IIPM

10 steps to build a successful Asian brand

2012-01-25T17:11:00.001+05:30

Building a brand is an overwhelming task. Here’s a quick ‘how to’ guide for asian companies to build great brands and get the best out of the process

The orientation of brand management has gone through substantial changes over the last few decades, and has evolved as a more integrated and visible part of the overall corporate strategy. The evolution of the brand equity concept during the 1990s, development of advanced financial brand valuation models and its adoption by advisors and their clients, and emergence of better brand tracking tools, have all facilitated the elevation of the branding discipline beyond the middle management and into the boardroom.

Asian boardrooms generally lag behind this trend and tend to manage brand marketing from a bottom-up perspective instead of a top-down perspective. There are a couple of reasons for this. As marketing and brand decisions traditionally have been managed in mid-level marketing departments among most Asian companies, a large emphasis has been placed on tactical marketing activities as opposed to strategic branding approaches led by corporate management. Branding has been widely perceived as advertising and promotions.

But several indications show rapid progression in the right direction for select Asian companies where branding as a strategic tool has become more recognised and accepted within their boardrooms. This is also driven by the increasing attention on branding and its value-driving capability among stakeholders, media and opinion leaders across Asia. To achieve these objectives successfully, Asian companies must follow a comprehensive brand strategy framework supported by a systematic process throughout the organisation.

There are 10 crucial steps to building a successful branding strategy and manage its implementation. The steps enable Asian boardroom to focus their attention on the required areas, and serve as check-points which can be tailored to the individual company’s specific needs and requirements.

1. The CEO needs to lead the brand strategy

The starting point for branding must be the boardroom, which also serves as the most important check-point during the project. The CEO must be personally involved in the brand strategy, and he must be passionate. Fully buying into the idea of branding is necessary. To ensure success despite the stressful routine which entails various duties, the CEO must be backed by a strong brand management team of senior contributors, who can facilitate continuous development and integration of the new strategy.

2. One size doesn’t fit all: Build your own model

All companies have their own specific requirements, set of business values and a unique way of approaching business functions. Therefore, even the best and most comprehensive branding models have to be tailored to these needs and requirements. Often, only a few but important adjustments are needed to align them with other similar business models and strategies in the company to create a simplified toolbox. Remember that branding is the face of a business strategy, so these two areas must go hand in hand.

3. Involve your stakeholders including the customers too

Who knows more about your company than the customers, employees and many other stakeholders? This is common sense, but many companies forget these simple and easily accessible sources of valuable information for adding value to the branding strategy. A simple rule is to use 5% of the marketing budget on research and at least obtain a fair picture of the current business landscape including the perceived brand image among stakeholders along with the brand’s positioning.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

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

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Planman Technologies

“Most people are sincere”

2011-12-23T17:01:00.001+05:30

Customer and dealer centricity in tandem have been key to the success of JK Tyre in the Indian market according to A. S. Mehta

For A. S. Mehta, a career spanning 25 years in JK Tyre has been professionally and personally fulfilling. From starting as a CA, Mehta took up additional roles in the company before becoming Marketing Director in 2007. In this interaction with amir moin, he talks about his personal and professional journey & success mantras:

What is your leadership style? What are the factors that have contributed to your success?
Since the last 25 years, I have always believed that most of the people are sincere and committed. They have the passion to succeed and aspiration to move upward. My efforts have always been to channelise their passion and their competencies to excel in their respective fields. I have followed the inspirational style of leadership rather than the hierarchy-based style. Highest degree of integrity, very focused approach for any assignment, quick decision making, easy access to members of the team, coverage of connection, process driven and systematic style of functioning have been the attributes to whatever I have done for JK Tyre.

What would you regard as the key milestones in your journey to this position?
I must say that success is a journey where the destination is not defined. It is always a moving destination because once you reach one destination you have the next destination in your mind. Hence, there have been many milestones. Keeping the sales force united and motivated was the first milestone and thereafter, there were several milestones like leadership in the truck radial market, introduction of CRM, introduction of fleet management and introduction of dealer relationship management et al.

What are the unique strategies that you have undertaken for the Indian market and what is the outlook at the moment?
We have been a prominent player in the commercial tyres, OTR and car tyres. For commercial tyres, our strategies have been two pronged; one on the customer front and the other one for channel partners. In the Indian market, the dealer is the most influencing factor and we have been very strong in our relationship with channel partners. On the consumer front, our Fleet Management and Customer Relationship Management have been the best initiatives in the tyre industry.

How do you spend your free time? Which is your favourite vacation getaway?
I am very religious person at heart and family man. Whenever I get some free time, I like reading on religion, philosophy and spend time with family and relatives at religious places. I’m also very close to my brothers, their children and even other distant relations. It has been an inner urge to do whatever I can do for them. For vacations, the best place I could think of is Udaipur.

“Security threats have grown more complex”

2011-12-14T17:33:00.002+05:30

Pradeep Nair, Director, Software Group, IBM India/South Asia discusses the security market, client expectations and ibm’s competitive edge

Security is a big concern for business in today’s time. Which industries are the most concerned about security issues?
When we look at the Indian market, we have BFSI, telco, retail, organisations in the government space; we have a number of sectors which basically are large. Who would be concerned about security? Typically they would be organisations that need to protect their brand & reputation in the market or have a mandatory regulatory compliance requirement. So when I look at it from a prioritisation perspective, I think BFSI is one of the key adopters from a regulatory compliance perspective, or from the perspective of data protection; ensuring there is no risk of data loss, unauthorised entry or unauthorised access into their systems. A lot of organisations have adopted such solutions. The next set of customers is from the telecom base. With the kind of massive inroads into technology, giving access, going ahead and working with clients, having huge amount of customer information are areas that organisations wish to protect. You would have heard in the news about breaches that led to degradation of an organisation’s brand value. The ITeS and BPO sector are also very stringent from a security perspective. Efforts from NASSCOM and the industry have been made to ensure that once companies from outside India outsource their infrastructure and data & applications, it is maintained and operated in the most secure environment. These companies are most concerned and want to adopt the best security infrastructure. We are also working with regular enterprises that could be across manufacturing retail, healthcare and even in the SME space.

Despite innovations, security threats persist in today’s organisations. How are the threats different today, say, with respect to around a decade back?
Firstly when you look at threats, they can be in the form of worms and viruses; unauthorised access into your network infrastructure; access of privileged users to information that they are not supposed to see; when you are looking at a global mobile workforce and you open up your access to infrastructure for productivity, security gets compromised et al. The threats have only gone more complex and with the greater penetration of IT, they are growing. Worms and viruses that harm infrastructure and productivity are there today as before. IBM has a solution called endpoint security that ensures that your patch management and virus updates are in place. For external threats, there are intrusion prevention and protection systems so that the threat is mitigated. Threats haven’t changed, they are only evolving. For instance, seven to eight years back, there was no phishing like, say, sending e-mails posing as banks and asking for your details. I think those are increasing now. Around 2-3 years back, the banking system got vulnerable in the face of these attacks.

There has been a spate of recent attacks on organisations and even government infrastructure. So does that mean organisations are not really as prepared for security breaches as they look?
You are as secure as you think you are. You think you are secure and when there is an attack, you realise that you are not. IBM has brought out a security framework that is a combination of our capability around software, hardware and services – a complete framework. It has three tenets. The first is around security governance – rules and policies that organisations lay down and ensure that they are followed. There should be a security governance leader who ensures that the rules are followed and there is a right monitoring capability in the organisation. The second tenet relates to risk management. What is your approach to managing risk? What is the analysis that you are doing on the risks faced day in day out by the organization? How do you really manage current and future threats? And what is the best way to manage security exposure? For instance, how do you really correlate that the incident that happened was due to a vulnerability in the firewall or was an unauthorised access? The third tenet is compliance. Companies must ensure that the current security infrastructure meets compliance requirements and established guidelines.

JWT Meet the Icons!

2011-09-06T17:15:00.001+05:30

Call it luck, Call it anything, but ‘Vispy’ and ‘Debu’ were destined to meet and create wonder together

One is extremely funny. The other is no less in terms of wit too. We tag them as the most effervescent duo (not literally!) of the Indian ad industry. Meet Vistasp Hodiwala (Vispy), VP & Senior CD and Debu Purkayastha, VP & CD, JWT, who believe that finding the right creative partner is 90% your luck and 10% your partner’s. Here are the iconic Lead India campaign creators!

How did you two pair up as a team?
VH: It was in 2007, when I was looking for a change after a rigorous stint at McCann Erickson. At that time, JWT had just acquired Agnello Dias and was looking for fresh talent to supplement their talented core. Aggie called me and requested me to meet Debu. I didn’t think twice.

DP: Senthil and I were a team. After he left for Bangalore, I was looking for someone to partner me. I met a few, but nothing fructified until I met Vispy. There was an instant connection as he was quite honest and spoke from his heart. Plus, he was bawa and I love bawas!

You two had struggled with your first campaign as a team. How was your experience working on that?
VH: Our first piece of work did not see the light of the day. It was for The Times of India, and it got shelved. It was like hitting the ground running because with TOI you have to be on the ball as soon as the brief is delivered. And then, there’s Aggie’s breathlessly healthy competition to contend with. However, our first proper work together which broke in the media was the incredibly awarded Lead India campaign. Needless to say, it won us the first ever Grand Prix for Indian Advertising and the First Integrated Lion at Cannes.

How was your industry experience before you two paired up successfully?
DP: I started as a Jr. Visualiser in Triton in 1992. A year later, I moved to Bangalore HTA. But soon returned to Bombay and joined Saatchi & Saatchi. Some crazy bug bit me there and I teamed up with a friend to start Digital Nirvana, a digital multimedia design studio way ahead of its time, just to call it quits soon. Then, in short stints, I worked with RK Swamy BBDO, Channel V, STAR TV, Hongkong, till 9/11 happened and I decided to come back to India. I stayed undecided for a few days trying out art direction for TVCs, direct marketing, CRM and web designing. Finally, advertising beckoned again and I walked into JWT.

VH: Materials Management, the subject I specialised in, wasn’t exactly getting my life’s juices flowing smoothly. And one fine day, when yet another corrupt supplier’s charms got too much for me to resist, I wrote out in longhand an application (nah, a plea) to the head of an agency, which was growing at a breathtaking 236%, to hire me as a trainee writer. It was 1994 and I started my advertising carrier in Percept. Then I worked with many mavericks like Murzban Shroff and Mohandas KK. Later I worked with Prasoon Joshi and Agnello Dias; two immensely successful creative directors, who couldn’t be more dissimilar in their approaches.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

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

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM Best B School India
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
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IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management

The true Indian! On camera!

2011-08-11T17:33:00.005+05:30

The man shares with Amir Moin & Neha Saraiya his career journey, the past, present and future of Fujifilm India, and why he loves India considerably

Kenichi Tanaka
MD, Fujifilm India

As we step into the plush interiors of Fujifim India’s office in Gurgaon, we contemplate how our delay in reaching this MD’s office – owing to the record rainfall in Delhi NCR – would affect the quality of our discussion. Much expecting to see a miffed Japanese face as we scamper through the corridor leading up to his office, what comes next is much pleasantly surprising. Sitting comfortably in his plush office, Kenichi Tanaka’s face splits into a smile on seeing us. Even before the ceremonial introductions, he confides to us the fact that the vagaries of Delhi’s rain and traffic delays are very well known to him. It hits us then that Kenichi Tanaka, MD of Fujifilm India, is perhaps more accepting of the Indian-way of functioning, than we ourselves. Here was a true blue global citizen! That said, despite being a globetrotter, Tanaka still deeply respects Japanese culture and values; something that keeps him rooted.

Tanaka started his corporate journey in 1978, when he joined Fujifilm. 32 years onwards, and Tanaka is one of the most respected multinational leaders in Fujifilm history. The respect bestowed upon him by his colleagues and peers for expanding Fujifilm in seemingly difficult geographies, is legendary. When Fujifilm decided to set up a wholly owned subsidiary in India 2 years ago, Tanaka was the man of arms that the Fuji top brass chose. The market was replete with top of the mind recall for arch rivals Canon, Sony, Nikon and Olympus. But Tanaka had this great self belief that their products could be targeted at the mid range consumer segment. He excitingly shares, “Sony and Canon are considered as premium while Olympus and Nikon market cameras with value for money. We saw a market in between – the mid range segment – and concluded that our high quality offerings and a reasonable pricing would make for a potent combination to tap this market.”

It was tough going for the first two years. Tanaka confesses that the situation was tough as consumers were not even award of their brand. The first hurdle therefore was to make consumers aware of brand Fujifilm. Dealers and retailers were not willing to budge an inch. However, thanks to extensive investments in training and development of sales force, Fujifilm soon established its own fraternity among the dealers. “We overcame the initial challenge of establishing our products with the retailers and dealers. But still, we have the task of replicating the same with our customers. To make sure this happens, our company is in the process of conducting training sessions round the year wherein, we train our sales force to handle both the customers as well as retailers and dealers,” says Tanaka.

Makings of a great marketing escape!

2011-08-08T17:11:00.003+05:30

Vivek Nayer hopped on to M&M after a vast experience in FMCG & consumer durables. And auto has been immensely exciting as well, as he discusses with Pawan Chabra of 4Ps B&M

Vivek Nayer
Executive Senior Vice President – Marketing (Automotive sector), Mahindra & Mahindra

It had been just a few days since the Marketing team of the automotive division at M&M was shifted to the Kandivali office at the Western Express highway from the Worli office when we landed for the interview with Vivek Nayer, Senior Vice President – Marketing (Automotive sector), M&M. However, even on a normal Wednesday afternoon, while the refreshing environment at the lush green facility was not matching with the usual scenario that one finds at the offices in the financial capital, the work was going in full flow.

Prior to this assignment, he was working with Reckitt Benckiser back in the UK, certainly one of the best names in the FMCG business. The decision to relocate to India was because of the India growth story. In fact, Nayer still misses his BMW 5-Series and the kind of Lebanese food he used to relish in London. He didn’t come into the automotive sector by design. The first offer that came to him was from M&M and he joined the company in 2005 to give it a shot for six months but comments, “Here I am five years hence, which clearly means that I am enjoying it a lot.” The kind of portfolio that Mahindra has is quite unique even compared to other players in the industry. However, he feels that the marketing foundations to engage with consumers remain largely the same.

