the better it is... So what’s the strategic route that JWT is adopting to make JWT bigger in South Asian markets? The answer as Guy stated rests on the strength and significance of networking. “We continue to take advantage of our network. We are always inspiring each other around the world and that is how we plan to grow,” he says. Interestingly, there was some change in his attitude towards working in different organisations with diverse cultural backgrounds. As he reveals, it used to be very ‘critical’. But today, with the introduction of new and innovative technologies and gadgets in the world such as digital cameras, computers and the internet, things have become much simpler and far less complicated. Furthermore, the corporate culture these days have become more open and democratic.

After a sweeping career of 14 long years at Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) – where he rose up the corporate ladder from being appointed as a board member to becoming the Deputy Chairman in 2004 – he joined JWT. Ever since his appointment in JWT, he has implemented quite a few radical structural changes, as he reveals, “There is now a revived planning council where the key leaders of planning around the network will be meeting and working together to create wider responsibilities within individual networks. I am trying to structure connectivity where offices of different countries have a strong relationship with each other.” Clearly, when he joined JWT, there was only one major challenge – finding ways to connect. And that was a challenge which really tested his nerves. However he rose handsomely above all challenges and today it’s only but true that he is hell-bent on building a powerful network within the JWT family, all across the globe.

When asked about the ideal leadership traits, one could not only feel the excitement in his tone, for his shining eyes too pronounced the delight as he enlightened us, “Well according to me the ideal leadership traits that differentiate a leader from others include having an exciting vision, being able to communicate in a simple way and making it practical for people to follow.” When asked about the core values that helped him to carve successful stories in both his career, he instantly replied, “Determination, comfort in the leadership role and love for my job.” This delightful man from JWT also had a piece of advice for the youth, his success mantra which was, “It is worth to keep trying and never give up.” Simple, yet effective. What say?

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist)

Blue Ocean Strategy

2008-07-08T17:09:00.000+05:30

In sharp contrast to other aviation players, Singh has mastered the Blue Ocean Strategy and has created a niche market for Club One Air. He’s managed to stay more than a kitten’s whisker away from indulging in the loss-making ‘mass’ air carriage business; a business which as per the Centre for Asia-Pacific lost a teeth-rattling $500 million in 2007. Surely, Manav was not ready to give up the hard earned dimes of his stake holders in a jiffy, all in search for quick glory! “I’m happy I stayed away from the general aviation market in India. Our business is growing and we have a growing count of customers,” reveals Manav. Then there is the rather weird strategy that Manav adopted during 2007 – of expanding his fleet size (which currently stands at 9 Cessna jetplanes) by ‘zero’. Yes, you read that right; at a time when perhaps only the Martians were making money (with their UFOs?!) in the domestic aviation business, and everyone had taken up ordering planes as their newest found hobby, Manav sat quietly. “We took a decision to consolidate and not to add even a single extra aircraft in 2007. The primary reason being that if capacity expansion took place at such irrational speed, breaking even would become impossible,” explains Manav. With infrastructure improving and with the per capita income rising (implying more clients for Club One), Manav now plans to add more aircrafts to his fleet. He explains further, “We are also thinking of launching subsidiary companies to cater to different segments. We are going to focus a lot on building our own infrastructure and will add aircrafts as our infrastructure gets stronger by the day,” adding that the company already has two maintainence, repair & overhauling (MRO) facilities in Delhi and Mumbai.

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist)

Know the man who ignited the GM engine... in India!

