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India’s Top MR Agencies 2011

2012-02-16T15:36:00.001+05:30

The Final Ranking of Top Indian Market Research Firms as per the 4Ps B&M survey gives them scores on an aggregate basis as well as on different parameters.

Methodology

4Ps B&M conducted a perception survey in two phases on Market Research firms in India. In the first phase, the team created a list of MR firms in India. The list of 63 was generated based on the frequency of recall of the market research firms (a focussed survey amongst 215 respondents in the corporate world, market research employees and industry leaders was conducted pan India). This was followed by a secondary study. The MR firms taken into consideration were the ones whose forte is to provide services primarily in the field of market research (primary or secondary). Certain firms who are primarily into consulting and only have an internal research team for their support have not been considered under the purview of the survey. Also, research firms who are specific to an industry have been eliminated from the survey. Hence 38 firms were considered for the second part of the study.

The second part of the research was carried out amongst corporates, employees of market research firms, industry leaders and others on a pan India basis on the parameters given in the table below: The respondents were asked to randomly rate 5 selected market research firms on the above parameters on a scale of 1-10 where 10 was the highest score on the perception scale. Since, employees and members of market research firms were also interviewed, the scores of the agency they were working with was not asked or taken into consideration to avoid any scope for bias. The survey used a structured questionnaire through in-depth interviews, telephonic interviews and e-mails. All responses from respondents are primarily their own perceptions. The individual and cumulative scores have been calculated and displayed to give the final rankings for the research agencies. ICMR (Indian Council for Market Research), being a sister organization, was excluded from the research. However, we firmly believe that if ICMR had been included, given the quantity and quality of the research it does and the expansiveness of its clients’ reach, it would have been ranked amongst India’s top five MR agencies. But committed to editorial integrity, we have ensured that it does not feature in this ranking.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

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

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Advertising - Hotspots and Rankings - They came, we saw and everybody reviewed!

2012-01-25T17:30:00.001+05:30

An ad is a product of painstaking craftsmanship. Various elements, ranging from positioning of the product, clarity of the idea behind the product to visibility of the brand, its persona and the power of communication have to be intelligently weaved together. But while some ads manage to rewrite preset creative benchmarks, some go the wrong way, fall by the side and fail to excite viewers. In this section, we review three ads that came out tops, for the right and also for the wrong reasons.

Now i love logistics!

Advertiser: Mahindra
Baseline: Outperform
Agency: NA

4Ps B&M Take: Advertising can be defined in five simple steps – why to communicate, what to communicate, where to communicate, how to communicate and whom to communicate. Much to our disappointment, the latest commercial launched by Mahindra to promote its new age Navistar range of trucks, pathetically fails to sufficiently fullfill any of the above mentioned requirements. The creative (with creativity channelilsed in all the wrong directions, though) opens outside a house where a man standing beside his car is waiting for his son Amar. His son comes out all dressed up in a business suit. He looks disappointed as he feels that his parents failed to understand him. As it turns out, he has been roped in to the family business, which primarily deals in logistics. Now he is confused. Why was he motivated to pursue an MBA in the first place if his father had eventually planned to redirect him to the trucking business? Nevertheless, the father and son duo board a BMW as they set out for an important meeting (or so it seems). Moments later, we see that they have landed up at Mahindra’s showroom to collect the order of trucks they had placed. Soon, Amar seems impressed after seeing the modern trucks. And all of a sudden, the entire business starts making sense and he is proud of his dad’s decision. The end. First things first, we don’t really understand how a fancy truck could motivate this kid (in case his kinds are the target audience). Secondly, logistics is about transportation. It’s a pretty straightforward business. What good would a dozen new and expensive trucks do to the business when the same could be achieved by acquiring second hand trucks at a fraction of the cost? Or maybe they would, but if so, shouldn’t the advertisement have talked about the benefits of the Navistar range more prominently and clearly? The kid may be clear, but Mahindra certainly needs some introspection.

dumb... dumb... dumb... d-uh...

Advertiser: AMD
Baseline: Processors that...
Agency: NA

4Ps B&M Take: If you happen to be a brand involved in the business of selling products to the youth segment of India, which has considerable disposable income, then you don’t just need to have a good product. Your brand positioning and communication should be as clear and impactful. Unfortunately, AMD fantastically failed to realise this. The commercial conceptualised by the chip major to promote its six core processor will in all probability do no good to he brand. The TVC opens inside the bedroom of a newly wed couple. As they start undressing each other (they don’t look convincing here either), one starts presuming that this might be a condom ad. However, it turns out that they had been wearing their wedding attire over military uniforms! As you sit perplexed wondering what’s going on (provided you haven’t already switched the channel or banged your head against the wall yet), the couple starts playing a video game and are shown having a lot of fun. VO: With the AMD six core processor, movies, games and music become so really real, you’ll forget everything else. We just have one word to describe this TVC – pathetic. Idea’s 3G ad had a similar theme just a few fortnights back. Besides being original, it was definitely much more likeable.

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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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Aman ki (FIAT’s) Asha?

2011-07-20T14:10:00.003+05:30

The flag-off ceremony by FIAT India for its ‘Securing borders drive’ took place on Independence Day this year. Under this activity, NCC cadets from Chetana College of Commerce will be driving the recently launched Fiat Grande Punto 90HP Multijet through an epic 18-day drive, which started from the Wagah border and will traverse via Sir Crick in Rann of Kutch and Longewala battle field in Jaisalmer. The event was flagged off by Marius D’Lima, Head- Corporate Communications, FIAT India and Shirish Chaudhari, Vice President, Chetana Trust. The drive is to promote relations between India and its neighbouring countries. FIAT is expecting to gain positive consumer awareness with this initiative – and subsequently, through similar such future exercises.

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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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MAD. AVENUE: NOT SO HOT ANYMORE?

2010-07-06T16:16:00.003+05:30

Marketing bigwigs globally have been favouring small, closely-knit agencies for their personal attention for sometime now

Watch Kenny Tomlin – his eyes fixed on a huge flat-screen monitor - in his mousy office housed in an equally nondescript business centre in Wal-Mart’s home town Arkansas and you may at first refuse to believe that he’s the CEO of an agency that is betting on bringing in $7.8 million as revenues for 2009. But Tomlin intends to do exactly that with his three-year-old digital agency, Rockfish. Tomlin’s start-up has stacked some big brands into its purse, including Wal-Mart, P&G, Tyson Foods and Hershey’s. During a year when many big agencies were choking on the recession storm that swept America, Tomlin’s lean and unique business model has kept Rockfish Interactive afloat and growing. So why have biggies like Wal-Mart (which usually works with large agencies like Martin Agency and R/GA), chosen Rockfish to conceive and implement their online marketing initiative? Suraya Bliss, Sr. Director for Communications at Wal-Mart Stores gave the answer to Adage in a recent interview. “They helped us address tough issues, and haven’t lost sight of creativity in the process,” says Bliss, adding that Rockfish helped Wal-Mart with “challenges on the back end as well.”

Bliss is not the only marketer harboring such radical sentiments. While the trend has only now begun catching on in India, big marketers in the US have been favouring small, closely-knit agencies that give them personal attention for sometime now. The fact that they also come 15-20% cheaper than the fancy agencies – with large overheads and swank offices – on Madison Avenue is just an added benefit tipping the scales for recession-hit marketers. And that (recession) is another cause and effect syndrome that is prompting a new craze for agency entrepreneurship in American ad-land. Prompted by layoffs, job insecurities or simply personal dissatisfaction at big agencies, these outfits mostly specialise in digital or social media.

But exceptions like P.J. Pereira and Andrew O’Dell are creating waves too. Both of them quit high-flying executive jobs with big agencies and launched their namesake multidisciplinary agency in San Francisco last year. In an interview, the pair told WSJ: “The problem with most existing ad agencies is that they either have a traditional focus or a digital orientation — and either way, marketers aren’t as well-served as they could be.” They pride themselves on their USP of hiring employees with unusual backgrounds rather than advertising experience, including a wine expert, a music producer, a shark wrestler and a Hollywood screenwriter – some of whom have already delivered award-winning works during the agency’s 18 months. Pereira’s strategy: To think outside the box, one must have people who’ve lived in different boxes! And it works because Pereira has a small team that functions in a casual ambience. Point is, global marketers are increasingly getting convinced by the logic of ‘small is big on delivery’ - Pereira O’Dell has already landed hi-flying clients like toymaker Lego, Pony and the University of Phoenix. The agency’s “strong growth, significant client wins and outstanding creative work” has already landed it the title of ‘Small Agency of the Year’ in AdAge’s first such awards.

Agency consultant Michael Gass believes that there has been a paradigm shift in the manner that small agencies acquire business. Breaking popular perception, he argues that now 80% decision makers find their agency and not the other way round. And if pull is hotter than push in ad-land now, then ‘delivery’ is bound to have more weight than candy floss dressings and plush office decors. Going by recent accolades, awards and new business wins, the small guys are certainly ‘pulling’ in the crowd with their cost effective deliveries, and above all, involved solutions for client problems.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

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

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Can a mere name change help erase the past perception of a company in the minds of stakeholders,

2009-10-06T12:55:00.000+05:30

especially in the case of PR disasters a company might have faced? Or is a complete restructuring of the management, operations and structure required to make an impactful comeback? Ratan Lal Bhagat investigates the india connection

“Just a change in the name cannot be significant enough to undo the past deeds. The new name has to accomplish a noticeable and significant change in the ways the business entity under the new brand name would function,” Anand Halve, Co Founder, Chlorophyll, a brand consulting firm, enters the war room with all guns blazing. Does that mean that a name change is not enough, but is still a necessary factor to change the perceptions prevalent in the various stakeholders? Then why is it that Cadbury India, when it was hit by the biggest controversy some years back [monikered the worm controversy: some consumers found a few chocolates of Cadbury non palatable and some, even worms in those chocolates] and registered a gut wrenching decline in its sales, never changed its name but came up with a new marketing strategy [it roped in Amitabh Bachhan as a symbol of trust] to regain its customer base while revamping critical touchpoints in the packaging process of its chocolates?

“That’s because an organisation’s name carries value; it’s monetised globally and it’s called brand value,” says all India head of ICMR, Namita Chhetri, “For example, a globally top ranked Superbrand like Coca Cola would never change its name despite pesticide issue because though controversies scrape off brand value, if at the end of the tunnel the brand value remains significantly positive. That’s the case with Cadbury too!”

It is true that the Mahindra-Satyam management is undertaking tactical restructuring steps to make the most out of the situation and to win back the faith of its existing stakeholders and prospective investors. “With the current initiative, we will witness steps by the management to adopt and inculcate the values of performance, ‘customer first’, good corporate governance and citizenship, which are drawn from the Mahindra Group,” envisions Vineet Nayyar, Executive Vice-Chairman, Mahindra-Satyam Board. But still, many experts do comment that the Mahindra Satyam name change is actually not a perfectly positioned move as the name Satyam, after the controversy, has acquired too much of a negative value [Disagrees Nayyar, “This is a significant milestone towards the recovery of the company. We are optimistic that this new brand will re-energise the organisation and will be well received by all our stakeholders”]

Accenture’s initial public offering in July 2001 got a heartwarming response as on the very first day, it raised a record $1.7 billion approximately. And much of it perchance thanks to the new name. Axis Bank, with its great marketing strategy, has evolved as a renowned brand in itself and has made considerable financial advances (an increase of 69.4% in its net profits for FY09 at Rs.1,814 crores) since it rebranded itself. In this case, although branding helped considerably, it is true that even restructuring contributed at large to the increase in profits.

In the case of AIU and Mahindra Satyam, it’s yet early days to gauge the aftermath of their recent re-jig. But if one were to take away the biggest learning, from this exercise, it would surely be that there is ‘much ado about something’, and that’s the name. A name change does go a long way in reorienting a corporation’s positioning within stakeholders; but only in the case when a corporation’s past name has negative brand value... Think about it; if I were to change my name, would you still read my articles? Hey, do you even know my name in the first place?

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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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KOOBFACE

2009-09-09T11:21:00.000+05:30

Millions of Facebook’s users receive messages in their inboxes from their Facebook’s ‘friends’ like “you look funny in this new video” or “you look just awesome in this new video”. On clicking on the links, users are prompted to watch a “secret video by Tom”.

If you are a Facebook user you try and play the video, you are asked to download the latest version of Adobe Flash Player. Then, Bang! A deadly new virus called Koobface (an anagram of Facebook) hits your computer and millions of other Facebook users like you. According to an estimate, Facebook’s 120 million users became naked targets by the virus designed to get hold of sensitive information like credit card details. Koobface already hit the users of MySpace in August last year. The best way to get rid of the menace is to have a credible Anti-virus software installed and updated and constantly.

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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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Power on, India on and RPower financially ON...

2009-08-21T12:36:00.000+05:30

IIPM Best B-school

Brand: RPower IPO
Agency: Mudra

It takes money to make money; a cliché well adopted by the Reliance ADAG brand for its RPower IPO. The unique, emotive, nationalistic campaign across 50-60 TV channels, radio stations, Adlab theatres and over 500 hoardings were heard or seen over 10-12 million times a day. The multimedia campaign for the $3 billion IPO spread over 17 days burning up to Rs.30 crore resulted in the IPO being oversubscribed by almost 70 times and that too within minutes. The ‘more is more’ approach of the team clicked and for the first time in Indian business history, a company managed to successfully persuade investors before an IPO.