Words like tough, rugged and solid are almost synonymous to the Scorpio, Xylo and Bolero models that Mahindra offers to Indian consumers. And that’s not all. The marketing philosophy that M&M follows in terms of advertising and positioning its brands is very different to what the rest of the industry follows. Be it the recent commercial featuring the ace photographer Atul Kasbekar for Xylo or the earlier campaigns, it has often followed the road less taken. “At Mahindra, we focus on the product and its positioning rather than the brand ambassador; unlike the case where the consumer has a recalls for the brand ambassador but not the products that he endorses,” avers Nayer. In fact, Nayer considers the success of Xylo without any cannibalisation in the Mahindra portfolio as one of the major successes that he has had so far in his M&M stint.

Nayer stepped into the corporate world after finishing his Master in Management Studies from the University of Mumbai back in 1987. After six years at Voltas, Nayer stepped into Reckitt’s premises in 1993 and was there for over a decade handling different brands and divisions. “But I was one of the lucky ones to handle Dettol in Reckitt,” recalls Nayer. He admits, “FMCG is one sector where one gets a clear understanding of marketing and sales concepts. Perhaps that’s why you see people with marketing and sales background in FMCG moving to the other sectors and not the other way round.”

May the force be with Indian fashion!

2011-08-02T15:12:00.004+05:30

He’s responsible for taking Indian fashion to the global ramp. Sumeet plans to take the Indian fashion fraternity to the next level, as he reveals to Angshuman Paul

Sumeet Nair
MD, Incube Fashion

Sumeet Nair belongs to that extraordinary class of people, who believe in creating a different path and in trying something new. So it’s not surprising that, this alumnus of Stanford University started his corporate endeavor with the furnishing business and later forayed the fashion fraternity. Christened as Black Eye Design, his first venture of furnishing business won him leading global fashion clients like Donna Karen, Calvin Klein and French Connection. But Sumeet’s claim to fame comes from somewhere else – while undertaking his business, Sumeet actively became involved in the setting up of a fashion council, an endeavour that finally gave rise to the iconic Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI) which gave India its first Fashion Week.

Framing the concept of the Fashion Week and giving it a global feel was not easy way back in 1997, particularly when the Indian fashion industry was at a nascent stage and very unstructured. The biggest hurdle was to bring all the designers under one roof; and managing creative people was surely not an easy task. But with his never-say-die attitude and instinctive managerial skills, Sumeet accomplished this feat and gave India its unique series of gala fashion events – firstly, the Lakme India Fashion week, and then, the Wills Lifestyle Fashion Week.

Along with changing the landscape of Indian fashion, Sumeet was also credit with making it more financially viable. When FDCI was having a financial deficit, Sumeet was automatically appointed as the ‘doctor’, and more often than not, he would resolve it effectively. After leaving FDCI, Sumeet dabbled in various areas, till he set up Incube Fashion Private Ltd, an endeavour to take the fashion industry into the next level.

Incube Fashion’s basic objective is to generate more business and finance for Indian designers. As of today, Incube Fashion works as a financial consultant, provides licensing, and even assists in getting corporate brands to tie up with the country’s ace designers. Rohit Bal’s recent tie up with the Outlander Signature Collection from Mitsubushi was conceptulaised and finalized by Sumeet’s Incube Fashion. Even the Tarun Tahiliani-Timex agreement is being credited to Sumeet. As this is slated for a pre-Diwali launch, Sumeet refused to divulge any further detail to us. When we meet him now, he explains further, “I want to create a Calvin Klein and a Giorgio Armani from the Indian fashion industry and we at Incube Fashion are doing brand building at those levels.”

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

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

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM Links

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

WILL THE CONCEPT OF MOMICS WORK? (WE SAY “YES”!)

2011-07-19T16:09:00.003+05:30

Mobile Comics are back again. The last time they appeared, they slipped back into coma. Will this time be any different or will we witness a repeat?

If the mauling of Romans by Asterix and Obelix fascinates many, the idiosyncratic gestures of Suppandi in Tinkle or the audacious exploration of Tintin make hours on a weekend seem like minutes for the young-minded readers. But call it either a germination from the various Earth-saving movements or an intervention of the technology gods, the paper back craze is now going mobile too! Teenagers today are catching up with their favourite comic characters on their cellphones and sharing it with their friends. Welcome to the world of mobile comics; call them ‘Momics’!

So what’s this latest fad? To put it simply, it’s nothing never heard of before. Historically, Nazara (a gaming portal) first experimented with the Archie momics in 2005. The concept bombed. This time apparently is the second coming for momics, with many telecom operators, content providers, advertisers and of course comic players betting big on this medium.

Opines Rajesh Razdan, Co-founder & Director – Sales and Marketing, mCarbon (a telecom VAS provider, which also develops mobile applications and tools), “Various reports in the media value the comics market anywhere between `100 crore to `400 crore. Approximately 10 million comics are sold every year in the traditional manner. And with the digital/mobile media augmenting the personalisation and outreach in all respects, the comic book market should witness at least a 50% appreciation in market size over the next three or four years.” To this, Gaurav Luthra, Head – Content, Mogaé Digital (a mobile advertising player), adds, “With some innovations, more smartphones and 3G on the horizon, the market for momics is set to increase manifold. The market at present is estimated at about 25% of the current 600 million telecom subscribers. It’s a big audience.” Currently, many experts opine that Mogaé Digital is the largest player in this segment today, with close to over 100 titles across various genres like folklore, mythology, history, fiction et al. Some of its famous momics strips include Tenali Rama, Akbar Birbal and Bal Hanuman.

Typically, the momics category has three entities in its ecosystem:

(a) Content Providers, that range from established print comic book publishers like Diamond comics, Raj comics et al to TV channels like Cartoon Network to independent content providers like Mogae Digital, ZealCity et al. They create the content which then is distributed by the telecom operators directly or through the portals of Mobile VAS players;

(b) Mobile VAS Players/Technology providers (like Rediff, mCarbon et al), that act as aggregators for content. Users access the portals of these VAS players and then subscribe to the content which is delivered through the telecom operators or companies like ZeroSum, which act as application providers to the telecom operators;

(c) Telecom operators (Airtel, Vodafone, Tata DoCoMo et al), who have billing relations with the users. The users can subscribe to momics directly through a telecom operator or through a mobile VAS provider’s portal.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

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

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM B-School
Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri
Planman Consulting

IIPM in sync with the best of the business world.......
IIPM Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri on Internet Hooliganism
Arindam Chaudhuri: We need Hazare's leadership
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri - A Man For The Society....
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management

Shahid Balwa wants to appear before JPC

2011-06-13T13:43:00.007+05:30

Shahid Balwa, promoter of Swan Telecom who is in jailed in connection with the 2G case, wants to depose before the Joint Parliamentary Committee probing the spectrum scam. Balwa has written to JPC chairman P C Chacko saying that the parliamentary panel should hear him, according to his counsel Vijay Agarwal.

The response of the JPC chairman will be interesting to watch because of the fallout that Balwa's testimony can have for the government. Balwa, like his co-accused A Raja, has maintained that he did not engage in any illegality and that the licence and spectrum Swan Telecom got from the sacked telecom minister was in keeping with the policy of the government as a whole. In his bail application, he had refuted the allegation of quid pro quo between him and Raja saying that the policy under which he got the licence had PM Manmohan Singh's approval. Congress circles had for long been apprehensive of the possibility of Singh and his principal secretary T K A Nair getting drawn deeper into the spectrum scam quagmire. Party leaders apprehend that Raja will also defend himself by citing the correspondence with the PM, while recognizing that the letters from the PMO leave room to argue that no effort was made to stop the sacked telecom minister.

Conversely, Opposition will be looking forward to any testimony that may implicate the PM and his office, so that it can argue that the spectrum scam could not be blamed on DMK alone.

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

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM B-School
Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri
Planman Consulting

IIPM in sync with the best of the business world.......

IIPM Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri on Internet Hooliganism
Arindam Chaudhuri: We need Hazare's leadership
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri - A Man For The Society....
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management

B-SCHOOL SPECIAL - Where’s that killer instinct?

2011-01-22T14:31:00.002+05:30

Without question, public and private organisations have entered an era of socio-economic globalisation. In such a global market, competitive and innovative changes are necessities to survival. the one stop solution for nations is to ensure the growth of entrepreneurship. Are B-Schools listening?

If truth be told on how globalised the Indian economy currently is – almost twenty years post liberalization – one would feel close to being ashamed. The Carnegie Endowment and A. T. Kearney study, The Globalization Index, ranks various countries of the world on a multitude of parameters, finally providing the consolidated Globalization Index (GI) ranking. In the last report that came out around two years back, India is ranked second from last. Algeria, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tanzania, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Kenya, Colombia, Peru, Nigeria, Senegal, Vietnam, Morocco, Ukraine, Botswana, Tunisia, Croatia, Panama, Uganda, Chile and others are easily ranked ahead of India. India has had more or less the same rank in the previous years. So where is the mistake India is committing?

In one of our editorial researches, we found out that there was a direct correlation of this with the huge failure in India to encourage entrepreneurship. True, there have been radical leaders like Ratan Tata, Azim Premji, Narayana Murthy and some more. But then, these have only been a handful. And the blame for this failure falls to a large extent on the plethora of Indian B-schools that have existed in India teaching “management education,” yet failing to teach entrepreneurial education. The Columbia GSB report, Role For Entrepreneurship in India, shows that Indian entrepreneurs actually might be “hindering economic development,” while the US entrepreneurship system “has been quite successful” for their economic growth. The report says that entrepreneurs might be playing a “possibly negative” role in India even in Bangalore.

A shocking report of Duke University, America’s New Immigrant Entrepreneurs, proves how wasteful Indian education has been – as Indians prefer starting companies in America than in India. The report shows that Indian immigrants, over the past 8 years in the US, have filed the “second highest” number of patent applications (more than 10,200), have started the highest number of manufacturing and innovation-related service companies (24%), the highest number of bioscience firms (10%), the highest number of software firms (34%) and much more. Compare that to India, where contribution of small and medium enterprises to the GDP is a pathetic 5%.

Evidently, there’s something critically lacking in India’s B-school education, where a majority of students are more focussed on getting jobs than on starting new companies within India. A concrete study held in 2002 at the University of Arizona found that five years after pursuing MBA, the average income of entrepreneurship majors was almost $72,000 higher than students who majored in other subject or were just standard MBAs. Not just this, entrepreneurship graduates were more likely to form new companies which had annual sales of $50 million and employed close to 200 employees.

But then, why don’t Indian B-schools teach entrepreneurship as a separate specialization, course or even as a term subject, given the fact that the more entrepreneurs a country has, the more the employability of masses increases, and the more equitable the income growth becomes (vis a vis the Gini Index)? Can MBA education not play a greater role in providing formal entrepreneurship education in India?

Anuj Guglani, founding CEO of Ace Associates (who has worked for auto majors like Honda and GM after the completion of his MBA course from IIT Delhi), says, “MBA education, particularly entrepreneurship as a subject, is very important for starting or handling a business today. It cultivates a vision and completely changes the way your thought-process operates.” Pramit Samal (an alumnus of IIPM’s programme in Planning and Entrepreneurship), who is the founder Director, Glocal Trading (P) Ltd, comments, “Wide-ranging areas that form an entrepreneurship programme could help individuals beat the odds & grow their business which in turn drives the economy. Being an aspiring entrepreneur myself and having interacted with many more like me, I can confidently say that the subject matters a lot when it comes to the real life.” Paresh Rajde, Founder MD & CEO, Suvidhaa Infoserve provides a deeper analysis, “Entrepreneurship is not just about teaching business and management skills. It involves teaching techniques and approaches for identifying, creating, and evaluating opportunities...”

In fact, Indian B-schools should take a lesson from their global counterparts. Babson College, a B-school based in Massachusetts, has been ranked the best amongst all global B-schools focused on entrepreneurial programmes. The college has been ranked by the Entrepreneur magazine and The Princeton Review as being the best for both its graduate and undergraduate programmes. Their secret? All students majoring in entrepreneurship undergo a trial by fire. Divided into 30 teams, the students are required to launch, run and dissolve a business – all within nine months. Does any Indian B-school have the wherewithal to undertake such an exercise? They possibly cannot, and more because of funding issues. The government has no structured B-school entrepreneurship projects funding mechanism. That leaves B-schools with the option of getting private equity funding for student projects. In one line, India dismally lacks such entrepreneurial funding.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

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

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DEAR GLADIATORS OF THE ADLAND WELCOME TO THE ARENA!

2010-10-11T17:39:00.003+05:30

IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm - Planman Consulting

There are a few rules are to how this combative, frontal, bold, in-your-face, name-calling can be played well to the audience; some which Scotts Goodson, the founder and CEO of Strawberry Frog (an independent agency) offers.

Rule #1: It is best for brands playing catch-up. It is silly to use the comparative ad-form if you are a leader, simply because you are unnecessarily bringing your competitor into discussion and prominence. This is really neither required nor desired.

Rule #2: Comparative advertising is ideal for a challenger brand, which genuinely believes (and can prove) that its brand is better than the established market leader. Problem however is that, during these times of modern-technology, catching-up might just take overnight, but sustaining it is a big challenge.

Rule #3: It is also critical to introduce humour in this genre, to kill boredom or self-conscious defensiveness.

At present, this form of advertising is gaining public attention yet again in the country. And this time, the Pepsi and Coke have been replaced by HUL (with its Rin) and P&G (Tide). With court proceedings coming into play, this literal act of washing dirty linen in public seems to have entered a completely new phase of re-definition altogether. So is comparative getting less politically correct and more aggressive and audacious to attract more attention? Is controversy the new hand-maiden of advertising, keeping pace with the tone and tenor of an era where novelty, sensation and thrills rule the life and times of a reality-show loving public? What follows is a direct conversational spill-out of our interactions with some members of the Adfrat.

Moon Moon Dhar, Creative Director of Perfect 10, a Delhi-based agency quite frankly says, “For me, it’s much-ado-about-nothing! It is clearly a sign of the sensation-seeking times we live in. With the crowded media space, a proliferation of products in the me-too zone and crazy competition, this kind of attention-grabbing tactic is bound to come centre stage.”

