IIPM ARTICLE AND EDITORIAL

Monday, March 07, 2011

IT’S TIME FOR THE KILL

It’s not anymore about just offering gadgets loaded with technology; it’s more about ensuring that consumers connect that technology with some hugely desirable benefit

HYUNDAI VERNA TRANSFORM

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:

• 1.6L Petrol engine
1.5L Diesel engine
• Price : Petrol: Rs. 6.55 to 7.50 Lakhs
• Diesel: Rs. 7.87 to 9.21 Lakhs (Ex showroom Delhi)

TRANSFORMATIONAL EXPERIENCE: Hyundai has strengthened its position in the domestic circuit with the launch of Verna Transform. Dynamic by DNA, the new version of the luxury sedan comes with loaded features and dynamic styling for a power-packed performance. Notably, the Korean automaker has done radical changes in the exteriors and interiors of the product raising the benchmark in the Indian sedan segment. The exhaust tip with chrome finish adds to the overall sporty appeal of the product that is expected to take the market by storm.

MSI GT660

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:

• 16” HD LED LCD
• Weight: 3.5 Kg.
• Price: Rs. 1,25,000

GAMES PEOPLE...: MSI has once again stunned the Indian consumer, this time with the GT 660. Trying to tap the gaming freaks, the netbook starts at a hefty price point of Rs. 1,25,000 but considering that it has Intel Core i7 processor with a 16” HD LED LCD screen along with various other sharp features, it is a hot buy in the domestic circuit.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

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

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM makes business education truly global
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm - Planman Consulting
Arindam Chaudhuri (IIPM Dean) – ‘Every human being is a diamond’
Arindam Chaudhuri – Everything is not in our hands
Planman Technologies – IT Solutions at your finger tips
Planman Consulting
Arindam Chaudhuri's Portfolio - he is at his candid best by Society Magazine

IIPM B-School
Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri
Planman Consulting

Wednesday, February 09, 2011

2000 Plants on a Single Day!

‘Creating, caring and conserving’ apparently has been the guiding line for The 3C Company. Extending its focus towards the environment, the company commemorated the World Environment Day in a unique way by distributing plants to commuters using the DND Flyway at New Delhi on June 5, 2010. The company distributed close to 2,000 plants on that single day. Company officials tell us they believe every day is an Environment Day and are consistently doing their bit in improving the environment. Well, if that means distributing a couple of thousand plants everyday, nobody’s complaining.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

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

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM makes business education truly global
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm - Planman Consulting
Arindam Chaudhuri (IIPM Dean) – ‘Every human being is a diamond’
Arindam Chaudhuri – Everything is not in our hands
Planman Technologies – IT Solutions at your finger tips
Planman Consulting
Arindam Chaudhuri's Portfolio - he is at his candid best by Society Magazine

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

IIPM B-School
Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri
Planman Consulting

Monday, January 17, 2011

National Column - MARSHA BLAKESLEE, GENERAL MANAGER, INDUSTRY PRACTICES, UST GLOBAL

The sheer question of what constitutes an ‘item’ is a regular part of debate between business departments. For the procurement team an item is the ‘buying’ unit delivered by the vendor – usually a pallet or half pallet with ‘X’ cases and dimensions. For the store manager, an item is the ‘sales’ unit – one scannable UPC. For a depot the item is the ‘store shipping’ unit – a single case containing individual selling units. Using the example of a toothbrush – the buying, selling and shipping dimensions are all different.

Information technology is a key enabler for and provides companies with the foundation for process improvement/consistency and is almost always a component in business efficiency. While there is still on on-going opportunity for cost improvements due to automation of business processes, there is also a game-changing factor in applying mobile applications and Internet to retail. All in all, the retailers are being challenged to perfect the existing technology base while adapting to new technology opportunities.

Fortunately, there is a large community of technology providers who can speed the introduction of new technology so that retailers can leverage IT while focusing on their core skills of sourcing and merchandising. The RFID technology is proven but its high cost of implementation is acting as a hurdle for retailers. Business intelligence is also a clearly recognised value, again with a high cost of entry. But it promises big returns as retailers get more sophisticated in its use. Mobile commerce, in contrast, has a relatively low cost of entry and can provide immediate value in both customer communication and logistics support.

Retailers always require good people and business process to provide high value information critical to company growth, but the same processes introduced to standardise operations have facilitated access to information for all parties in the retail transaction, an impact on consumer buying patterns that has yet to be fully appreciated.