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

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A. DIXIT, GM SALES, SKODA AUTO INDIA

2009-08-03T13:39:00.000+05:30

IIPM Best B-school

1. ‘Kya aap Closeup karte hain?” campaign
2. ‘Jaago Re!’ campaign from Tata Tea
3. India Voice campaign
4. ‘Kucch bandhan atoot hote hain, jaise Airtel ka network’ ad campaign
5. Hutch’s ‘Where ever you go, our network follows’ campaign

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

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Rejuvenating spirits...

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

The Most Revolutionary Concept In Education PLANMAN CHE CENTRE FOR HIGHER EDUCATION, Supported by IIPM India’s Leading B-School

Bharti Enterprises, in March 2007, had announced an initiative aimed at creating a diversified conglomerate of the future. It had unveiled its new apex level organisation structure reinforcing the best in class governance model with strategic intent to lead, build and grow its all businesses. And the move has certainly paid off! The new structure has not only strengthened empowerment and accountability for business leaders of individual companies thereby enhancing the existing high degree of professionalism in the group, but has also raked in moolah for group companies with Bharti Airtel (which reported 57.4% increase in net profit)once again being the first in line!

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

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Relaxed in Recession

2009-06-22T14:37:00.000+05:30

The Most Revolutionary Concept In Education PLANMAN CHE CENTRE FOR HIGHER EDUCATION, Supported by IIPM India’s Leading B-School

Small surprise that both Vikram Bakshi and Amit Jatia, the JV partners of McDonald’s in India (north & east and west & south respectively), vow that the slowdown is not bothering them the least. Instead same store sales have risen 20% y.o.y in January 2009, they say. No wonder a calm serenity pervades McDonald’s cozy corporate office in New Delhi these days, in stark contrast to the air of general gloom (and doom) that serenades most of corporate India and the world. And it’s not just the sun-kissed terrace, colorfull bougainvilleas and shiny red and yellow interiors in this corporate home (yeah! that’s what McDonald’s country offices are called!) that are behind the smiles on the faces of McDonald’s guys here... it’s also the secret knowledge that revenues from India are likely to go up soon, contributing a healthier chunk (than the present 5%) to the burger company’s global revenues. After all, McDonald’s is all set to raise prices over the next three years, simultaneously marking a shift in its India strategy in tune with the times. The new positioning being discussed is to gradually shift McDonald’s decade-old positioning in India from “affordibility” to “convenience”, with a thrust on the new breakfast menu and their McDelivery service. “We also plan to keep our stores open from 7am till midnight enhancing convenience for consumers,” says Vikram Bakshi.

So why the need to shift track now, especially if everything is as hunky dory as they claim? The answer, my dear friend, they tell us, is in the rising input costs over the last year. Given the pressure from their vendors, sources within McDonald’s India confirm that burger-happy consumers can expect a starting hike of at least 5% for almost every Big Mac product, by the second quarter of this year. In fact, the number of products under the Rs.20 tag – Happy Price Menu – have already declined from seven to four, with the food retailers’ new ads communicating the change with the ‘starts at Rs.20’ slogan. Explains Bakshi “McAkloo Tikki burger is our flagship product and that is why it continues at Rs.20.” A smart strategy indeed if one were to take into account the fact that most fast food chains have either already raised/ or contemplating an increase in their prices, in the wake of rising input costs, declining footfalls and a steep rise in real estate costs over the last year. Take Pizza Hut for example. Company sources admit that the dine-in pizza chain has “been disturbed” even in India. Pizza Hut rates have risen almost 40% over the last six months.

So how is it that McDonald’s India can afford to sit back and defer its price rise over three years? The answer to that question is also the solution to the many problems that organised retail in India is facing. It’s all about McDonald’s unique supply chain management that additionally ensures that every McD outlet across the world serves the same taste to flatter its consumer’s platter. Abhijit Upadhye, Director, Supply Chain Management, McDonald’s India believes that transparent relationship with vendors has ensured that price increases can be staggered over the next three years, instead of being implemented at one go. “We are working with our vendors to handle the cost issue,” he explains.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

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

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No more forecasts

2009-05-06T15:36:00.000+05:30

IIPM - Admission Procedure

The SEBI restriction on AMCs charting 'indicative returns' to lure more investors is all set to limit their marketing prowess

Life has never been so tough for Asset Management Companies (AMCs) in India. While a downturn in the equities market has already thwarted their aggressive customers, the path now has been paved for even ‘play safe customers’ to turn their backs. Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India(SEBI)’s unpleasant New Year’s gift to the AMCs (its latest circular) has announced, “It is...decided that the mutual funds shall not offer any indicative portfolio and indicative yield. No communication regarding the same in any manner, whatsoever, shall be issued by any mutual fund or distributors of its products.” Simply stating, this bans all AMCs from luring investors by showing them a portfolio that they are mulling of building and the anticipated return thereof. Industry experts may consider this as a step taken in the right direction; but mutual fund houses are set to face the heat in marketing tactics.

The market mayhem of 2008 witnessed a free fall in the net asset value (NAVs) of all equity-based mutual funds. The agonistic display of the returns can be well understood from the fact that of the 271 open ended equity funds, whose one-year returns are listed in MutualFundsIndia.com, unbelievably only 12 have delivered a positive yield with the highest offering of just 9.75% by UTI Spread Fund (Growth). Negative returns have gone up to as high as -80.88% as delivered by JM Small & Midcap Fund (Growth). Debt funds, on the other hand, have quite clearly outperformed equity MFs. Of the 270 odd open ended debt and liquid schemes listed in MutualFunds India.com only 34 have landed their investors in the negative zone that too with a maximum of -16.16%. No doubt such performance has made investors divert their corpus to debt funds.

In this sudden rush of investors, debt funds have got themselves into a higher degree of competition to grab a larger share of the pie and have finally landed in a situation where they are using indicative returns on their indicative portfolios as a main tool to attract customers. The problem with this in the first place is that such portfolios are just indicative, not real (without an obligation on the fund manager to pay at that rate). Further, as they are not real, at the time of high competition fund managers may present inflated figures to grab more investors. Thus SEBI has mentioned in its circular, “This practice should be prohibited as the indicative portfolio and indicative yield may be misleading to the investors.”

On the contrary, Sanjeev Sharma, Fund Manager (Debt), Escorts MF avers to 4Ps B&M, “It is a direct indication that the government is trying to reduce competition between MFs and banks. The short-term yield of bonds is around 10% and that of the MFs is above that and this is giving tough competition to banks which are already facing a blow from RBI’s pressure to cut interest rates.” No doubt, his words have some thought provoking elements, but then misleading investors (with indicative yields) should not be tolerated. Thus, while its time for AMCs to find new marketing tricks, for the customers its time to be rational instead of getting carried away by just indicative figures.

Deepak Ranjan Patra

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

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

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“Rahman should have got this recognition a decade ago”

2009-03-14T10:19:00.000+05:30

Three-time National Film Award winner, Madhur Bhandarkar welcomes the global recognition that has come for musician AR Rahman

What is your view of "Slumdog Millionaire’s" worldwide success?
This is expected. Though the film is directed by a British Director, Danny Boyle, the star cast is from India. Music is scored by our own legendary AR Rahman. Most of the production team is from India and the film was shot completely in India. So, we have popular faces like Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Khan, Saurabh Shukla and Mahesh Manjrekar in the movie. When four Golden Globe awards, 11 BAFTA and 10 Oscar nomination type of international recognition comes, people certainly go gaga about it. It’s natural. Because, we Indians are sentimental people and we always look towards West for recognition.

Does it mean Oscar is the ultimate stamp of cinematic excellence in world cinema?
In commercial and popular sense, yes, but in the artistic sense no. Forget about the controversies and forget about the `Indian slums and poverty sell in the West’ theory. For the first time our own Rahman has been nominated for three Oscar awards. That itself is a great honour.

Would you rate the background music of "Slumdog Millionaire" as AR Rahman’s all time best?
No, I am not saying that. Rahman would have got the Oscars at least eight to ten years ago. He is a genius and God of cinematic music world. The Mozart of Madras has scored much more melodious back scores. If you go through his career, from Roja to Ghajini, he has scored many memorable and heart wrenching original back ground scores. Today, he is the world's topmost music composer. I am sorry to say but it took long time for global recognition to come and fall into his lap. At last the so-called West has recognised his talent through "Slumdog Millionaire" and he truly deserves that award. No doubt about that.....Continue

Patel and the Princess

2009-02-21T11:52:00.000+05:30

"Slumdog Millionaire" has caught the imagination of people worldwide and catapulted its actors into the limelight, as they grace film festivals and the world’s leading award shows. At one such do, its young star Dev Patel was found floored as Hollywood’s lead actress Anne Hathaway complimented his work and told him how much she loved him in the film. The 18-year-old thanked ‘Mrs Hathaway’, but was soon corrected by the lady that it was ‘Miss’ not Mrs Hathaway! Dev immediately began to apologise to the amused Hathaway, who took no offence of course.....Continue

Killing of a Hindu savant has exposed a deep schism

2009-02-16T13:09:00.000+05:30

Though this is the first ever poster and handout released in Orissa under the signature of Saket, the language resembles other literatures issued by the Maoists. “We are examining the authenticity of this material and investigating into newly surfaced intra-party conflict within Maoists,” said a top police official of the state.

Sabyasachi’s clash with his party bosses has also resulted in the Maoists' first ever split on religious lines. Hindu members of the organistaion, protesting against Laxmanananda's murder, broke away to form a rival group and named itself “Ideologues of Democrat Guerrilla Army (Maoist)". This development came to light when they put up posters threatening to target Christian members of the party. Sources say the new group was formally launched on January 3, under the leadership of a guerrilla identified as M2. IDGA-Maoist also proved its existence by observing successful bandh in at least three sensitive districts of Orissa.

Though so far no reaction has come from Sabyasachi Panda, sources close to him reveal that he differs with other top leaders of the party regarding selection of members for the central committee and communal issues revolving round Laxmanananda killing. Is this the first alarm bell for the beginning of disintegration of Maoist stronghold in Orissa?....Continue

License to Kill….

2009-02-07T12:33:00.000+05:30

Consider this: the price of any CNG-run auto-rickshaw running on the Delhi roads is something around Rs 1,30,000. Yet, the buyer eventually ends up paying around Rs 4,50,000 for the same. Sounds shocking? Well, that’s what licensing system does. To make sure that the number of auto-rickshaws plying on Delhi roads don't go beyond the stipulated, it is mandatory for the buyer of a new auto-rickshaw to deposit an old one. And as it creates a major demand of the old and rusted auto-rickshaws, their owners make a killing by selling the old ones to the people who want to buy a new auto. The average price of a junk auto rickshaw, whose scrap price in the market won't be more than a few thousand rupees, then becomes nothing less than two lakh. In fact, there are instances where middlemen buy such junk autos in scores to make a fortune later. And, thanks to the hassles faced by buyers while seeking a bank loan to buy a new vehicle, they (mostly poor and lower middle class) often end up taking money from private financiers at high interest rates. All of it together takes up the price to the tune of Rs 4,50,000. The government doesn’t see a problem with a rise in the number of radio cabs in the city but for the auto-rickshaws, such irrational systems only create entry barriers for those in the lower strata who want to get respectfully self employed.

In the same league, a few days back it was reported that more than thirty people died in the suburbs of Kolkata by drinking illicit liquor. Such deaths are not rare but a frequent happening in India, thanks to the prohibitive pricing of the much safer and better quality Indian Made Foreign Liquors (IMFL), due to high taxation for restricting consumption. Net result? The poor lot of this country ends up resorting to lesser priced, lesser refined and more toxic country-made liquor as it’s perhaps in mankind instinct to have an affinity for alcohol and no amount of lecturing on morality would dissuade them from gulping it down. If restrictive licensing practice for opening IMFL shops (which only adds to corruption in disbursal of such license) and prohibitive pricing is done away with, it would go a long way in reducing the number of untimely and painful deaths caused by consumption of illicit liquor.....Continue

Honestly, honest politicians do exist!

2009-01-29T11:09:00.000+05:30

At a period of time when the politician is being branded no better than a pariah street dog, it is reassuring to know that there are politicians and politicians. While many of them are rightly seen to be corrupt and venal, there are a few elected representatives who have spurned the goodies in pursuit of honesty and truth. They travel by public transport, look into the most micro problem of their constituents and perform public duties ranging from the profane to mundane. All to good effect.

In what could be considered a healthy sign for democracy, it is not always the frill and fizz, the light and sound, that will fetch seats in the Lok Sabha. TSI’s list of 12 Members of Parliament, bears eloquent testimony to this fact. They are low profile, go about their work with an eye on detail and are awarded by their constituents who repeatedly send them back to the Lok Sabha as victors. It just goes to show one thing: while corruption is not a issue for the chattering classes, down in the villages, the Gandhian legacy of simplicity and hard work lives on. These meek have inherited the earth.....Continue

Calling all the countries

2009-01-13T10:51:00.000+05:30

The year 2008 has not been peaceful, especially for countries like India, Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and a few others. There was no month in 2008 that newspapers went without citing any terror activities; the latest being the Pakistan terror attack and 26/11 Mumbai attack.

During her recent visit to India and Pakistan, the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged both the countries to cooperate on terrorism issues. Terrorism affects not only the victim country; its effects are felt by many other countries that are not even on the terrorists' radar. Attacks on hotels (for instance, the Taj and Oberoi in Mumbai, Marriott in Islamabad and Jakarta, Serena in Kabul, Grand Hyatt and Radisson in Amman, Hilton in Taba) has recently increased. Such attacks not only kill the citizens of the target country but many foreign tourists as well. This in turn increases the inter-country tension and friction.

