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DOT hai toh HOT hai!

2009-07-13T23:11:00.000-07:00

IIPM Respected Business School

Election times provide a massive branding opportunity for marketers, say Savreen Gadhoke and Angshuman Paul

Saturday, November 29, 2008: The capital city of New Delhi was abuzz with activity. Raison d’être: That was the day when Delhi conducted the State Assembly Elections 2008. Plentiful promises, aggressive campaigning, massive advertising, et al, was the order of the day. Naveen Prabhakar, an MNC executive, too, was excited. But that had precious little to do with the elections and largely to do with the rare off he got as a result of the polls.

Naveen had some fool proof plans – a wholesome brunch followed by the screening of Quantum of Solace on his home theatre system and then an evening out with friends. Well, almost fool proof. For while Naveen was still lost in his reveries, his idealist wife Neeta announced her version of how the day should, and therefore would (the wife said it you see!) be spent. “We’ve to go and vote,” she said and that was that. Naveen agreed, but on one condition, “After voting, we’ll go out shopping and then lunch.” And so the two went to vote in the nearby booth and then headed straight toward the shopping mall. And that’s where a pleasant surprise lay for Naveen. As the duo entered a Louis Philippe showroom, they were surprised to see a flat 20% discount for those who had voted. And all they had to show was their index finger with a black ink blot mark and voila! While Neeta was beaming with a glow of nobility; Naveen’s eyes were in a great ‘Louis Philippe buying’ mood all of a sudden.

As idealist speeches, loud campaigning, et al, fail; varied marketers across sectors are imbibing the significance of voting in their marketing strategies, either directly or indirectly. Not only have the top-rung companies improved their top lines, but have also enhanced their brand value, brand image and equity by associating with this cause.

Sales at Louis Philippe were higher on Election Day, when it offered the discount, as compared to other normal days. “The idea was to reward those who had voted, in appreciation of their act, which was a service to the nation,” said Vishak Kumar, Chief Operating Officer, Louis Philippe to 4Ps B&M.

The Times of India’s ‘Lead India’ initiative, which commenced in 2007, was perhaps the first step taken in this direction. “The main idea was to awaken the ‘common man’ and make him realise his responsibility toward the country,” said Agnello Dias, the creative brain behind the campaign. Taking the campaign forward, Aamir Khan has been roped in to be the face of the ‘Lead India’ campaign, which urges citizens to vote, to have a bright future for the younger generation. A pun on the famous ‘Lead India’ campaign is the ‘Bleed India’ campaign. Though the client is still unidentified, the print campaign’s baseline says, ‘Take no tension. Why vote in election?’ The body text proclaims about the wrongdoings of the pappu raj (read government), and if this time, voters don’t come out and vote, pappu raj will continue to destroy the society.

Various campaigns are now being unleashed with a single-minded focus on awakening the common man and inducing him to go and exercise his fundamental right of voting. Take for instance, Tata Tea’s ‘Jaago Re’ campaign. Recent TVCs are aimed at not just ‘waking’ up the youth, but ‘awakening’ them from a deep slumber. Radio Mirchi’s ‘Dot hai toh hot hai’ campaign is dedicated to make voting hot and fashionable. Idea Cellular’s ‘Isiko kehte hain democracy, what an Idea sirjee’ campaign featuring Abhishek Bachchan (which was aired right after the State Assembly Elections last year), also propagates the idea that the common man should freely voice his opinion and vote for what he feels is good for him and for the society.

UTV’s ‘Ungli utha vote kar’ campaign, featuring John Abraham was also particularly aimed at youth to come forward and vote. Domino’s ‘April Happiness Ballot Paper’ signifies that citizens should vote for a happy life ahead. Ajay Kaul, CEO, Domino’s Pizza India told this magazine, “We wanted to highlight it (customer’s emotional connect with the brand) more through the ‘happiness’ quotient. To make it contemporary this time, we came out with a ‘Happiness Ballot Paper’, where we are saying that this Ballot Paper, like Domino’s, can bring happiness in your life.” A great way to gain customer insights as well.

Definitely, the brand building is phenomenal, if the advertisement is intelligently linked to the brand. Before coming out with the ‘Jaago Re’ campaign, Tata Tea was an also-ran in the tea category. However, post the campaign, the brand has jumped to the number one slot, leaving behind HUL’s Brooke Bond. Similarly, the advertising and communication of Idea Cellular has become bigger and larger than the brand itself, for the Idea connection is shown as having a prominent role to play in helping the common man in the Indian democracy. For Times of India, more than a campaign, ‘Lead India’ is a reflection of their responsibility toward the society. And it obviously goes a long way in maintaining their credibility as a responsible media house.

Even this time around, marketers are leaving no stone unturned to ensure that they urge citizens to step out of their cozy homes and vote. “We are taking forward a persuasion campaign by urging people to vote and getting others to vote through SMS, electronic direct mailers, e-mailers, in-store POPs & collaterals,” adds Kumar of Louis Philippe. For a change, democracy seems to be helping one and all!

Savreen Gadhoke and Angshuman Paul

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

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Will my tomorrow be safe?

2009-07-03T01:37:00.000-07:00

As the global banking giants head towards their worst time ever, Indian customers are worried about their money parked with them in India

Mitali, a call-centre executive, still remembers how her friends persuaded her to change her decision when she was planning to park some of her hard earned money in a safe investment avenue like fixed deposits. They argued against her decision to opt for a public sector bank, talking about the foreign banks’ service qualities, global reach, high standards et al. And today, when she is worried about the safety of her money, all those so-called advisors have ran out of words. But then, Mitali is not just one the only one going through this confusion, there are many more like her who are currently going through it. The basic question that’s in their mind is whether their money is safe or not in the hands of these glitzy, glamorous foreign banks?

Everyone must be remembering the whole frenzy episode attached to the adverse news that hit ICICI Bank in September last year. Almost all the ATMs of the bank were drained out in one day, only because there was a rumour which said that the bank had a major exposure in Lehman Brothers, the giant US investment bank that collapsed last year. If a link to a collapsed bank can create such panic in the minds of millions of the customers of India’s largest private bank, one can easily understand feelings of those whose money is placed in banks like CitiBank, which is currently undergoing the worst phase and struggling to survive. Explaining the impact of global turmoil on Indian units of the global banks, Karthik Srinivasan, Co-Head, Financial Sector Ratings, ICRA said, “It would definitely affect the foreign banks operating in India as in many cases these units are more like branches of their global counterparts, not standalone entities. So they cannot keep themselves away from the hit taken by the original company. However, at the moment it’s too difficult to say to what extent they suffer.”

Apart from the current financial health of the other factor that aggravates this skepticism is the guarantee cover for deposits made in India, which is pegged at just Rs.1,00,000 compared to 50,000 Pounds in the UK and $1,00,000 in the US. Interestingly, the DICGC (Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation) cover has not been revised since 1993 unlike other major countries who have already taken the initiative. Considering the global scenario and the domestic norms, it’s definitely a difficult time for Indian depositors to have faith on the foreign banks. So much so that in a recently conducted 4Ps B&M and ICMR Survey on Indian banking industry only 17% voted for foreign banks when they were asked their preferred banks.

However, before jumping on to any conclusion, consumers must actually understand that the situation is also dependent on the host governments’ attitude towards respective foreign banks. For example, Barclays can be a safer option today as compared to Citibank for the fact that the British Government is reassuring its banks a big way. The corporate status of the bank is also a major decisive factor for the banks at the moment as those banks, which are working as a subsidiary of a foreign bank are relatively safer than those which just have their branches operating in India. Thus for the confused bunch of people like Mitali, it’s actually the time to first know their banks. So who is ready to prepare the KYB norms?

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

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

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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It’s all about timing

2009-06-17T01:56:00.000-07:00

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

With blue-chips trading at their rock-bottom levels, it’s time for investors to strengthen their portfolios

American humorist Arnold H. Glasgow rightly said, “Success is simple. Do what’s right, the right way, at the right time.” And it’s time for the Indian investors to understand the value of his words. After a year-long carnage, most of the high-voltage stocks seem to be trading at their rock bottom level. That means stocks, earlier which were out of reach for the retail investors, are now standing right at their door steps to be picked up, but of course, not without following the basics.

Rajen Shah, Chief Investment Officer, Angel Broking Limited, advises, “This is the best time to buy into the market as all the stocks are on a low and once the market improves and stocks value picks up gradually, the investors would surely earn a fortune. The equity market is likely to roll back to normalcy soon and we would see the BSE’s Sensex again touching the 21,000 mark and going beyond three years down the line i.e. probably in February 2012.” Going by his words, this is actually the right time when retail investors should seriously consider some asset building exercise in the stock market with a long-term perspective in mind. Also they should look up to blue chips or such other stocks, which have already proven their metal in the market during earlier recovery phases, for a better output in future rather than indulging themselves in mid-cap and small caps that tend to be highly volatile. Agrees N. Wadhwa, Managing Director, SKI Capital Service Limited, as he says, “People should invest in large cap companies with a sound business model. They should keep themselves actively involved in the market dealings and keep themselves constantly updated about the market conditions to pocket a better return in the long run.”

Large caps like L&T (trading at Rs.580 today as against a high of around Rs.4,300 last year), Hindalco industries (trading at Rs.39 as against last year high of Rs.215), ACC Ltd. (trading at Rs.531 today as against a high of around Rs.1,030 last year) and Sterlite Industries (trading at Rs.250 presently against Rs.1,033 last year) et al can actually do wonders for an investor down the line. These are shares of such companies, which have the potential to shoot up really high once the markets witness recovery. But, investors investing at the moment must be a little patient in their approach and hold on to those scrip for the right time to arrive. After all right time is what matters the most in the stock market.

Deepak Ranjan Patra

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

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

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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Death of Windows OS?!

2009-06-02T04:40:00.000-07:00

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

Google’s Android OS is all set to rewrite tales in the OS market. But can the newcomer really beat the big daddy?

After making inroads into the mobile phone market (with its G-Phone), Google has now decided to get back strong at where its journey started, the PC. Yes, the Mountain View giant is widely speculated to be working on getting its Android Operating System running soon on computers by 2010, thus challenging the dominance of Microsoft’s Vista and XP(which have been estimated to garner 95.4% share in the OS category by end-2009, by Gartner). Rob Enderle, Principal Analyst, Enderle Group asserts, “It is part of Google’s strategy to eventually displace Microsoft. If it is successfully able to get into the market, one would definitely think of incorporating a platform which is an open source and can be customised...”