2008-07-07T11:50:00.000+05:30

RAJEEV CHABA...
Chairman & MD, GM India
Know the man who ignited the GM engine... in India!
On this man’s shoulders lies the huge responsibility of steering GM India through the busy Indian roads, strewn with auto makers of various pedigrees... and he hasn’t failed yet! Well, atleast you can sense so when you hear that tone of confidence in his calm voice that makes you believe why this auto-king will ensure a ‘greater’ India for GM than the pathetic 2% automarket share it knows! Having trodden on Indian soil for over a decade now, GM India’s operations finally seems to have life (read ‘sense’) infused in it and all thanks to this silent commander who has seen the best & worst days with GM India. And ‘sense’ you just read?! Well, it was only under his leadership that GM entered the small car segment by relaunching Daewoo’s Matiz as Spark – demonstrating a growing understanding of Indian market demand as Chaba feels, “Look at small cars and you’d understand that in India even this is a family car; a car that many Indians dream of at the moment. Hatchbacks will sell well...” He also discussed further plans to launch another compact car. All in all, no reason to believe why his goal of garnering 10% of total market pie by 2010 should be just another reverie!

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist)

TISCO is looking up to this man and his nerves of steel to realize its dreams

2008-07-04T15:56:00.000+05:30

B. MUTHURAMAN... MD, Tata Steel
TISCO is looking up to this man and his nerves of steel to realize its dreams
His predecessors were legendary corporate leaders like Russi Modi and J.J. Irani. From a graduate trainee to the position of MD, B. Muthuraman has traversed a long distance in Tata Steel. He is credited with completing the 1.2 million tonne cold roll mill project in Jamshedpur much before time. And he does not believe in keeping his experiences a close guarded secret. For more than 15 years now, he has shared with his colleagues’ experiences of visiting a new plant or going overseas. In an earlier interaction with 4Ps B&M, he had said, “You see, I believe all leaders must have a visionary component.” Muthuraman was awarded by the Bombay Management Association’s as the ‘Management Man of the Year Award’ for 2006-07. Muthuraman also was instrumental in cracking the Tata-Corus deal. As captain of the TISCO ship and as a leader who believes in deeds and not words, the steel man is now working towards realising his dream of TISCO becoming the cheapest producer of steel in the world.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist)

BAJAJ

2008-05-23T17:43:00.000+05:30

In the midst of a family feud or corporate restructuring? You tell us...

Even as the demerger of the iconic Bajaj Group takes shape, the brand has found its rightful place in the 4Ps B&M list, with the able flank of its two great warriors, Bajaj Auto and Bajaj Capital.

Bajaj Auto, the fifth largest Indian company in terms of market cap today, was a tad late in sensing the demand shift from scooters to motorcycles. But at a motor show organized earlier this year you couldn’t really sense the delay, seeing the Pulsar roaring with its mammoth 200cc engine. Even their iconic brand – Bajaj Chetak (which served as a symbol of middle class aspirations for over four decades) was discontinued in 2006. Though hit hard on both sides by Honda Scooters and Hero Honda, the Pulsar continues to chart its way past the sales graph.

If Chetak spurned Bajaj to the top league between the 1970s-1990s, the job in this decade belongs to the Pulsar. “Bajaj as a brand presents a classic case of a dying scooter brand changing itself into a big bike brand today,” says K. V. Sridhar from Leo Burnett. Bajaj is betting next on CNG powered bikes, which will be launched soon. Definitely, the ‘Naye bharat ki nayi tasveer’. What say heir apparent, Rajiv Bajaj?

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Source:- IIPM Editorial, 2008
An IIPM and Management Guru Prof.Arindam Chaudhuri's Initiative

IIPM Arindam Chaudhuri 4Ps Business & Marketing Business & Economy Kkoooljobs Planman Media Planman Consulting Planman Marcom Planman Technologies Planman Financial Planman Motion Pictures GIDF The Daily Indian IIPM Think Tank

The Sunday Indian

Si(n)gh of relief for DLF!

2008-05-05T12:07:00.000+05:30

Pia SINGH... is adroitly leading her real estate chariot into uncharted growth territories. Competitors beware!

The booming real estate bears a gloomy picture of the fairer sex... perhaps with the exception of Pia Singh who has more than registered her presence in the real estate sector, that too in a flamboyant manner. For the uninitiated, before successfully leading the Digital Talkies entertainment venture for the DLF Group, Pia worked for the risk underwriting department in GE Capital and also played an integral part in building the DLF Golf and Country Club. A graduate from the Wharton School and with a film-making course from New York University under her belt, Pia today sits pretty as the Director of DLF Universal & MD of DLF Retail. And with DLF dominating India’s real estate sector under the leadership of her legendary father KP Singh, Pia is all set to make the group an established retail player now.