Coordinated by Neha Saraiya

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

ADVILLE STARS OR JUST GLAM TRIVIA?

Pia Sen, the Paris-based designer, believes that the whole issue is simply making a mountain-out-of-a-mole hill. “While some of them are talented, they are unfortunately made out to be some kind of Renaissance Men; creatures who are geniuses with minds that are truly sublime. Actually a dumbed-down media coverages, frequently making giants of dwarfs, is the culprit. The danger of this kind of blind, uninformed lionizing is that it is misleading and frequently dismissive of real, solid creative talent that is publicity-shy,” says Sen.

Siddharth Roy of Response, Kolkata, tempers his take with reason, as he says, “I can see from where both Bharat and Pia are coming. I guess both are right from their perspectives. For me, adbiz has always been a personality-based profession.” Reality is: Yesterday, it was Padamsee & gang; today it is Piyush & company. And in principle, these are personalities with a proven track record. Therefore, they will attract young eyes wanting to join the profession and emulate them. However, he agrees that many times, the brand value of the products/services advertised is compromised due to the awe or intimidation factor. “I have heard of the head [CEO, Chairman & MD of organisations] rushing out to welcome the ad guru visiting their office. Clearly, their reputation has preceded their presence,” says Roy. By his thoughts, the fact that people who choose to be wowed or awed by whoever for whatever reason is simply their own privilege or problem. Rohit Ohri, JWT North’s Managing Partner also has a thought to share. According to him, the issue of making supermen out of mere mortals in adland has special relevance to his organisation, which has always prospered, untouched by the ‘Personality Cult’ syndrome under discussion, something which according to him has dominated some of the other (Ogilvy, Lowe, McCann et al) organisations. “When clients come to us, they buy into a culture & DNA that traditionally has single-mindedly propagated market-driven, client-specific and result-oriented work,” Ohri says. It is perhaps because of this that JWT can boast of some of its clients that have stayed with it for over 50 years. “We work as a team and deliver in-sync with the needs. Period,” says Ohri, while voicing apprehension about larger-than-life personas, “I am told that Unilever has had to be specially honed to Balki so as to not lose him. He is for all practical reasons the public face of Lowe. The same is true with Prasoon of McCann.” At the end of the day, Ohri believes, that this crazy dependence on that one big guy in the ad-world, can be tricky. It’s a risk though, and as all risks do, this one too has very often paid off well.

Wednesday, December 01, 2010

While foreign banks outpaced their Indian peers on all parameters including loans, deposits & CASA, their credit related activities took a beating

In February 2005, the RBI had released the ‘Roadmap for presence of foreign banks in India’ laying out a two-track and gradualist approach aimed at increasing the efficiency and stability of the banking sector in India. The first track was the consolidation of the domestic banking system, both in the private & public sectors. The second track involved the gradual enhancement of foreign banks in a synchronised manner. This roadmap was divided into two phases, the first phase spanning the period March 2005 – March 2009, and the second phase following the review of the first phase experience.

In the first phase, foreign banks wishing to establish presence in India for the first time could either choose to operate through branch presence or set up a 100% wholly-owned subsidiary (WOS), following the one-mode presence criterion. Foreign banks already operating in India were also allowed to convert their existing branches to WOS while following the one-mode presence criterion. The WOS was to be treated on par with the existing branches of foreign banks for branch expansion in India. No foreign bank, however, applied to establish itself as a WOS or to convert to a WOS during the first phase.

Just when the revision of presence of foreign banks in India was due in April 2009, the global financial markets went in turmoil and uncertainties plagued the financial strength of banks around the world.

Accordingly, the Annual Policy statement of April 2009 indicated the intent to continue with the current policy and procedures governing the presence of foreign banks in India and to review its roadmap after due consultation with the stakeholders once there was greater clarity regarding stability and recovery of the global financial system. Accordingly the annual monetary policy 2010, directed to prepare a discussion paper on the mode of presence of foreign banks through branch or WOS by September 2010. In all probability, the outcome is likely to encourage more investments in India. The next four years promise a launch pad to foreign banks for substantial business expansion.

Amar Ambani, Head of Research (Private Client Group), IIFL – India Infoline Group

Monday, November 15, 2010

OMG, NOKIA’S CHANGING THE PR AGENCY! OR ARE THEY?