What would however stand in favour of Google is its brand that has earned a reputation for being simple, user-friendly and secure. This also means that Google might just be able to get its software loaded onto low-cost PCs and notebooks, a field where Microsoft has failed miserably so far. Technically, the Android OS is based on the Linux operating system and is open to any programmer who wants to develop features for it. As per Gartner, today, Linux accounts for about 15% of the mini-notebook market compared to 85% of Windows. The report further went on to reveal that Linux had less than 1% share in overall OS market; this therefore is also an opportunity for Linux to gain good ground. Android would carry forward all the features of Linux, which definitely makes it a safer and more secure OS than Windows. For instance, it will be based on a multi-user design, built from ground-up to isolate users from applications, files and directories that affect the entire OS. Each user will be given a directory where all the data files and configurations will be stored. Thus, it becomes impossible to send a virus through email to an Android user. On the other hand, Windows has only recently evolved from a single-user design to a multi-user!

Then there is the modular design that Android would ape. From the kernel (the core “brains” of Android) to the applications, no two application would be inextricably intertwined with any other application in the OS. This is an advantage over the Windows OS which basically is monolithic in design (and not modular). The OS will also not be constrained by a Remote Procedure Call (RPC) model which are potentially security threats. An RPC is when one program sends a message over a network to tell another program to calculate something and then return the result. The reason it is called RPC is because it is immaterial whether the parent program is running on the same computer, or any other cube over the internet, anywhere. (Un)Fortunately, this is also where Android scores over Windows, as Windows users reply heavily on the RPC model which can’t be disabled even with firewalls!

Finally, the Android would be ideal for ‘headless’ (system hardware sans the monitor) non-local administration. For servers, this is often the ideal type of arrangement needed as a remotely administered server is not exposed to the same risks of security breach as a locally administered server. Really, it’s too early to predict whether Google will do to Os what it did to SEs (Search Engines, of course!). The interesting part of the story is how Windows reacts to the change in OS market dynamics... Perhaps, Microsoft has finally found a real worthy adversary; the war is on (hell ya)!

Arun Kumar Roy

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

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

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
Detail of all IIPM branches
1500-plus IIPM students placed across the country with 44 bagging international offers
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Mob’ile attack!

2009-05-20T05:04:00.000-07:00

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

Will Dell make a successful foray into the smartphone market? Or is’t just a distant dream for the American?

Dell is rumoured to be planning an annoucement of its smartphones at the upcoming GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona to offset slumping sales of personal computers. As per market reports, Dell plans to introduce smartphones that can compete with Apple’s hugely popular iPhone and RIM’s Blackberry. As per a report in WSJ, the phone will in all probability be based on Google’s Android OS and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile software. It is said that the Round Rock, Texas-based computer manufacturer, which is the second-largest producer of PCs in the world, has been designing the prototypes for quite sometime now. It is also being widely speculated that Dell has set up a core team for the same purpose at Chicago. The team is said to have been working on a top-secret smartphone project for the last year. This release of the cell phone would also work well for Dell, especially considering its year 2007 acquisition of Zing Systems, that could allow it to grant its users facilities of music streaming across its devices, for some price of course!

One question however remains: can Dell establish a position on the smartphones platform that can compete with the smartphones of Apple, RIM, Palm and others? Given the cool down in Dell’s core PC and server business in the face of the current donwturn, there is no doubt that the given launch can help it tap newer markets. But many analysts also don’t agree to this. As per them, in the face of a formidable competition from Apple, RIM, and the forthcoming Palm Pre success in the smartphone market is easier said than done. “There is a $3 billion opportunity for smartphones, but at present smartphones have a very small fraction of that. This means that the market at present is far from settled, thereby allowing new entries to more easily prosper,” avers Rob Enderle, Principal Analyst, Enderle Group. “Smartphones market has grown at a tremendous 30-40% (annually) over the past few years, and is expected to grow in the future as well,” adds Shushmul Maheshwari, CEO, RNCOS. The happy news is that today, everyone wants to move up the value chain and therefore own a smartphone. “If successful, Dell is likely to get a great piece of this significantly rising demand,” says Maheshwari.

Then there are many experts who foresee a bright prospect for Dell’s smartphone. Dell is well known for its online retailing, and if leveraged well, it could make its smartphone a compelling device. On the other hand, if Dell’s product is successful in gaining attention of end-customers, it will definitely have an adverse impact on other smartphone manufacturers. This would cause a reshuffling in the current market landscape, with Dell finding space in the market which is currently dominated by players such as RIM, Nokia, HTC, and Apple. Realistically however, it will take it some time to create a dent in the market.

Thankfully, analysts do not find anything wrong in Dell’s decision to enter the smartphone market, though it also depends on the final execution of design. “The iPhone could have been disastrous for Apple but they executed it so well that it is now one of their greatest assets. If Dell can execute it similar to how Apple did, this will prove to be very successful for it.” Wonder, if the day will ever come when Dell will have to choose over which product line to drop; but if at all, that will only be likely in the next recession, another decade later!

Arun Kumar Roy

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

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

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
Detail of all IIPM branches
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IIPM set to beat economic slowdown
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THANK TELCOS FOR SMALL MERCIES...

2009-04-24T02:48:00.000-07:00

IIPM set to beat economic slowdown

Cheap services and small handsets fueled India’s telecom boom. The stakes are not about to change anytime soon

The latest buzz to have gripped the telecom world is the launch of Reliance Communications’ (RCOM) GSM service. In a bid to increase subscriber tally, RCOM is targeting people whose Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) is less than Rs.300 per month, unlike the old ideology of chasing high-usage customers. With the second largest telecom operator making this move in the highly competitive telecom industry, it won’t be long before we see others treading a similar path. “RCOM’s GSM foray was expected to cause some disruption and their strategy to chase lower ARPU customers and giving away prepaid connections at virtually throwaway prices of Rs.25 each (along with free talktime worth Rs.900) are steps in that direction,” avers Prakash Gaba, an independent telecom analyst. But then arguably telcos had always taken pro-active steps to ensure getting even low-cost customers into their net. Vodafone’s chhota recharge was undoubtedly a step in that direction. Further, entry of new players like Unitech, Videocon, et al, would eventually make for still cheaper tariffs by at least 20-50%. Some say local calls would soon become as low as 10 paisa/minute!

“On VAS front too you find that micro-payments driven services are more popular and the trend is expected to only gain momentum,” explains another telecom analyst. Clearly, ringtones and caller tones will continue to be the most popular VAS after SMS. Also, analysts feel that the year would see a further reduction in SMS charges so as to ensure that the volume of SMSs do not fall in 2009.

A similar trend is also expected on the handset front. Though the low-end category in handsets have always been doing well, but of-late handset biggies had begun focusing profusely on the premium segment. The failure of Apple’s iPhone coupled with the slowdown induced fear instinct among consumers has made Nokia, Sony Ericcson, Samsung, et al, look afresh at the category. This year, they expect new customers in the mobile markets to be much higher than people opting for replacements. So, market leader Nokia has already announced the launch of Nokia 1200, very similar to their iconic Nokia 1100. To give more teeth to their entry level portfolio, the company has also launched handsets like Nokia 1208, Nokia 1209 and has plans for 1202, 2330 classic, 2323 classic... Even Samsung’s success (the company has now bagged the second spot in the handset market) is mainly attributable to the slew of entry level phones it launched last year. In 2009, this Korean handset maker is looking at expanding its base in the entry level handset market, positioning its sub-brand handset Guru300 as their star product.

The race to offer value-for-money, affordable handsets continues with Spice Mobile launching a people’s phone that costs only Rs.800 (minus a display screen & SMS sending services). But more popular perhaps would be Sony Ericsson’s R300 and R306, both AM/FM phones that are competitively priced. Clearly, slowdown or not, India’s telecom segment is going to be ruled by small ARPU’s, smaller recharges, cheap VAS and value-for-money handsets; while the phones themselves will get lighter, slimmer and yes, smaller on the pockets!

Surbhi Chawla

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

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

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
1500-plus IIPM students placed across the country with 44 bagging international offers
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LIGHTS, CAMERA, CRICKET! AND BEYOND…

2009-04-02T04:35:00.000-07:00

1500-plus IIPM students placed across the country with 44 bagging international offers

IPL WAS UNDOUBTEDLY A BIG HIT IN ITS FIRST SEASON. BUT CAN LALIT MODI CARRY THE IPL TORCH ALL THE WAY TO ITS SECOND SEASON AS WELL?

“We added a lot of music to the games... A Bollywood movie is three hours. This is a three hour function. A lot of good food and catering and popcorn and ice cream for the kids,” that’s how Lalit Modi, India’s first ever cricket marketer and Chairman Indian Premier League (IPL), describes the India’s version of the Super Bowl. He was on CNN’s Talk Asia. Certainly, IPL is not only remembered for the hype that it created among cricket fans the world over, but also for the oodles of star power, scandals and controversies created by it. So one day there was Vijay ‘Kingfisher’ Mallya firing team CEO Charu Sharma; next day, the spotlight was on cheerleaders and their skimpy outfits; then, Bhajji slapped Sreesanth on-field, followed by a ‘no entry’ board thrust at demi-God SRK when he tried to enter the dressing room. Above all, the moolah, which IPL generated in the first season created maximum buzz. And Modi was the man in the thick of it all, commandeering each piece of the IPL action. Modi does have his detractors, who blame him for spoiling the spirit of this gentlemen’s game. There are others who believe that the business model is flawed. But Modi gives it back to them. “If people are raising doubts about IPL making money they simply don’t understand our model,” he told 4Ps B&M.

But the glass is also half empty. Still in its nascent stage, IPL’s long-term success will not be a cake-walk. Constant innovation will be mandatory to sustain viewer interest and competition from Subhash Chandra’s rebel league (ICL) may also pose a challenge. Noticeably, the first season of IPL lagged on the merchandising end, as Gautam Bhimani, Commentator with ESPN–Star Sports feels, “Leagues in the West innovate to help merchandising gain a momentum. It will also pick up in India, but it all depends on the tactics adopted.” Clearly, there is still plenty of work to be done on that front. But, here’s the optimistic side. Much before IPL’s second season kicks off, companies have already started lining up to be associated with the league. “From a marketing perspective, IPL gives us a huge platform for promotion,” asserts Subhinder Singh Prem, MD, Reebok India.