As she explains, “DLF retail is well poised to capitalize on its strengths as a comprehensive solution provider in the entertainment and leisure segment by bringing best of quality, service, design and mall management skills into its retail operations.” With DT Cinemas, Pia has already ushered in a revolution in the recreation and entertainment arena and though the entertainment and retail sectors have witnessed a rise of many players, Pia is confident that DLF retail and Entertainment will soon make a mark of its own. With her ambitions firmly in place, this one’s on her way to take DFL to irresistibly greater heights.

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Source: IIPM Editorial, 2008
An IIPM and Management Guru Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri's Initiative

iPod to iPhone – iEvolution?

2008-04-02T15:00:00.000+05:30

After the phenomenal success of the iPod, Apple has finally planned to unveil another revolutionary device – the iPhone – which will be one of the most advanced mobile phones available today. The revolutionary phone provides complete multimedia playback capability enabling the user to play songs, videos and photos. On his new product, an ecstatic Steve Jobs, CEO, Apple told the media, “The iPhone is a revolutionary and magical product that is literally five years ahead of any other mobile phone.”

To start with, this 11.6 millimeter device weighs just 135 grams and includes a 3.5 inch 480x320 touch screen display. Unlike other PDAs, the good old stylus is replaced by the user’s fingers! Furthermore, the phone employs an advanced built-in sensor – the accelerometer – which deals with both proximity and ambient light.

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Source: IIPM Editorial, 2008
An IIPM and Management Guru Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri's Initiative

Bharti Retail on track

2008-03-24T12:26:00.000+05:30

So how long will it take for Bharti Retail – with Wal-Mart in tow – to start shops in India? The information in the market is that the retail venture is on track – and is likely to start early next year. Sunil Bharti Mittal, Bharti Group Chairman and CEO, recently back from the US (where he met Wal-Mart Vice Chairman Mike Duke), told journalists in New Delhi that, “The process is going as per the plan and we are looking at a cluster of stores by early 2008... you will see half-a-dozen coming up.” The branding of the project is still being worked out with Wal-Mart. “Legal issues like brand agreement, franchise arrangement may take some time, but we are going ahead as per the plan,” Mittal added. It has already been decided that Bharti will manage the frontend, while Wal-Mart would provide back-end and logistics support.

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Source: IIPM Editorial, 2008
An IIPM and Management Guru Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri's Initiative

The Sunday Indian

Guarding your life

2008-03-03T10:41:00.000+05:30

Question. Which is the sexiest profession in the world? As many possible candidates race through your mind, I have just one word for you, Baywatch! Forget for a second the image of Pamela Anderson running on the beach in her barely-there bikini and concentrate on the hard facts. Finely-chiselled bodies, six packs (abs not beer), and a sun-kissed look, these are a given when you happen to be a lifeguard. Add to that mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and the added perk of seeing members of the opposite sex in various stages of undress, all day long, and whatever alternatives you might have had simply fade away. The icing on the cake is definitely the element of heroism that the general public accords the lifeguards. And rightly so, as most oft en it’s these people whose presence of mind and timely response makes the difference between life and death.

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Source: IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Management Guru Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri's Initiative

IIPM Arindam Chaudhuri 4Ps Business & Marketing Business & Economy Kkoooljobs Planman Media Planman Consulting Planman Marcom

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B‘l’ack waters

2008-02-15T12:59:00.000+05:30

Sans policy hurdles, there is another grim reality of the Indian realty beast that could prove to be its own undoing – there are oodles of black strings attached. The godfather of all of them is the black economy – dollops of black money involved in the sector has lead to lack of transparency in the real estate prefecture. Consequently, this has resulted in keeping heaps of multi-billion dollar FDI investments at bay and encumbering the sector’s augmentation. Dr. Tobias Just, Deutsche Bank (Research), Frankfurt explained to us, “Market transparency is still not satisfying. Data availability and data reliability are important and lack of data will translate to lower bidding prices.”