Renowned film-maker and former actor Aparna Sen summarily dismisses the ethical angle with a pertinent question, as she says, “When was advertising ever about ethics and morality anyway? It’s a calling that is totally engaged in manufacturing greed and creating wants. Ultimately, it’s about the consumers willingness or resistance to bite into the juicy, seductive ad proposition. Period.” Soma Bahn, GM, Corp-Comm & PR of the Kolkata-based healthcare company Medica Synergie, expresses horror at the latest HUL and P&G duel. “The first time I saw the TVC, I genuinely thought that HUL was showing it to tell customers that HUL and Rin belong to one family. Later, I got to know about the truth and was appalled! How can HUL ever hope to win customers by insulting its competitors? Wouldn’t promoting its own brand virtues in a positive and engaging manner be so much more professional and effective?” Not all witnesses are in a state of shock however, one of whom is the explosive ad and theatre maverick Bharat Dabolkar who says, “I am totally familiar with this genre and I have used it effectively during the past in many campaigns (like Nutramul v/s Bounvita, Zenith Computer v/s IBM). But there have always been measurable parameters anchored in fact, with demonstrable proof. They have always attracted controversy, but that comes with the new territory that is won.”

But the truth is, even someone like Dabolkar, who is quite at peace with such catfights (having been a lover of the trend-setting mock heroics of the iconic Pepsi v/s Coke face-offs across countries) was taken by surprise by the HUL versus P&G display. “This spat however is disgusting. But I am not surprised at all.”

There are some in the ad-world who question the very questions that are being raised. One such individual is Sid Ray, Executive Director of Response ad-agency, who says he does not understand why ethics is gaining the spotlight, “At the end of the day, it’s the consumer who accepts or rejects the brand proposition. He doesn’t care about morality or ethics.” Even former McCann veteran Santosh Desai agreeingly says, “Ethics come upfront only when consumer interest is damaged, and not when it comes to a silly mud-slinging. For me, it is a tired attempt to generate some interest into a flagging category. As both a strategy and tactic, it is hopelessly transient, at best catering to the current dumbed down media craze of projecting everything as a confrontation.”

Ad film-maker Prasoon Pandey also has no issues with this genre as he says, “I remember watching the delightfully entertaining, humorous and engaging Pepsi TVC a few years back, where they had a bottle of Coke being excavated from a cave. That was simply fabulous! Creativity is the key even in such cases.” But ad-guru Alyque Padamsee is not amused. “I think anyone who indulges in name-calling is inviting his opponent(s) to respond, triggering-off an internecine war that leads to grave damages on both sides, in terms of brand reputation and image.” Padamsee believes that this is a self-defeating exercise by HUL, and it would make more sense to “use the stones to build, rather than demolish.” He is convinced that controversy fetches eyeballs, but seldom emerges the winner in brand-building because consumers ultimately want the steak, not the sizzle! Veteran Nargis Wadia believes that this whole affair is in “a bad taste and represents bankruptcy in the ideas department and a desperation to attract attention.”

Some criticise it, some enjoy it, and some simply use comparative advertising as an interesting playground to bring the catfight before public eyes. Brave displays, bold words and boastful actions, these are what the new gladiators of the ad-world are learning fast. Welcome to the arena!

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

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

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THEY PLAN TO TAKE ON BIGGIES HOW STRONG IS THE FIRE IN THEIR BELLY?

2010-07-01T13:48:00.002+05:30

IIPM: An intriguing story of growth and envy

Despite being small fish in an ocean filled with multinational sharks; despite the (still) strong trend of clients choosing the muscled multinats over small, independent agencies; and despite starting their ventures in so-called troubled times (remember the slowdown?), Acharya, Jacob, Menon and others of their ilk are not worried. In fact, they are virtually gloating over how some big clients have already started favouring their relatively small ‘outfits’ over tried, tested and fancy agencies like O&M, McCann, JWT and other big guys. Cut The Crap already handles accounts of Jyothi Laboratories, Redbricks Junior, Xcellon Institute, Hills Cement and is on the verge of signing up a renewable energy account and another real estate brand; Jacob’s kitty is plush with names like NDTV Imagine, GM Modular, Geodesic and Fox Star Studios; while Menon’s Black Swan has recently landed a part of Domino’s account. Explains Menon, “We created mailers for them keeping buying behavior in mind. We also created Pizza Signs (like Sun Signs).”

Sure, display of such entrepreneurial spirit in the ad industry is not new. After all, there was a Sam Balsara in the 80s who left Mudra to start his own Madison with three spill over clients; or even Kunal Lalani who launched Crayons as an independent agency in 1986 and has built it into one of India’s largest independent agencies. But what’s new this time round is the veritable flood of independent small agencies that are suddenly coming out of the woodwork and bagging big-ticket accounts with swift speed. The list of renegades has been growing over the last few years. On Communications, Cartwheel Creative, Saints and Warriors, Creativeland Asia, Taproot, among more are all new independent set-ups, boosted by veterans of India’s ad-land and drawing the attention of the entire industry because of some great trend setting works in this short time. Agrees D. Ramakrishna (Ramki), Founder, Cartwheel Creative, “This time is no different from others. There have been people who have broken away in the past too to start their own outfits. But yes, last few years have seen more corporates coming in than individuals. This flood is different because individuals have broken away and launched agencies with different work. That’s why its the talk of the town.”

Beyond the hype and the hoopla however, cynics rule. An industry veteran, on conditions of anonymity says that it would take a long time for these new kids on the block to get their act in place. “There are three growth stages for every independent agency and they will also have to go through the same grind before they can challenge the established agencies,” he says, adding that the first stage is the roll out where their bread & butter comes from boutique work (print campaigns of real estate companies or the regional ads for big clients); the second phase is when they start getting inquiries from home grown brands and the third phase happens when even the multinats take the trouble of seeking them out. “These guys have only just touched first base,” he sniggers derisively.

“That’s old hat,” Ramki waves away the argument. “Big clients are already dropping into the laps of independent agencies.” One only needs to look at the list of who’s who clients that these small agencies have eating out of their hands, to realise how well entrenched they’ve become in client mindscape. A case in point is the Ramki promoted Cartwheel Creative itself. Ramki, who gave up a job as JWT’s creative head at Mumbai to set up Cartwheel, got invited for the Reliance Communications (RCOM) bid through a wild card (he had worked with Sanjay Behl, brand head, RCOM while at Lintas and Lowe). “Initially we were brought on board to do the RWorld portion while the major chunk of the account went to Leo Burnett and Mudra. During that time, my car got washed away in Mumbai’s 26/7 floods. Besides, I was my own one man army who had to be office boy, peon, creative and client servicing and I did not even have a car,” Ramki reminisces. Though certainly not the best of times, Ramki still cherishes those bitter sweet memories and has no regrets in going his own way. “The sheer excitement to be finally able to do things my way was enough to get me going and with time even the size of RCOM’s account with us has grown significantly,” he adds.

Even multinationals are recognising the benefit of smaller, nimbler and local agencies. Fox Studios (22 Feet), JP Morgan (On), Domino’s (Black Swan) have already landed into their net. Forget India, in fact, globally there is a trend for multinational marketers to not use multinational agencies. The growing argument is that MNC agencies tend to be more rigid and less responsive to client needs. In contrast, local, entrepreneurial and independent agencies tend to be highly creative with their international accounts.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

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

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Yardi! Remember that name!

2009-09-17T13:30:00.000+05:30

She’s impulsive! She’s gutsy! She follows her instincts! They say, whenever you think of ‘a’ Colors, think of Ashwini Yardi!

“When I was on my way to meet Raghav Bahl of Network 18, I was very clear in my head that I am not leaving Zee and moving to Colors. But since Raghav requested, I thought I’d go and politely refuse the offer. But when he explained to me about the kind of channel they were planning, I wanted in immediately!” It’s not that Ashwini Yardi, Programming Head, Colors, is impulsive in her decisions, but the perfect smile on her dusky face is mischievous enough to almost confirm the take.

Yardi’s landing in Zee was also quite on the run only. In her words, “It all happened accidentally.” After completing her college with advertising and marketing as key subjects, Yardi was busy dropping her resume in ad agencies, when one fine day, she got a call from an acquaintance Kunal Kohli at Zee. She went to the Zee office to meet him. Zee was just an year old then. “When I landed in Zee that day, I realised that it was a different ambience, a different working style than what I had been seeing in the agencies where I was dropping my resume. At that time, satellite television was a new phenomena and I just had this inkling that this might be a successful business, so why not give it a shot! And that’s how I landed in my first job at Zee.” The smile doesn’t disappear.

Look at her young disposition and one wouldn’t believe that she already put in fourteen years at Zee Network. Apart from playing a major role in the programming of the group’s flagship channel Zee TV, Yardi was involved in launching most of the channels like ZEE MGM, Music Asia, Zee Cinema etc. Then has the jump to Colors been as fulfilling? Yardi feels that her experience at Viacom 18’s Colors has been completely different from what she has experienced at Zee. “Colors has been like my own baby kind of thing,” she announces proudly glancing towards the small LCD in her office, which has been showing a repeat telecast of Colors’ blockbuster property Ballika Vadhu – rated amongst the top three shows since a long time now – since the start of our meeting.

Yardi accepts she often goes by her gut feeling. Be it joining Zee and later Colors or be it approving a show on child marriage (Ballika Vadhu) as key prime time property. She muses over an incident when a serial Kasam Se was being launched on Zee and Ekta Kapoor was shooting the marriage of one protagonist [Jai Walia nee Ram Kapoor] to Pia. Being troubled by the logic of the marriage, Yardi called Ekta in the midst of shooting and requested the marriage bride be replaced. After initial refusal, Ekta agreed. “Ram Kapoor was totally startled! He couldn’t make out why his bride was switched,” she adds laughingly. If gut feel’s got her this far this good, then we’d surely like to learn the magic mix too. Our ‘gut’sy woman is the first lady entry to the Occult!

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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I Love You! I’m serious!!!

2009-09-08T11:58:00.000+05:30

Which are the five most deadliest and commonly found viruses that can render your PC obsolecent? 4Ps B&M enlists the pests

The headline appears rather suggestive; it’s not! It’s one of the most deadly computer viruses that have affected the maximum number of PCs till date. [Indeed, the love bug managed to bite well!] Moving away from all expressions and phrases of emotions, let’s talk about something more practically disturbing. When was the last time you downloaded a file from the internet and discovered to your irritation that sometime later, your anti-virus has started bothering you with quarantine warnings? Worse, when was the last time you had to completely reformat your hard drive, made corrupt by the annoying viruses floating around? Annoying? Yes! They pushed you over the edge and made your laptop look like a piano that had forgotten what tunes mean, or some typewriter that your grandpa used some six decades ago, and had suddenly turned illiterate! Yes, blame it on those non-biological program codes floating around which we grandly term ‘viruses’! It’s also true that with every successful step of new breakthrough in the world of anti-virus programming, another deadly virus is born; another hacker; another purpose; another bunch of annoyed victims.

Here are the five most such program codes that are causing much anxiety in the world of PCs. [Go ahead, choose your enemy!]

PEST #1: Conficker

Disabling of Windows services such as Automatic Updates, Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS), Windows Defender and Windows Error Reporting, websites related to antivirus software or the Windows Update service becoming inaccessible, user accounts getting locked out et al – that’s precisely what this most devastating virus in recent times, Conficker can do. But this is just the trailer...

Conficker has till date, infected anywhere between 9 to 15 million Microsoft Server Systems running everything from Windows 2000 to Windows 7 Beta. The French Navy, UK Ministry of Defence (including Royal Navy warships and submarines), Sheffield Hospital network, German Bundeswehr and Norwegian Police are some of the high profile victims! [What a clientele!] Microsoft set a bounty of US $250,000 for information leading to the capture of the worm’s author(s).

It’s also known as Downup, Downadup and Kido. It’s available in five different variants – A, B, C, D and E. The initial variant was discovered in early November 2008 and since then 4 others have been identified till December last year. The variants A, B, C and E exploit a loophole in the Windows server services to cause a buffer overflow in which the worm is downloaded in DLL form over the network and then connects to files like svchost.exe, services.exe or Windows Explorer process. The worm pushes and pulls executable payloads over the network, which are then used by the worm to update itself to newer variants, and to install additional malware. It really is today’s PEST #1!

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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S. SRIVASTAVA, MKTG HEAD, MARUTI

2009-08-21T12:27:00.000+05:30

IIPM Best B-school

1. Alto’s ‘A fresh new feeling’ ad campaign
2. Esteem’s ‘My daddy’s big car’ campaign
3. ‘India comes home in a Maruti’ commercial
4. Maruti’s ‘Ki kara papa, petrol khatam hi nahin honda’ campaign
5. SX4’s ‘The man amongst cars’ campaign

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

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Sardar kid, yellow polka dot turban, a dinky car...

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

Professor Arindam Chaudhuri’s Profile

Brand: Maruti Suzuki
Agency: Capital Advt.

... and Papa kya kara, petrol khatam hi nahin honda! The beauty of this campaign was in its simplicity and humour; while its effectiveness was in conveying the message. “Till date Maruti products are considered to be high on fuel efficiency!” says the company!

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

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Indeed an ‘Easy Day’ for Bharti!

2009-07-22T12:55:00.000+05:30

IIPM Admission Detail

It was precisely one year back when Bharti-Walmart JV announced the launch of its convenience stores, Easy Day, in Punjab. “It was a sensible decision to open stores in Punjab and will benefit Bharti in operational terms as it’s for the first time that such stores are being opened in Punjab,” avers R. Subramaniam, MD, Subhiksha. Moreover, investment in metros would have been twice compared to that in tier-II cities, while RoI from such cities is high due to low operating costs. Though the venture, like others, has been affected by the slowdown, it’s still better off than others. The strategy has definitely worked to the last tee.

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

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Better bankrupt than dead, eh?

2009-06-22T12:56:00.000+05:30

Detail of all IIPM branches

The US Congress and Fed should understand that the billions they are pumping into sick companies are not working wonders. They’re not working at all!

So what’s the most discussed oxymoron in the world of business? Bail out! And really speaking, if it wasn’t for all the proscrastinating Hamlets of the corporate world, we wouldn’t have losers triumph atop beggarly citadels. “It is certainly correct to let businesses fail that are poorly managed, rendered obsolete... or if they could not face the challenge of competitors. Creating more debt, will only lead to more problems down the road,” advises Lok Sang Ho, Director, Center for Public Policy, Lingan University, Hong Kong.