Modern day terrorist uses technology (among his armoury are Global Positioning System, satellite phones, international mobile SIM cards, fake passports and ID cards) that is tough for a single country to track.....Continue

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The Sunday Indian

Life Post 26/11 - When horror negates art

2009-01-08T15:26:00.000+05:30

Firoz Khan
Film maker and eminent theatre person

I have spent most of my life in Mumbai and never seen anything so ghastly happening here before. It was mind-numbing – the absolutely brazen manner in which the terrorists laid siege on major city landmarks, killing over 200 hostages and injuring over 200. Soon after the carnage, I went to St John Hospital where I was born. The wards spilled over with injured people, and for all of us it was a personal tragedy. It was the same when the city had witnessed the serial blasts of 1993 and the explosions in trains in 2006. But the scale of the latest senseless killings had no parallel anywhere.

One really fights for answers – but then what can be said about the unanswerable? Such horror completely negates the meaning of life. Where is the point in making a film or writing a play or any of a hundred other things that make life meaningful and relevant? For if everything can be blown up in a moment, how can one find the motivation to do anything at all? Even a simple mechanical activity becomes a challenge, as those who lived through America’s 9/11 know only too well.

Mumbai’s 26/11 has thrown up a very similar conundrum that will not be easily resolved; and that, if it happened again, would completely, once and for all, shatter the very idea of the old Bombay. Somehow this time I personally experienced such a sapping of creative energy, that I totally lost the will to do anything. And many other creative people have spoken of a similar sense of bewilderment. It was this sense of nothingness and nausea that pervaded my play “Tumhari Anita” in 1999. That had been our statement then on terrorism – this great bloody leveler whose sole aim is to crush everything bright and beautiful. But we were never cowed down, despite this overweening, deeply personal tragedy that sought to make graves of our minds even as the body count in hotels and other places kept mounting. Yes, so darkly absurd is this whole thing that one feels guilty even to think of “recreating” those blood-drenched scenes, to record, say, the incessant cries for help that the staccato bursts of intermittent gunfire throttled. When the real world hits you so hard, can any artist venture to recreate the horror? What does one do, how can one want to create anything, what is a creation worth if annihilation is ever imminent? And this time we saw a strange, new, horrific paradigm unfolding. Here we are – all agreed that life is the most supreme of all. All our democratic institutions are committed to enriching this life.....Continue

Dawood’s underworld and Mumbai attacks

2009-01-05T11:50:00.000+05:30

While nothing has been said overtly about the role of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim in the attack on Mumbai, intelligence sleuths in Delhi say he played a key role. They are pretty clear that Dawood played an important role in transporting these terrorists to Indian soil, and claim there is evidence.

The fact is Dawood, who was used by ISI in engineering the 1993 blast, is completely in its control. Talking to TSI, O P Chatwal, an ex official of CBI, who spent a good part of his career investigating 1993 Mumbai blast and trying to extradite Dawood, said, “To do what ISI says is the only option left with Dawood. It is his compulsion and it is increasing by the day.” When, in 2003, US declared Dawood a notified terrorist, his options depleted considerably. “Pakistan government can cry hoarse that Dawood is not on its soil, India has definite proof of his whereabouts in Karachi and has handed them to Pakistan,” Chatwal adds.

US had put Dawood’s name in the list of wanted terrorists following revelations of his connections with Al-Qaeda. The Dawood is not the old don of the 1990s anymore. He is now an inseparable angle of ISI-AL Qaeda-underworld troika.

Well placed Intelligence sleuths say that a meeting was convened between October 15 to 17 at the Dhulikhel resort, 30 kilometers off Kathmandu. Called by the ISI, Dawood’s representative participated in the meeting. The meeting allegedly also involved operatives from HUJI, a terrorist gang based in Bangladesh, and SIMI. The meeting was apparently called to discuss the modus operandi of terror attacks to be carried out in India.....Continue

Pro of a con

2009-01-02T14:04:00.000+05:30

After raising expectations with his debut directorial venture ‘Khosla ka Ghosla’, Dibakar Banerjee’s latest release “Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!” is definitely not the best of his work. “Oye Lucky!...” begins by showing a teenage Lucky Singh (Manjot Singh) who hails from a lower middle class family living in the by lanes of Old Delhi. His father (Paresh Rawal) has a mistress and is not keen in supporting his family financially, so Lucky looks for alternative routes to the luxuries of life. He becomes a small time thief and starts pinching anything and everything he can lay his hands on. Soon, the grown-up Lucky (Abhay Deol) starts robbing for Gogi Bhai (Paresh Rawal again), falls in love with Sonal (Neetu Chandra), then suddenly wants to give up crime and settle down with his girlfriend. Then he comes in contact with Dr Handa (Paresh Rawal once more!) who cajoles him into his dream project.

The subject of a thief’s life drags and the director leaves many questions unanswered. In the beginning, his modus operandi is intriguing as he steals with style but soon it becomes too repetitive to be believable. Post interval, the movie loses its pace leaving only the beginning and end worth watching.

Abhay Deol, being the underrated Deol that he is, steals the show yet again and his performance is commendable. Paresh Rawal, is good and does justice to all three characters but the need for that triple role is incomprehensible! Manjot Singh as the young Lucky deserves a special mention. Dibakar yet again manages to depict the real Delhi, which most of the Delhiites can identify with and thankfully the humour is mostly situational and not forced, unlike what one gets to see in comedies these days. Watch the movie only for Abhay Deol.....Continue

Of the Land, for the Land

2008-12-22T13:41:00.000+05:30

Even as the government of Assam stands accused of bending over backwards to accommodate the interests of illegal Bangladeshi migrants, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh in the northeast are standing up against the influx, which has come to threaten the very existence of the indigenous communities in this region. The two states have fallen back on every available legal provision to throw out illegals.

Setting a precedent – as opposed to the one set by Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit, who said all Bangladeshis would be treated as guests in Delhi – Meghalaya has, especially after the serial blasts in Assam in October, decided to go on the offensive against the illegal migrants.

In November alone, Meghalaya pushed out more than 250 suspected Bangladeshis from its capital Shillong. Chief Minister Donkupar Roy did not mince words: “I have asked the district administration to push out not just Bangladeshis but also others who enter the state without proper identification papers,” he told the press. “Security concerns must not be limited to Assam alone but to the entire region,” he said, referring to the blasts that had left close to a hundred people dead, while injuring hundreds of others, in Assam on October 30.

States in the northeast, the worst affected by the Bangladeshi problem, have often shown varying and sharply contrasting responses to the migrants problem. The Assam blasts had been claimed by the Islamic Security Force (Indian Mujahideen), which is believed to have among its ranks illegal Bangladeshis from the northeast. Strangely, Assam’s Congress government has for weeks now, been in the dock, blamed for trying to place the blame on militant groups like National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) and the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), to avoid displeasing its alleged Bangladeshi votebank in the state.....Continue

Cosmetic changes

2008-12-18T15:52:00.000+05:30

Fairness has always been a treasured asset, right from ancient times. In olden days, studies have discovered, women applied cream made from animal fat, starch and tin oxide. While the animal fat came from animal carcasses, the starch was obtained by boiling roots or grains in water and tin oxide came from heating the metal. This created a smooth, powdery texture which lightened the skin. While animal fat and tin oxide aren’t in use anymore, starch is still used in a number of cosmetics even today.....Continue

Astro-psephology: who will win? Sunita Chabra

2008-12-13T16:42:00.000+05:30

Sonia likely PM, BJP to lose states

With Saturn and Uranus conflicting, there will be a complete overhaul. Obama won under the same situation and the same astrological coincidence is possible for Sonia Gandhi who can have the same ‘Audacity and dreams’. Last time she was rejected but this time she will ride public opinion. In BJP, Advani’ s chart is very weak so he is not forming the government. It is not a complete win for any party. Manmohan Singh’s chart is very strong and they have the chances of coming back, but it is clear that there will again be a coalition at the Centre. And sorry, Mayawati is no way India’s next PM. She may gain a better position but will merely play spoil sport.

Chhattisgarh: Raman Singh beware: Congress is coming back. Your sadey saati and backstabbing by party colleagues is going to do you in. In fact, your own party people want to see you in the wilderness and not the secretariat, so that is that! Delhi – Shiela Dixit (31st March 1938) v/s Vijay Kumar Malhotra (3rd dec 1931) Delhi: It will be a very, very close tie and stars won’t make it easy for Shiela Dixit to win this time. Her chances are higher, but it will not be a clean sweep. VK Malhotrs might win his own seat but not the CM’s seat!

Rajasthan: With Sun and Saturn at war in chart, Vasundhara Raje may not form a government. Congress will come to power but Ashok Gehlot’s chart doesn’t show him as Rajasthan’s next CM. Jammu & Kashmir: Bad situation: Even if some party wins, planetary positions posit president’s rule in the state. Ghulam Nabi Azad won’t win, for sure, but even if Mehbooba Mufti does, she won’t last a full term. And Farooq Abdullah faces life threats....Continue

You want to live to be 150, isn’t it? Why? What would you do at 150…

2008-12-11T13:40:00.000+05:30

IIPM Publication

Dr Kakoo had seen one of his aunts, a lovely loving lady, a kind pious soul, live long into her 90s. And he had seen the loneliness of her last decade which was spent mourning the loss of many who ought to have waited for her, but couldn’t… Whenever I met her, I was touched by the warmth and affection that seemed to cascade from her being, but what struck me most was the aura of quiet fortitude that seemed to envelop her. And in that sense Dr Kakoo is right. Longevity can be as much of a curse, as it is a boon. “ I don’t want to see what my aunt had to…”, he said, “And I don’t want to become a disfigured and worthless lump that is kept alive as a relic (a dynamic and successful intellectual, Kakoo has too much pride to allow himself to be reduced to that). I wish we could invent a tablet which once ingested, will ensure good health for the next decade or two and then on a random preset date (unknown to the individual), burst while asleep and euthanise us painlessly…”

‘You don’t need a tablet and you don’t need a preset date,’ I said. ‘Kakoo, don’t you think one could possibly be happy and healthy well into one’s ninth and tenth decade too? All the stuff I do is not so that I may live long, but so that no matter how long I live, I live healthy…’ Kakoo seemed willing to consider, and finding the iron hot, I told him what Kenshin, a Japanese tourist I’d met last year in Bharatpur, told me about a magical island between

Japan and China where he’d spent his early years – an island called Okinawa. In the north of this island, on the beach stands a monument that declares to the four winds and the waves the ethos of its people – “At 70, we are mere children and still young at 80; if at 90, the ancestors beckon heavenwards, ask them to wait… for we might consider proceeding only after 100” – an ethos that every Okinawan strives to emulate, for the people here live longer, healthier lives than anywhere on earth. Their average life expectancy is well into the 80s (while India’s hovers around 60 and the United States’ in the mid 70s). More significantly, Okinawans suffer greatly reduced incidences of cancer and coronary heart disease. What fascinated me was Kenshin’s account of a number of nonagenarians and centenarians, both men and woman, who not only live healthy, but in fact, active and vigorous lives… gardening, hiking, swimming and fishing…...Continue

WEST BENGAL : LAW & ORDER

2008-12-05T11:55:00.000+05:30

On October 31, CPI(M) leader Indrajit Mura was found murdered by Maoists for being a "police sleuth". Police went to Mura’s house to recover his body, but left important documents at Mura’s neighbour’s house. When these neighbours called the police to take back these papers, they were so scared they never went to recover these. Conceitedly, Raj Kanojia, IG (Law and Order), refused to call it a 'lapse' on the part of police.

Another such failure happened at Singur where a large contingent of police and RAF remained mute spectators to "Nano Bachao Committee" (NBC) rampage. An outfit under CPI(M) zonal committee secretary Amar Chanda, NBC toughs beat up senior journalists Himangshu Haldar and Barun Dasgupta. Though they were put in an ambulance, CPI(M) cadre tried to set it on fire.

Says CPI MP Prabodh Panda, "Police must be more duty-bound." Congress MLA from Medinipur, Dr Manas Bhunia, an MLA from the same district, squarely blames the administration. And Trinamool Congress MLA Sovandeb Chattopadhyay ridiculed the state administration as "a pack of slave workers of CPI(M)".....Continue

Voters hide, rebels decide?

2008-12-01T14:58:00.000+05:30

IIPM Publications
With people in the Valley turning anti-election, and rebels dogging all the parties, it seems independent MLAs will play the key role in deciding who takes the treasury benches in this state. People are consciously keeping away from election rallies, indicating the voting likely pattern. Among the first phase constituencies, there is no visibility of an election campaign. Last week, people tore off banners and posters of political parties. It seems mainstream political parties in Kashmir can only hope for a miracle to drive voters to the polling stations.

The political landscape in the state dramatically altered after the Amarnath land controversy. Many consider the situation in the Valley similar to that of the early 90s. However, this time separatists are carrying the sentiments of people in the Valley. On the other hand, Jammu has slipped from the hands of mainstream political parties, with people raging against ‘discrimination in the hands of Kashmiri rulers’.