Undeniably, Modi has created a successful brand, and keeping in mind the popularity of the format (T-20), the near future looks rosy. “T-20 format is here to stay, especially after India winning the T-20 World Cup,” mentions Bhimani. Modi has hit a sixer, but will he win the match?

Pawan Chabra

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

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

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
IIPM set to beat economic slowdown
IIPM Admission Detail
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Why Study Abroad When IIPM Gives You 3 global Advantages!

Mad(e) in America!

2009-02-13T00:03:00.000-08:00

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American brands are dying much faster than ever, notes Pawan Chabra of 4Ps B&M...

Tales concerning the likes of the Lehmans and Merrills have made their way into the history books by now. The world has already witnessed stock market indices in many developed and developing economies touching newer lows in the face of the global slowdown! But the point worth noting here is that it is mostly the heritage American brands facing the heat of the slowdown moment... and perhaps only the well-established American brands are bearing the brunt of the meltdown.

4Ps B&M recently discussed the plight of the falling American brands (cover story dated 26 September-9 October 2008, titled ‘Some iconic American brands are dead… many more in trouble.’), and it was no coincidence that Brand Finance, after releasing its 2008 Brand Value Annual report, re-released its report with the corrected (eroded) values of the Top 100 Global and Top 100 US brands. And this was appropriate, because post-January 2008, US economy has been the key victim, badly hit by commodity price rise, credit crunch, rising unemployment and tumbling share prices at the bourses all across the continent. As Jeff Kagan, Telecom industry expert asserts, “Once established American brands can stumble, they need to reinvent themselves.”

And if the words of Brand Finance is to be believed, the current economic downturn has wiped-off a cumulatively thundering $67 billion from the list of Top 100 global brands. And as per the latest report, the world’s number one retailer and Fortune 500 No.1 Walmart has climbed three spots up the ladder to capture the top spot in the new listing of global brands. “Walmart has remained true to its core and has a history of being creative which has given it success even in this downturn,” points out John Crossman, President, Crossman & Company. Interestingly, amongst the top ten brands, Walmart was the ‘only’ brand that was able to appreciate in brand value. “Companies like Lehman Brothers and Citi never had strong brands; they are commodity companies (in this case, the commodity is credit) who are highly vulnerable to unanticipated events,” said Brent Scarcliff, Creative Director, Scarcliff, Salvador Inc.

The picture is getting clearer by the day, of the reasons why these traditional brands are suffering the most: clearly, it’s the lack of innovation. Apart from Walmart’s logo change campaign in July this year, there was hardly any innovative initiative from other brands to help them increase respective brand values. The logo change exercise of Walmart surely helped its brand, even in the face of this downturn and severe criticism on the grounds of ethics and in-store experience.

Then, we have brands like GM, Ford, Microsoft, Yahoo! and others, who have always been known as the strong brands in US, but their lackadaisical attitude towards brand building efforts and value maintenance has given them a big beating in the economic slowdown. “I would argue that Microsoft has been resting on its laurels rather than creating a strong brand,” Scarcliff added. It’s not only Microsoft though. Even Yahoo!, once the best search engine hasn’t done anything spectacular in the recent past which therefore enabled Google to run past in value. And then we have the speculations surrounding the GM-Chrysler merger which makes their respective brands even weaker given the low-success rate of a merger between two loss-makers in the auto industry [read the story on page 48, titled ‘Christ(ler), the GM Saviour].

One thing is clear though – American brands are falling in brand value, and emerging brands from the Third World are fast rising to dethrone them, slowdown, or no slowdown!

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).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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Africa is an interesting market

2009-02-04T00:31:00.000-08:00

Now IIPM's World-Class Education... for everybody!!

Throw some light on Dabur’s business units in Africa?
Dabur had forayed into Nigeria in 2004 with the setting up of African Consumer Care Ltd. (AFCC) – a joint venture between Dabur International Ltd., which holds 90% stake in the venture, and Dabur UK. The company successfully launched its oral care brand Dabur Herbal Toothpaste in the market in December 2004, followed by Dabur Herbal Gel, Odomos Mosquito Repellent Cream and Medicated Soap in 2007. We also plan to enter into the Skin Care and the Home Care categories in future.

What feature of this market attracted you to invest?
The market offers huge potential. Nigeria is today one of the fastest growing overseas markets for Dabur, and we have already seen our business in Nigeria grow manifold in recent quarters.

What are your future plans as far as Africa is concerned?
Dabur has already set up a new manufacturing plant in Nigeria to make a range of toothpastes. This facility is being expanded to include a range of skin care products too. In addition, Dabur also has a facility in Egypt.

Is the time really ripe to enter the African market?
Africa is an interesting market and has a huge growth potential. This can be gauged by the fact that Dabur Egypt grew by a robust 49% in FY 2007-08, while sales in Nigeria more than doubled.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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Corporate China and India Inc. have also jumped into the fray

2009-02-03T03:56:00.000-08:00

IIPM - Admission Procedure

While China has till now adopted a largely heavy industries led investment approach in Africa, India’s approach is more entrepreneur and brand led. No doubt this once again pops up the debate of one’s superiority over the other. “One doesn’t have a choice in these matters. Certain business ecologies already exist in certain regions of the world and it is from that position of strength that entrepreneurs are able to venture into new markets and seek new partnerships or business opportunities,” Sood tells 4Ps B&M.

In as much, Africa is fast becoming the testing ground for India Inc.’s ‘brand’ battle with corporate China. According to the Emerging Economy Report by CKS, “Indian companies will have a far more prominent role in Africa’s economic development than China, even though China has been a far more aggressive investor into Africa over the past decade.” Certainly, Indian industry is itself a private sector driven industry and this is what drives the Indian economy. The private sector moves where it sees opportunity and this instinct is what gives Indian brands an upper hand. “Anyone who has lived in both India and China will agree that the Chinese have been far more successful at creating mass urban and cross-country infrastructure. On the other hand, just having quality infrastructure is not enough for Africa - the continent needs jobs, and that’s something Indian service sector companies can provide,” says Sood.

But there are many who reject the avowal. “I don’t think there is any question of a ‘brand war’. There are so many unexploited opportunities in Africa and believe me, both Indian and Chinese companies can co-exist,” avers Thatty of Bank of Baroda. But in reality, the Indian brand building prowess is fast becoming a major plus for Indian biz in Africa. Agrees Sood, “Indian corporate and consumer culture is almost a generation ahead of China in terms of understanding how to participate in branding relationships.”

Analysts shun comparisons, believing that the question should not be what is going to help India or China, but what is going to help develop African countries better and faster! But it is a fact that today comparatively speaking China has a far better investment record in Africa than India does. In fact, till a few years ago, Indian companies were not prepared to take risks in the low credit rating African markets. China scored better largely because of its state-led investment climate. But with their new found zeal Indian entrepreneurs may yet top that score card. What’s more, critics say that China is more restricted to the B2B model in Africa as the perception about Chinese products is comparatively lower than Made-in-India stuff. While the West has already encountered under-quality Chinese goods, it’s now Africans who talk of “zing zong” products - by which Zimbabweans mean products that ‘break easily’.

Which is not to say that India and China are going head to head around the world. In fact, it may never come to such a pass. But for now, India has an upper hand so far as front-end or consumer oriented businesses go, while China is strong in manufacturing and infrastructure development. If China’s over-arching presence in the oil and mineral rich northern Africa is a reality, then the fact that Indian brands are driving the more metropolitan regions of the continent crazy. Hope you’ve not forgotten the mom and her three kids in that Lilliput store in Cairo?

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).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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IIPM INTERNATIONAL - NEW DELHI, GURGAON & NOIDA
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IIPM : EXECUTIVE EDUCATION
IIPM’s 36th Glorious Year of Academic Excellence
4Ps Power Brand Awards 2007
When IIPM comes to education, never compromise
Why Study Abroad When IIPM Gives You 3 global Advantages!
IIPM Ranked No. 1 B-School In Global Exposre - Zee...

Oh, no, we’ll do it like ‘em Indians!

2009-01-17T00:48:00.000-08:00

What transpired in the world economy last month will undoubtedly be remembered as an epic turning point by future economic historians. Credit and finance markets crashed like nine pins across the world. The thunder effects of which were felt in India as well, as stock markets dived southwards, with the Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive Index dropping by 469 points on September 15. The same week when Lehman Brothers collapsed, AIG got nationalised, Merrill Lynch acquired Bank of America; Washington Mutual and Wachovia got washed out, the Indian realty index (which was the worst hit) fell by 7.6%. Since then, despite the fact that stockprices in India have seen colossal swings, shares of real estate firms have continued to be in a depressing mode, declining a total of 20% (as on October 1, 2008). Many analysts had claimed that all this would finally force the Indian real estate players and the industry to consolidate.

Interestingly, the market though is still very optimistic. “Despite the momentary slowdown witnessed over the past 12 months, 62% of developers foresee Indian real estate embarking upon a high growth trajectory in the long term,” says a recent FICCI-Ernst & Young report on the Indian real estate market. Will the uncertain realty scenario lead to some expected marriages of unlikely bedfellows in the real estate industry? Some feel that consolidation is evidently inevitable. With the cost rising and non-availability of enough funds becoming a threatening issue, consolidation seems to be the only safe way out. Many feel that not only the smaller players are feeling the heat but rising input costs and the demand slowdown have even scarred the established players. Pradeep Jain, Chairman, Parsvnath Developers elaborates, “The construction sector is feeling the heat of rising steel and cement costs as they contribute heavily to the total cost (about 15-20% and 10-12.5% respectively)... This has put a question mark on our efforts as developers to provide affordable housing facilities to middle and lower middle segment buyers.”

Deepak Parekh, Chairman, HDFC, also voiced his concerns over the distressed situation and said, “The present situation may call for some consolidation within the sector. I believe consolidation has already started taking place in the real estate sector.” The magical spell, which the sector was enjoying for the past few years is clearly getting over.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

The third man of the distribution triumvirate is Kulmeet Makkar

2009-01-09T02:01:00.000-08:00

Why Study Abroad When IIPM Gives You 3 global Advantages!