Alright, we know we might have hurt a few sentiments here, but keeping emotions aside, the plantiff proceeds as follows... American International Group (AIG), the world’s largest insurance group that took a writedown hit of $11 billion in FY2008 alone. But that was just the beginning of the troubled road. Since last year, the US government has given a mind-blowingly demonic $174 billion to AIG. We will discuss later where all that money went, but for starters, here are some numbers that prove why bailouts don’t work. After all that was given to its, the insurer posted a gut-wrenching $61.7 billion loss in Q4, 2008, the largest in American history! And to prove that the bailout funds have been dumped straight into the Fed’s bin, here’s a number - today AIG’s market value stands at $0.95 billion, having lost $107 billion since March 1, 2008! (Wonder where the $174 billion disappeared!!!) But the American government just doesn’t care; the oxymoron is a tad too dear! So what has been their latest reaction? Well, another $30 billion in fresh capital issued...!!!

So back to the question of where the $174 billion go. Well, reportedly, many claim that $50 billion of that went to two dozen US and European companies, many which include sick ones like Merrill Lynch, Bank of America and Lloyds Banking Group (which separately received a murderous $353 billion on March 8, 2009, as bailout from the UK government, for a 75% stake).

And are we forgetting the world’s largest bank - Citi, led by our very own, Indian-born Vikram Pandit. Citi, till date has received $45 billion in bailout package from the US Treasury. And today, what is left of the company is just a fast dwindling $5.64 billion in market value! (For the records, since the past year alone, Citigroup shares have tumbled by 96% on the NYSE! Some mercy do the gods in America have...)

Now, let’s talk about the Detroit giant - General Motors. Wagoner in his letter to the American Congress wrote, “By lending GM money, you will provide us with a financial bridge... This will allow us to keep operating and complete our restructuring...” (Right Rick, and then we can all go and meet Paris Hilton!) The hearts in the Congress melted, and GM received a total bailout package of $18.88 billion between December 29 and December 31, 2009. So didn’t the ‘bailout creamed with benevolence’ help Rick?

Well, today, GM’s condition has gone from bad to worse (worst?!) and its Mcap has fallen to a measely $0.89 billion! Further, Rick Wagoner has requested for another $30 billion from the Fed! (Oh! whatever happened to those billions?!?!) Commenting on GM’s worsening condition, Jack Welch, Former CEO, GE, once wrote, “The automakers’ boards should take the courageous step of putting their companies into bankruptcy!” ‘Better bankrupt than dead...’ Didn’t some wiseman say this before? (He wasn’t from the Fed or the Congress; was he?)

Steven Philip Warner

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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Not only is the biggest corporate scam in the history of India reminiscent of the Enron scandal of US, it has also put a blot on the face of India Inc

2009-05-05T17:22:00.000+05:30

By Savreen Gadhoke

“It was like riding a tiger, not knowing how to get off without being eaten,” said 57-year-old Ramalinga Raju, Chairman, Satyam Computers, as he confessed his involvement in the Rs.78 billion corporate scam earlier this month. Touted as the biggest corporate scandal in the history of India Inc., experts are drawing imitable similarities with the 2001 fraud case of Enron. Enron, world’s premiere energy resource company, before Chapter 11-ing itself, was charged with accounting frauds of inflating balance sheet figures, and that too in the midst of the US economic slowdown. Circa 2009: Satyam was found in a similar situation of aggrandising company’s books, and that too at a time when the entire nation is struggling with the slowdown. Various assets (both tangible & non-tangible) are at stake: the future of around 53,000 Satyam employees, shareholder’s wealth, the repute of financial watchdogs such as SEBI and the image of India Inc. on the world map. And as the nation was still trying to digest the realities of Satyam fiasco, news came that World Bank has banned Wipro Technologies from doing business with it for the next four years. And as if that was not enough, Infosys Technologies has been charged with a Rs.33 crore service tax evasion charge. Seems like the curtain is slowly rising on the wrong-doings of Indian IT sector. While Raju has relieved himself of the burden of truth and cleared his conscience, he has, in the bargain, soiled the picture of corporate India across the globe. Has the exposure of the Satyam corporate scam tainted Brand India Inc.?

“Yes”, asserts eminent economist, Lord Meghnad Desai, “the unveiling of the corporate scandal at Satyam has cast a bad image of India Inc. on the world map.” And the consequences of the scam are for all to see: following the disclosure, losses to the tune of $2 billion were accounted by stocks of Indian companies listed on NYSE. Professes Van Jackson, Senior Strategy Consultant and a Foreign Policy analyst, “India Inc. is a victim of poor timing… Scandals never reflect well on associated national economies but the timing of the Satyam discovery makes it more damaging than a typical scandal of this magnitude.” It took almost two decades for the likes of Wipro, TCS, HCL Technologies & Infosys to carve a niche for themselves on the world IT map and just one corporate scandal may finish all that.

Avers Brian Moriarty, Associate Director for Communications, Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics, “This is a serious case of fraud… Value destroying behaviours such as fraud and corruption respect no borders.” More importantly, if other Indian companies are tainted with similar scandals in the short-term, this could damage investor trust and public trust more broadly. A fraud of this magnitude not only serves as a good excuse for companies to look elsewhere for their outsourcing needs but also speaks volumes of the practice of corporate governance exercised by not only the Indian IT sector, but entire India Inc.

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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An IT company regularly employs disabled persons

2009-02-24T13:29:00.000+05:30

Parthasarathy, the project manager of the hospital management systems, is the senior-most employee. “Our MD believes that people with physical disabilities are equally skilled. While many frowned at my disability, he gave me a job. I feel disabled are better suited to the IT field; we have proved it here,” he says. Aravind, who has completed his BA (English), was born blind. “I wanted to work in the IT sector, so I applied for a job here and was immediately recruited and trained in computer operations. Since I am blind, I work with the help of a software called JAWS,” says Aravind.

Kamath, winner of the best employer award from the Government of India, told TSI that disabled employees are more productive than their ‘normal’ counterparts in the IT field. “We keep in constant touch with an NGO that works for the disabled in this regard.” And how is LSIS coping with recession? “We use innovative methods, our products are cost effective. As we work in the Indian market, the global meltdown hasn’t affected us much.”....Continue

She doesn't attend the PM’s meeting on national security. Her cabinet decisions are unilateral

2009-02-18T17:25:00.000+05:30

A recalcitrant Mayawati denied the charges, sent prime accused in the MK Gupta case to jail and got a clean chit from Gupta’s family saying they were satisfied with the state police investigations and did not feel the need for a CBI probe. But her birthday shehnai wailed, rather than screamed. No towering cake was cut, and she tried to play messiah by unveiling welfare schemes for the poor. BSP leaders admitted that Gupta’s brutal murder has become a major setback for their preparations for the coming Lok Sabha polls.

In Mayawati’s scheme of things the polls are a launch pad for a career in national politics. Buoyed by Communist Party of India’s general secretary AB Bardhan’s projections of her being the next prime minister, Mayawati is leaving no stone unturned to fulfill her dream. From championing the cause of Bahujan (‘majority’, the downtrodden) to Sarvajan (all communities), she has come a long way. While her former advocate general Satish Chandra Mishra is her interface with Brahmans, she has roped in former Union Minister of Congress, Akhilesh Das and perennial party-hopper Naresh Agarwal to woo upper caste Banias.

Sources say BSP might field at least 35 Brahman candidates out of 80 seats from the state for the Parliament. This, along with about a dozen Brahmans in ministerial positions in the state, has made Mayawati’s critics rechristen her party as Brahman Samaj Party. The rising stock of Brahmans in the BSP has eclipsed the Muslim leadership so much that the old Maya loyalist Naseemuddin Siddiqi – who was till last month in charge of not just UP but Delhi polls too – has been asked to take care of party’s Muslim constituency only.....Continue

The devil in the detail

2009-02-11T13:21:00.000+05:30

In the year gone by, there has not been a single day when one would not have heard the word '3G' (used to denote third generation spectrum) rattling on the news channels. From its delay to its pricing to its allotments – almost everything has become a matter of controversy. And this controversy, coupled with the hype, is ensuring that everyone in India is aware that we are soon going to embrace this new technology, which would drastically transform our mobile experience. Well, most people are still wondering when we would exactly be able to experience the might of 3G. But then there are also others who are worried about larger issues such as, what exactly this 3G thing is all about, how it is different from WiMAX and how it has the potential to drastically enhance their mobile telephonic experience in the times to come? TSI presents a ready reckoner for the same.

As most people are aware, 3G stands for third generation spectrum. India is currently operating on a 2.5G. In layman’s language, all 3G would do is to enlarge the current pipe of spectrum, so that much more traffic and data can seamlessly pass through. “3G System represents the next step in evolution of mobile cellular communication. 2G systems in mobile cellular communications mainly focus on voice, while 3G systems support increased data communications and wireless broadband Internet access,” informs Nripendra Mishra, Chairman, TRAI . This makes us confront another big issue – how would the coming of 3G impact us as consumers? Looking from a more technical perspective, the factor that differentiates 3G and 2G networks is how quickly data can be sent and received. Industry experts state that 3G networks have the capability to send data up to 40 times the speed of earlier digital networks. And as 3G networks have markedly greater capacity along with better spectrum efficiency than 2G systems for mobile communications, it would enable the delivery of triple play converged communication services through wireless media. So subscribers of these services would have an instant access to their inbox, receive video calls, stream videos from YouTube, download music tracks and even watch live television shows on their mobile phone.....Continue

Kremlin steps on the gas

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

Russia-Ukraine dispute leaves Europe shivering

In the late 1980s, American President Ronald Reagan had cautioned Europe, in a hushed voice, against relying too much on Russian energy supplies, claiming that one day the Kremlin might find it alluring enough to twist it into a blunt-force foreign-policy device. It was brushed aside as Reagan’s infamous ‘cynicism’. This week proved he was just being plain foresighted. In the gas conflict between Russia and Ukraine, both sides are licking their wounds after 10 days of hostility. While it has emerged that the pumping of gas will be taken up again in days to come and the chill from the lives of millions in the freezing winter in southern Europe would promptly pass, the damage done politically and economically to both fighting parties will defy any quick fix. “Both stand to lose if they fail to reach a resolution: Russia will appear vicious and callous; Ukraine’s trustworthiness as a purveyor to Europe will be called into question and its bickering leadership will lose integrity internally and overseas,” Dmitri Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center told TSI.

Meanwhile, Russia declined to resume gas exports to EU via Ukraine early this week, after condemning Kiev for making objectionable changes in the deal that was painstakingly stitched up during the weekend. In a spell of shuttle diplomacy, the Czech prime minister, Mirek Topolanek, got Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir V Putin to sign in Moscow, and then flew to Kiev, to get Ukrainian PM, Yulia V Tymoshenko, to do so too.

The deal had called for immediate resumption of gas under the supervision of global monitors who would guarantee smooth delivery of the fuel to Europe. Gazprom, Russia’s gas monopoly, cut supplies for Ukrainian utilisation on January 1 over the latter’s alleged fuel debts, and then blocked exports to the EU via Ukraine after condemning it of 'stealing' the gas. Underneath the wrangling over shipment fees and rates, Russia’s outline was clear. Ukraine has infuriated the Kremlin with its proposition to join NATO. Moscow saw an opening to split Europe and weaken those nations it still deems inside its sphere of influence. However, Russia is also worried that the West might deny it capital and technology to upgrade its ailing refineries. Therefore, it's worth watching who will blink first. If it is the West, then a new phase in history will start with Russia in the ring, and not on the sidelines....Continue

Versatility, thy name is…

2009-01-14T16:05:00.000+05:30

…Paresh Rawal. The actor extraordinaire, who pulls off comic capers with as much aplomb as the wiles of the scheming creep, is often the un-publicised draw in most films. Here in an exclusive conversation with Neha Sarin…

What made you take up acting as a career?
It’s true that Naseer bhai (Naseruddin Shah) inspired me to get into acting, otherwise I'd have stuck to theatre alone. It’s only when I saw Naseer bhai and Om Puri, I realised that this is the right kind of acting. One must jump into it and must do this kind of acting…then you feel justified. I don’t know what I would have been into, if not for acting.

After playing the villain in the 80s and 90s, you became increasingly associated with comedy. How did the transition come about?
When you do justice to a villain’s role, you get bombarded with those kinds of offers, that’s how this industry works. But to my shock and surprise, Ketan Mehta walked in and offered me “Sardar” after auditioning a lot of actors and then he chose me – he had the faith in me. Then “Sir”, followed by “Tamanna” and “Raja”, after which I was bombarded with roles of the heroine’s brother or the hero’s father. Some of them were intense and some were plain stupid, but in the end I was playing a positive kind of a guy. And then came "Hera Pheri". Post "Hera Pheri", I was bombarded with comic roles.

What makes your chemistry with Akshay Kumar so brilliant?
He is one actor who has come up so brilliantly and I respect him a lot for that. He made it without help from any godfather. He came up doing the kind of roles that pahalwans were doing, then slowly and steadily he made his mark. And it’s not easy to go from an action hero to becoming a dependable star, which in the industry means an all-rounder – the one who can do comedy, tragedy, romance…it’s an achievement.

How do you adapt yourself to such disparate roles, each with its unique quirks?
I didn’t know if I was versatile, but my theatre training did allow me to try my hand at different kinds of roles. And more importantly, I desired to do different kind of roles and I guess that made me do justice to each of them.

"Oye Lucky" was a fun film; was it fun on the sets too?
In my entire career, I worked with very good people or very talented people but the combination of talent and goodness is very rare to come by. So it was a lot of fun working in "Oye Lucky". I played three different characters in the film and that was a lot of fun too. Dibakar Banerjee is one of the brightest directors in the industry.

How was it working with Abhay Deol?
What an actor! He is a highly underrated actor; he grows on you. He is one actor who is not concerned with his looks or six packs etc. He is only concerned about his character. He is sure, you see, unlike any other hero who probably would not pick up such risky roles. It takes a lot of courage to do such roles. That is why, he is here to stay. Bahut lambi race ka ghoda hai…

How was your experience working with other veteran actors in "Maharathi"?
It’s a lovely thriller and its appeal lay in the strong storyline and the kind of actors that are part of this film… It was joy, joy and sheer joy all the way, working with the likes of Naseer bhai, Om Puri, Boman Irani… It’s a kind of a dream come true when you work with the finest actors that the industry has to offer – the people you love and respect, they who inspire you…therefore, the end product is good.....Continue

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The Sunday Indian

…AND YET, YES WE CAN!