But the most notable aspect of the polls this time is that with the parties’ decision to field only ‘winning’ candidates, there is an army of rebels, and they could well be deciding the future government here. Surprises are expected from several constituencies due to the division of votes, with rebels staying in for the contest. While some rebels have the better chances of winning independently, several others will play lead roles in the defeat of their party candidates by dividing party’s vote in favour of rivals.....Continue

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

While the West is both excited and paranoid about India’s potential, the average Indian is still not empowered as the polity continues to wither India

2008-10-30T14:11:00.000+05:30

Very few sitting in India would not hold countries like France in awe. And even fewer sitting in this part of the world would believe if one is to say that an average Frenchman or a British is today as much paranoid about the increasing clout of the Indian economy and Indian Inc as outsourcing to India is becoming a key issue in the US presidential elections. Out on a casual walk on the streets of Paris, chances are high that an average Indian would first of all be asked if he is a Pakistani or a Bangladeshi. Even before the shock and the sheer disgust of being equalled with a Pakistani or a Bangladeshi overwhelms one, the realisation dawns that however much India might go ahead in the race, racially the Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis would still be the same for an average European. So when one visits those places, quite often one has to take the pain of explaining that ‘we are Indians and not Pakistanis.’ Prompt would come the reply, ‘What are you doing here then? There’s so much happening in your own country!!’ If your are on an educational trip, the sarcastic smile would be complimented with a shocking reply, ‘Thank God you are not here for a job’ or ‘What is there to learn from France or Europe? Don’t you see how they are busy splitting it all up in the name of unity? Don’t you see the way they are encouraging the formation of smaller countries like Kosovo? All the jobs are in any case shifting to your country and your neighbour? And now what is that is left to learn?’ Such replies are common and not unjustified either. But it also proves the sheer irony and vindicates the old adage which says that the grass is always greener on the other side of the river....Continue

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

Read also :-

Can we educate the regulator?Can we educate the regulator?

2008-10-21T15:58:00.000+05:30

Over the decades, he has emerged as one of the most respected entrepreneurs of post-Independence India and nurtures the powerful corporate legacy of the Godrej family. He is very optimistic about India’s future. And yet, when B&E asks Adi Godrej about one single issue that could derail India. he unhesitatingly says ‘education’. “The State has to encourage private sector participation in education. There is no other option. It is the private sector that made the third rate telecom and aviation sectors in India world class. It is the private sector that will do it in education.” And of critical importance is the FEI (Foreign Educational Institutions: regulation of entry and operations, maintenance of quality and prevention of commercialisation) Bill, 2007, that had to be shelved last year by Arjun Singh due to stiff opposition from the Left. Granted that the current UPA government has just about a few months left to go before it is election season.....Continue

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

Read also :-

It’s all in the family!

2008-10-11T14:47:00.000+05:30

It’s time to stop blaming one’s work schedule for those increasing waistlines, and join hands with your nearest and dearest to fight the bulge and stay healthy.

A family that sweats it out together, stays together!

Although improving one’s self image doesn’t pass off as the latest lifestyle trend, the new progressive means of achieving the same have always been the talk of the town. Most often, the pace of life (or just the excuse of it) keeps one from joining regular work out sessions be it a flexi-hour gym or a 24-hours-open lush green park near one’s residence. The solution lies in incorporating exercise into your daily life, by making it a family affair. There are surveys that have proved that children prefer exercising with parents, and we dare say, time spent playing and exercising together is time well spent. More and more people are realising that family work-outs result in not only a good looking family but also one in harmony with each other.

One has the option of setting-up domestic exercise equipments at home, or if one faces cost constraints, then the cheaper option is to pick up videos of yoga, aerobics etc. and practice them together. Another latest trend and a more sustainable technique of shedding those extra kilograms is to call the trainer home, who will also wait in your house till you make up your mind to get into your sports gear! “It is difficult to be on your own when it comes to work-outs,” say the Mathurs who have a Yoga instructor visit their home and train the family together.....Continue

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

Read also :-

Too Lee’ttle, too...

2008-10-07T15:50:00.000+05:30

Lee’s exit looks positive, hopefully the law will take its course

‘Once bitten, twice confident’ – Though antipodal, the tad goes well with Lee Kun-hee, Chairman of the world’s largest electronic company – Samsung Electronics. Lee, son of Samsung group founder Lee Byung-chul, resigned from his post on April 21, 2008 following his alleged involvement in the slush funds scandal. And along with him resigned his son and heir to the company, Lee Jae-yong and Vice Chairman Lee Hak-soo. But before one thinks that the allegations against Chairman Lee might be a mite too heavy (as being opined by company insiders and even some analysts), one perhaps forgets that in 1996, Lee was fully convicted on the charges of bribing ex-presidents of South Korea. It was only a presidential pardon (!) that allowed him to return to the company, and that too, at the helm of affairs! But the bigger question now is, will Lee’s resignation actually work positively for the group? Or is it the clichéd tale of too Lee’ttle, too late?

An alumnus of George Washington University, Lee took over the baton in 1988. It was under his leadership that Samsung Electronics became one of world’s leading manufacturers of semiconductors. In January 2008, a special investigation was carried out, instigated by Samsung’s former Chief Lawyer Kim Yong-chul, after he issued public allegations of financial irregularities....Continue

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

Read also :-

samsung: market expansion

2008-10-03T13:44:00.001+05:30

Will the 3-pronged plan work?

Nine million potential customers every month – a figure hard to ignore, even if you’re an ‘also-ran’ in the mobile handset market, and a fact hard to overlook even if you’re Samsung (the current no.3, way behind the market leader Nokia). But wait! Just like any other ‘wanna-be-a-winner’, Samsung too has rolled out a three-pronged strategy to establish its dominance over the growing Indian handset market.

Besides launching five handsets (and signing up actor Aamir Khan), increasing its handset unit’s manpower count by 50%, it is also heavily into revamping of its distribution channels thereby increasing its reach within the Indian market to 85% (from the current 55%). In view of the same, two regional distributors – SSK (Western region) and Link (Eastern region) were also added to its existing North & South network. It has also cracked exclusive contracts with 40 Nokia distributors, with an aim to create a dent in the market leader’s strong position. Shushmul Maheshwari, CEO, RNCOS also thumps for the positive as, “Samsung’s launches will benefit from its enhanced distributor network, and the distributor agreements will prove advantageous.”....Continue

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

Read also :-

Mumbai mania

2008-09-22T15:06:00.000+05:30

The politics of parochialism
This week Mumbai’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), the rebel Shiv Sena group, swooped down on impoverished migrants from Bihar & Uttar Pradesh.They came under attack everywhere: on the streets, and in local trains and buses and their property set wantonly ablaze. The mob frenzy was triggered by MNS chief Raj Thackeray’s statement about the migrants not deserving the state’s hospitality.

Raj has launched a bitter tirade against north Indians, specifically targeting Amitabh Bachchan & his family, and north Indian festivals, celebrated in Mumbai. “If you have to live in Mumbai, then we will not let you celebrate Chhath Puja festival at Juhu beach,” he said. Nothing was voiced about their numerous contributions towards Mumbai.

Now, with an eye on votes, all political parties, including the SP & the MNS, are scurrying about for emotive issues. Maharashtra-watchers will confirm that anti-Bihari & UP statements are nothing new for this metro. It was successfully used by Sena chief Bal Thackeray to whip up partisan passions that kept him at the helm of affairs for decades. If he has now somewhat mellowed down, it is by no means because he regrets his past. It is because the migrants, who today are a major votebank, won’t be swayed by his divisive rhetoric.He would therefore do well to tell his once favourite nephew, and current arch-rival, Raj Thackeray, that the so-called outsiders are in fact crucial for keeping any party in power. That a non-issue should have been allowed to morph into a burning one, only goes to show how little the Shiv Sena and its leaders understand the changed ground reality. The Raj Sena remains unrepentant. Nitin Sardesai, Vice-president, MNS, told B&E, “We retaliated to the SP’s provocation. We cannot let outsiders air their opinion irresponsibly on local issues.” He said it was the SP workers who initiated the spat, not the MNS, according to media reports. However, SP leader Abu Azmi has a different story to tell. He said that MNS are frustrated and can only resort to violence. The Congress has also joined in.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

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Googling Indians

2008-09-20T15:34:00.000+05:30

The technology company is hoping to convince Indian businesses about the virtues and effectiveness of online advertising
For Google India, the challenge is to enable Indian firms to appreciate the effectiveness of search advertising or the reach of the online medium. In an exclusive interview, Shailesh Rao, MD, Google India, tells B&E’s Debdeep Singh how the company is evolving new strategies, services and products to woo Indian customers. But Rao accepts that computing infrastructure has a long way to go in India.

Excerpts: How has been the Google’s journey in India so far?

Google’s approach to search and advertising has provided users with a trusted source of information and provided businesses with an efficient mechanism to drive growth. In India, due to the broad popularity of our services – from search to Orkut to Blogger and AdSense programme – we are able to provide businesses with a wide range of marketing opportunities. Understanding the needs of the Indian market, we are looking to address local concerns and offer multiple channels to support business objectives and marketing goals for all levels of a business. We are pleased with the continued use and adoption of AdWords by large and small businesses across regions and verticals in 2007. We have seen businesses utilise the platform to support a wide variety of marketing objectives. We are pleased that fair and transparent pricing, precision targeting capabilities, and an ability to calculate clear ROI are resonating with the marketplace. India remains one of the more important markets for our business worldwide, and we will continue to invest here.

How do you see the world of search engine marketing evolve from here?

The trajectory is clear. The digital marketing opportunity is growing dramatically and businesses are increasingly taking advantage to drive efficient growth. In a high growth economy like India, business growth is one of the most important objectives for organisations. And advertising will be an important tool for small businesses to become regional ones, regional businesses to become national ones, and national ones to become global players. The Internet has connected previously disconnected people from different parts of the world, and brought them together to share unlimited amounts of information. With more people connected and more businesses investing in developing an online presence, the Internet not only provides information exchange, but also promotes trade. Online advertising compliments the stable of conventional forms of advertising and plays an important role in integrating marketing communications.

A boom in Internet advertising is waiting to happen as connectivity improves with the wider use of broadband. But today, Internet penetration is unacceptably low. It is difficult to be excited about the advances in the telecommunications sector when our computing infrastructure is so far behind where it should and needs to be. As Internet access and costs improve and Indian users spend more time on the Internet, the growing online advertising market will only become better. Today, more and more users are taking recourse to the Internet for even regular jobs. Internet is slowly but steadily becoming an important medium. Given the growing spread of the Internet and ever increasing online activity, Internet advertising will continue to fulfill many business goals – be it sales, lead generation, branding or recruitment campaigns. It will go beyond allocating portions of marketing budget and extend to being a long term investment that also yields immediate short term results. In a scenario where relationship between the search engine and the search engine marketer is not clearly defined, how do you feel about those who practice search engine marketing/optimisation?

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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Thumping win for Putin’s politics

2008-08-25T12:52:00.000+05:30

President Putin will use the majority gained, to strengthen himself
W hen the Soviet Union collapsed in early 1990s, the West was busy preaching lessons of liberal democracy to Russians. America’s ‘triumph over the evil empire’ was celebrated as the greatest moment of 20th century liberalism. Sixteen years down the line, where does Russia stand in global democratic industry? Not impressive, if one goes by standards of Western democracies. Well before the December 2 Parliamentary elections, liberal press had warned that President Vladamir Putin, who is leaving Kremlin in March, would use the results to tighten his grip over Kremlin. Despite widespread international campaign against Putin, his United Russia party emerged victorious with 315 seats, 14 seats more than the 2/3rd majority needed to pass constitutional amendments. The only opposition, United Russia would face in the Houses would be Communists. Putin had defeated the liberal opposition parties, Yabloko & the Union of Right, well before the elections, by increasing, the minimum requirement of percentage of total votes, for having a seat in Duma, to 7%.

“In the election campaign, the Unified Russia declared that it was a referendum on Putin’s policies. The “referendum” proved that Russians back Putin & his policies. However, it has not helped Russian democracy in general. Rather, it exposes the facets of Russian political system,” Sidorenko Alexy, a Russian expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace told B&E. Putin, with huge majority in the Parliament, is more powerful now. He has already declared that he would step down in March 2008. What’s in his mind is unknown. But everybody knows that, after investing this much political capital in the parliamentary elections, he’s unlikely to give up his influence in Russian politics.

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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Welcome to the world of penniless billionaire?!?!

2008-08-20T15:18:00.001+05:30

One of the safest asset – Cash, is fast becoming the most dangerous one
In an environment of monetary debasement – that is when cash loses rapidly its purchasing power – all goods, services (R&D, patents etc.), and assets become currencies as investors and savers realise that the only way to protect the purchasing power of their money is to move from liquid into ‘illiquid’ assets. Consequently, money is no longer just Dollars, Euros, Yen & Chinese RMB, and short dated bonds, but also real estate, stocks, commodities, paintings, and even collectibles. Now, the same way as in a free market economy, currencies fluctuate in value against each other (so far the US dollar is mostly down), the various asset classes, which have increasingly become ‘money’, will also fluctuate against each other. And the way sound currencies tend to strengthen and currencies with poor fundamentals tend to weaken, the various asset class monies will, depending on their fundamentals, either appreciate or decline against each other. Take as an example the energy sector compared to homebuilders.

The ‘US homebuilding currency’ and real estate in general has not only depreciated massively against the ‘energy currency’ but also against ‘lousy’ cash, over the last three years by declining in absolute terms. Now, while the above may sound extremely trivial because in the past some asset classes have always out-performed others, the problem for investors that comes along with is not trivial at all. The reason for this ‘new problem’ is that in the past, cash maintained more or less over time, its purchasing power with compounded interest rates against a basket of goods and asset. So, whereas cash lost out against consumer price inflation and against oil and precious metals in the 1970s, it maintained its value against equities and home prices, which hardly appreciated during that decade. Also cash gained in value against bonds, which tumbled. Moreover, the loss of cash’s purchasing power (including interest) in the 1970s, against consumer prices and precious metals was offset in 1980s by cash appreciating strongly against consumer prices (disinflation) and commodities. But now, with the Fed and other central banks intent to keep asset prices up at all costs with artificially low interest rates, an era of continuous monetary depreciation has dawned upon us.