This could perhaps be termed as one of the biggest PR account shift in recent times. The news doing the round is that the Nokia account, which is being handled by Text 100, is up for grabs between leading PR giants like IPAN, ICPAR, Perfect Relations, The Practice etc. Text 100 has been handling Nokia’s global account for close to a decade now. But the real twist in the tale here is that it is not Nokia that has called for a pitch. It is perhaps Text 100 that’s itself decided to let go of the Nokia account. One Text 100 insider working on the Nokia account lets go off a shocker to us, “The corporate team of Nokia over a period of time has become very demanding and difficult to manage.” The problem could also lie in the fact that the Finnish giant, which has had a dream run in India, has upped the client benchmarks with Text 100 after noticing competitor Samsung rising in market shares in 2009 with its robust value-for-money touch phones apart from an onslaught from local handset manufacturers that were slowly eating into Nokia’s entry-level market. Nokia creditably has been looking at establishing itself as not just a handset company but a service company through its Ovi offering. And with higher PR service demands from Nokia, the result was that there were far too many Text 100 personnel getting involved to service the Nokia account – and as the juice goes, some key people in the agency over the last couple of years had started to feel that the returns were no longer good.

But one also gets information that the current move could be purely because recently, the public relations firm had signed up globally with the Samsung account (the entire consumer electronics division including the handset division), which was being handled by Integral previously. This also fits well with the ethical rules of the game in the PR industry, as Shikha Ghosh, President ICPAR shares, “It’s quite compliant in good corporate governance for a telecommunication giant to choose not to work with a PR agency expected to handle a competitor’s business – and vice versa too.” Well, it’s the PR industry, and everybody knows that there’s only a thin line between public relations and crisis management... and we’ve not even started talking about relations management, eh!

Monday, November 01, 2010

JUVENILE SMOKE? NO MORE!

A US law, brought into force after 15 years, has banned the display of tobacco advertising to non adults. But the tobacco companies are not going to give ground so easily.

However, Altria’s Philip Morris USA, the nation’s biggest cigarette maker, has already broken with rivals Reynolds and Lorillard Tobacco Co. and is supporting the legislation as a way to standardize manufacturing requirements and spur the development of less-harmful tobacco products, something which the giant is slowly shifting to in the last decade post the 1998 class action lawsuit turmoil. R J Reynolds and Lorillard are both arguing that the law helps cement the position of Philip Morris in the market while their marketing efforts to adult population will be hampered because of changes and bans in various aspects of promotions and packaging.

But, whatever may be the immediate brouhaha, Uncle Sam, a one time largest producer of tobacco in the world, seems bent on clearing the smoke off the air for its coming generations.

Monday, October 25, 2010

INSURANCE IMPRESARIOS

Remember the evangelist insurance ads that hollered at you to either buy the insurance products or die, be maimed, suffer unimaginable ill-health, misfortune and the worst doomsday scenarios possible? Well, there are two, perhaps three, firms which are beating the status quo, churning out ads that talk about everything positive, but disaster! Great start, but are customers buying the spin?

From “Your partner for life” to “Karo Zyaada Ka Iraada”, the transition in the tagline is representative of the metamorphosis in the mindsets of the ad makers engaged in scripting advertisements for an intangible product viz. insurance. Well, the change in the language of the tagline from English to Hindi indicates that the insurer wants to speak the consumer’s language and probably is more comfortable in their own skin. The ad campaigns of insurance firms usually communicated doom and fear and all thanks to the communication strategy, people invariably bought policies out of fear or guilt.

The year 2008 changed it forever and turned out to be the point of inflexion which saw the creation of a whole new benchmark for insurance ad campaigns. The jingle, “Nazar ko kya chahiye, khwaab thode zyaada... khwaab ko kya chahiye, rang thode zyaada... karlo phir zyaada ka iraada,” from the stable of Max New York Life Insurance Company Ltd (MNYL) or for that matter the jingle, “Ye kis pyari hifaazat mein ho, befikri ki halat hai...” from the stable of Bajaj Allianz Insurance challenged the status quo and helped push the boundaries in search and creation of a bigger and brighter tomorrow.

Why these ads covered miles was because of two reasons. One, they didn’t talk about death, accidents, despair, misfortune or any such doomsday scenario. Two, at the first glimpse, no one would have ever thought that the advertisements pertained to insurance. For a change, an insurance ad spoke of a dream and intended to awaken today’s India to re-look at itself, its realities and the untapped possibilities. The new brand campaign was not only instrumental in seeing to it that the brands (MNYL as well as Bajaj Allianz) broke through the clutter in life insurance advertising but also ensured an unprecedented surge in brand metrics.