2009-01-10T12:58:00.000+05:30

On the night of November 26, when terrorists stormed the Taj, in a room on one of the floors, there was one of India Inc’s bright young beacons lying on the floor, alive, but terrified, confused and unsure. Next to him on the floor lay others, some bleeding, others perhaps weeping… A wall away, they could hear the crack of assault rifles, the cries of victims as they crashed lifeless in corridors and rooms and the deafening sound of explosions. As the acrid smell of the carnage wafted in with the smoke, panic set in. How much longer before the terrorists enter our room? Will they kill us all? What do we do? Questions raged in every head, including the young CEO’s… “We did not know what to do? We tried barricading ourselves inside the room… but it was rather flimsy…” he said on TV, after he was rescued the next day. He thanked providence and his spiritual practice for carrying him through those harrowing hours, for there was little else to bank on.

That same evening, in another part of the hotel, seven South Africans were dining in one of the restaurants when they heard gun shots inside the hotel. When they realised that there were terrorists in the hotel, they spoke to the other diners and told them who they were – bodyguards in the country on an assignment, protecting international cricketers – and explained that they had the training to handle this situation. “People remained calm”, one of them told a news channel, as they moved more than a hundred people out of the restaurant. “…it had a large glass area which could have been dangerous…” They switched off the lights to retain the element of surprise and then the other guests were herded into a conference room which was then barricaded by the South Africans with relatively sturdy objects like refrigerators and heavy tables. The bodyguards had armed themselves with what they could – cleavers and knives and were considering various possibilities when they realised that the building was on fire. They knew they had to evacuate, checked to see if it was ‘all clear’, got word through to the security personnel that they shouldn’t shoot and finally through the fire exit, guided 120 hostages to safety (including an old woman who was carried in a chair, down 25 flights of stairs!) ....Continue

Dog Squad !

2009-01-08T12:09:00.000+05:30

Dogs vied with each other at proving their skills in Kerala Police academy Passing-Out Parade too. A robbery scene was enacted by trainers, following which German Shepherd Lisa traced the ‘robber’ by sniffing his handkerchief and the weapon he left behind, as Manikantan, her trainer watched. Salma was adjudged the best tracker dog, Annie the best sniffer dog and Lisa the best demonstrator at the Academy.

C Bhuvanachandran, Superintendent of Police at the Dog Training School, proudly recalled the feats of the newly trained dogs. Brownie, who took charge in Thiruvananthapuram had detected bombs from a suitcase at the airport. Salma had even exposed a jewellery theft in Kottayam and Stella traced the culprit in the sensational killing of Chavakkad schoolboy Nizamuddin. Tarzan, merely by sniffing a stone thrown by the criminal at the Sree Narayana statue at Kollam, had nosed him out of his lair for the police.

Yeomen services notwithstanding, training centres have their own woes to contend with. “Life expectancy of a dog is about 10 years. And 18 of the 24 dogs in Kerala dog squad are 8-year olds. They need replacement. Every district needs a minimum of three dogs and spare dogs. The academy will be able to supply the required number of dogs only by 2012,” explains Alexander Jacob.

Nonetheless, amidst the awe and excitement buzzing in the crowd of spectators at the first Passing Out Parade of the four-legged commandos in the Academy, it was evident that the war on terror has a dependable, though mortal, ally in man’s best friend too; the only concern being if the lives of our brave men have gotten so dispensable, what of the dogs?....Continue

The new Line of Control

2009-01-03T13:12:00.000+05:30

It is surprising, always from the benefit of hindsight, how much Indian investigators and the media now know about Mumbai’s bloody slaughter. The light and sound, the flurry or charges and counter charges by various responsible hands in the government, and the unseemly recriminations in the aftermath of one of the greatest security disasters in recent times, has added a new word to the lexicon – `actionable intelligence.’

What is actionable intelligence? Consider the following:

November 22, 2008: (two days before the attack): Shivraj Patil tells India’s police chiefs: "To control terrorism in the hinterland, we have to see that infiltration does not take place through the sea routes.’’

November 13, 2008: (a fortnight before the assaults) PM tells BIMSTEC summit, "Terrorism and threats from the sea continue to challenge the authority of the state."

March 11, 2008: A.K. Antony warns International Maritime Search and Rescue Conference of the "dangers of terror attacks from the sea in the region", admitting that the Coast Guard faces shortage of manpower and hardware.

September 18, 2008: RAW intercepted a phone conversation in which a LeT source says there is a plan to target a hotel at the Gateway of India through the sea route.

September 24, 2008: RAW identifies hotels which could be attacked: Taj, Marriott, the Land's End and Sea Rock.

If the ultimate aim of terrorists – apart from causing mayhem, murder and demoralisation– was to discredit the Indian security establishment, then it is a job well done. Waking up in the aftermath of an onslaught which has claimed over 200 lives (an understated figure?) and many hundreds maimed, the story of many gaps in the government action makes up for a picture which is not new .In line of fire is the Naval chief, Admiral Sureesh Mehta. Defence Minister, A.K.Anthony, pulled up the Navy Chief asking him how they missed the intelligence warning?....Continue

and to begin with, it was only a B-School fest!

2009-01-02T13:24:00.000+05:30

Other popular events included Best Manager, Creative Writing, Ad-Guru, Flip Back and Treasure Hunt. The much-awaited evenings had an exciting line-up of rounds. Whilst the choreography teams set the stage on fire, the winner of the Solo Singing Competition walked away with a free trip to Switzerland. Mr and Ms Amaze won Rs 50,000 each. The Fashion Show highlighted the Amaze 2008 raison d’etre, with a slide-show illustrating global problems and suggested solutions. Adding lustre to the glitzy affair were Mukesh Tyagi (last seen on screen in “Fashion”), Shahnaz Husain (celebrated beautician), Muzaffar Ali (fashion designer), Salma Sultan (TV personality), Karishma Agarwal (MD, Galaxy Group of Hotels and lead dancer in Shiamak Davar’s troupe). Amaze 2008 thus delivered every bit of the fun that was promised, all the way to the grand finale.

On the evening of 14th November, DJ Suketu churned his latest chartbusters at Sun City Gardens and soon the jostling crowd succumbed to the dance beats. But the best was yet to come! Delhi witnessed its finest retro fiesta ever when Boney M featuring Marcia Barrett stepped on the stage and there followed 60 minutes of exhilarating music, as an audience of over 15,000 swung to the tunes of “Rasputin”, “Belfast”, “Rivers of Babylon” and yes... “Daddy Cool”.

At the end of the day, IIPM’s fest, Amaze, proved to be an apt forum to bring together youth from across the globe and advance synergy, peace and tolerance to the world – a mission well accomplished!....Continue

THE DESTINATION DOSSIER

2008-12-22T13:01:00.000+05:30

Steering the course:
Many airlines like American Airlines, Qatar Airways, Air India ply from India to San Francisco…Just plan the trip and pick the airline!

The ‘season’ed traveller goes now:
If you enjoy cool weather then travel to SF during the winter as without freezing temperatures you still get an amazing winter feeling. If not, then visit during spring when a light sweater works just fine.

Cosy corners:
From low-budget hotels to five-star Hiltons, anything in your budget is available.

Savour Faire:
Indulge in some fine dining along the bay as well as the local clam chowder, the smell of which would attract you while walking down the Piers!

Get to work:
Although you can go for a guided tour of SF which would take you to all the must see places, instead, explore the city on your own. Just walk around and observe the landscape, the houses, the street shops and people, as that’s what the true experience is all about.

What’s the word?
English is the primary language, but Spanish words like Hola (hi/bye) and Gracias (thank you) always come handy.

Keepsake courtesies:
Key chains of the Golden Gate Bridge, sweatshirts, and postcards of San Francisco’s top destinations are the most famous keepsakes.....Continue

His choice of Republicans for key posts shows his commitment

2008-12-18T12:53:00.000+05:30

Appointment of such a high profile leader will also boost Obama’s plans to completely revamp the healthcare system of the country – an issue close to his heart. Of the other possible contenders, retired Marine General James Jones, the previous top operational commander of NATO, is leading for White House National Security Advisor post. Similarly, names of incumbent Defence Secretary Robert Gates and Chuck Hagel, a Republican senator from Nebraska, are doing the rounds for being Secretary of Defence. Appointments of these stalwarts will mean Obama is ready to give the Republicans responsibility to deal with National Security – their forte.

Obama’s rainbow coalition reflects Abraham Lincoln’s ‘Team of Rivals’ that so successfully managed to held America together during the civil war. Talking to TSI, Richard Carwardine, an expert on bipartisan polity at Oxford, said, “The appointments reflect that Obama's Lincoln connections go deeper than what people initially thought. Obama has clearly shown that he is not the one who is afraid of surrounding himself with able people, whether they are Republicans or Democrats – which was exactly Lincoln's temperament.”

Lincoln or not; it is clearly 'one-love ' for Obama.....Continue

The Daily Indian IIPM Think Tank
The Sunday Indian

The army has become a punching bag

2008-12-13T16:15:00.000+05:30

Certain other questions also remain unexplained. When TSI approached the Army to check on the possibility of RDX being procured from them, a senior Army officer categorically asserted that the “Army neither uses nor stores RDX. We use only plastic explosives and TNT. The RDX seized during a raid on terrorist hideout is always handed over to the local police.” As per army rules, it requires a chain of command to procure even plastic and TNT explosives from the army ordinance and involves at least four-five officers as witnesses and a lengthy documentation process. Some former officials say that that man in uniform is the easiest target in India. “The army has become a punching bag. Since it has no ways and means to give its side of the story, all reports are believed. In a 1.3 million-strong army, if one man is convicted, it never shows the general trend. Such cases in India are rare. In the case of Col Purohit, the investigation is still on” says Lt. Gen. Raj Kadyan, a former deputy chief of army. The Congress demand of setting up a multi-disciplinary Task Force to conduct a threadbare investigation of the Malegaon blasts could help. Importantly, such an investigation could possibly keep at bay prying busybees, such as a media hungry for headlines - never mind the damage it could cause - and politicians who do not look beyond their electoral noses. India, after all, is justifiably proud to be a developing country where the military prefers the barracks to civilian office. Most people are agreed that it would help it keep that way.....Continue

‘There is no scope for regional parties here’

2008-12-10T13:37:00.000+05:30

Distribution of BJP tickets for the forthcoming assembly elections have sparked off protests all over Madhya Pradesh.
This is not new. It is true that the BJP is preparing to come back in the state for a second term. It is also clear that after the current term, more people are keen to contest on our party ticket. But not everybody can be given tickets. So some anger is understandable. But they will come around to it.
These public demonstrations – including a semi-nude protest display at the party office – gives the BJP a very negative image.
The display is not right. They are getting emotional. But I do not agree that it sends out a negative signal to the voters or workers. (during the course of the interview, the phone rings and Patwa directs an irate party worker to forget about everything else and work for improving the image of BJP.)
There are allegations that the survey that was conducted to weigh chances of sitting MLAs, has not been taken into consideration…
No I won’t buy that. There are other means also by which we evaluate the people whom we give tickets to contest. Survey alone can not decide the fate of a candidate. Survey is just one of those ways. Different sources in the party at different levels have been taken into confidence before giving away these tickets. I find the process fair.

What are the achievements that BJP is planning to take to the masses?
Its Congress’ 50 years versus BJP’s five years. It is for the people to compare the work done by the respective governments. BJP’s tenure has been exceptional. People can see visible changes, as far as development is concerned. But we’ll have to understand that development is an unending process and it can not be completed in just five years. And for that we want another stint.....Continue

Court ruffles muslim feathers

2008-12-04T15:39:00.000+05:30

Council mooted to relook at Islam allowing polygamy
A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court observed that India needs a law to set up bodies at Central and regional levels to regulate, control and supervise Muslim marriages and divorces. While passing a verdict in a matrimonial case involving a Muslim couple, Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice Harun-Ul-Rashid said that an effective system should be launched to protect Muslim women from "indiscreet marriages and divorces". The verdict came in the wake of a ruling given by the Family Court of Thrissur, which had granted divorce to a Muslim lady, Seleena, because her husband Saidali took a second wife. He had appealed that a Muslim man would find it impossible to marry more than one woman – permissible in his religion – if a divorce is granted on the basis of polygamy. The court said that a divorce cannot be granted on the basis of the husband's second marriage. However, if a woman refuses to live with another woman, she should recieve separate accommodation and alimony. While passing the verdict, the court also referred to the historical background of allowing polygamy in Islam: when orphans, widows, and dependants of prisoners of war found it tough to lead a decent life. Now, 1500 years later, some people still observe polygamy without questioning its basis. The court also held that though the Prophet had permitted up to four wives, Islam insisted on equal sharing of food, clothing and accommodation. Polygamy should not be practiced if these norms cannot be adhered to, the court added. Meanwhile, reactions to this landmark judgment have not been as enthusiastic as expected. Nisa, a Muslim Progressive Women’s Forum, welcomed the verdict while the secretary of Samastha Kerala Jama-Iyyathul Ulema said such things should be sorted within the society. MN Karasserry, a Muslim thinker, said that the Parliament should enact rules as per this verdict. But Sunni faction leader Kanthapuram AP Abubaker Musliyar disagreed with the court’. In the meantime, the Law Reforms Commission submitted its report to Kerala government, stating that polygamy is an exception among Muslims, but permissible only in socially exceptional circumstances and should be supervised by a conciliation council....Continue

Unlike India's bad experience, Taiwan hopes for better

2008-12-01T13:46:00.000+05:30

IIPM Publication

Both sides were at ease to take no notice of the pungent disputes that lie at the nucleus of their divide for the sake of commerce, inking agreements on non-stop flights across the Taiwan Strait and straight shipping links that will considerably slash costs. Mr Chen and Mr Chiang, who stand for quasigovernmental departments in charge of cross-Strait interactions, settled on tripling the number of non-stop charter flights from 36 a week to 108, and to expand service to 16 more cities in China. They also approved to open up supplementary air and sea cargo courses, extend postal links and lend a hand on food hygiene issues.