Kulmeet Makkar: The third man of the distribution triumvirate is Kulmeet Makkar (of Big Music and Home Entertainment). With 24 years of experience behind him, of which 19 years in the media industry, Makkar was with Saregama India before joining the BIG gang in 2007. Sitting in his plush office in Andheri (West), overlooking the bright lights of an uber shopping mall across the road, Makkar is still waiting for his place under the sun in the BIG scheme of things, or at least till the time that BIG Motion Pictures creates a critical mass of entertainment content to distribute. Makkar expects a passive 2008, but is confident that 2009 and 2010 will be BIG Video’s year of reckoning. “In 2009 and 2010 lots of BIG Pictures content will be handled by us,” he explains. Till then, Makkar has been planning and executing all group events for ADAG, including the Reliance Power IPO event, as also the recent BIG TV launch.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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IIPM’s 36th Glorious Year of Academic Excellence
4Ps Power Brand Awards 2007
When IIPM comes to education, never compromise
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A prescription to end corruption

2008-11-13T22:56:00.000-08:00

IIPM Programme :- SUPERIOR COURSE CONTENTS

Unique identification of every citizen will help kill the corruption malaise in developing economies

Kris Dev,
ICT & e-Gov Consultant, Manthan Awardee for e-Inclusion & Livelihood Creation

What ails the under developed and developing nations? Reply: corruption leading to self perpetuating poverty. Reason: lack of honesty & transparency. Result: lack of accountability for sustained growth. Economy is divided between rich & poor; the rich are growing richer and the poor are growing poorer. The poor cannot afford essentials such as food, clothing, shelter, health, education and social security. The division is so sharp between communities, while a rich family can afford to spend ¤500 per week on food items, a poor family of the same size can hardly spend ¤5 per week.

Does this mean all citizens living in a poor nation are poor? Well the answer is a ‘NO’. The wealth in a under developed/developing nation is skewed. Almost 80-90% of the wealth of the nation is in the control of say 5-10% of the population. The majority of the population hardly has access to any wealth and live in abject poverty.

One of the biggest factors is ‘Corruption.’ It is the cancer eating into the vitals of the society. It has permeated into all facets of life, affecting the poor and voiceless. Today, the common man with no money or muscle power, cannot think of getting any thing done in the developing world, without having to pay bribe.

Global institutions such as World Bank, IMF, and UN must enjoy legitimacy from their member countries and the international community. They must be responsive, with the interests of all members, especially the smaller and poorer, being taken into account. The governance of these institutions must be flexible, must respond to new challenges, national priorities and specific circumstances.

A scathing report from the Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) of IMF highlights the lack of transparency and accountability in IMF. The IEO measured governance along four dimensions – effectiveness, efficiency, accountability and voice – and against three standards – the Fund’s own governing documents, other international organisations, and private & public-sector corporations. The report finds accountability and voice are the weakest features of the Fund’s governance and these weaknesses entail risks to the Fund’s legitimacy, which in turn has a bearing on its effectiveness.

If this is the situation with global institutions, we can well imagine what would be the situation with national and regional institutions. No wonder they abound in corruption of all sorts and get away with it. Then, how do we get over this corruption mania? One sure way would be to plug all the leakages in the system. This cannot be done without active support of the governments and its citizens. A unique identification of every citizen is the primary requirement. With the advent of ICT tools, every citizen can be uniquely identified from birth to death using unique identification methods such as fingerprint, iris, hand vein geometry and DNA linked to their ID, name, photo, etc.

A Multi Purpose Biometric Smart Card for every individual and organisation linked to a money account and a e-Tool to link every citizen and service provider/public authority including the vertical and horizontal hierarchy of governance can be used as a single window of transactions for G2C, G2G, B2B, B2C, etc. If the transactions are thrown open, then total transparency and accountability can prevail, as envisaged in the Right to Information Act.

Healthy citizenry can be created by covering all aspects of citizens from birth to death such as health, hygiene, housing, education, employment, expenses, consumption, savings, social security, et al, based on genuine physical transactions and not ghost transactions. Thus corruption, money laundering, arms trade and terrorism can be eliminated and all round peace and prosperity can prevail as every one would feel good that no one can cheat any one and all have equitable opportunities to contribute and grow.

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).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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IIPM INTERNATIONAL - NEW DELHI, GURGAON & NOIDA
IIPM - Admission Procedure
IIPM, GURGAON
IIPM : EXECUTIVE EDUCATION
IIPM’s 36th Glorious Year of Academic Excellence
IIPM Ranked No. 1 B-School In Global Exposre - Zee...
4Ps Power Brand Awards 2007
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IIPM is A World of Career
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IIPM Ranked No. 1 B-School In Global Exposre - Zee...

Bose Wave Music System

2008-11-07T03:42:00.000-08:00

IIPM Programme :- SUPERIOR COURSE CONTENTS

Technical Specification

Waveguide speaker technology, multiple CD play modes, MP3 CD and CD-R/RW playback capability, large visual display with extra text information, digital AM/FM tuner with seek function, automatic ramping, shielded speakers
PRICE: Rs.30,263
WARRANTY: 1 year limited manufacturer’s warranty

Simple to set up and use, sound quality from this second generation Bose Wave music system is much superior as musical notes extend a half-octave lower than the original Wave Radio/CD system. With slot-loading CD player, which now also supports MP3 format, the system surely happens to be one of the finest music systems in the market. Further, an easy access to radio music and programmes with built-in FM/AM antennas, it only sets a whole new standard in audio system. In fact, amplifiers and speakers are all built-in so that one can enjoy quality sound right out of the box. Well, it also has award-winning killer looks which will either tempt you or haunt you for days and days...

Marketers’ delight: For consumers who want a compact yet powerful audio system which is delightfully easy to use.

Tester’s note: Pros – Attractive design. Excellent sound. Line-in support for other devices. Cons – On the expensive side. No bass or treble control.

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).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
Now IIPM's World-Class Education... for everybody!!
IIPM INTERNATIONAL - NEW DELHI, GURGAON & NOIDA
IIPM - Admission Procedure
IIPM, GURGAON
IIPM : EXECUTIVE EDUCATION
IIPM’s 36th Glorious Year of Academic Excellence
IIPM Ranked No. 1 B-School In Global Exposre - Zee...
4Ps Power Brand Awards 2007
When IIPM comes to education, never compromise
IIPM is A World of Career
Why Study Abroad When IIPM Gives You 3 global Advantages!
IIPM Ranked No. 1 B-School In Global Exposre - Zee...

Inflation deflating Congress

2008-10-21T02:09:00.000-07:00

IIPM INTERNATIONAL - NEW DELHI, GURGAON & NOIDA

Inflation has been a critical factor in the downfall of governments worldwide. IFor instance, it was the unaffordable prices of essential commodities that ousted Indonesian President Suharto in 1998 and senior Bush in 1992. Even in India, many ruling parties have paid the price. Will Congress survive it? By asad

Many a time, inflation has proved to be a wrecker of governments worldwide; and in India the scare is quite perennial. In 1980, the skyrocketing prices of essential commodities delivered that most essential of all lessons to the left-of-centre Janata Party; and it paid the price that inflation inevitably exacts. In the 1998 Delhi local elections, the voters put the BJP-led coalition out of business in the Onion War that saw onion prices hitting the aam aadmi’s roof.

And ten years down the line, the ruling Congress-led UPA has that same ageless worry gnawing at its very foundations. Wholesale price-based inflation has already touched a 40-month high of 7.41%, with everything from fruits, vegetables, oilseeds, meat and milk becoming dearer. For UPA, the price rise couldn’t have come at a worse time. The glee Congressmen experienced in 2004 – when the BJP was hounded out for failing to deliver on its pledge of ushering in social and economic change – has all but vanished. And at least on the subject of price rise it’s the saffron party that calls the shots and is eager for all the photo ops.

Already, inflation is the leading item on the opposition’s agenda. Warning of nation-wide protests, L. K. Advani would have the Congress “forewarned” of its “culpability” for failing to rein in the monster of inflation. “The hungry masses must make these exploiters pay for this crime,” he said. The barb seemed to have been directed chiefly against Finance Minister P. Chidambaram who, around February-end, had drawn loud partisan cheers for his populist budget pledges that had brimmed over with eye-popping tax cuts and a massive Rs.600 billion farm debt waiver scheme. But the icing was the Pay Commission largesse.

Meanwhile wholesale vegetable prices have shot up by an incredible 4.1% and pulses have become dearer by around 1.2%; with retailers and consumers experiencing the usual jitters. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has admitted that the steep rise in food prices is hurting inflation management, but has ruled out arbitrary controls. The IMF forecast estimates India’s inflation at a moderate 5.2% in the current calendar year and 4% in 2009. But the voter does not care about stats; sop or no sop, he will vote for the party that can deliver.

And all UPA coalition members – particularly the Left – realise that nothing can upset their winning calculations more than the general discontent with the government over the unbearable cost of living. The United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA) has joined forces with CPI to launch anti-price rise protests. “The government will pay a high political price for inflation,” said senior CPI leader D. Raja. So how is the ruling alliance likely to fare in the next elections? Former Karnataka chief minister S.M. Krishna told B&E that he feared for his party in the upcoming assembly polls due to its failure to control inflation.

What’s more, even the middle classes are beginning to fear that the sagging economy will eventually erode their lifestyles, pensions and business prospects. Said a Delhi-based housewife Nilofer Raquib, “I am really worried with several vegetables selling for over Rs.40 a kg.” The government, of course, knows that the baby steps it is taking will not protect it from the voters’ wrath. “We have no magic wand, the whole world is affected,” is the line that big wigs of the ruling party are mouthing.

Said Minister of Earth, Science and Technology Kapil Sibal, “Prices of agricultural commodities had shot up by 73% in the international market between August 2007 and March 2008.” His point is taken. Inflation has notched up record highs in all emerging markets such as China (8.7%), Russia (11.9%), Argentina (7.3%) and Turkey (8.1%). But Sibal must realise that inflation has led to the downfall of governments worldwide. In the late 1990s, this was the case in Thailand, South Korea, Indonesia and Malaysia. It was the unaffordable prices of essential commodities that ousted Indonesian president Suharto in 1998.

Economic slumps have dashed the aspirations of presidential hopefuls in the US. George H. W. Bush found this at his cost when he lost to Bill Clinton in 1992. The two exceptions in US history are Harry Truman and Republican Warren Harding, who snatched the White House from the Democrats in 1920, even as recession was under way. But there can be no parallels, particularly not between the Indian and US scenarios. It’s absurd, for instance, to speculate whether Sonia’s fortunes will go the Truman way.