As compared to global peers, the state of affairs in India is dilapidated. However, transparency levels have gone up, given the influx of more and more foreign money and ambitious IPO plans of domestic realty giants. Still, lot of orderliness is required. According to Jones Lang LaSalle, India stood in the tier-III level of transparency in 2006 one position up as compared to 2004 in the global real estate transparency index. Although, in terms of ranking, it didn’t see any movement, remaining in the group of back-benchers and standing at 41st position, well behind neighbouring countries like Malaysia.

So what steps should be taken to flush out this evil? Raman Sood is blunt, “It cannot be erased completely unless there is a political willingness.” However, the recent stricter norms put in place by SEBI for listing and foreign money pouring in should help clearing the darker side. The move will put a check on the fl y by night developers who merely fl oat companies to cash on the booming demand and towering estate prices. Nevertheless, the stricter norms in no way have depressed realtors’ listing plans. In the recent past, apart from the jumbo DLF issue, issues like HDIL, Akruti, Omaxe – all have received standing primary response from Dalal street (despite the realty index on BSE dipping pathetically).

Brown begins to assert the independence of British foreign policy

2008-02-05T12:22:00.000+05:30

Brown is sincerely trying to shed the ‘poodle’ tag attached to the British, made amply clear by the observation of former UN Deputy Secretary & the current Foreign Minister, Malloch Brown, who candidly stated that Brown and Bush would not be “joined at the hip.” He further amplified the need to build coalitions, which “go beyond the bilateral blinkers of the normal partners.” But dismissing such statements as polemical, Robert McGeehan of Chatham House, told B&E, “Recent comments about ‘more distance’ could appease several critics in Britain, but the fact is that there shall be no major shift in the (USUK) relationship.”

However, distancing himself from Bush and getting rid of the Iraq war fiasco inflicted by Blair, could go a long way in ensuring Brown’s continued popularity.

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Source: IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Management Guru Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri's Initiative

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The Sunday Indian

That’s (Alu)minimum value!

2008-01-25T12:25:00.000+05:30

Expensive metal (and we’re not talking of gold here!) is the hot & melting topic for the season in Canada. Well, you’d want to believe it’s so at least at Alcan Inc., the Canadian aluminium giant, where the shareholders apparently hold a view that ‘what if it’s not gold they own? Atleast their aluminium is worth its weight in gold!’ Yes, they firmly believe so, for they wouldn’t otherwise brush aside Alcoa’s colossal $26.9 billion revised bid offer & ask for more… But then again, the obvious happened & the Alcan shareholders didn’t have to wait for long, for along came Rio Tinto, the world’s second largest mining behemoth with its all-cash $38.1 billion mighty offer at $101 per Alcan share. ‘Overvalued’ you think as compared to the previous bids it received from Alcoa? Our confident answer to that is – yes! Grossly overvalued!

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Source: IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Management Guru Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri's Initiative

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The auto’matic dispute

2008-01-17T12:34:00.000+05:30

The Bajaj clan is broadly divided into two families; one of Jamnalal Bajaj’s elder son Kamalnayan Bajaj (Rahul and Shishir) and the younger Ramkrishna Bajaj (Shekhar, Madhur and Niraj). According to sources, Rahul and his brother Shishir together own close to 47% of the family fortunes, while the rest of the balance is distributed among their three cousins. Rahul and his three cousins are said to be in cordial relationship while brother Shishir is apparently the opposing party.

Shishir, who manages the group’s third largest company, Bajaj Hindustan, has been vying for a business split for long. It all started when Shishir wanted a lion’s share from the Bajaj Group and demanded close to $120 million as his share, along with a vertical split in Bajaj Auto. He also proposed to buy out stock held by his brothers in certain companies he was interested in running and managing. This was reportedly deemed unjustifiable and not accepted, accordingly turned down. At one time it appeared that the Bajajs were grouped as ‘four brothers versus one’.