“His trip is a significant step forward for the tempestuous cross-strait relationship. So far, wisdom has prevailed and the leadership in both capitals has seized the opportunity to build a more stable and mutually beneficial relationship. While progress has been made, future gains are not guaranteed and recent accomplishments can be reversed,” said Bonnie Glaser, senior associate at Centre for Strategic and International Studies, while speaking to TSI.

Military tensions between the two neighbours have soared since 1949 as the “Nationalists” led by Chiang Kai-shek, routed by Communists in the Chinese civil, escaped to Taiwan. Beijing has ever since maintained that Taiwan is a turncoat territory, to be brought under Chinese rule by martial force if necessary. ...Continue

Fashion

2008-10-24T16:42:00.000+05:30

This year’s Wills India Fashion Week in Delhi saw designers going for natural fabrics – Samant Chauhan worked with natural silk and recycled junk jewellery; Ekta Jaipuria combined organic knits with Vanya silks. The first Indian designer to launch an eco-friendly line was Anita Dhongre who used eco-friendly fabrics and techniques for Grassroot – her collection which was launched at last year’s Wills India Fashion Week. “Along with eating healthy food, consumers are becoming aware of the clothes they wear. Being exposed to pollutants in many aspects of life, choosing organic fibres is another step towards natural living, both for ourselves, as well as our environment. Thus, the faster consumers adapt to a healthy lifestyle, they’ll adapt to eco-friendly fashion at the same speed,” says Anita. Come September and she will take her new eco-friendly collection to Paris for the Paris Fashion Week...Continue

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

Read also :-

Un‘family’ar

2008-10-21T12:52:00.000+05:30

Nirula’s acquisition has brought in welcome change. But the true test of survival starts now...

Like most legendary Indian companies with quality offerings but sans the advantage of scale, this one, too, found the going tough when global sharks like McDonald’s, Pizza Hut and Domino’s swamped the market with their QSR chains. And when Nirula’s found the going tough, it decided to take the M&A route with aplomb; but only as a target.

Nirula’s got off to a promising beginning in the 1930s, when the Nirula Brothers rolled out a restaurant in the heart of capital. Christened as ‘Hotel India’ it became the keystone of today’s Nirula’s. With lots of firsts to its credit, like introducing espresso coffee, snack bar, ice cream parlour – Nirula’s became the pioneer in introducing the QSR concept in India and created a platform for the modern QSR industry.....Continue

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

Read also :-

Get a life!

2008-10-11T13:46:00.000+05:30

Are you one of the proponents of living life king-size? Unless you’ve never been belted by John Lennon with his Instant Karma (…You better get yourself together/Pretty soon you’re gonna be dead/What in the world you thinking of…), you might still think high life is about fast cars and designer labels. But as per new trends, lifestyle is less about how much and what all you pay for; instead it’s more about the paybacks you expect to raise. On the occasion of our 3rd anniversary, we put together for our readers a collection of inspirational lifestyle trends......Continue

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

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Agriculture sector lagging behind

2008-10-07T14:40:00.000+05:30

Nearly 60% of the country's rural population is into farming

The agriculture sector has been chronically neglected by the Asia and Pacific region of the world, leading to 218 million people - a third of the region’s poor and largely living in rural areas continue extreme poverty and broadening the gap between rich and poor. These are the conclusions reached by a 2008 survey conducted by United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). Roughly over half of the population in the region depends on agriculture and as the survey says it provides employment to 60 % of the working population.

Therefore this sector needs a serious attention and revitalisation. “Governments must show greater political will to address decades of policy neglect and failure in the agriculture sector” Noeleen Heyzer, the Executive Secretary of ESCAP, said. The Survey says that growth and productivity in the sector have slowed down and the Green Revolution appears to have passed millions.

“In South Asia, growth in agriculture dropped from 3.6% in 1980s to 3% in 2002-03,” the survey says and suggests that rural infrastructure needs to be improved so that the farmers are able to reach their products to markets. It further says that productivity and investment in this sector should also be increased....Continue

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

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Women-friendly nikahnama unveiled

2008-09-29T15:17:00.000+05:30

However, not all Muslim clerics are happy; some have already slammed it

The controversial new nikahnama (marital agreement) unveiled by All-India Muslim Women’s Personal Law Board (AIMWPLB) had some All-India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) members rubbishing it as “redundant”.

“It’s utterly useless, irrelevant. We have one already from the AIMPLB and there is no room for another,” said AIMPLB member Maulana Khalid Rasheed Firangimahali. A woman member, Moonisa Bushra, also saw no reason for the drafting of the new nikahnama. However, Khalid and Bushra have few takers. “This is just male chauvinism,” said Fazul Haque, a senior journalist & expert on women’s issues. This is the third nikahnama that has promised to give women some power. The AIMPLB and the All-India Shia Muslim Personal Law Board had released their own “model nikahnamas” in 2005....Continue

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

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A (c)ash rich proposition

2008-09-22T16:02:00.000+05:30

GCIP acquisition gives sustainability but also substantially increases the risk profile for TCL

Tatas are on the rampage again! This time, it’s the less talked about Tata Chemicals Ltd. (TCL) that has created the buzz. The company announced a big ticket billion dollar mega acquisition of the US-based natural soda ash maker – General Chemicals Industrial Products (GCIP) on January 31. The acquisition (100% stake through a mix of debt & equity) will not only make TCL the 2nd largest soda ash maker in the world, but also help it command over 14% (over 5.5 million tonnes) of the world’s total soda ash capacity. However, it’s the choice of the target that deserves the real applause! Once the acquisition is complete, over 50% of TCL’s capacity would be through the natural route. This means both sustainability and natural hedge against the commodity cycle. “Since GCIP is using trona natural mineral, which can be converted into soda ash and is more cost effective (as production cost of natural soda ash is 40-45% cheaper than the cost of producing synthetic soda), it means increased profitability for TCL”, avers Rohit Nagraj, Sr. Research Analyst, Angel Broking. A Tata Chemicals spokesperson confirmed to B&E that “by 2009 and 2010, we will have more such overseas acquisitions as we believe Tata Chemicals has not yet utilised its full potential”.

The acquisition will not only enable the company to increase its capacity, but will also, in long term, give access to markets in North America, Latin America as well as Far East. Well, the sustainability is there to stay! (GCIP has natural soda ash mines expected to last for next 100 years). But then there are many who question the move on the backdrop of the US slowdown! “As many chemical manufacturers in the US are facing challenges, so will TCL,” says Paresh Nautiyal, analyst with Arihant Capital.

Moreover, TCL will undoubtedly face integration challenges with the unlisted US firm. Complicating matters further is the size and operating profile of GCIP (Moody). The transaction and the resulting financial & operating profile is still not amply clear. “Exchange rate is another challenge that stands in front of TCL”, Nagraj adds.

Well, the plan looks picturesque perfect. However, the road for TCL as well as the Tata group isn’t an expressway. Tata Group of late has raised lot of debts in financing its elephantine acquisitions and servicing, which might be a problem. There’s a maddening race at Tata Group companies to leverage in-organic growth. Tata Steel acquired Corus for $13.7 billion and another group company Tata Motors is also in talks with Ford to acquire Jaguar & Land Rover for $2 billion apart from many multi–million dollar acquisitions done by TCS, Tata Tea & other group companies in the recent past. And as most of these acquisitions have significantly increased its exposure to the American & European economies, sluggishness in there two markets could place Tata’s plans in jeopardy for quite some time to come.

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

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

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

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2008-09-20T15:15:00.000+05:30

Does this mean you are not sure when Gujarat will be finally called a developed state?
The day a person says all work is done, that day the development of that state will stop. Development is an ongoing process. We must keep upgrading ourselves always.

Today, more and more politicians are making personal remarks. Even you have made fun of Sonia Gandhi? Why is this happening?

If I have passed single personal comment on Sonia Bhen, I request your magazine to criticise me as much as it wants.

Do you think that the national media is biased against you?

I do not like to criticise anyone or the media. Media has to decide now whether what it was doing was correct or not. I feel that the media is capable enough of doing its own introspection. It does not need my suggestions.

Some pundits and analysts are saying that while the Modi model may have worked in Gujarat, it will not work in any other state in India. First, Modi is not a model. Second, if they feel that providing electricity to 18,000 villages like we did in the state of Gujarat is not possible in any other state, I feel sorry for them.

What they mean is that there is too much caste-based politics in other Indian states.

One has to decide whether you want to work for the country or play politics. Once you decide that, it is possible to work in any part of the country. I believe every Indian believes in development. One should never blame the people.

There is a tendency in the BJP that whenever a politician becomes powerful, his/her relation with the party suffers a lot. No one has tried to keep me away from the party. I am also not going away from my party. I do not see a reason or any possibility of this.

Do you think that your aggressive Hindutva image will be accepted by the various NDA allies?

First of all, I do not waste my time or life on image building. I use my power, energy and time to build an image for Gujarat. I want my Gujarat to be the best.

How do you look at the prospects of NDA and UPA during the 2009 elections?

I got opportunity to travel around, and wherever I went, I felt that the country feels that there is a vacuum and desperately needs a Prime Minister. In the present atmosphere, one feels that India doesn’t have a Prime Minister. I feel people are desperately looking for a change. No one is ready to accept the UPA.

You use the slogan ‘Jai Gujarat’ more often than ‘Jai Bharat Maa’. I start my speech with ‘Jai Bharat Maa’. During the elections, ‘Jitega Gujarat’ was our party’s slogan that is why we used it more often. But my government’s motto, and we are repeating this since the last six years, is ‘Bharat key vikas key liye Gujarat ka vikas zaroori hai’.

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 fort that lives...

2008-09-02T14:57:00.000+05:30

... is dying. B&E visits Jaisalmer’s golden bastion and finds an epic and a relic.
In the chilling cold of Delhi, in the middle of a busy workday (watching others slog), the thought of a sunny Jaisalmer trip full of adventure and intriguing cultural revealing was rendering dreamy smirks on my face. The 22-hour long journey was tiresome on occasions when I watched the train halt at as many as 40 almost stranded stations and looked at a travel partner whose agenda seemed no less than setting a world record in sleeping the longest (as well as the loudest). But as soon as I stepped at the Jaisalmer station, energy gushed in. Looking at its low-ceiling construction with wonderfully designed pillars, I handed over myself to the royal city. As I turned around, the Punjabi Jat lad seemed to have done the same too, though in a manner typical to him, stretching out wide (and loud) at the very centre of the railway station, in full public view.

“The construction of the Jaisalmer Fort was started by the Rajput king, Maharawal Jaisal in 1156 A.D. atop the Meru mountain and the construction continued over generations,” said Chander Bhan, our man Friday for all things Jaisalmer. As we walked along, he continued, “It is the only fort in the world which has close to 5,000 persons living in it, along with 40 odd hotels and 15 restaurants.”

The magnificent fort is made in sandstone that fetches it a golden sheen. And, such is the beauty of the fort that it looks well maintained, even after 800 years of its construction. The high walled tawny fort of 99 bastions, shelters about 500 houses in the lanes that branch out further into other lanes full of houses. “People in the fort have been living for generations in eight mohallas (colonies) purely on the basis of a once rigid caste and class system. Some of the mohallas that have been popular since the olden days are those of the Brahmins, Sonars (goldsmith), Kshatriyas (soldiers), Hazuris (courtiers who were kings’ children from relationships outside marriage) and Mochis (cobblers),” the guide explained as if emitting out language from memorised contents in a viva voce.

While we walked through the lanes and bylanes, filled more with sellers than buyers, raving about the fort, its history and people who made it happen, we landed at 8th July, a restaurant chosen purely on the basis of its interesting name and little else.

It was a small rooftop joint where Rama Bhatia, a well spoken middle-aged lady took our order while our guide greeted her. Driven by habit and curiosity, we struck an informal rapport with Rama. She had been running the restaurant inside the fort with her husband (who named it after his birth date) for 10 years. Her husband, an old eloquent gentleman from the region who had seen the desert and the city evolve, joined us. Recollecting his memories, he started telling us how Jaisalmer, despite being Asia’s biggest district, wasn’t well known even in other parts of Rajasthan. It was only when the Indira Gandhi Canal was built in the year 1987 that a lot of changes took place. Tourism blossomed and the world’s only ‘living fort’ attracted thousands of people every year. He continued, “The population inside the fort has risen over the years and all are dependent on tourism either in entirety or in part.” With fear and anguish, he mentioned how due to water clogging and other sewage related problems, the ASI is insisting on the evacuation of the fort.

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 :-
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Presidents too wanna have fun!

2008-08-27T15:20:00.000+05:30

Undeterred by moral & societal considerations, Sarkozy courts Carla
Nicholas Sarkozy, the playboy president has transformed the presidency. Instead of transforming the economic situation as expected, Unlike his predecessors, he has let the media write & speculate on his personal life.

His divorce with Cécilia, a former model, had grabbed the media attention as it was the first incident in modern French history that a serving president was divorcing his wife. Soon after the election, he was attacked by the opposition for spending holidays on French millionaire Vincent Bollore’s luxury yacht.The latest in the series is his relationship with former supermodel Carla Bruni.

Nero fiddled when Rome burnt, so goes a proverb. Sarkozy borrowed a private jet from Bollore and flew in to the banks of the Nile along with Bruni to celebrate Christmas, when the workers unions were busy devising new strategies to deal with the government. The opposition has a reason to worry. “When the president is the personal friend of men and women who own newspapers, TV stations, who he makes pay for his holidays, who can say for sure that there aren’t paybacks?” asks socialist MP Benoit Hamon. Sarkozy, however, remains unconcerned of the allegations. “Despite the obstacles, despite the difficulties, I will do what I said I would,” said the president in his New Year address. The labour unions have been given the January 15 deadline to reach a consensual agreement with the government.

If the unions fail to reach a deal, his government would legislate the proposals, says Sarkozy. Is it as easy as celebrating holidays with his girlfriend in the Egyptian valleys? If he fails to swing the public mood in favour of his reform project, he would, to his utter discomfort, know the answer to that one.

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

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

Read these article :-
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
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The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
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Will Middle-East conflicts end?

2008-08-26T16:28:00.000+05:30

Solution lies in their interests, not only in peace conferences
Middle-East, though continues to geo-politically important, also has been instrumental in generating maximum complexities to the world affairs. Surprisingly, there has also been reluctance in global initiatives and participation, in resolving its conflicts. Though, Mr. Bush has finally succeeded to sponsor Annapolis peace conference in his last year of presidency and has also succeeded in leaving some positive implications. Instances of sympathy, empathy and donations from many donor countries and organisations in the Paris conference, held just after Annapolis conference, are some examples.