Will people care less about their pocketbooks and give the UPA the benefit of doubt? Will they be as receptive about the global recession line that the government feels forced to hammer on? Just as there is no magic wand, there are no easy answers this time.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
IIPM - Admission Procedure
IIPM, GURGAON
IIPM : EXECUTIVE EDUCATION
IIPM’s 36th Glorious Year of Academic Excellence
IIPM Ranked No. 1 B-School In Global Exposre - Zee...
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When IIPM comes to education, never compromise
IIPM is A World of Career
Why Study Abroad When IIPM Gives You 3 global Advantages!
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E. SREEDHARAN

2008-10-16T00:18:00.000-07:00

IIPM INTERNATIONAL - NEW DELHI, GURGAON & NOIDA

E. SREEDHARAN
Still on the fast lane

He has achieved several benchmarks and has several feathers in his crowns. But such recognitions can never be enough to describe this man whose vision is limitless. We are talking about the seventy-one years young Metro Man – E. Sreedharan. He changed the face of Delhi by giving it a high tech touch of metro but what many of us today don’t remember is the hurdles that he has to face at that point of time from the so called social care takers. Palpable from his earlier performance, nothing can bog down this buoyant man and hats off to his dare-devil attitude, Delhi has its Metro today. “He’s a man whose contributions have always been overshadowed. I being in the retail & real estate industry know that whenever he chalked out a metro expansion plan, he came out with an optimum solution of not disturbing existing infrastructure,” feels Lalit Kumar, CEO & Director of Ebony Retail.

It’s not Lalit Kumar alone, several others of his ilk, who know Sreedharan agrees that he is a man of action and modest enough to create a project that benefits all. Bucked up with such a mission he want’s to do more for the Indian masses. Well, his track records says that no chains can arrest his dreams.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
IIPM - Admission Procedure
IIPM, GURGAON
IIPM : EXECUTIVE EDUCATION
IIPM’s 36th Glorious Year of Academic Excellence
IIPM Ranked No. 1 B-School In Global Exposre - Zee...
4Ps Power Brand Awards 2007
When IIPM comes to education, never compromise
IIPM is A World of Career
Why Study Abroad When IIPM Gives You 3 global Advantages!
IIPM Ranked No. 1 B-School In Global Exposre - Zee...

The ones who’ll make it...

2008-10-04T03:21:00.000-07:00

IIPM INTERNATIONAL - NEW DELHI, GURGAON & NOIDA

Battle-scarred veterans talk to aakriti bhardwaj and kanika dhupar about the youngsters who’ll be the standard bearers for the nation in the next 25 years

Nikhil Chopra on Ishant Sharma
“It has to be Ishant Sharma! He’s young, energetic and one of the quickest bowlers in India. He’s somebody with his head on his shoulders and is one of the players who will serve the country for a long period of time. He’s only 19 years old, has little experience and still has performed very well internationally. He handles the pressure well and is always looking to improve his performance. This kind of determination from a 19-year-old kid is commendable.”

Ruskin Bond on Anita Nair
“Amongst the many new writers, I think Anita Nair is going to make it big. She’s original, and is always looking to do things in a different way. Above all, she writes really well, and has a unique style that makes her different from all the rest. She has immense potential, but I would like to believe that her best is yet to come. So far, her novel Ladies Coupe is my favourite.”

Sudhir Mishra on Neil Nitin Mukesh
“A lot of new talent is coming up. Neil Nitin Mukesh is someone I think will go very far. There is a rare quality about him, an endearing vulnerability about him. Apart from the fact that he is very attractive to look at, on the screen there is a very appealing softer quality about him. And of course, he is a very good actor. To be a star in these times, all of these things have to come together. Since Neil partly comes from the film industry, he will be guided right. I think he would make a versatile actor, and as he grows, he should choose the right films and work with the right directors from the beginning of his career. As he has only done a realistic film so far, many of his abilities have not yet been showcased. He is a very good dancer as well. I think he has really good potential for the Indian screen.”

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).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
IIPM - Admission Procedure
IIPM, GURGAON
IIPM : EXECUTIVE EDUCATION
IIPM’s 36th Glorious Year of Academic Excellence
IIPM Ranked No. 1 B-School In Global Exposre - Zee...
4Ps Power Brand Awards 2007
When IIPM comes to education, never compromise
IIPM is A World of Career
Why Study Abroad When IIPM Gives You 3 global Advantages!
IIPM Ranked No. 1 B-School In Global Exposre - Zee...

Pay or get paid for GHGs

2008-09-26T00:41:00.000-07:00

IIPM - Admission Procedure

Carbon emission trading is not only catching up, but also reducing after-affects of trade

The ever growing concerns among environmentalists and policy makers to curtail pollution along with keeping the economies growing, have given birth to the concept of emission trading. With the world getting more and more business-like, day by day, this carbon emission trading makes more sense than other similar measures.

Clubbed with this, increasing acceptance by countries of Kyoto Protocol and growing social responsibility, this trading scheme is most likely to take shape of a multibillion-dollar industry.

This system entails the member, company or country, to meet their carbon emission targets. The members are actually countries (as in the case of the Kyoto Protocol), or companies (as in the case of a domestic trading system). The countries or companies have to buy units (credits) in order to emit pollutants above their set targets, or even may sell units if they emit pollutants below their set targets. The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) under the Kyoto Protocol allows industries in developing countries to create emission credits (units).

In simple words, carbon credits are nothing but an equivalent to one tonne of carbon dioxide or its equivalent Greenhouse Gas (GHG). A limit is prescribed to the amount of greenhouse gases a firm can let out in the atmosphere.

The carbon credits are “Entitlement Certificates” issued by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to the implementers of the approved CDM projects. These credits/units can be marketed at both domestic and international level. Under a typical emissions trading scheme, industries are issued an allowance for emissions up to a mandated cap. If the industry uses only a partial allowance, the rest can be sold to other industries.

The initial allocation or the capping is based on traditional provision where the capping or emitting provision is decided on basis of its trend of emissions. Moreover, the national budget for environment is left to be spent on environmental activities and further can be invested to earn credits by reducing the national pollution level. The emission trading can fructify to best results when, a safety valve is applied to it. This system has an emission cap, with tradeable permit but the maximum (or minimum) trading price is fixed. Thus, the emitters Inc. is left with choice of either trading their credits/units in the market or purchasing them from the government without charging prices beyond the permissible limits (safety valve). Consider this: According to the World Bank’s Carbon Finance Unit, 374 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent were exchanged through projects in 2005, a 240% increase, relative to 2004. What’s more, the size of this market is estimated to be anything between $40 billion and $100 billion by 2010.

The current size of the emissions-related trading market is small globally but it is expanding by leaps and bounds. As per reports by the World Bank (May 2006), the emission trading market is worth about $30 billion for 2006, but the market size is growing exponentially.

The EU-ETS (European Union-Emission Trading Scheme) is a trading scheme using the cap and trading scheme, the UK’s Climate Change Levy is a price system using a direct carbon tax and China uses the CO2 market price for funding of its Clean Development Mechanism projects with the safety valve clause.

In order to check increasing local levels of pollutants, the EU have their greenhouse gases scheme in place, the US has established their own national market schemes to reduce Acid Rains and several other regional markets schemes to check emission of Nitrous Oxide. Nevertheless, the trading market for emissions is still ruled by the hazardous Carbon Dioxide. But then the existing emission trading market also addresses the problems and pollutions dealing (with local problems) with smog, Sulfur Dioxide and Nitrogen Oxides. The success of these localised policies shows that few customised local schemes should be in place to check the pollutants unique to a particular locality.

Even the Chinese environmentalist officials had started many such trading schemes and had seen noteworthy success and have also initiated several other emission trading test projects. Learning from their counterparts, Hong Kong Government had also started many a pilot emission trading tools which aim to reduce amount of Sulfur Dioxide and other pollutants. This will not only reduce concentration of pollution over China & Hong Kong but also over whole of Asia and the world. The future of this trading system is very promising as the whole of Asia (especially the developing countries) is largely facing global pressure to reduce such emissions.

With CDM being the part of Kyoto Protocol, the Chinese companies are making big bucks (61% market share in an emission trading) from it. They are actually selling their credits (called Certified Emission Reductions) to companies in rich economies, who whole-heartedly buy them to fulfill their stringent emission targets. Whereas, Asia as a whole dominates about 80% of the CDM market. India also captures a giant pie, grabbing not less than 12% of the market in 2006, a 3% increase from 2005 figure. It’s no doubt that emission trading has created a large pool of brokers like any other trading system. These brokers range from foreign banks to obscure middlemen.

The whole concept of carbon trading is based on global co-operation, but with developed countries (especially USA) showing reluctance, the whole essence of the scheme seems to lose relevance or go into oblivion. Studies of British industry published by Britain’s Carbon Trust undermine the idea that a carbon price of $30 a tonne would be a huge burden. However, the same Carbon Trust reveals that the ETS can bring about deeper cut-backs in its next phase, without harming competitiveness. The recent rush in carbon credits trading in the EU is an indication of future of this immature trading industry.

Emission trading is any day better than the direct carbon tax regulations. This not only reduces the chance of parallel black market (as in the case of carbon tax) but also is cheaper and politically viable.

India: the future market

India is one of the leading players in the carbon trading industry as it generates a huge amount of carbon credits through CDM. According to industry estimations, the carbon trading would touch a figure of US$ 100 billion by 2010. Presently, no less than 300 projects are registered with CDM while the total issued carbon credits with India stands at 34,101,315.

Moreover, the recent surge in project registration with CDM shows a whole new tappable market. In 2007, about 150 new projects were registered with the UNFCCC. The number of expected annual carbon credits in India is predicted to be about 28 million and with each of these carbon credits being sold at 15 euros.

As per Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd. (MCX), industries like agriculture, energy, manufacturing, fuels, mining & mineral, chemicals and afforestation & reforestation are the most viable industries to generate carbon credits. With MCX interested in playing a major role on the emission trading by adding carbon credits to its existing portfolio of commodities, the existing and potential market of carbon credits had increased manifold. This will also help in getting around the price hedging, advance selling and avoiding counterparty risk. MCX also will give the seller a platform for demonstrating their bargaining capabilities.

Sray Agarwal

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).

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HCL’s ‘nano’ ambitions

2008-09-22T23:50:00.000-07:00

IIPM : EXECUTIVE EDUCATION

The company launches the smallest and the cheapest laptop

While India is still wondering about the practicality of Tata’s Nano project, another Indian manufacturer HCL has gone ahead and embraced the ‘Nano’ concept. HCL Infosystems has unveiled its MiLeap series, which is supposed to be the smallest and cheapest laptop available in the country. The notebook has a 7-inch LCD screen, weighs less than a kg and has an attractive starting price point of Rs.14,000.