Whereas in the past, cash could be perceived as ‘reasonably’ safe, today, cash may, courtesy of modern central banking under the auspices of the US Fed, actually have become quite a dangerous asset class due to its depreciation not only against asset prices but also against consumer prices, if these were measured properly by government agencies.

In the past, savers, wanting to avoid the problem of deciding about investments & allocating their funds to different assets, could invest their money in short term deposits. But in today’s monetary regime – characterised by massive monetary & debt growth & central banks seeming to be perfectly happy at ‘printing money’, which leads to money losing purchasing power – savers are almost forced to invest into ‘something’ in order not to end up as ‘penniless billionaires’.

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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Married ofline

2008-08-13T15:38:00.000+05:30

Based on the success of their digital counterparts, real world corporations are beginning to notice the possibilities. Car manufacturers Mazda and Toyota are selling the Hakaze and Scion XB concept cars. IT majors like Sun Microsystems and IBM are organizing press conferences and creating their spaces within SL. CISCO and DELL (www.dell.com/secondlife) are already selling products in-world. TELUS Mobility (www.telus.com) opened a retail outlet offering replica mobile phones with SL specific features. Leo Burnett Worldwide has started a community for their globally dispersed staff to explore the possibility of opening up shop within SL. And last summer, American Apparel opened a branch with a lot of fanfare selling digital renderings of their actual collections. And since money is changing hands, banking as a business is flourishing in SL. Based on current estimates there are as many as fifteen odd banks in SL today out of which ten operate in-world only. This is raising questions of how such non-regulated entities should be managed.

But that’s another story. What’s more interesting is the fact that some banks are actually SL versions of actual real world banks including majors like Wells Fargo, ABN Amro, BNP Paribas & ING. The social dynamics of SL are also hard to comprehend. Take sex for example. Having sex in Second Life just requires selecting a series of buttons. Of course users can generally start by buying outfits to dress their avatars provocatively, or “skins” to make them appear nude. Guess what? Default avatars have no genitalia, so users need to buy them! And I dare you to check out the store at ‘www.getexcite.com’. You will fall off your chair when you see what’s available. Likewise, users can buy equipment, ranging from realistic-looking beds and other furniture to fanciful torture devices used in BDSM fantasies.

The furniture and other props have attached software to animate the user’s avatar through the motions of sex. Chris Mead chose to quit his job at a factory when his wife had a third baby. His interest in computers and gaming led him to start making “couple animations”. Also known as “pose balls”, these are programs which when clicked by two avatars activate the animation inside and allow the avatars to dance, cuddle, kiss or even have sex. Chris’s avatar Craig Altman has a store in-world where he sells more than 300 copies of these animations a day. He earns about $90,000 a year by just selling sex-aids in SL. Nudity and sexual behavior is forbidden in Second Life outside of private areas and sex clubs. Free orgy rooms are commonplace, where users can try out sexual apparatus and pose balls and bring their own. One of the prime locations for this is the Archan Free Sex Community which consists of a huge playhouse with segregated public and private rooms brimming with sex toys and kinky themes. It is over 10,000 square feet of playroom, has a swimming pool with a water slide and arguably one of the biggest dance floors in-world. And finally to end with a twist, there is marriage! Yes, residents are getting married in SL. Some are hooking up online but getting married offline. But some are already married in real life to others. This raises the strange question and a major social problem of the future: does that mean you are cheating on your real spouse? Go figure out!

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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Straight from the horse’s mouth

2008-08-12T14:03:00.000+05:30

Dhirendra Kumar
CEO, Value Research

If I have to make a portfolio of mutual funds, I will choose funds like Birla Sun Life Frontline Equity, Franklin India Prima Plus, HDFC Top 200, Kotak 30 and Principal Global Opportunities as its major constituents. They all have garnered fabulous returns in the past and surely hold a great potential as far as future growth is concerned. Moreover, instead of ranking them on a scale of one to five, I would treat them all equal. All of them have been really resistant to market volatility and appear equally good to me with respect to future performance too. In fact other mutual fund schemes are not far behind. They all seem to have garnered decent returns in the past.

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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Bajaj Capital

2008-08-12T13:55:00.000+05:30

Anil Chopra
CEO, Bajaj Capital

According to me, Reliance Vision Fund, Reliance Growth Fund, DSP ML Tiger Fund, Sundaram Select Midcap and Birla Frontline Equity Fund are the top five schemes, which really have the potential to garner good returns. The Reliance Funds (designated schemes under Reliance SIP Insure) even provides free life insurance cover at no extra cost. These are long term schemes which will help in long term wealth creation. Minimum investment to the tune of Rs.2,000 per month is available. With infrastructure sector all set to witness major growth, investors have a good option in DSP ML Tiger. Birla Frontline Equity too is aimed at long term growth.

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

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Best & Worst, Mutual Funds

2008-08-11T16:49:00.000+05:30

Fund managers are a bemused lot these days. Some mutual funds are delivering great results, but others - in the same or different space - are going completely bananas. Read the 4Ps B&M tracker of the best & worst performing mutual funds over the last year to understand what’s up and where...

Anand, who had been raking in big moolah from his aggressive mutual fund investments over the last couple of years, never bothered with the above precautionary statement, blurted out in fast-forward mode at the beginning and end of every bucolic communication emanating from various asset management companies (AMCs). He is not alone. For most retail investors going alone in the surging equity markets, friends, associates and tele-channels, proved to be the first and last advice centres. And as the markets were running faster than a doped athlete (with mutual fund houses offering returns as high as 100%), investors threw caution to the winds. But what goes up, comes down. Struck by incessant market volatility presently, mutual funds are no more the safe haven that they once were. Returns have fallen worse than a pack of cards over the last few months, and people like Anand are learning their lessons the hard way.

However, when summing up the best and worst mutual funds over the last one year, based purely on their performance (returns), Anand’s story appears to be just one side of the coin. There are funds that have delivered an annual return of close to 50%. Reliance Diversified Power Sector Retail, the best in the country, has returned 49.82%, where as Taurus Libra TaxShield and DWS Investment Opportunity fund has given 42.52% and 40.34% returns respectively, to become the second and third best funds in the country. On the other hand, UTI Growth Sector Fund-Software has left investors gasping for breath by giving a negative return of 23.43%. No doubt, it will go down in history as the worst fund between June 07’ to May 08’; this is closely followed by Kotak Tech Fund that gave an annual negative return of 22.15%.

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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A global versus a local ?

2008-08-06T17:41:00.000+05:30

There is a huge legacy behind that ‘S’ logo you see on the grill of that omnipresent Swift. This is the same piece de resistance adorning the bulging, yet classy tank of that elusive Hayabusa GSX R1300, one of the most powerful street bikes ever! The ‘S’ sign is a symbol of raw power, virility, waiting to be unleashed at a throttle’s notice and is indeed coveted. With such a potent definition, this explosive logo has a brand image which is hard to match when it comes to the ‘must have list for men’; and evidently, Suzuki is proud of its testosterone inducing moniker.

Interestingly, the same logo finds itself globally on Suzuki’s cars as well (which, however, are not perceived in the same league as the bikes); but not in India! Maruti, which is Suzuki’s Indian four wheeler operation and arguably the largest, until recently, had quite resiliently used its own version of Suzuki’s logo. Though the dual-winged logo was the centre piece on the Marutis of yore, now the sign of ‘S’ is back with a vengeance. With a 54% controlling stake, Suzuki now wants its coveted logo to do the honours on Maruti’s vehicles in India; and this is highly visible now. “All questions relating to branding and logos depend on brand image and how you want to use it. Different brands are used for different markets. The company in India has always been branded as Maruti Suzuki, and here, it has become a very strong brand,” said R.C. Bhargava, Chairman Maruti Suzuki, to 4Ps B&M while speaking on the topic of the ‘S’igns. Considering the growing ‘eminence grise’, as a company, Maruti is indeed changing, and the Japanese way of things is more than evident.

Considering cost benefits and unsurpassed market knowledge, Suzuki understands its paragon position in India and like any other effective strategy, would like to leverage this to full potential. But critically, Suzuki should realise that Maruti Suzuki will be under heavy shelling from the competition, whether it likes it or not. And it’s not just projects like Tata’s 1-lakh car that we’re talking about; even companies like Renault/Nissan and Bajaj already have their small car planned (the highly secretive ULC project)! Maruti’s small cars will suddenly find themselves competing against above of 1,000,000 units unleashed into the market against them (combined capacity of the mini cars of these new players). The only solution, according to industry experts, is capacity utilisation and if need be, ‘export oriented’ expansion.

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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ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
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The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
IIPM Campus

Friendly and informal culture

2008-08-05T13:47:00.000+05:30

It’s quite clear that Emami has quite a friendly and informal culture. One evidence emanating from the open door system prevalent in the organisation, where, for example, the strict process of taking appointments is not adhered to. Ratna corroborates, “We believe in openness and trust which makes us gel and in taking care of employees; not only those who have been with us for long standing years, but even the very new ones.” Even when I analysed the communication channel present in the organisation, I found Emami to be an open and informal organisation. From the HR side, they have a quarterly news letter called ‘Endeavour’, which acts as a communication medium for and between all departments. They also an HR Intranet called the Encarna (Encarna in Spanish means Incarnation; so it is an electronic incarnation of HR). It was a pleasant surprise when I came to know that all these names (Endeavour, Encarna) start with the letter ‘E’ as Emami begins with the letter ‘E’. And with respect to training and development, Emami has both internal and external programs. Though they invite eminent faculty members and senior personnel to impart training, employees are also sent to reputed institutes to undergo short and long term MDPs.

So what makes the key trademark of a successful employee at Emami? Ratna shares, “Today, one needs to be a global manager, which means being ready to appreciate different viewpoints at the same time; at the same time ensuring that one does not overshadow the other. To be flexible, ready to embrace change, one needs to have a natural flair; and that’s how one could take the challenge in the years to come.” Emami, on its part, would continue laying stress on making a culture, which is developmental; something that can be done by redefining an employee’s role so that he/she plays better according to his/her strengths; and that the employee’s team members give support for his/her weaknesses, thus ensuring effective team achievements.

Though I didn’t leave a believer in the powers of Navratna Oil, I was surely positively moved by the sincere HR orientation of Emami; one reason I termed their HR positioning as the Elysium spin. What’s Elysium? Well, it starts with ‘E’, is a Greek word, and means an abode of ideal happiness. Beat that for an ending!

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

Highest bid possible

2008-08-04T17:24:00.000+05:30

The M&A folks of any business are always supposed to solicit the highest bid possible. Plus, with companies like Google, as well as aggressive PE groups, there is always that theoretical chance that something more desirable for Yahoo! would emerge. It may be more an issue of Yahoo!’s management really believing that there is great upside potential if the company remains independent and not wanting to transfer that potential to Microsoft regardless of price. “If it were ever put to a shareholder vote, however, I imagine shareholders would look at the situation much differently and line up in overwhelming numbers in support of a sale to Microsoft”, feels Richard.

At the end of it all, Microsoft is in too strong a position and Yahoo! in too weak a position for the latter to fend off Microsoft’s overtures indefinitely. “Microsoft may have to increase its bid by a dollar or two per share to get the deal done, but I suspect that it will ultimately prevail in this takeover battle,” concludes Richard. A Google-Yahoo! merger has way too much antitrust risk to even consider absent major divestitures, and an independent Yahoo! has been losing a several year battle to both Google and Microsoft. “Ultimately, I believe a lot of this will come down to antitrust issues - would regulators approve Microsoft-Yahoo! merger, and how should those two parties allocate the risk in case regulators either do not approve the deal or require significant divestiture,” says Marc.

To sum up, if Yahoo! posts better Q1 results, it may be able to put up a better case in front of its shareholders for now; but the key consideration is whether the company is ready for plan B, that is standing on its own if need be, since that could very much be a possibility now.

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

Road ahead Sectors are loving the PE grace

2008-07-31T15:46:00.000+05:30

Real estate ruled in 2007. A look at the potential target sectors for 2008

After getting a brief idea about ‘what lies beneath’ and ‘what’s on surface’ the time has come to get a hang of ‘what lies ahead’. Amidst the rollicking PE investments that are sweeping various sectors of the Indian economy, one truth stands out for sure – the ‘sunrises’ of today might be the ‘twilights’ of tomorrow! And as we say this, we dare to add the natural truth that most definitely, some new sector(s) will lead the lap in the race to woo investors. Here’s a primer…

Statistics reveal that the year 2007 was ruled by sectors like real estate and telecom that counted first when it came to the PE favourites category. And this comes as a no surprise as it fell quite in line with the promises that these two sectors held. Therefore, investments in companies like GMR Infrastructure and Bharti Airtel were some of the noteworthy deals in these above mentioned sectors. In terms of percentage value share for the year 2007, sectors like real estate & infrastructure management led the pack, attracting 36% of the net investment share. It was followed by others like Telecom, Banking & Financial services, Media, Entertainment & Publishing and IT & ITeS, which garnered 18%, 17%, 5% and 4% of the total pie respectively. And now talking about what’s bound to happen in the future, let’s consider the following figures. According to a PE firm, SMC, “There are 366 firms claiming to be operating in India and another 69 that are raising capital with plans to be operating soon. Approximately, over 400 funds are active or about to be active in Indian markets. In total, they seem to be sitting on $48 billion to be invested between now and December 10, 2008.” What this clearly proves is that there is no dearth of money flowing into India through the PE route. However, which are the target sectors for these deeppocketed sharpshooters is still a critical and cloudy question to ponder over.