Israel had captured Gaza strip and West Bank during Arab-Israel war in 1967, occupied Golan Heights, then annexed it in 1981. Abbas’s inability to fight for peace and justice has kept the continent in pandemonium. Last few decades have witnessed failure of Israel’s, Palestine’s, even Arab’s call for peace. These remained theatrics, mere exercise of photo, handshakes sessions. Annapolis was also expected to be same. But it is drawing global attention and sympathy. Over 90 countries and international organisations have pledged $7.4 billion to save Palestine from bankruptcy in the Paris conference. However, the trend seems positive but long term resolutions remains cynical. The aid can only save the country from bankruptcy, but is not the solution for the moribund Palestine economy. The last decade of Bush’s Middle East journey is enough to witness America’s self-interest. Thus the solution is not in hand of the US alone, proactive participation by responsible world powers e.g. Russia, Germany, French and the UK is urgent and only option now. But will they realise full potential of their accountability?

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

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

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

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You game? Tis’ no child’s play

2008-08-25T13:43:00.000+05:30

A bright new millennium lies in wait for Indian game developers. Biggies, watch out for the Indian wave
“Except Indians, almost everyone – right from a 10-year-old kid to people as old as my father goes into the video-gaming room of my hotel and enjoy big time,” says Abhinesh Sikka, a 26-year old software professional working with US-based Trilogy Software Inc. while explaining how gaming is still not very popular in India. Indeed, a typical talk from a GenNext individual who realises the force behind the global gaming industry, which as per PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is forecasted to grow at a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 9.1%, escalating to $48.9 billion in 2011 from the current $37.5 billion (estimated for FY2007). So is Sikka right about Indians not loving video-games?

It was found that the rising influence of broadband, combined with gaming consoles & mobile gaming, was driving the phenomenon into Indian lands too, unlike what Sikka felt. No wonder Nasscom too forecasted that the Indian gaming market would touch $300 million by FY2009 at a CAGR of 78%!

And what makes India special? Well, in the face of a slowing growth in the American market (all set to touch $12.5 billion by 2011 at a modest CAGR of 6.7%; as per PwC) and with the growth predicted for India being much higher than the average for the Asia (touching $18.8 billion with a CAGR of 10%), the Indian market appears more lucrative for game developers who are optimistic about their fortunes in the sub-continent. While speaking exclusively to B&E, Atindriya Bose, Country Head – India, Sony Computer Entertainment claims, “Gaming has become an acceptable entertainment mode in Indian culture and there is a natural positive momentum amongst consumers towards gaming. Ever since the launch of PS3 in India, we have received a phenomenal response from the Indian market.”

With India already having made a mark on global tracks, by even outshining key destinations like Taiwan & South Korea, the potential is there for the taking. And despite the fact that we still can’t talk in order of billions of dollars, there are some Davids – like Dhruva Interactive, DQ Entertainment and many others – mushrooming in the hinterland too, vying to make a mark in the domestic gaming space.

However, there are challenges waiting for the aspirants as well. Rupee appreciation will pose as a major challenge as 75%-80% of total revenues for the Indian video game developers come from foreign markets as per ACNielsen. Besides it, rationalisation of prices and provision of India-centric contents also pose challenges as Atindriya professes, “Indianised content is something we have to focus on… We would like the consumers to be exposed to the true gaming environment.” Surely, for now, it’s game on in India too!

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

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative
Read these article :-
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
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The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
IIPM Campus

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Continental shades of subprime

2008-08-20T13:43:00.000+05:30

The European banking industry has braved the subprime meltdown to a large extent but only till now...
For those who wrote off the possibility that the subprime monster’s binge won’t make for a continental cuisine will have to check the order once again. Interestingly, European banks, unlike their US counterparts, seem to have eluded themselves to a large extent from being brutally pulverised by the sub-prime mess and have kept the lid on their balance sheets; but then, times will be getting harder by the day.

“The financial inter-linkages have already resulted into significant spillover into the Euro area, particularly affecting money markets and banks’ balance sheets,” exclaims Silvia Pepino Giuliani, Senior European Economist, Executive Director, JPMorgan. Well, for the past few fiscals, European banks have raked in staggering profits, which has left them with tremendous cushion to sustain write-downs. But the headwinds are getting stronger for them now. Substantiating the fact, the ROE (Weighted average & annualised) of large banks reporting under International Financial Reporting Standards, rose from 18.2% (2006) to 20.4% (1st half 2007).

“Though major write-downs have come from US banks, one shouldn’t underestimate the spillover effects on European banks, which have a major investment banking component,” reveals Elena Guglielmin, Vice President, Credit Research Analyst, Financial Institutions, Credit Suisse. According to a recently (November 14, 2007) published report by ECB’s Banking Supervision Committee, there will be a significant drag on the profitability of European banks because of the subprime meltdown, as a large proportion of their profits stemmed from fee, commission & trading income, most of which might be non-recurrent. Moreover, tightening lending, coupled up with high funding costs, will also undermine profitability of European banks. It is expected that banks like UBS are exposed to further write-downs because of their exposure to CDS, which is considered to be extremely high. Same is the case with Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays Capital et al. So, don’t write off the write-downs yet as the subprime monster is just about to unleash itself further.

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

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

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

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3D virtual universe for the PlayStation 3

2008-08-13T17:36:00.000+05:30

Sony has already unveiled its own 3D virtual universe for the PlayStation 3 where users can socialize, shop and even go to the movies without setting foot outside in the real world. Called ‘Home’, the service is offered as a free download from the PlayStation Store. The new networked feature installs a unique icon to your XMB and then launches – just like a game does. Once connected, users are able to join online games, go shopping, talk with other people, and mess around with various media types for as long as they see fit. Pretty much like Second Life, Home provides advanced character customization with immersive role play and finally clears the confusion about what the “Home” button on the Sixaxis controller really does. Home features places like the Central Lounge for initial socializing, Game Space and Sports Lobby for actual gaming, Apartment Space for virtual living and private parties, and the Home Theater, a shared viewing area for the latest trailers, films and user-created content.

Pictures, movies & even websites can be imported from your hard drive or removable memory stick & put onto virtual TV sets or picture frames in a matter of seconds. We already have the technology to capture user created video, convert it into a 3D object and release it into a virtual world. Residents of Second Life do it everyday. In the years to come, we can add interactivity to these objects in such a way that you could virtually touch and feel them. Online shopping could go 3D with buyers walking through virtual stores and picking up items from shelves. The virtual acts of dropping them into the bag and paying at the counter could translate into shopping carts & online credit card payments. Advanced versions of the technology will allow people to attend social gatherings, educational classes, sports events et al, without leaving the comfort of their homes. Whether such events are actually taking place in the real world or are solely artificial creations of the virtual world will be the discretion of the user.

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

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

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

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IIPM makes business education truly global-Education-The Times of ...
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Innovation is the new god

2008-08-11T15:16:00.000+05:30

Heated, the iconoclast continues that if a brand is predictable today, it is most likely to be dead, tomorrow! “Disney develops a new product every five minutes! Sony produces around 5,000 new products a year. Zara can translate a fashion design from the Paris Catwalk to the shelves in 15 days. Innovation is the new god!” Myth-exploding arrives next. “Even if one wants to create a predictable brand message over time, one can’t. Why? Because there are over 50 million blogs, 24x7, flashing out messages about brands. These messages are based on customer experience, personal agenda or social rumour, not strategic positioning! Further brand terrorism is a deadly fact, alive and kicking with China being a soft target. The Formalhyde stores battered their Beer brands. The Triclosan gossip savaged their soap and toothpaste sales. Rui Chenggangs’ nationalist blog shut down Starbucks in the Forbidden City.” Finally, in conclusion, he offers that in today’s market-scape, business is the brand and brand is the business. The brand is absorbed, imbued and encompassed in every conceivable experience that the consumer experiences and encounters – and therefore, in effect, every action a company takes.

The take-out is cataclysmic! Traditional notions of marketing has been stood on its head, with revolutionary new methods blitzing through. In this new scheme of things, marketing organisations are advised to shut shop and become marketing organisms. The maverick Jaques explains, “An organism is a living, breathing creature whereas an organisation is structure-bound and systems-driven. Further unlike the organisation – centralised and controlled – it is decentralised and instinctive, constantly empowering its people and technologies to respond in different ways to different customers in different circumstances at different touch points.” The message is simple: In this new world, the focus is not about 360 degree branding. It’s really about how brilliantly you can manage that critical “one degree” that matters…

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

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

Read these article :-
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
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Why Andhra means glory!

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

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

Why Andhra means glory!
Utpal Sen Gupta, Chairman, CII (Andhra Pradesh) speaks...

"Much has been talked about Andhra’s bright prospects. How has a state so ignored become a state most looked up to? What has got the MNCs glued to this south-Indian kingdom? IT, pharma, engineering and... well, capital inflow! "

India’s economy is growing ever-increasingly. With positive indicators like a stable GDP growth, a booming capital market and rapidly expanding FDI inflows, India has emerged as the second fastest growing economy. The economy has been growing at an average rate of 8.8% over the last four fiscal years. Significantly, the industrial and service sectors have been contributing a major part of this growth.

In this dynamic background, Andhra Pradesh, which achieved a phenomenal and a record-breaking growth rate of 10.3% in FY2007-08 deserves special mention. This was for the first time in history that this state achieved a double-digit growth! This is because of the strong performance of all the sectors at the state level. The state’s performance exceeded the national average in every sector, including agriculture, which had stagnated for a long time. The industrial sector grew at 9.8% as against 8.9% at the national level. The service sector grew at 11.5% as against 10.7% at the national level. Another significant indicator – the per capita income - increased by 9.3% as against the national average of 7.5%! Now that is growth from all quarters, and something which does the state and the nation proud!

Well endowed with natural resources, Andhra Pradesh offers several competitive advantages to investors. Being a mineral-rich state, Andhra is ranked second in India and contains a large variety of mineral wealth. In terms of human resource too, Andhra Pradesh is characterised by a large pool of scientific and technically-trained manpower. The state alone has about 226 engineering colleges in which, 30% of the total capacity is allotted to IT. The state also has dedicated institutions for biotechnology, ITeS/BPO and other fields. The State is well-known for some world-class institutions like The Indian Institute of Information Technology, ISB, The Academy for Construction, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, National Institute of Nutrition et al.

Andhra also provides a cosmopolitan environment with good infrastructure and quality of life. It is home to many catalytic manufacturing & service organisations in industries such as IT, bulk drugs & pharmaceuticals, agro-processing, mineral-based industries, gems & jewellery et al. Surely, Andhra is the right choice for business endeavours.

The state also has good global air connectivity and one of the best domestic connectivity. With liberal labour laws, proactive policies, quality power with competitive tariff, large pool of technical manpower, rich mineral resources and specialised industrial parks with SEZ status, it is the preferred destination for investors. Andhra Pradesh is strategically located and is considered as the gateway to East & South-East Asia. Visakhapatnam port in Andhra is the largest port and its cargo handling capacity will be enhanced with the development of ports in the private sector at Gangavaram, Krishnapatnam, Nizampatnam and Kakinada. Another city, Hyderabad, has emerged as the home to several major drug manufacturing companies which are global names.

Andhra Pradesh is the leading state in the country when it comes to e-Governance. The state has the second-largest power generating utility in the country and has also emerged as the best healthcare destination in the country with state-of-the-art hospitals.

All these factors have contributed to making Andhra Pradesh the most investor-friendly and therefore the Best Marketed State in the country.

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

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India with cutting edge technology

2008-08-06T16:03:00.000+05:30

With several European companies (Allison transmissions, UCL systems, ThyssenKrypp technologies et al) making foray into India with cutting edge technology, how does RNSSL plan to stay distinctly ahead? “Foreign competition is setting-in in the form of JV’s with local players. But we believe in healthy competition and I suppose there is room for many players,” says R. Narayanan, President, RNSSL. For now, the company is banking on its dependable portfolio of global clients like Honda, Ford, Toyota, Tatas and Maruti Suzuki, but future plans are afoot to invest Rs.20 crore to set up a plant in Singur for supplying parts to Tata’s much hyped ‘Nano’.

The commercial vehicle segment is another big growth option for them. With domestic commercial vehicle biggies like Ashok Leyland and Tata Motors already in their kitty, RNSSL is now actively scouting for many more clients in the segment.

However, the Indian automotive industry remains sandwiched between fixed-price supply contracts and rising steel prices. So how does RNSSL prepare itself for competitive onslaughts? To tackle this, the company’s strategy is slow and steady growth and focus on quality. As Narayanan says, “One thing we focus heavily on is the quality of our products. In fact we are one of the few steering companies in India to implement TQM.”

Moreover, the company is also looking at exports as major revenue source (to the tune of one-fourth of the total revenues) in times to come. Riding on the over 9% GDP growth, coupled with its strategic strengths over competition, RNSSL is expecting to rake in revenues of over Rs.2 billion by 2010-2011. This one sure knows which way to ‘steer’ its growth curve.

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

What’s your pick, doc?

2008-08-05T14:37:00.000+05:30

Indian players are focusing on capturing emerging opportunities in niche specialties, which offer higher and more sustainable margins to compete with international counterparts. Manish K. Pandey analyses...

There was a time when we spoke of the Ranbaxies and the SunPharmas of India in the same breath as we spoke of mega cross-border mergers and acquisitions (remember the plus-$500 million foreign deals that these giants struck?). That was about two years back. Then came 2007, a period filled with lull and silence and except the R&D (re)search-and-seek game, nothing grand made the headlines in the M&A spirit. It’s 2008 now, and once again comes the crest of activities for the domestic players. And just when we all thought that the pharma kings were following the path tread before (of ‘big-ticket’ acquisitions), something ‘strategically’ interesting has come to surface. Scouting for growth, the industry is turning its back to mega deals when it comes to M&As (even as international players move in for a kill with significant resources), and they have started looking at smaller, strategic acquisitions now.