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Source: IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Management Guru Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri's Initiative

Home Campus Tour Contact Us Sitemap IIPM Think Tank IIPM National Brochure IIPM in Media India Today & Tomorrow
Strategic Alliance / Consulting / Intellectual Tic-up Partners Arindam chaudhuri GIDF Planman Consulting Business & Economy 4Ps Business & Marketing The Sunday Indian The Daily Indian Kkoooljobs.com

Past imperfect & present tense!

2008-01-10T11:30:00.000+05:30

In the 21st century when mankind is at threshold of path-breaking innovations that can bring about a paradigm shift in the way s/he lives, perceives, thinks & changes the world around, it is unfortunate or rather an irony that amidst all the talks of technology & economic revolutions s/he has not been able to fully insure the lives of their own progenies. A look at the less civilised & more rustic wild life out there in the jungles would vindicate that it is this very thing i.e. the protection of the younger ones, which has always been & would always be a priority for any species, barring mankind & serpents perhaps.

World over it is not just the divide between haves & the have-nots, but also the disparity between the handful of children who are growing up in affluence while the majority eagerly waiting to hug misery. For they don’t need to wait till death, to get a glimpse of hell, (if at all), as for them the world itself has transformed into a living hell for them. The medium of atrocities might be disparate – from being forced to become a young soldier in a war camp, sexual abuse on the streets, sleeping with empty stomach in chilling winter nights or being openly traded like commodity at flesh market, the ends are the same. The gruesome reality today rampantly covers more than two-thirds of the world. Call it propaganda or ignorance, most think that gun to drug addicted children working for militias are restricted only to Sub-Saharan African countries, while the reality is pretty far from truth.

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Source: IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Management Guru Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri's Initiative

“There is a fair amount of investments in Human Resources, especially in training...”

2007-12-28T12:11:00.000+05:30

With a talent crunch being faced by the industry as a whole, GCPL has constituted a process called Talent Management. “In this, we try to identify the employees who are at the top of the performance ladder. The criteria for this are both performance and potential – Adi Godrej is involved with this and once a year we present the talent list,” says Sumit. Communication across channels has been made more effective over the years and despite the best of efforts, attrition issues exist in every organisation under the sun. Sumit reverts, “The way economy is changing, there would be an increasing number of employees willing to move on, and organisations, despite their efforts, would fail to satisfy all.” So the question remains – ‘How has GCPL addressed this menace called attrition, of late?’

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Source: IIPM Editorial, 2006

An IIPM and Management Guru Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri's Initiative

Russian Mig 35 in the fray

2007-12-13T11:19:00.000+05:30

Now that we have the major producers of fighter aircraft - Lockheed Martin & Boeing of the US; Euro fighter of the European consortium; Sweden’s SAAB Grippen fighter, Rafael by Dassault Aviation and the Russian Mig 35 in the fray, India has a wide array of fighter planes to choose from for its future war machines. Lockheed Martin is in the process of manufacturing the ‘next-generation’ F-16 NG to meet the requirements of India. The Israeli Soufa Avionics Package and Weapons Systems package are one of the top contenders for the 126 MRCA of the IAF.

Air power, one of the quintessential requirements of any defence force cannot be neglected. One only hopes that during the tenure of the Defence Minister AK Anthony, the process will be smooth and free of corruption. The IAF needs to concentrate on flying and maintaining the machines, rather than answering parliamentary queries related to illegal transactions by middlemen.

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Source: IIPM Editorial, 2006

An IIPM and Management Guru Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri's Initiative

IIPM, Business College Ranking India BBA Institute India, IIPM IIPM - Nikhil Khade Online Welcome to 4Ps Business and Marketing The IIPM Think Tank IIPM New Delhi India Professor Arindam Chaudhuri, Renowned Management Guru & Economist IIPM Info Planning and Entrepreneurship Programme, IIPM New Delhi, India Business And Economy IIPM Placements New Delhi, India IIPM Business Management Institute India

Barmy army?