Sudhir Gupta of Planman Financial feels that, “Sectors like education, especially e-education, will rake in big PE money in the coming future. Then there are also other sectors like healthcare, which will also attract huge PE investments.” Well, believe it or not, from career counseling to preparatory tutorials to vocational training companies, education is one of the sectors, which is enticing PE firms big time. 2007 was a great year for healthcare and it seems it will of course remain in vogue. The year saw a whopping $400 million being poured into this sector, and this fad is still far from becoming history. Currently pegged at $34 billion, the healthcare sector is expected to grow to a whopping $40 billion by 2010. “We are certainly looking at buyout opportunities in the domestic pharmaceutical space this year,” opines Sanjiv Kaul, Managing Director, Chryscapital Infrastructure. Sure enough, a look at the figures would prove that the pharma industry has also been a roaring success amongst the money-laden PE firms.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

Investee: Intelenet Global Ser.

2008-07-30T17:13:00.000+05:30

Investor: Blackstone Group

Investment Value: $200 mn

Susir Kumar, Chief Executive Officer, Intelenet Global Services, explains the key rationale behind the Blackstone and Intelenet deal to 4Ps B&M: “We wanted to retain our third party BPO focus and wanted to grow into a global brand. From the outset, we were very clear about what we were looking for in a potential partner. This deal with Blackstone will enable us to continue to grow as a third party BPO service provider and will also help our multi-pronged growth strategy. The association with Blackstone is a mutually beneficial one where Blackstone leverages Intelenet’s delivery capabilities for all its portfolio companies. Intelenet aims to optimally leverage Blackstone’s financial backing to improve and expand its operations. These acquisitions will enable Intelenet to expand its delivery footprint from solely offshore centres, to an on-shore and near-shore capability based out of the US and Latin America. Blackstone is lending its global brand and ready access to its investee portfolio.”

In one of the largest management buyouts in the BPO space, leading PE player Blackstone Group bought out HDFC and Barclays stake in Intelenet Global Services for a consideration of close to $200 million last year. Since incorporation in 2000, Intelenet has grown from 25 employees to over 17,000 employees across 18 locations in India and overseas. The fund infusion is enabling the investee company to become a global service provider with a global delivery footprint. In December 2007, Intelenet acquired two global companies, as part of its aggressive inorganic growth plans.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

There is room for more vehicles

2008-07-29T16:25:00.000+05:30

Karl Slym, MD & President, GM India, told 4Ps B&M, “There is more opportunity for the small cars in India and there is room for more vehicles. We are developing something in our labs and will be launching another car in the Spark segment some time soon.” Clearly this time, GM is leaving no room for mistakes. It is now very clear that GM has chosen the Chevrolet brand as the platform for its future growth. Also all new products introduced will be un der the brand name Chevrolet. Explains Slym, “We added Spark, U-VA, Optra Magnum and Captiva to the Chevrolet brand as it is important to clarify to the customers what the GM brand stands for in India.” As branding holds such relevance, the company is “now banking on brand enhancement and building consumer awareness.” In order to reach these ends effectively, GM is now ready to bring in its premium brands into Indian terrain. “I’ll be definitely going beyond the Chevrolet brand. Presently Chevrolet looks after 90% of the market. Now we also have to take care of the remaining 10% of the market,” says Slym.

With its portfolio and strategy in place, it seems that GM is well on its way to become a wholesome automotive player in India. Apart from the innovative small cars like the Spark and U-VA, the introduction of punchy CRDi’s in its range has further filled the lacuna that was left due to lack of diesels earlier. With the dealer and service outlets growing in numbers, the company is thinking about being both “flexible and nimble” in the long term. Even though Toyota might eventually clinch the numero uno position in the global auto mart, the hard hitting truth remains – GM has left it way behind in the Indian market, a market, which may finally decide the destiny of the global auto market.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

Tax guide for dummies...

2008-07-28T15:03:00.000+05:30

However much you want, you just cannot avoid filing tax returns. To reduce this inevitable pain, 4Ps B&M gives seat-of-the-pants techniques, of course, for dummies!

The name Benjamin Franklin might not be that familiar to those not well versed with western history. But the philosophy this founding father of America and top inventor gave to this world holds fort till date, with his statement, “Nothing is certain, but death and taxes!” As the financial year draws to an end, taxation is one buzzword which is bound to keep us busy for the next two months. Tax planning has already gained momentum; more so as March is synonymous with taxation. Salaried tax payers, like Sasawata Mukherjee (Geologist, Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation Ltd), comment, “It is only during the last quarter of the year that I gear up for tax planning and in a hurry I have to depend a lot on the agents advice.” It is no wonder that financial products are marketed more during this period. Be it mutual funds (the primary one being the Equity Linked Saving Schemes – ELSS) or insurance policies (Unit Linked Insurance Plans – ULIPs and endowment plans are the major pitch), both eye on capturing a significant share of an individual’s tax-planning kitty, mainly because investments up to Rs.100,000 are eligible for deduction from one’s gross total income under Section 80 C of the Income Tax Act.

Nevertheless, a prudent financial planning requires an individual to view investment or spending decisions through the lens of tax efficiency. Says Santosh Mandal (Tax Consultant, Simon and Cailand Pvt Ltd ), “Not only does the knowledge of tax incidence with respect to insurance or mutual funds ensure a conceptual integrity to personal financial decisions, but it also enables the individual to make the most of every investment by maximizing returns.” And now, the Life Insurance Council (LIC – the industry body of life insurance companies in India) in its pre-budget memorandum to the finance ministry, has sought for the introduction of a separate limit of Rs 1 lakh per year with respect to IT exemptions for just life insurance and pension policies under section 80C. From all these perspectives, the knowledge of tax implications on MFs and insurance policies becomes imperative.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

Collaborate to compete!

2008-07-26T12:47:00.000+05:30

But will this enable IBM to nurture more innovations?

After enthralling the tech world with noteworthy technologies like virtualisation, green tech and printing solutions, this time, IBM is gearing up to help the employees collaborate in globally integrate enterprise. With globalisation being the buzzword, multinationals are fighting hard to maintain their connection with geographically dispersed workforce. And to implement its collaboration efforts, IBM has initiated its development platform based on Web2.0 technologies. This development platform, called www.jazz.net, is an commercial community, which helps companies collaborate on the development of Jazz-based technologies.

“Jazz is a wonderful example of the technical innovation that is occurring on the Eclipse platform,” said Mike Milinkovich, Executive Director of the Eclipse Foundation.

This Jazz interface was previously confined to IBM fraternity only, but now it can be accessed by all the development communities. “IBM is redefining how software development and delivery will be done in the future,” said Dr. Danny Sabbah, General Manager, Rational Software, IBM. IBM is also planning to bridge the digital divide in the workforce with Project Bluegrass, which follows three key factors – collaboration, communication and visualisation. Project Bluegrass takes the IBM Jazz technology and provides a platform wherein developers can work and communicate along with interactive visual representations.

Well, with its collaborative approach on full swing, we can soon expect some more innovations from IBM in the employee-communications space.

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

People

2008-07-22T16:31:00.000+05:30

In any change process people play a defining role. At Aditya Birla group, continued focus on people related activities have made them the employer of choice

At Aditya Birla group, the people processes have helped in drastically transforming the group. Every innovation that you bring about in terms of people process will have a consequential lift on the employee’s behaviour, productivity, et al. We look at from the employee’s prospective as to what they want, and this included well hiring, development, employee engagement, compensating them well, paying attention to the needs of the employees and taking care of the employees in every manner. So it has to be an array of things that leads to the making of a good working place.

Utterly ‘pun’acious

2008-07-21T11:53:00.000+05:30

When IIPM comes to education, never compromise

Naughty girl turns forty and still going strong

‘Utterly Butterly Delicious!’ hummed a thumb sized little girl dressed in a polka-dotted frock and so was born a star – a ‘pun’ loving star – who with her bold tongue-in-cheek topicals made way directly into the hearts of millions. The history of the Amul girl can be traced back to 1967, when the first hoarding of Amul came up in Bombay (now Mumbai) and became an instant hit, especially with housewives. The man behind the Amul girl, Sylvester da Cunha (founder of daCunha Communications) who, at that time was working with Lintas, recalls, “We needed a girl who would worm her way into a housewife’s heart.” 40-years hence, the bubbly Amul girl has found her way directly into the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest running campaign ever.

Otherwise an epitome of India’s largest food brand, it is interesting to note that the Amul girl has always been flying high on the hoardings but never seen on television. R. S. Sodhi, Chief General Manager, GCMMF says, “Creatives cannot be easily translated from one media to another. The topicals are created in different languages & pertain to the geographical region they are put in. Every kind of media has different attributes & we need to focus on that particular media, which brings maximum recognition & effectiveness to the brand.”

Amul, a brand of the apex organisation GCMMF, has been an excellent success story of a co-operative organisation – a concept not very popular in India. Its range of dairy products includes milk, butter, ghee, cheese, curd, chocolate, ice cream, et al. The establishment of Amul in 1946 was marked as an epoch in the White Revolution of the country.

Amul’s advertising strategy has followed the concept of ‘Umbrella Branding.’ Amul is the common brand name for most of its products across categories. For instance, the Amul girl has also been used to advertise Amul ghee and milk. Its ad campaign ‘Amul doodh peeta hai India,’ conceptualised & created by FCB-Ulka, was drafted to proclaim its leadership position and was targeted at people across all income categories. Says Sodhi, “Our corporate campaign – The Taste of India caters to people belonging to all walks of life & across cultures. It is circled around a one day old child who needs milk as much as to a dead man who needs ghee.”

In November 2006, Amul became the first Indian company to launch its ready-to-drink coffee – Amul Kool Café. Instead of going by the norms, Amul decided to launch this cool summer drink in winters. Explains Sodhi, “Main idea was to break away from the clutter as in summers a whole lot of players come out with their drinks. By launching the drink in winters, we got enough time to establish an efficient supply chain. And it paid off since our sales in winters were equal to the summer sales.” Amul also launched Amul Kool Koko in August 2007 to further stranglehold its position in the Indian beverages market.

In January 2007, GCMMF introduced the Amul range of sugar free and pro-biotic ice-creams. A first of its kind product, the ice creams – Amul Prolife and Amul Sugar Free – are targeted towards the health-conscious and to those having diabetes. The ad campaign that bets high on the health quotient received the world’s most prestigious award – The International Dairy Federation Marketing Award (2007) – for Amul pro-biotic ice-cream launch. However, the sales figures do not stand testimony to the success of pro-biotic ice creams. Avers Sodhi, “Indians are not aware of the benefits of the pro-biotic ice creams. We still have not been able to communicate the benefits to the target segment. Although it is an accepted concept in the western countries, in India we’ll have to make some more investments to spread the message to the target audience.”

Amul is an excellent example of a company making the optimal utilisation of media to promote its products. With advertising and marketing expenditures amounting to less than one percent of its total revenues, Amul stands out for its quality and variety. It is indeed, The Taste of India.

Edit bureau: Savreen Gadhoke

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

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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Pricing

2008-07-18T12:36:00.000+05:30

When it comes to the Indian sub-continent, price is one factor that can make or break dreams of capitalistic entities. Kishore Biyani did exactly that with his hyper market formula for Indian organised retail

Big Bazaar has definitely redefined organised retailing in India; its USP being the wide array of products available under one roof at amazingly low prices. Till date, it has worked remarkably well for them. But, with inflation and cost of real estate rising, it may well get difficult for Big Bazaar to play on the price front. In that case, an effective supply chain and increased focus on customer care will help Big Bazaar to grow and survive in the long run.

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

Long live short selling!

2008-07-17T17:25:00.000+05:30

Regulators worldover recognise short selling as legitimate, now it’s time for us to get going...

You can sell what you do not own; this may sound queer for the uninitiated, but then it is not far from reality. Investors can now ‘officially’ make money on a decline in an individual stock or during a bear market, thanks to the advanced investing technique termed ‘short selling’.

A long standing market practice, short selling (or shorting, if you please) has been a subject of considerable debate. Of late, market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has permitted all types of investors, including retail and institutions, to undertake short selling after a gap of six years. It had been banned in 2001, post the ruckus created by Ketan Parekh in the stock market. Some are quick to add that short selling has been re-introduced in order to stem the rampage of the bull and to provide players, mostly institutional, the opportunity of cashing in on the ebb as well.

As a concept, short selling is neither complex nor entirely simple. The market regulator defines it as “selling a stock which the seller does not own at the time of trade.” Simply put, it is the practice of selling financial securities that the seller does not own, in the hope of repurchasing them later at a lower price.

Strategically, it allows investors to gain from the decline in price of securities, much against the common perception of purchasing a security in the hope that prices will increase.

There are divergent views with regard to short selling. Avid supporters are of the view that most of the scandals in the stock market involve alleged attempts by the promoters of companies to rig share prices. It not only helps in providing liquidity, but also helps in price corrections of over valued stocks. Agrees F.A. Sarkar (Sharekhan) “it is the absence of short-selling that distorts efficient price discovery, which in turn gives promoters the freedom to manipulate prices.”

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

For a few rupees more!

2008-07-12T12:53:00.000+05:30

The appreciation is not coming to a halt anytime soon...