Ajai Chowdhry, Chairman & CEO, HCL Infosystems Ltd. commented on the product, “This revolutionary new range of ultra portable laptops will herald in a new category of computing devices, opening up a wide range of new usage scenarios and application areas.”

Well, HCL’s MiLeap can definitely be called revolutionary when it comes to price. Before the launch of MiLeap, the entry level laptop segment was dominated by companies like Acer, Compaq & Zenith but even these companies were unable to break the important Rs.15,000 price point. While HCL is the first company in the world to launch a laptop at this price point, globally its counterparts are focusing more on performance and design. Recently, Apple launched its super-slim laptop called the Macbook Air. With its innovative slim design and ultra portable features, the ‘Air’ gives the mobile computing a completely new standard. Even Lenovo is revolutionising the mobile computing with its new IdeaPad range of low weight laptops.

With the tech giants realising the growing importance of laptops in daily life, the futuristic technological innovations in the laptop arena are going to be even more exciting.

B&E edit bureau: Neha Saraiya

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).

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Big Dada Bets on Big Adda

2008-09-04T03:00:00.000-07:00

IIPM : EXECUTIVE EDUCATION

With access to content, infrastructure and mobile platform, RCom is in a position to ring in a new convergent future, believes DEVDEEP SINGH

Let’s start this story from March 2003, when, despite eight years since the launch of mobile services in the country, owning a mobile was still a dream for a majority of Indians. At that stage, Airtel ruled the market with 3 million subscribers, closely followed by the state-owned BSNL (2.2 million) and Hutch, now Vodafone, (2.1 million). But over 90% of these subscribers lived in metros. It was then, while GSM players were competing with each other that Reliance Infocomm (now Reliance Communications) decided to launch Indiamobile services on the CDMA platform. Within the first eight weeks of the launch, the company witnessed a record of 80 million minutes of usage by its subscribers. Today, as tele-density in the country has increased from 1% in 2003 to 23%, RCom, with its customer base of 38 million, just behind Airtel’s 51 million, has proved to be a success. It has changed the way service providers, customers, regulators and experts think and feel about telecom. It transformed the manner in which people think about the future of communications. B&E analyses how RCom provided the right ring tones for a connected India.

Tactic No 1: Become the price warrior

The success of RCom is significant considering the price revolution it initiated in the sector. While the likes of Airtel were offering STD calls for over Rs.3 per minute, Reliance empowered people to make domestic long-distance calls for a measly 40 paise. Although this was applicable for a Reliance-to-Reliance call, it gripped the price-sensitive nation and, by June 2003, the company amassed a subscriber base of 1.2 million. Says S. P. Shukla, President (Wireless Group), RCom, “According to Dhirubhai Ambani, a telecom business would achieve its goal if it could make mobile telephony services available to the masses at rates that were cheaper than the postcard.”
Not only did RCom implement this vision successfully, it strategically reduced the cost of owning a mobile at the entry level. With the Monsoon Hungama scheme that was launched in July 2003, RCom allowed individuals to own a mobile for just Rs.500. Such was the frenzy created that in next few months, the company penetrated deep into towns & villages & became one of the top mobile service providers. “Reliance has always offered the cheapest monthly plans. Also, their valued added services like Hello Tunes and others are cheaper than other operators. It’s a treat to be an RCom customer,” says a Reliance mobile user.

Tactic No 2: Go grassroots

After conquering Version 1.0 in the telecom battle (affordability), RCom focused on Version 2.0 (reach). Anil Ambani confidently asserted, “Our network expansion will give us the power to drive the market and stay ahead of the curve.” And RCom has expanded aggressively. While the company’s wireless network extends to over 10,000 towns today, it plans to take the count to 23,000 by 2007-08, covering 90% of India’s population. To achieve this, RCom plans to invest a massive Rs.200 billion in the coming year.

“The company’s network is undoubtedly amongst the vastest in the country and it has proven its execution skills. In fact, in seven months of the full-fledged CDMA launch, it became the top mobile operator in India,” says Harit Shah, Telecom Analyst, Angel Broking. And it also boasts of an extraordinary distribution channel. As Shukla comments, “We have the largest chain of exclusives Reliance showrooms under two brands - Reliance World and Reliance Express. No other operator has a phenomenal reach of 2,000 exclusive outlets where both sales and services are offered.”

RCom’s rural strategy has paved the path for its overall growth. “When we went rural, everybody contradicted our move. However, a few months later, all the other service providers were talking about going to the rural sector,” explains Shukla. In fact, it was RCom, which envisioned the approaching maturity levels in the metros, and targetted mass markets in India’s small towns and villages. It rightly predicted the rise of the rural middle class.

Tactic No 3: Be a value-added player

RCom became the telecom disrupter in value-added services. When GSM players like Airtel and Hutch were betting on GPRS and EDGE services, Anil entered with a slew of other services like integrated wire-line and wireless services, and convergent voice, data and video services, which took the mobile content market by storm. Interestingly, the competition failed to recognise that Anil was planning something bigger.

This turned out to be the ultimate weapon of convergence, aimed at redefining the scope and limits of the traditional telecom business. “Today telecom is no longer about voice or data; it is about communication in the widest possible sense of the term,” said Anil Ambani. Adds Subrato Das, Head (GSM - IT and Special Projects), RCom, “Reliance has established a pan-India, next generation, integrated (wireless & wireline), convergent (voice, data & video) digital network capable of supporting best-of-class services spanning the entire information-communication value chain.” Adding vigour to his convergence dreams, Anil recently managed to partner with Microsoft for his IPTV foray. “Until now, TV has been a broadcast, ‘one-size-fits-all’ experience. IPTV promises to offer subscribers more choices, control and convenience and a unique and more satisfying user experience,” he said. In the meantime, he has already purchased strategic stakes in firms, or finalised other financial alliances, that will allow him to access news, entertainment, music, gaming and other content that can be accessed on a Reliance mobile phone.

Apart from dominating the value-added services domain, RCom is a market leader in the enterprise segment, offering a variety of telephone solutions ranging from Internet, data networking and IT infrastructure services, helping companies meet their connectivity and automation needs. For the uninitiated, RCom serves over 800 of top 1,000 companies in India. No other telecom player in India seems to be serious about the enterprise segment. In that sense, RCom intrusion in this segment makes it India’s largest integrated telecom player.

RCom has now geared up to provide more headaches to competitors with its foray into GSM. Already, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar, and BSNL are fuming and preparing themselves to face the Reliance belligerence. They have even resorted to legal recourse. But customers are not complaining as they feel that they will now witness price cuts and value additions in the GSM arena. Looks like another disruption is in the offing!

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).

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The battle of Beijing

2008-08-20T00:16:00.000-07:00

IIPM’s 36th Glorious Year of Academic Excellence

What happens when an authoritarian government and thousands of activists go head-to-head at the Olympics? China is about to find out.

You can always count on the Olympic Games to provide drama. Next year’s games in Beijing will be no different; they too will produce powerful stories and riveting television. But this time the images will not just be athletes overcoming the odds or breaking records. They will also focus on clashes between Chinese police & activists who will arrive from all around the world. The causes that motivate their activism range from human rights to global warming, from Darfur to Tibet, from Christianity to Falun Gong. Clashes outside stadiums are likely to be more intense & spectacular than the sports competitions inside. The showdown will be captured as much by video cameras in the cell phones of protesters and spectators as any news agencies’ camera crews. The Beijing Olympics will not just test the limits of human athleticism; it will also test the limits of a centralised police state’s ability to confront a nebulous swarm of foreign activists armed with BlackBerries. A governmental bureaucracy organised according to 20th-century principles will meet 21st-century global politics. Lenin meets YouTube.

Just like the athletes, the Chinese government & activists are getting ready for the battle in Beijing, too. The Associated Press reports that China’s intelligence services, police, and government think tanks are compiling lists of foreign organisations and individuals in what has been described as one of the “broadest intelligence-collection drives Beijing has taken against foreign activist groups.” As per Xinhua, China’s official news agency, Zhou Yongkang, minister of public security, has ordered the police to “strictly guard against & strike hard at hostile forces at home & abroad.” And the various “hostile forces” will test China’s mettle. In Prague, an organisation called Olympic Watch was formed in 2001 to use the occasion of Beijing games to challenge China’s policies on freedom of speech, death penalty, Tibet, religious freedom, & forced labor camps. Darfur campaigners are calling the Beijing games the “Genocide Olympics” and want China to stop supporting the Sudanese government. The Washington Post dubbed the games “Saffron Olympics” to denounce China’s support for Burma’s murderous regime & massacre of its saffron-clad monks. What will happen when the games start and thousands of foreigners travel to Beijing not to watch the games but to try to change China? How will authorities know that the old lady from Denmark is coming with her church group to protest China’s abortion policies, or the young Australian couple is really part of a militant environmental organisation? In short, what if the $40 billion the government is spending to showcase modern China yields the ugly global image of a thuggish regime?

It’s fair to say that the Chinese government probably had no idea what it was getting into when it applied to host the Olympics in 2000. The world — and China’s place in it — have changed substantially since. In 2000, Chinese companies were not as active investing in pariah states that no other company would dare touch. In 2004, for example, China surpassed Iran to become the largest military supplier to Sudan. In 2005, a new pope took a strong stance against China’s persecution of Christians. China’s environmental degradation was far less of a global concern in 2000. Its exchange rate, tainted products & aggressive trade practices had not become the lightning rod they are now.

The real stumbling block is that number of Chinese cell-phone users has boomed from 140 million to over 600 million since 2001, & number of Chinese Internet users has soared from 17 million to 162 million since 2000. Bloggers, chat rooms, social networks & other online communities have mushroomed. And the development of Web-enabled cell phones that can double as videocameras is made even more politically consequential by the rise of YouTube, founded less than 3 years ago.

No PR campaign, howsoever massive, can alter reality. And reality is that thousands of protesters with causes that enjoy public support around the world, China included, will stage highly visible, creative protests during the Olympics & the Chinese government will try to suppress them. Thousands of videocameras will record the ensuing battle. The path from the streets of Beijing to YouTube will be almost impossible for the regime to blockade. Of course, the other option for the Chinese government is to agree to some of what the protesters demand. And slowly, modestly, it has already begun to do so by, for example, nudging Sudan to accept international peacekeepers. But the demands are too many and too varied. Many seek to alter the very nature of the regime and the political & economic power upon which it is based. Repressing them will be a new and frustrating experience for a centralized government that is not used to containing well-organized, media-savvy foreigners who work through highly decentralized, international, nongovernmental organizations that know how to mobilize public opinion to advance their causes. These games promise to be a great spectacle. And we’ll all be watching.