2007-12-05T11:12:00.000+05:30

The army’s fallen behind China

Considered to be among the best in the world in terms of skills and professionalism, the second largest army of the world has for long kept itself apolitical and has won many a war for the country. But over the last few years, it has been losing some of its sheen due to a severe shortage of commissioned officers, increasing pressure to deal with insurgency, suicides among its personnel and inordinate delay in getting the right kind of hardware owing to political indecisiveness. While it finds its artillery capability severely hamstrung owing to cannibalization of its old Bofors 155mm guns, for fear of political backlash, the new contracts for the 155mm Howitzers are not being awarded to the Swedish company, even though now it is a subsidiary of BAE Systems. Though Indian Army’s budget has been considerable increased in recent past, the fact is that China has gone far ahead of India in terms of troop modernisation, without a matching response from India. Yet, in the worst of times and amidst hostile neighbours, the army still remains our best bet... with feet on the ground!

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Source: IIPM Editorial, 2006

An IIPM and Management Guru Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri's Initiative

Bain strikes the right notes!

2007-11-29T11:00:00.000+05:30

Bain Capital Partners, a Boston based private equity firm, finally got consent to acquire The Guitar Center, the biggest retailer of musical instruments in the U.S. The deal has been sealed at $1.9 billion and assumes the debt of $200 million which will drive the transaction to $2.1 billion. Bain Capital has also promised a premium of 26% at $63 per share to the shareholders of the retail firm. Guitar Center believes that Bain Capital has a successful track record and investment experience and the deal would be of interest both, to the company and the stockholders. Guitar Center has hired Goldman Sachs & Co. to proceed with the auction. The deal is expected to close by fourth quarter.

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Source: IIPM Editorial, 2006

An IIPM and Management Guru Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri's Initiative

Bon ‘Voyage’!

2007-11-21T12:37:00.000+05:30

If it were not for a little stand-off between two Alice Springs Lion’s members, Australians would have forever been deprived of what has come to be known as the Voyages Camel Cup. Held each July at the Blaterskite Park, it still retains the zing of the very first Camel Cup, organized by the Alice Springs Lion Club. Contrary to popular belief, camels can run at astounding speeds and that’s exactly what people come from far and wide to see. And it’s all in good faith when some of these cud-chewing, droopy-eyed mammals just stand at the start line and refuse to budge.

To start with, Australia was never a natural home to camels. From 1840 onwards, they were imported for nearly half a decade from Canary Islands. Now, Australia has more than 750,000 of them, not only making it home to the largest camel population anywhere in the world but also the only camel exporting country.

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Source: IIPM Editorial, 2006

An IIPM and Management Guru Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri's Initiative

“Consolidation will benefi t those who want to cover all points of travel: domestic full fare, low cost & international”

2007-11-13T17:08:00.000+05:30

Be that as it may, it cannot be denied that GoAir continues to bleed with heavy losses, as is true for every aircraft carrier in the country. The reason, according to Jeh, is the triumvirate of three – infrastructure, policies & taxes, all of which need to be bettered for the next big leap forward in Indian aviation. “Taxes are the first concern. If the barrel is costing about $73, then we pay 27% more than that as sales tax. I mean it is ridiculous & not heard of anywhere else in the world. Why don’t we incorporate corporate income tax? If this gets done, then I would get profitable overnight.” He laments how 60% of the airline income goes to the government & petroleum company, which the company can’t control. And the figure for that internationally is 27%. That’s one major reason for the failure to make profits yet, according to Jeh. In fact, raising a question on the aggressive expansion plans of his many competitors, Jeh is of the view that the more planes you have; the more losses one makes. In fact, he says that given the prevailing conditions in the aviation sector, GoAir has revised its earlier estimates of fleet expansion, & restricted them to 35 planes by 2011 (instead of 50 aircraft s).

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Source: IIPM Editorial, 2006

An IIPM and Management Guru Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri's Initiative