It is the best, as well as the worst of times for our very own Reserve Bank of India. The good news – inflation has dipped to a five year low of 3.43% much below the RBI’s comfort zone; the bad news – the rupee has appreciated 15% in the last one year against the US dollar. At a crucial juncture when the Indian market is outperforming the rest of the world, the rupee appreciation phenomenon is not really coming to halt anytime soon and the best that the RBI can opt for is to moderate the pace of rupee appreciation, not reverse it.

An appreciating currency is dependent on the market forces of demand and supply operating in the forex markets and it truly signifies a robust and booming economy. Yet, the lamentation over the appreciation, from some corners, calls for due consideration.

Given the fact that most of India’s trade is invoiced in dollars, any change in the dollar’s rupee value has a disproportionate effect on the stakeholders e.g. exporters, importers, lenders, borrowers et al. Exporters get their sales proceeds in dollars, which, with the rising rupee, fetch less amount of rupees as every 1% change in rupee-dollar rate has an impact of 50 bps (100 bps=1%) on exporters. Analysts argue that bringing software industry under the lens of Fringe Benefit Taxation & Minimum Alternate Tax has further added to the worries of the industry already reeling under the pressure of rupee appreciation.

While exporters are in low spirits, it is happy hours for importers, borrowers in foreign currency. Though despite a few setbacks in sectors like IT, textile and leather; other sectors like petroleum, gems and jewellery, engineering et al have been contributing to the growing exports, the 18.91% growth in exports in August 2007 stands testimony to this fact.

With regards to textile and leather, industry players argue that no emerging economy has succeeded without its manufacturing sector becoming competitive globally. “The estimates of Federation of Indian Export Organisation (FIEO) that in the current fiscal, as a result of dip in exports in labour intensive sectors there will be a loss of eight million jobs. Looking at the massive inflow of dollars through ECB and Portfolio Investment, rupee-dollar exchange rate can touch Rs.38 by December 2008,” expressed G. K. Gupta, President FIEO.

The central bank is aware of the fact that an appreciated rupee will evoke more capital inflows and complicate monetary management. Sunil Sinha, Senior Economist, CRISIL, adds, “Currently, RBI is facing the famous ‘trilemma’ (stable exchange rate, free capital flows & an autonomous monetary policy) and it has a very difficult situation ahead of it.” To this end, the RBI has taken few concerted steps e.g. continuous intervention in forex market, imposing restrictions on ECBs, banning overseas borrowing to meet rupee expenditure, encouraging higher dollar spend, raising investment limit in overseas ventures et al. All of these are attempts to ease pressure on rupee appreciation, encouraging capital outflow and to some extent, offset the massive inflow.

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

The slow but silent achievers

2008-07-11T13:54:00.000+05:30

With a heady bandwagon of celebrity endorsers in their kitty, Emami may be relatively small, but is no pushover...

“Shah Rukh to give Emami a ‘Fair’ deal!” “Shah Rukh – Fair & Handsome for the first time!” As these – and similar news flashes – screamed across media a few months ago, the (ad) World in particular and howling mobs in general gasped at this startling move and went into a tizzy over King Khan’s encore (fans of the superstar will undoubtedly remember the storm-in-a-bathtub he created with his glamorous splash in a LUX ad a couple of years ago) in determinedly re-defining the very spirit of the term, Metrosexual!

Interestingly, the people behind this ground-breaking move, designed to offer a whole new “complexion” to this category, reside in Kolkata and continue to be relentlessly committed to deliver new paradigms in customer satisfaction. Sans the shrill hype, well-synchronised media blitz and insane noise-levels that accompany the publicity dhamaka of some of their better known competitors, this low profile, high result-driver blazes ahead, content to play out its role as a silent achiever.

The Emami story is quite fascinating and began in 1974 when two childhood friends – RS Agarwal and RS Goenka – decided to team up and undertake a voyage of discovery. Managing Director Adtiya Agarwal (son of RS Agarwal) explains that the duo started out by manufacturing talcum, vanishing cream and snow and very soon got into innovation mode. Adi goes into flashback. “In those days, the Kolkata-based multinational Metal Box was the unchallenged numero uno in the supply of quality tin containers. Emami was new, small, unknown and frequently given short shrift. This led to acute supply problems which in turn impacted business.” After being on the back-foot for a while, the duo decided to do their own thing – introduce (never before) plastic containers – instead of tin – for the products with paper labels and gold foil. “It took the market by storm! Gold became the trademark for Emami and everybody was happy.”

This attitude was driven by one simple line of thinking: The retailer was the key catalyst in market movements. The main focus was about manufacturing an attractive customer friendly product, pricing it right and motivating the retailer frat to pull out the stops while doing their number. The duo’s funda was crystal clear and they scored big…

In 1979, they bought out a sick company, Himani (which produced creams and glycerene soap) with plans to revive it. In 1983, they launched Boroplus, a hugely bold move because it dared to trespass the market leader’s – BOROLINE – territory! “It was quite amazing,” says Adi, “because Boroline had a hundred percent share of the market. Once again the duo’s ability to take risks and fly on shrewd thinking connecting with consumer psyche, won the day. Unique and attractive packaging powered by something the market had never ever experienced before – consumer schemes – totally broke new ground and rocketed the product into a whole, new stratosphere. Today Emami enjoys over sixty percent of this category market!!” Trailblazing appears to be an intrinsic part of Emami’s DNA. Today, there’s this big buzz about product-placement (in film) advertising. “Do you know,” says Adi “that we hit this button over two decades ago with a Rajesh Khanna-Rekha-Raj Babbar starrer, Agar Tum Na Hote?” Adi is convinced that the founding fathers had an uncanny ability to constantly connect with the consumer psyche.

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

Low Profile... but a Fighter

2008-07-10T17:02:00.000+05:30

PATNI COMPUTERS :NARENDRA KUMAR PATNI
Low Profile... but a Fighter
This is an enterprise, which has always been cautious of too much media attention. Keeping itself aloof from the limelight in the past, it has suddenly created ripples in the IT industry through its tremendous global reach. Backed by its ability to adapt to the dynamic market situation, Patni Computer Systems Ltd. (PCL) has always let its work speak for itself.

Struck by the sharp rise in the rupee against dollar, PCL reported a 15.8% drop in third quarter net profit. However, with respect to dollar, the company’s net profit shot up to $27.62 million as compared to $22.28 million last year, reporting a rise of 24%. This was consequential to the rise in the total revenues, which reached 11.7% to $169.452 million. “It’s the integrated service offerings, customer-centric approach, and constant broadening of service offerings along with our unique Verticalisation strategy, that have resulted in Patni’s sustained growth,” Deepak Khosla, Sr. VP, Marketing and Head APAC & Japan, PCL tells 4Ps B&M.

What is quite interesting about PCL is how the company has managed to invade the global market through acquisitions with a view to provide them with expert technical solutions. In October 2007, the company entered into an agreement with UK-based Carphone Warehouse Ltd to acquire the worldwide rights to CPW’s proprietary intellectual property.

But like any other player in the market, PCL is also facing intense competition from big giants, especially with the recent alliance between Wipro Infotech and Cisco.

Competing fiercely, making way towards the big emerging markets and capturing the globe reflects the new energised identity of Patni Computers accomplishing its vision to achieve leadership position in global IT services.

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)

Just for namesake!

2008-07-09T12:51:00.000+05:30

Sumanto Chattopadhyay, Executive Creative Director – South Asia, O&M, speaks his heart out on the ‘UTI=AXIS Bank’ campaign

On the face of it there was no need for a change, as UTI was one of the most preferred and established brands in the Indian financial milieu. Seemingly out of compulsion, but still the name AXIS promises to deliver international compatibility and added youthfulness to the brand. It all started off with twins bombarding our television screens to drill the fact into the mind of the consumers that the two are really one and the same.

What was the brief given by the bank?

The brief was to announce the change of name from UTI Bank to Axis Bank, and to reassure customers that it was only a name change, nothing more, nothing less. Everything else about the brand remains the same. A multimedia campaign was required to announce the change. It would serve to simultaneously reassure customers that the change of name would in no way affect the services offered by the bank.

How did the idea came to your mind?

There was a brainstorming session in which the idea of using twins came up. The popular perception about twins is that they are identical in everyway, except for their names. We warmed up to this idea because we felt that it would be the perfect parallel to convey our message.

Most striking thing about the campaign?

The advantage of using twins as the visual device of our campaign is that people have a fascination with twins. When you see twins you cannot help but stare at them and marvel at their similarities. Therefore, the campaign caught the public’s imagination. We even got calls enquiring about who the twins were. The emotional connect helped gain quick acceptability for the new name.

Any last minutes changes or was the idea perfect from the start?
Visually, the campaign was clear from the start. What we had a debate on was about the copy. What would reassure the customers that the change in name does not reflect a take-over of their bank and that their hard-earned life savings were secure. Finally, we decided to go in for KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) and write ‘UTI Bank is now Axis Bank. Everything is the same except the name.’

Was their any difference between perceived and actual outcomes of the campaign?

The response was bigger than expected. It got talked about by the general public, in financial circles and in the ad industry. It generated much media coverage, strengthening the impact of the campaign.

Any problems in the execution of the campaign?

It was difficult to find so many pairs of twins at such a short notice.

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)

Attrition Management

2008-07-08T17:16:00.000+05:30

Lancelot Cutinha, VP (Human Resources), BIG 92.7 FMAttrition Management In 2008, companies will witness increased attrition because of the growing economy. This calls for an out-of-the-box approach to retaining talent and creating new pools. Here are some ideas to toy with:

• Continue to nurture and reinforce the right culture. This entails role-modeling of core values by senior management, inculcating the right values in new-joinees and constantly reinforcing them.

• Keep your associates constantly on your radar. This will help detect signs of disengagement.

• Exploit the talents of your associates.• Treat associates like customers. Listen to them.

• Consider your ‘A’ players for surprise rewards. Unexpected rewards have the power to emotionally fetter employees to their companies.

• Have a career plan for all employees. Managers should plan the careers of their direct reports by understanding their aspirations, advising on strategies, and plugging their competency gaps.

• Blue Oceans. Start fishing for talent in blue oceans rather than resort to traditional sources. This will enable firms to find new, fresh talents.

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)

He just won’t let this stupendous success saga ‘Stop’

2008-07-04T16:10:00.000+05:30

GOVIND SHRIKHANDE... CEO, Shopper’s Stop
He just won’t let this stupendous success saga ‘Stop’
‘From struggle to stardom’, is the story of a man, who is behind the success saga of India’s one of the largest retail chains – Shopper’s Stop. A Symbiosis alumnus, Shrikhande joined Shopper’s Stop in 2001, when the company’s balance sheets were still painted red. The stalwart took over the reins of the company as COO in 2004, and assumed responsibility to bring back the lost glory. With his rich exposure in textile sector, he has managed to brilliantly synergise retail & textile. Commenting on his experience in the organization Shrikhande asserts, “Here, I have been part of the team which impacted the financial turnaround of Shopper’s Stop, its successful IPO and its transformation into the best department store chain. I believe in team work rather than individual experiences.” A leader by instinct, Shrikhande is bent upon creating a compelling vision and hence chasing it with clear milestones, right resources & great teams. He emphatically believes that people have the ultimate impact in everything. An enthusiast of old film songs and cricket viewing, he also loves reading. His all time favourite book is The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, as the book still remains extremely relevant even today in both content and philosophy. He is a big admirer of Narayan Murthy and ranks him as his favourite corporate leader. Shrikhande opines, “Narayan Murthy portrays all the values that I cherish – humility, simplicity, focus, team work, delegation & intelligence.” Look’s like there’s no ‘stop’ping this man on the move.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

TATA GROUP

2008-05-23T17:14:00.000+05:30

Analysts might be doubting his aspirations, but this Tata’s Safari doesn’t seems to be stopping

The Group has been on a maddening acquisition spree in the past one year. Right from Corus to Indonesian coal mines to hotels in the US to Glaceau et al, Tata Group has left no stone unturned in its quest to go global. However, it is this acquisition spree that has created doubts in minds of industry watchers regarding long term sustainability of the Group. Consequently, this year Tata Group has observed a fall of two rankings in the 4Ps B&M 100 Most Valuable Brand list. However, with base of 96 companies operating in seven different sectors ranging from as basic as consumer products to super hitech sectors like IT, engineering and so on, Tata Group is definitely not losing grounds, as f now.

The Group employs more than 240,000 employees, has 28 publicly listed companies and its operations extends to six continents in over 120 countries. Whether it is the IT giant TCS or it is the automobile major Tata Motors, the way these companies are growing, the Tata brand seems to be unstoppable!

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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

Jump into the ireena!

2008-05-05T11:44:00.000+05:30

Ireena VITTAL... extremely high on retail and consumerism. And this brainy lass loves complications.

Complicating the simplicity of business is the hallmark of Ireena Vittal. For over a decade now, she has been with the world’s best known consulting firm McKinsey & Company as Partner. She has been eminently successful with her complicated yet simple (enriched with facts, figures and logic) advice to clients in retail, consumer goods, and the energy sector, et al.

Her philosophy of life is very simple. As a person she emphasizes more on the present and feels proud to be a part of present day India, an India which is poised to take off. According to Vittal, the more the competition the more the noise and better the results; perhaps that’s why she continues to encourage her clients to welcome all competition. Her colleagues at McKinsey told us that “Ireena infuses competition amongst the team members and that is the key to our success.”

And in an age when every business is looking at ways to conquer the Indian consumer, she has worked on bringing out exemplary McKinsey reports on the growth of Indian consumerism and suggested ways for MNCs for “Winning the Indian Consumer.”