A write-up by Moisés Naím

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).

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BEST MARKETED & PROMOTED STATES

2008-08-08T00:01:00.000-07:00

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This is the second year running for the 4Ps B&M Special issue on India’s ‘Best Marketed and Promoted States’. However, unlike 2007, this year when the 4Ps B&M edit team put its head together with the Indian Council of Market Research (ICMR) to undertake the study, we decided to focus not only on the tourist inflow and promotional advertising budgets of respective states, but also include respective state initiatives to attract investment (both foreign and domestic) and its proposed industrial budget. After all, in a rapidly changing Indian landscape, where on one hand, business and leisure travel is growing by leaps and bounds, netas are also leaving no opportunity to hop onto the nearest jet to woo more investments into their respective state. They are flying across the world and using sophisticated power point presentations to sell their wares (oops... their State) to potential investors. The result is often hilarious, with states vying with one another to trap the biggest investor, with their respective tax sops and special incentives. The latest is the Tamil Nadu (TN) government’s big-bang initiative to attract foreign investment. Earlier this year, babus from a slew of TN state departments, donned their best suits, packed a red carpet and went globe trotting, inviting, among others, the American car maker Chrysler to set up their greenfield facility in the state. With this, the competition between Chennai and the Mumbai-Pune corridor (both booming automobile hubs) has gathered greater steam. As some say, the bigger India grows, the smaller our regional identities will become. But hey, we’re not complaining. Instead, we’re raising a toast to India’s 10 Best Marketed & Promoted States over the last one year.

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).

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‘Pocket-size’ Idiot box all set to debut

2008-07-31T02:43:00.000-07:00

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

An overwhelming majority of Indians are ‘interested’ in Mobile TV. Here’s what this new media promises for all stakeholders. By PALLAVI SRIVASTAVA

“By the end of 2015 the biggest TV viewing in the country will happen through handheld/mobile devices,” exclaims Ashish Kaul, Executive Vice President, Zee Network. He prophesies that since India is a country that has surpassed world standards in mobile penetration, there is a huge emerging market of people who would like to watch content on handheld/mobile devices. “Traditional television in India is already dead and the future of TV is in mobile devices,” he adds.

Ashish maybe exaggerating when he claims the imminent death of traditional TV media in the country, but he is bang on when he says that Mobile TV indeed has a promising future ahead. Sample this: According to a report by Springboard Research – ‘Mobile TV in India’ – 84% of the mobile phone users in the country are interested in using Mobile TV, if it is easily available and suits their pocket.

But how’s it all going to be made possible? Everyone knows that Mobile TV allows users to watch live television content on mobile phone or other mobile devices. And that the phenomena will give users the freedom to watch television anywhere anytime. But here’s what is pushing the potential of the new media. Industry experts feel that mobile TV will kick off in a big way in the coming years, thanks largely to hectic urban lifestyles. Gaurav Sinha, Senior Media Planner in a leading media buying agency explains, “People are spending more time traveling. So, entertainment on the wheels will be the buzz of the industry, in times to come.” He adds that the same is a key reason for the revival of radio in the country, in recent times.

Moreover, India is all set to soon see the emergence of a mass 3G market, to further boost the already budding mobile market. The convergence of broadcast and mobile markets will result in favourable conditions for Broadcast Mobile TV services. “Once these technologies reach acceptable price levels for the Indian market, particularly on handsets, the market for Mobile TV will move ahead rapidly,” says Sue Taylor, Vice-President and General Manager, NDS Asia Pacific. It is expected that Mobile TV will capture around 12 million subscribers in the first year of its launch taking the market size to an impressive (for a beginner) $360 million (Source: Springboard Research).

As far as the technology for Mobile TV is concerned there are two types of technology, which are currently relevant for the Indian market. One is Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld (DVB- H) and the other is Media Flo (developed by Qualcomm). In the DVB-H technology the content is broadcast just the way it is done in traditional television. But one has to set up a new broadcast network to telecast Mobile TV through DVB-H technology. On the contrary Media Flo technology can telecast Mobile TV using the existing telecom network, with some additional investments and enhancement.

Further, like traditional television, there will be a service provider (one who makes the service available to the end customer like cable or DTH operators for traditional TV), a content provider (the broadcaster), and in place of the traditional television set, all one needs to have is a cell phone that supports mobile television viewing.

However, presently there are no service provider in the country for Mobile TV services. State-broadcaster Doordarshan is executing a pilot project, but that too is in a very nascent stage. The options, however are plentiful. Either an existing broadcaster may tie-up with one (or more) telecom player to provide its content to their subscribers. Or the content provider itself can set up its own network through DVB-H technology. Leading media houses have begun studying the feasibility of various options to go mobile, as they say.

There is also another possibility and that is that an independent company decides to get into the business of service provider for Mobile TV. Whatever be the case, one thing is for sure that mobile operators willing to provide Mobile TV service will have an upper hand over standalone Mobile TV operators as they already have an existing network, which can be used to provide the service.

Further, mobile operators in the country also have an existing subscriber base to whom they are already providing various value-added services. So, they too need not go head hunting for consumers to take their services, and instead sell Mobile TV services directly to existing consumers. Coming to handsets, companies like Nokia and Samsung have already launched a few models that support the Mobile TV format and are planning to launch more.

Another factor is the content for Mobile TV. 4Ps B&M spoke to industry veterans to figure what programming mix can one expect on Mobile TV. Most were of the view that a majority of Mobile TV subscribers would prefer to watch the same content on their mobiles as they do on their TV sets at home. “News, sports, music videos and game shows are the genres that can rule the ‘pocket size’ idiot box,” says Ravi Shekhar Pandey, Manager, Syndicated Research, Springboard.
Besides, there are manifold benefits of Mobile TV for all stakeholders. A consumer gets the freedom to watch TV while s/he is on the move and that too in a personalised manner (eliminating the need to watch a ‘K’ brigade serial just because your mom wants to watch it!). For mobile service providers and broadcasters, it can result in higher growth opportunity and higher Average Revenue Per Unit (ARPU). And most importantly, for the advertiser, it promises a much sharper audience resulting in higher ROI.

Having said that, there are indeed some policy issues, which can create complication in the application of Mobile TV, but Springboard’s Ravi feels otherwise. “I don’t think policy will be a big challenge one needs to get the right technology and the right business model in place,” he says. So, ready to catch the ‘Delhi Daredevils’ sweating it out with ‘Kolkata Knight Riders’ live on your cell phone then?

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 :-
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B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
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He always said.... “I’m damn good at business”

2008-07-21T03:12:00.000-07:00

When IIPM comes to education, never compromise

Amitabh Bachchan was the last Bollywood superstar who tried to cash in on his star status to build a business empire. King Khan is trying to move much beyond that! By ADITI PRASAD

Late in the 1980s, he burst upon the scene as a gawking teenager in the serial Fauji. Most girls and women loved him; as did some men. Then he arrived in Bollywood as the character Raju who becomes a gentleman – losing his soul for money and greed before redeeming himself. Then he was the successful tycoon in Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gam. Reel life often mirrors real life, and fantasies often come true. And so you have superstar Shah Rukh Khan in a new role – a can do and aggressive entrepreneur who has global ambitions.

Who would have known that behind the carelessly crafted façade of an entertainer who takes dancing at weddings in his stride, lies the limitless energy and entrepreneurial fire that perhaps only a very few in a million possess. A multi-million dollar deal with the Indian Premier League (IPL), a stake in BAG Films’ entertainment foray, a place on the board of Jet Airways, besides his billion dollar ambitions with Red Chillies Entertainment and VFX, SRK has certainly hedged his bets in the cyclical Hindi film industry.

Even as contemporaries like Aamir Khan, Saif Ali Khan and Sunil Shetty are content with floating production houses or launching restaurant chains, as potential retirement plans; SRK has readied himself with a battery of business interests, to launch himself in style alongside the who’s who of India Inc. And his timing is just perfect. Sources opine that the King will continue to proudly flaunt the Bollywood crown for maximum two to four years and Shah Rukh is leaving no stone unturned to make the most of his precious place under the vacillating Bollywood Sun.

Lalit Modi, the suave Chairman of IPL is a sure-shot convert to the growing fan-list of SRK’s business prowess. “In my view, Shah Rukh is the world’s biggest and best marketer,” he exclaims, recounting a recent incident that re-affirmed his faith in SRK’s business acumen. “I met Shah Rukh within a week of his purchasing the Kolkata franchise of IPL. You won’t believe it, but he had already prepared nearly 20 power point presentations that covered the entire gamut – from possible mascots, to team uniforms, to marketing presentations, possible sponsors. He was like a man possessed,” avers Modi. According to Modi, soon after buying the Kolkata team, Shah Rukh had locked himself in at Mannat (his home in Mumbai) for a week to study the game of cricket and to chart out his team’s future direction.

Soumitra Karnik, VP & Executive Creative Director, JWT is also bowled over. “Shah Rukh’s vision for the team is fantastic. The kind of presentations that he had prepared on IPL, were far better than any MBA student could ever have made,” he points out, confident that in years to come, SRK would completely re-define entertainment and sports in India. And Soumitra should know. Having directed SRK in a series of Pepsi commercials, the creative brain has had a fair share of interactions with Shah Rukh the showman turned marketer and business visionary.

For the uninitiated, King Khan bagged the Kolkata franchise of IPL a few months ago - for an estimated $75 million - under the banner of a new sports and games division created under his production company Red Chillies Entertainment. At the time, SRK’s detractors said that playing hockey in college and playing a star coach on-screen for a hockey team (Chak De India) is no claim to fame in the actual world of sports, but Shah Rukh’s keen business vision, is already proving naysayers wrong.

Sources in BCCI affirm that potential sponsors have begun knocking avidly at SRK’s doors for piggybacking his charisma on the cricket field. No surprise here, given that most of the other IPL franchises are biggies of India Inc. (a la Mukesh Ambani, Vijay Mallya & N. Srinivasan), with their own companies & brands to support. SRK’s decision to move in for an IPL franchise has, in fact, put him in the league of these business barons who share the IPL franchise tag along with Shah Rukh.

At the recently concluded IPL auction for players in Mumbai, a blue T-shirt and jeans clad SRK turned up to full house, and sauntered off with stars like Ricky Ponting, Brendon McCullum, Shoaib Akhtar, Chris Gayle, David Hussey, among others in his pocket, from right under the noses of these biz biggies. Of course, although SRK had bid for Dhoni originally, in the final assessment, he gave Dhoni the miss. And rightly so, given that Dhoni went under the hammer for an eye-popping $1.5 million.