It was just last month when Indian Pharma majors took over strategic units of eight drug-makers. While the biggest deal (of the six cross-border acquisitions) included the $255 million buyout of US-based Draxis Health by Jubilant Organosys, (a mid-size pharma player), the rest were comparatively smaller, with deal size ranging anywhere between $25-$100 million, which included SIRO Clinpharm’s acquisition of Omega Mediation and Jupiter Bio’s buyout of Merck Life Sciences’ contract research unit. In fact, this is a trend which even global pharma giants are adopting as a consolidation trend. And out of the total 20 coup d’états (both domestic and international) worth $660 million (Grant Thornton), which the industry has announced since the start of this year, more than 90% deals have been in the $25-$100 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

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Blood on their Balance Sheets

2008-08-04T15:25:00.001+05:30

Break-even and profits are still a long way off for Tata Sky and Dish TV. Competition from Reliance & Airtel is also round the bend. With the 2nd phase of CAS still a distant dream, life is certainly not jhingalala for DTH players, says surbhi chawla

If there’s someone who would want to steer clear of the colour red at the moment, it will be the two Indian biggies offering Direct-to-Home (DTH) services. Both Tata Sky and Dish TV are expecting embarrassing red blots (or losses, if you please) to the tune of Rs.1500 crore for FY 2007-08. But ask Vikram Kaushik (CEO of Tata Sky) and Jawahar Goel (Managing Director of Dish TV) and they firmly refuse to press any panic buttons. “These are budget losses,” the duo averred in unison, when quizzed by this magazine, adding that the situation is pretty much under control.

While Goel and Kaushik may make light of the situation, experts in this industry opine that one of the major reasons for these humongous losses can easily be attributed to the subsidy that these providers have to give on selling individual set-top boxes. Besides, one also needs to factor in that DTH is a capital intensive industry and is at a very nascent stage in India. The challenge for existing players and new aspirants in the segment is to primarily set up the requisite infrastructure, which is both time consuming, and also calls for heavy investments. Goel points out, “We’re bleeding at this moment & have a long way to go, to reach the break-even point. Only then can we start thinking about expected returns.”

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

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

Read these article :-
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
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Blood on their Balance Sheets

2008-08-04T15:25:00.000+05:30

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

Global markets

2008-08-01T15:27:00.000+05:30

The trend is not new. As the Indian consumer interacts with global markets and becomes more individual-centric, the aspiration to be different from others has found firm roots. If your pal has a Zen, you’d probably opt for SX4, despite having to pay a slightly higher price. And since you’re picking up your preferred set of wheels on EMI anyway, what difference does the price tag make, especially as you are making your own individual statement with the car you prefer. Clearly, with traditional demographic segments blurring, the age of one-size-fits-all is fast disappearing. In sync with the times, marketers are fast dumping their mass marketing fetish and tapping segments within the masses that are growing fast and will add to their riches in the long run.

So, you thought Surf Excel, a household name in the country by any yardstick, would be a mass marketed product, right? Well, not exactly. When Lalitaji was around, Surf was indeed a cost-effective, mass product, whitening clothes in millions of household across the country. But, HUL changed tack when it realised that the consumer was coming of age and had more disposable income in his/her hand. Besides, competitors like Nirma were fast eroding their mass market base. HUL launched Surf Excel and clearly targeted it at the premium end of the detergent market. “Our target audience is the premium segment today and I am very focused on that segment alone,” avers Arun Iyer, CD, Lowe Lintas.

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

Bumpy ride of the bulls

2008-07-31T16:26:00.000+05:30

Of late, the bumpy ride of the bulls at the bourses has brought tears even to the stone eyed and has fuelled the slowdown in mutual funds, insurance and other investment instruments. But for Bandyopadhyay the going has never been better. “We will continue to remain bullish in the long run as well as in the short run. We sell a basket of products including loans, credit cards, money transfers, et al, so sensex volatility does not matter in the overall context of our company,” he claims. This CEO believes that with 330 million bank accounts in India and 30 million unique mutual fund folios there is a huge scope for market expansion into hitherto untapped areas.

His confidence is also rooted in actual results. In spite of the volatility of the Indian bourses, Reliance Money has acquired the fastest 2 million customers in the industry. Besides, the company has also set a record of adding a swashbuckling 5,000-7,000 customers daily in their portfolio, with an average daily turnover of Rs.2000 crore that represents about 4% of the total turnover at NSE and BSE.

Given that the Indian retail brokerage market is expected to reach $6,535.7 billion by 2015, the latent opportunity within the country is phenomenal. The fact that Reliance Money is also banking in a big way on its overseas diversification is only the icing on this brokerage firm’s cake. Increased competition in the domestic market and lucrative business opportunity in West Asia are luring Reliance Money to global pastures. The plan is to set up offices in six-seven strategic locations around the world in FY2008-09. “We are planning to be in Singapore along with locations in the Middle East, as these are the markets through which we can expand further,” affirms Bandyopadhyay. The firm has already identified locations like Kuwait, Bahrain and Doha in the Middle East, where their set-up is expected to be functional in the first quarter of this financial year.

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

Investee: Bharti Airtel & its arm

2008-07-30T16:50:00.000+05:30

Investor: Temasek Holdings & others

Investment Value: $2.90 bn (cumulative)

Says, Harit Shah, Angel Broking, ”The last few years have seen the telecom infra sector acquire great potential, which is why PE players are falling over themselves to invest in such companies. The deals are meant for multiplying money. While telecom is a capital intensive field, the investment will reap good returns. As for Bharti, it will use this amount in expanding its present network. The risk gets overshadowed as Bharti is an experienced player in the sector and is likely to use the money well. Almost all investors in this club deal are financial investors, and not strategic ones. They will be looking at creating value for the business in the next few years, as was eminently visible when share prices shot up, just after the deal took place.”

What can be bigger than a deal that peddles names like Temasek (Singapore government’s investment arm and the largest PE player in India), Goldman Sachs, Macquarie, Citigroup, India Equity Partners, Investment Corporation of Dubai, AIF Capital and India’s leading wireless company, Bharti Airtel. In December 2007, in the largest ever ‘club deal’ by PE players in India, the seven global investors bought a 9% stake in Bharti Infratel – the hived off tower arm of Bharti Airtel – for a whopping sum of $1billion, valuing the unit at a staggering $12.5 billion. While clubbing gave the PE players the benefit of risk sharing, it reduced needless competition for acquisition targets. Before this deal, in July 2007, Temasek Holdings alone had invested about $1.9 billion in Bharti Airtel (for a 4.99% stake), which ultimately made way into its tower business. Bharti Infratel owns over 20,000 telecom towers and holds about 42% stake in Indus Towers (the recent JV between Bharti, Vodafone and Idea), with over 71,000 sites. Recently, PE firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co picked up another 2-2.5% stake in the company for $250 million.

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

Clean internally

2008-07-29T16:57:00.000+05:30

Now to the ‘cons’. While year 2008 has got on to a good start with first quarter net revenue up at 13%, or $3.4 billion, from a year earlier to $28.5 billion, speculations on a grim PC markets is all it takes to put a question mark on HP’s future prospects. Moreover, considering the fact that Dell will soon be reaping the benefits of its retail strategy (as it decided to sell through the indirect route from last year), it will be difficult for Hurd to maintain HP’s dominant position in the global PC market. While one really cannot doubt Hurd’s style of running this giant, his job now is to sell more rather than clean internally.

From a 25% increase last year, PC sales of HP is bound to take a hit in wake of a worldwide crunch in hardware sales and is hence expected to grow by only 5.4%. To cater to the situation, Hurd has already outlined his aggressive intents by announcing promising new products in the printer, PC and the enterprise markets for the year 2008. However, industry watchers are doubting whether this move be enough to maintain HP’s momentum in the long run.

Mark Hurd has done the rescue act before but HP’s shareholders expect nothing less from him this time as well. That’s exactly what happens when you save the Titanic from sinking. They expect you to do that again & again...

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

Predatory

2008-07-22T12:59:00.000+05:30

An aggressive game plan and cut throat pricing has ensured RCOM its haloed place under the telecom sun

At a time when all telecom players were focussing on GSM, RCL started its CDMA services in India. With cheaper handsets, RCL effectively catered to the masses. Although the ARPU was declining, but with the addition of more people into the network, RCL was able to obviate its impact on its bottomline. RCL’s consistent focus on maintaining lower churn from its network and providing its services at affordable rates led to increase in its profitability in the long run. The company has maintained its focus on companywide RoI well, rather than targeting per customer parameters. This has led to consistent rise in revenues and profitability over the years.

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

When phoren movies come calling on India!

2008-07-21T12:59:00.000+05:30

When IIPM comes to education, never compromise

A whole new world of cinema that never existed before for the Indian movie buffs has now come alive. UTV’s World Movies and NDTV Lumière are ready with their goodies to quench your thirst for this new genre of foreign language films. By SURBHI CHAWLA

When Dilshad Master, COO, UTV Entertainment Television Ltd., visited the Cannes Film Festival in May 2007, she thoroughly enjoyed watching the more than 3000 movies from across the globe that were screened at the event. Her only disappointment was with the fact that “India gets to see only movies made in Bollywood or Hollywood, which is such a pity, as there are such great movies being made in the world and we don’t get to see them,” she avers. And that’s when Dilshad got the idea of bringing foreign movies to Indian shores. She started working on the concept in April 2007. And the fruits of ten months of hard toil were indeed sweet when on February 3, 2008, World Movies, the world cinema channel of UTV Entertainment Television, went on-air (albeit with a soft launch).

Patrons of this kind of international cinema – till now – were totally at the mercy of film festivals, to see great French, Italian, Latin or let’s say, feature films in myriad languages, other than English & Hindi (or regional languages for that matter!). And the floodgates have only just about begun to open. Apart from UTV, another Indian media house – NDTV – is buoyant on the potential of bringing videshi films into India. Through its new venture NDTV Lumière (collaboration between NDTV Imagine, Manmohan Shetty and Sunil Doshi), the group seeks to premiere the best of world cinema in Indian multiplexes, immediately following their worldwide release. The films would then be made available through home videos or in the pay-per-view format, and will finally make it to their soon-to-be launched channel, NDTV Lumière.

Vidyuth Bhandhary, General Manager, NDTV Lumière opines, “Currently, the only supply of international movies is renting or purchase of few popular titles or through pirated DVDs. We believe there will always be demand for good cinema, irrespective of which part of the world it is from. We intend to bridge this demand-supply gap and provide ‘cineasts’ with the opportunity to watch good international cinema.” UTV’s World Movies, on the other hand, has taken an entirely different approach. Giving a miss to Indian multiplexes or home videos, World Movies has gone on-air in the first phase itself. Dilshad asserts that the strategy was crafted after positive results of all the test-marketing and focus group discussions. “We’re very clear about the movies that we want. We want the kind of movies that Indians would like to watch – action, thriller, crime, horror, romance, drama – that would click with the Indian audiences. The only pre-condition being that the movies that we get have to be hits in the countries that they were made in,” she explains.

But one important question remains unanswered. Would there be many takers for this kind of cinema? Dilshad enthuses, “The global Indian is all over the place. When we talk in terms of cuisines, people are not just going to tandoori restaurants any more. They are trying out Italian, Mexican or Spanish. There’s a tendency to experiment and people are game for different foreign language movies.” World Movies and NDTV Lumière also need to contend with the prevailing audience perception about these foreign films being boring and intellectually driven parallel cinema. However, Dilshad is quick to differ. “We’re not here to intellectually stimulate your brains, but simply to entertain.”

Small surprise that after a relatively soft launch, World Movies has now launched an aggressive marketing campaign to educate viewers, promote their movies and do away with that ‘intellectual-arty’ image. World Movies has yet to carve its niche in the Indian cable & satellite industry. But, even before the actual TRP wars begin for the nascent channel, competition from existing dedicated English movie channels on Indian television is hotting up. For starters, Star Movies (and later HBO) have adamantly refused to show ads and promos of World Movies on their respective channels.

There’s another cause for concern. Time spent per week by an individual on an English movie channel is witnessing a declining trend. As per TAM data, Star Movies witnessed its share drop from 5.9 minutes each week in 2006 to 4.91 minutes each week in 2007. Plus there has been no increase in ad revenues for these channels in the year 2007. If such is the case with traditional English movie channels, wonder how a foreign language movies channel would fare at the hands of both viewers and advertisers?

Having said that, it does seem a tad too premature to talk about the success of these two channels. Being a paid channel, World Movies has seen advertisers flocking from day one. Even then it would be interesting to watch the kind of ratings these channels would eventually fetch. So the next time you wanna catch a late night flick, drooling over a tub of popcorn, remember that you always have the option of ‘world cinema’ at your disposal.

SURBHI CHAWLA

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.
IIPM, GURGAON
IIPM - Admission Procedure
IIPM is A World of Career
Why Study Abroad When IIPM Gives You 3 global Advantages!

Perfection

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

When the traditional big three are struggling, Toyota is thriving. Their dream? Build a car that never crashes or breaks down & is environment friendly

We, at Toyota, always focus on improvements and are not satisfied easily. We constantly innovate and strive to better ourselves each time, besides being very conscious about our brand value, which translates into quality, durability and reliability. For us ‘the’ customer is very important and therefore we always try to give him the best. We constantly track evolving customer’s preferences, trends and expectations by identifying need gaps. We therefore represent perfection because Toyota continuously strives to give its customers the ‘coveted ownership experience’ that they expect from us.

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

Reliance Fresh is banking on these benefits to win this war

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

Reliance Fresh is banking on these benefits to win this war. The company has already unveiled its contract farming plans and hopes to untangle the supply chain of intermediaries and eliminate waste by going to the farmer directly. This implies fresher products at lower costs. Company officials say that it is indeed a win-win situation for both the farmers and the consumers. “In many states like Punjab, West Bengal and Haryana, we have tied up with farmers to facilitate them in production and coming out with better crops. We have a hub in each of these centres, where we are providing a ready market to the farmers,” avers Nathwani.

An exasperated Raghu Pillai, Chief Executive (Strategy & Operations) of Reliance Retail told 4Ps B&M that no one could stop Reliance Retail’s plans as the company was not doing anything illegal or manipulating any social norms. “For instance, if we are in Bengal, from the wages we pay to our workers; to the rate at which we buy our vegetables, everything is as per the standard in the state. There is no manipulation,” he points out. Despite the brave words, last fortnight Pillai announced putting further roll out plans in the North and East on the backburner. Concerns over the rising furor against his company’s food and grocery retail foray, apart from testing his boss’s mettle, must really be the toughest challenge he’s faced in his entire career.

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