Speaking about her passion, Rahul Goenka of KPMG Bangalore (formerly McKinsey) told 4Ps B&M that Ireena is a fun loving woman “who knows how to successfully balance the professional and the personal halves of life… her ability to make complex matters simple and vice-versa is simply unique!” Here’s a toast to the McKinsey woman!

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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

The hybrid’dle!

2008-04-02T14:42:00.001+05:30

Those were the times when self-acclaimed auto analysts and famed industry experts considered the hybrid a freak of nature. Economics, and Saddam Hussein, have more than forced them to rethink their positions. The sky rocketing oil prices have been playing havoc with consumer pockets and it appears that the inimitable experts have now very conveniently shed their so called ‘hybrid aversions’. Since hybrid cars (capable of running on both gas and electric motors simultaneously) have started getting mass produced, there are tremendous economies of scale benefits which manufacturers are beginning to pass onto the consumer.

As a result, hybrid cars – whose sales were earlier bogged down by high prices – have now become appealing. Combined with comparatively lower purchase prices than earlier, hybrid cars have one huge advantage – extremely low operating costs. Consumers are finding hybrids irresistible in developed markets, resulting in them becoming a rage in American states such as California and Florida. Sitting on the back of this ongoing chutzpah, Toyota recently announced that it has crossed the 1 million barrier in hybrid car sales. The company said that it had sold approximately 1,047,000 hybrids worldwide until May 31, 2007. A third of the sales came from the company’s home market of Japan while a majority was contributed by the yankees. It is believed that the high sales were triggered by major tax benefits and civic amenities for hybrid car owners provided by various markets, which take pollution as a major issue of concern. Moreover, the prospective consumers are also reported to be enticed by major advancements in the hybrid car tech- nology, – Toyota Prius, for instance, has been evolving consistently over the years and since its launch in 2001, it has undergone three major mechanical and design changes. Including 24,000 units of Prius, Toyota reportedly sold 36,100 hybrids in May 2007 alone.

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

The Sunday Indian

Youthful India

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

A report titled ‘YouSumerism, Youth In India-Opportunity Knocks’ released by Ernst & Young has interesting observations about the Indian youth sector. For starters, it reinforces what we all knew: that this segment is the engine for growth of the retail. The report – that says that India has the world’s largest youth population and is therefore a bigticket market for global retailers – categorises Indian youth into three segments: Dabblers (those in the 13- 21 age bracket), Aspirers (22-28 years) and Thrivers (29 -35 years). This galloping growth – particularly in lifestyle and luxury products – is thanks largely due to increasing urbanisation, rising incomes, greater brand competition and the falling in place of a youth-driven culture. And “favourable demographics” and “psychographic changes” among India’s youthful population, its rising levels of affluence and the segment’s international exposure have all fuelled the demand for luxury and lifestyle products, the report added. “By targeting the youth population in India, retailers will be investing in the future as they will be able to influence and create loyalty from the start,” said Ashok Rajgopal, Ernst & Young Director, Retail Industry, while releasing the report.

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

Bangkok beckons

2008-02-29T10:33:00.000+05:30

Named Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit, (a Guinness record for the world’s longest name for a place) or, in short Krung Th ep Maha Nakhon or more popularly – Bangkok. Simply translated, the name means, ‘the city of angels, the great city, the eternal jewel city, the impregnable city of God Indra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city, abounding in an enormous Royal Palace that resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated God, a city given by Indra and built by Vishnukam’!

From being a small trading town, Bangkok has metamorphosed into one of the most happening cities of Asia. During the reign of King Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke, the city was bestowed with its ceremonial name and the official name remained Krung Th ep Maha Nakhon.

Set on the bank of the Chao Phraya River in Thailand, Bangkok holds time – past, present and future – together in its arms. After all, where else can one find skyscrapers kissing the azul skies beside the most ancient temples or wats, where the monks live in harmony with all the glitz and glamour that’s associated with its name!

Counted among the world’s top tourist destinations and ranked third (by Travel + Leisure), Bangkok is host to more than 15 million tourists each year, boasting of its most visited historical venues – the Grand Palace, Wat Pho, Wat Phra Kaew (which houses the emerald Buddha and is considered the most important temple in Thailand), Wat Arun et al.

Besides, the city boasts of an effervescent night life, teeming with Asia’s most premium clubs and bars thriving in its ubercool lifestyle! And, if the floating markets, dinner cruises and bargain shopping don’t amuse you, indulge in some Thai massage and out-of-the-world spa treatments for a quick detox! Bangkok beckons for the sheer ecstasy that ceases to end!

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Source: IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

There is a marginal softening in the property rates

2008-02-15T12:31:00.000+05:30

It all seems so dreamy and beautiful that the deja-vu cannot be ignored, bearing a suspiciously familiar similarity to India’s boastful retail, or the airlines, or the soft drinks, or the car industry story, where almost all companies came in hypnotized by the promise of a huge market; and almost all players (from 70% in retail to 100% in aviation) are suffering pitiable losses as on the current date. Arvind Khanna, COO, Beekman Helix has his own spin, “There is a marginal softening in the property rates – 10-15%, but it is not universally applicable, it holds true for certain pockets only.” Raman Sood, Managing Director, Eros Group, divulges his views to B&E, “Prices in the sector have packed; I expect a correction over the next 3-6 months at 10-15%. There is correction right now, but people will continue to pick up property.” Rahul Todi, MD, Bengal Shrachi Housing wasn’t ready to be left behind, “The real estate boom started in 2001-2002. It has been 4-5 years now. If it sustains for 5-6 years, it is sustainable.” He strongly claims that stability is round the corner.

With due respect to all of the above mentioned executives, the hilarious part of all these comments is the analogy we drew with King Kong earlier. Many head honchos of real estate firms seem to have a memory recall of exactly one day. Irrespective of the government’s extremist efforts to debilitate the growth of this sector, top managers of this sector – rather than on planning their future investments based on interest rates, demand forecasts and costs of capital – are almost blindly positive about the future returns. A mere mention from us that there might be losses, and one sees the motley crew jumping together with fanatical fervour to oppose our impunity.

Of course, the RBI, for the sake of buyers, has decided to reduce the weightage on home loans up to Rs.2 million to 50%, a move which has been well accepted by the small borrowers. So what should an apprentice consumer be doing in such a dynamic situation? B. P. Dhaka of Parsvnath advises, “The time is right to buy a property for an end user. He needs to evaluate his capital and need judiciously.”

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Source: IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

Maintain primacy of peace

2008-02-05T12:04:00.000+05:30

The Russian reaction against the CFE results from the NATO’s obduracy to ratify the treaty – citing Russian refusal to remove troops from Georgia & Moldova. Realising the import of the treaty for European stability, the NATO spokesman James Appathurai said, “The Russian position is not fully clear to me, both in terms of suspension or in terms of what they want as a next step. That is exactly why the allies wish to discuss with the Russian Federation in more depth what it is exactly they mean.” Undeniably, a complete abrogation of the treaty may lead to further arms race in the region.

The EU is worried that if this trend of whimsical withdrawal from treaties continues (the US had withdrawn from ABM treaty in 2005), next to follow could be the death of the intermediate-range nuclear forces treaty, leading to a fresh wave of missile race. Th e EU simply cannot afford to let its soil become the battleground for this new wave of chill blowing between the erstwhile Cold War foes.

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Source: IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

IIPM Think Tank

The Sunday Indian

Oversized & overrated!!!

2008-01-24T12:31:00.000+05:30

Think of the aircraft manufacturing giant Boeing, & you perhaps question the very ‘bulky’ American’s audacity when it deafeningly defies gravity. But there itself you are caught on the wrong foot, for bulky it is when it comes to giving ultra-rich cash returns (with a blinding $81.9 billion in m-cap on the NYSE) but not when it comes to aircraft designs! Don’t believe us? Well look at its July 8, 2007 rollout – the mid-sized B787 ‘Dreamliner’ by lieu of which this American showed precisely why it felt that ‘big isn’t beautiful’, logically!

Well, nothing to take away from the $10 billion bull-headed super-jumbo A380 manufacturing strategy of Airbus, but the new delivery market for largesized aircraft s over the next 20 years (including the A380s) according to a 2026 forecast by CAPA will stand at just $270 billion, representing just a pathetic 9.6% of global market till 2026 (which stands at a dazzling $2.8 trillion)! So all in all, Airbus’s latest expensive hobby (which belongs to this segment) is meant to cater to just 9.6% of the total market demand for new aircraft s over the next two decades. On the contrary, Boeing’s latest, the 280-seater B787 falls in the twin-aisle category – the most lucrative segment worth a most scintillating $1.27 trillion (accounting for 45.4% of total market).

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Source: IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

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Wild Hogs-II

2008-01-17T11:44:00.000+05:30

Don’t tell us you didn’t see the movie Wild Hogs! Aw, come on. It’s a rollicking comedy about four buddies – John Travolta, Tim Allen, Martin Lawrence and William H. Macy – who, sick of the boring rigmarole of their depressing lives, decide to rock the highway party up, to go upcountry on a side splitting motorcycle road trip. Not only do they end up fighting with almost every highway roadster they meet, but also ensure endless hilarious disputes with each other. So what’s that got to do out here in our review on the Bajaj Group? Well, we guess you missed the start.

To be honest, it’s not half as bad with the Bajaj Group; in fact, despite the past external and internal argument trafficking, they’re in quite a good shape. But if you thought that there’s more than what meets the eye in the July 14, 2007, appointment of Niraj Bajaj (Rahul Bajaj’s cousin) as the Chairman of Mukand Industries just two days after Rahul Bajaj was honourably eased from the same post, you might be spot on.

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Source: IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

Book like there is no tomorrow

2008-01-09T13:24:00.000+05:30

The most awaited book of the year, the last and the final book of the Harry Potter series – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows finally hit the book shelves around the globe. Potter attracted thousands of Indian fans who waited outside the bookstore in the wee hours of the morning to get their hands on the first copy of the book. The book pulled around 2 million copies, which were ordered well in advance. The figure includes 2,40,000 copies from India itself. With 11 million books sold in the UK and the US, in just twenty four hours, the seventh book has broken the record of the sixth book also which had sold around nine million copies on its first day.

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Source: IIPM Editorial, 2006

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

From industrial relations to human resources, GCPL has tried hard, and is still making efforts...

2007-12-28T11:21:00.000+05:30

If you look at the HR structure at that time, we had people whose basic qualification was in IR, who were experienced in IR and labour laws and that’s the way we used to work. I think as a progressive group, what Godrej has done much before other organizations have, is to have chalked out plans and define where we wanted to see ourselves in the coming future. This was coupled with a propagation of the core values...”

In this regard, Godrej conducted an exercise in 1995, which according to Mitra –“Defined the way our core values would be. The process that we used was termed a large scale interactive process where every employee was made part of the decision-making process.” Quiz him on the changes that he has witnessed after the accomplishment of the exercise, and Sumit reveals, “If you look at it (HR) today, the functions have changed. Today, the HR team would hardly have anyone really majoring only in labour laws or IR. Today we have a much leaner structure with just about four to five persons and all of them are MBAs in HR.”

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Source: IIPM Editorial, 2006

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

New machines, waiting in wings

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

The Defence Minister, A. K. Anthony, has finally given a thumps-up to augment the fast-depleting combat readiness of the Indian Air force (IAF). In a few days, India is expected to set into motion the procurement process for the purchase of 126 multi-role combat aircraft (MRCA) from the international market. The floating of this biggest ever global tender for arms procurement by India is necessitated by two reasons. Firstly, the indigenous aircraft development programme has simply been unable to attain cruising heights (The much touted Light Combat Aircraft project continues to move at a snail’s pace, due to the absence of a quality engine and of course, a general lack of aviation R&D expertise in the country). Secondly, the aging and accident- prone fleet of MIG 21s is also a major cause of concern for the security establishment. The Indian government has sanctioned 45 squadrons for the IAF to maintain. However, the current situation is so dismal that the paucity of hardware has caused the squadron strengths to come down from a peak of 39 to 30. If this situation continues, the day is not far, when the IAF may be operating only about 25 squadrons, with ageing machines incapable of meeting the security threats facing the country.

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Source: IIPM Editorial, 2006

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

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Why India has no answer to the Pakistan issue?

2007-12-04T14:31:00.000+05:30

But with that dream going sour, like the Kashmir dream, a desperate Pakistan has let loose all its fangs in all corners of India. Now that it finds it difficult to continue with the mayhem in Kashmir, given the near huge deployment of CRPF, BSF and army, it is paying back the defeat of 1971 by making Bangladesh its new pawn. In the recent blasts in Malegaon and in Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad, there has been clear evidence of the involvement of the Bangladesh based radical Islamic group HUJI. In the same league, there is enough evidence to believe that Naxalites and ULFA, who otherwise are diagrammatically opposite the Islamic ISI in terms of ideology, are getting much monetary and technical support from across the border.

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Source: IIPM Editorial, 2006

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

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Google’s spoilt party!

2007-11-28T13:29:00.000+05:30

eBay has decided to go offline from the US network of Google’s AdWords, signaling the fading relations between the former partners. AdWords is the major source of revenues for the search engine company. The online auctioneer justifies this move as a continual initiative to look at their marketing across different media channels. Sources however believe that Google’s announcement of Checkout Freedom Party was the primary source of disdain. Competitor eBay Live, apparently launched the same day, is a conference where different sellers on the site meet. Though Google has cancelled the party, the two internet giants are not comfortable with each other’s competing products. A rapprochement is now awaited though.

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Source: IIPM Editorial, 2006

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