The nation’s passion for anything cricket, coupled with SRK’s deft marketing manoeuvres, his entertainment jugglery and his unbridled charisma to pull fans into the stadium, is just waiting to set the cash registers ringing for King Khan. “I expect all IPL teams to be worth $700-800 million within 5 years of operations,” avers Modi. But so confident is Modi about Shah Rukh’s ability to make a success out of his IPL foray that he candidly admits: “Of the existing franchises, I expect SRK’s Kolkata franchise to be the first to break even and recover money, and that too within the very first year of operations itself.”

The reason is not too far off the horizon: Shah Rukh’s team offers the best of both world’s to fans – Bollywood and Cricket – and no wonder marketers are clamouring to hop on to SRK’s Kolkata bandwagon. Of course, Preity Zinta, who has bagged rights for the Mohali IPL team (with Ness Wadia), trails a similar route, but her charisma pales beside Shah Rukh’s in-your face star appeal.

What’s more, SRK has no intentions to stop with cricket. He wants to invest his time and money in other sports too, just that “starting with cricket makes more business sense,” says the Badshah of Bollywood himself. The vision is to move onto hockey and eventually football. “If you want to make a particular sport popular in the country, you need to make it sensible, business-wise,” affirms the King Khan.

Cricket is not the only business foray that Shah Rukh is eyeing. Being India’s ruling entertainment czar, where his very touch has the ability to transform the fortunes of a Bollywood flick, a television show or even an on-stage performance, SRK is raking in enough moolah for himself as an actor and entertainer-par-excellence. But the man, who likes to be in the driving seat, was not content with that. He kept hinting to his friends in the industry about his latent entrepreneurial fire. “He used to keep telling me, “I’m damn good at business’,” says Director, Aziz Mirza. And true to his ambition, he made his debut as a businessman in 1999 with his production company Dreamz Unlimited, along with friend Juhi Chawla and Aziz Mirza. The first film under this banner – Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani – did not do very well. So, he dreamed up the big-budget Asoka, under Arclightz and Films, SRK’s second production banner.

When Asoka also bombed, SRK conceived Red Chillies Entertainment (this time with wife Gauri Khan), and launched friend and Choreographer, Farah Khan as Director in 2004, with Main Hoon Na. The film was successful at the box office and ever since Red Chillies Entertainment has become his main production company. The latest flick under the Red Chillies banner has been the hugely successful Om Shanti Om, which according to Box Office Mojo has grossed $36,410,328 globally (as on February 7th, 2008), becoming the industry’s biggest grosser ever. Expectedly, the marketer in SRK pulled all stops to promote the film globally and in India, tying up with leading global distributors Eros International, and even making a controversial appearance at the T-20 World Cup in S. Africa, dressed conveniently in an OSO T-shirt. In as much, the first generation producer has successfully taken on the established Sony and Columbia banners. When awarded the entertainment business leader award last year, SRK said: “They may have big budgets, big banners, but I have Shah Rukh Khan.”

SRK’s ambitions are rocketing sky high with the latent potential for Red Chillies Entertainment. The latest thing on the production house’s hand is a flurry of entertainment-oriented news programming to be produced for BAG Films’ entertainment news channel – E24 – to be launched in March 2008. The deal has its base in the 10% stake that King Khan bought in Anuradha Prasad’s BAG Glamour earlier this year, a subsidiary of BAG Films & Media, for about Rs.10 crore. Here too, SRK made a detailed study of the business prospects and the revenue model of the proposed channel, before betting his energies in this venture.

The other big slice on SRK’s plate is an offshoot of his entertainment company - Red Chillies VFX. Managed by the supervision trio of Arjun Mitra, Haresh Hingorani & Keitan Yadav, Red Chillies VFX is all about creating and nurturing visual effects for feature movies as well as advertisements. Given the pace at which Bollywood is expanding and when big budget movies are more the rule than the exception, the technology edge of VFX is definitely brimming with potential. Small wonder that Red Chillies VFX has been hived off as a separate business unit. The bid is to not just pick up work of home productions, but to also work with other banners. Started nearly a year and a half ago, Om Shanti Om was the last home production that the VFX team worked on, while Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, Honeymoon Travels & Don have been key outside productions. “Our business proposition is exceedingly promising. We’re among the top three VFX studio’s in India and hope to become the topmost in few years. At Red Chillies, we are not going so much for numbers as for quality,” says Arjun Mitra of Red Chillies VFX, even as he takes a breather during a shoot for Nagesh Kuknoor’s movie, in Mumbai’s Kamalistan Studio.

Hollywood is next on Shah Rukh’s VFX roadmap and he’s busy building up capacities to meet the growing demand for his state-of-the-art VFX studio set up. And being the shrewd marketer he is, SRK recently announced his plans to produce India’s most expensive movie @ Rs.100 crore (with oodles of VFX thrown in) to showcase the strength of the subcontinent’s special effects and animation industries to world cinema. But, pertinently, the movie, if anything, will showcase the prowess of Red Chillies VFX to scores of Hollywood studios, which in turn will serve as a potential market for this initiative of SRK.

Arjun Mitra denies any plans to woo Hollywood studios as of now. “We have 70 people in the present VFX team and we need to double that just to cope with the work coming in from Bollywood,” he says. But sources say that infrastructure at Red Chillies VFX is being expanded rapidly to accommodate more assignments.

From merely Bollywood, the noose has been expanded to straddle advertising films too. The advertisement to film ratio for Red Chillies is in the ratio of 20:80, since ad assignments are restricted to brands that SRK endorses. Now, the team is keen on expanding the size of the net to rope in other brands too.

To keep pace with his growing enterprise, SRK recently shifted premises of Red Chillies VFX to Mumbai’s posh Lokhandwala area and his team just can’t stop singing his praises. “We are amazed at his quick decisions. When we asked for a bigger office, he did not hesitate a moment and despite the huge cost of real estate in Mumbai, within a week we had finalised a new place. If that’s not the sign of a good entrepreneur, I wonder what is,” gushes Arjun.

Besides, Shah Rukh is also carefully nurturing brand SRK both on and off screen. Close associates point out that Shah Rukh, in fact, is so obsessed with his brand persona, that he sometimes cannot help referring to himself in third person. Add to that his intelligence, witty remarks, a wicked sense of humour – and you have all the trappings for a media savvy, charismatic and shrewd business leader.

Incidentally, Shah Rukh is not the only Bollywood superstar who boasts having this entrepreneurial fire in his belly. Amitabh Bachchan too headed in a similar direction, but was badly scalded due to the financial mess, which his company ABCL landed itself into. Thankfully, Bachchan bounced back. Kaun Banega Crorepati gave him a new lease of life and he repaid his debts. But, the entrepreneur in him lies dormant to the day. There’s also the jumping jack of the 70s – Jeetendra – who sits as promoter in the Rs.1,515 crore Balaji Telefilms. While one would like to give him credit, he himself passes off all praise to his daughter Ekta Kapoor for the success of this production house. So, it would not be entirely wrong to say that SRK has dared to venture where no other Bollywood superstar has tread.

Over the years, this Raju has helped a host of brands acquire the Gentleman status in the Indian marketplace. Guess it’s SRK’s payback time to himself now. Albeit an unconventional one, Mr. Khan is well on his way to become another coveted gem in the glittering crown of corporate India.

With inputs from Pallavi Srivastava

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).

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Apollo God? Alive?! Today?!?

2008-07-10T23:27:00.000-07:00

When IIPM comes to education, never compromise

It’s time to understand that the ancient ‘healer’ lives on...

Greek mythology presents Apollo as the ‘Healing’ and ‘Sun’ God. He was blessed with the power of omnipresence, no matter what the weather... Cut to the present, supernatural powers only seem...well, ‘a thing of the past’. And who’d believe in some ancient Greek God ‘Apollo’ today? Who would?

Surprisingly, many do... and yes, in the present times! Of course, it’s the Apollo Hospitals chain we are referring to here – the largest chain in the whole of Asia with 8000 beds in over 41 hospitals! Today, it’s a name that has come to associate itself with expertise at healthcare! And just as the saying goes, ‘The big only gets bigger,” today, the health major is only geared up for aggressive expansion and mighty investment plans. To ensure that its plans see the light of the day, it is also roping-in many investors – firstly, to create that massive capital pool required and secondly, to hedge total risks involved. The company is also gearing-up to test waters in many ‘untreaded’ health segments. To talk about its infrastructure expansion plans, the group is planning to roll-out a huge 400-bed hospital in Mumbai. And there’s more with the group all-set to expand its muscular arms into the tier-II cities. And none can perhaps beat its excitement about its exorbitant Rs.7 billion investment plan. So does expansion and penetrating into greener pastures spell no risks for the mammoth?

Affirms a company spokesperson, “We at Apollo believe in expanding our services, which (basically) means – taking risks. But we are prepared and each year, as a part of our growth strategy, we try to get into many new areas where nobody has entered.” Hence, merrily banking upon such a strategy, the group is extrapolating an astonishing 40% growth in net profits for the financial year 2007-08.

But here’s a sweet surprise – scintillating financials are not the only reason why the awe-inspiring healthcare titan has stolen the ‘health show’. Compared to its rivals (whose expansion strategy have always rotated around buying-out old hospitals and renewing them), Apollo has always believed in the truth – ‘Old may be gold, but new is diamond!’ And moving along the same line of thought, it has set up many brand-new facilities, and today considers it its secret to success. No wonder, the group has set a target of having a mind-numbing 10,000 hospital beds in India by 2008; from the present 8,000!

However, despite its tremendous growth strategy in place, it should also watch out for competition from many rivals planning a vigorous few years ahead. For instance, Fortis Healthcare Ltd is planning to invest a monumental $500 million to increase its hospitals count by 40 in the next 3-4 years. However, this first-moving giant, who is also credited with becoming the first one to implement the ‘tele-medicine’ concept in India is all set to soar as Sudhir Nair, Head, CRISIL Research agrees, “Telemedicine is one such innovative technology, which if used effectively, would help improve the efficiency of doctors. It was a brilliant move from Apollo indeed...”

Innovative treatment, increased presence, better doctors... the group has everything going for it at the moment. Perhaps, Apollo God lives on... Why? Don’t you think?!

Edit bureau: Angshuman Paul

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).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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