Monday, October 18, 2010

BIG LEAGUE OR NO LEAGUE

Moving up the value chain has been an aspiration for Indian IT brands for quite sometime now. Now it may well be deemed an unavoidable necessity!

To reach these big order deals and to gain the confidence of clients, Indian companies do need to urgently brand themselves now as value players. Chakraborti of Gartner laments the fact that not a single Indian IT company ranks among the top 100 brands of the world. In B2B branding of this nature, the most important differentiator is the branded product. Indian companies have to be up there leading some next wave of IT adoption now, rather than just playing catch up. That is how clients will identify their capability for big ticket deals. Leading firms are realising this. For instance, Infosys has created a research group called the Software Engineering and Technology Labs (SETLabs), which has developed numerous process frameworks, methodologies, service platforms and reusable knowledge objects. However, as Apte of Forrester points out, the innovations made by Indian companies are generally below the water line; as in they are more in the cost control arena. Clients, meanwhile, define innovation differently. Big ticket acquisitions can also stamp your authority on the world map, just as it happened for Tata with Corus and JLR.

Besides strengthening their base, it is also imperative for these companies to pay a lot more attention to client facing roles. Currently, as per analysts, there is a total neglect of the importance of marketing. Marketing people in these companies are mostly restricted in their role to documentation and proposal building. There has to be clarity in message and positioning by each player with respect to what they stand for. Chakraborti says, “Apart from a very few companies, it is restricted to participating in seminars, events, doing white papers; case studies et al. But marketing thinking is lacking. Creating credibility at multiple levels is necessary – India, Indian IT companies as a destination for outsourcing as well as the services they offer.” In that sense, controlling marketing costs, which Indian companies did in the tough recessionary phase, isn’t exactly what the doctor ordered. Admittedly, Indian IT majors have been ramping up on onsite and near-shore hiring over the past few years. They have to leverage that well.

However, it may be noted that we are mostly discussing the Big 6 here (TCS, Wipro, Infosys, HCL, Tech Mahindra and Cognizant). It is still quite hard to discount their ability to scale up and play on volumes. But the Indian IT sector has a very long tail following that. The challenges for this tail are even greater, as they have to quickly scale up to take strong positions in niche areas. Otherwise they may actually be on the wrong end of the acquisition bandwagon. But experts warn that the global M&A ball game is far from over. IBM has made 74 acquisitions in the business analytics space in a span of one year. Also, the recent acquisition of EDS by HP, Sun by Oracle and Satyam by TechMahindra have had significant impact on partnership models and IT SP strategy over the long-term. In addition, over the near-term, the industry could expect global players making a bid for Tier-2 Indian players and acquiring stake in a Tier-1 Indian IT SPs as well. Big IT is on the prowl; and if Indian players fail to enter the big league with huge promotional exercises, it could well prove a short life for their so called ‘low-cost’ brands. They have had their share of cheap; now it’s time to take their share of best!

Saturday, October 16, 2010

BIG LEAGUE OR NO LEAGUE

Moving up the value chain has been an aspiration for Indian IT brands for quite sometime now. Now it may well be deemed an unavoidable necessity!

While sharing his views on the concept of justice in the Indian context, Nobel prize winning economist, Amartya Sen, shared an interesting anecdote with us to hilarious effect. This was when his car stopped at a traffic signal, and one of the vendors at the signal came up to his car, attempting to sell Sen’s own book to him. The boy exclaimed, “Please buy it Sir. It is cheap and best!” Sen also went on to remark, rather self-deprecatingly, that this is what he always wanted to be – cheap and best!

Coming to the context of India Inc. in the global milieu, Sen’s words will strike a chord for sure. After all, wherever Indian companies have seen a larger role for themselves beyond their home market, the most critical competitive advantage they have sought to exploit is the cost advantage. ‘Cheap’ and ‘Indian’ seem to be almost synonymous (best, meanwhile, is a relative term) as a result; and Indian firms have just about mastered the frugal engineering mantra, in sectors as diverse as steel, telecom, pharma, auto and textiles. Of course, this is most relevant in the context of Indian IT, which is India Inc.’s most phenomenal success story till date. For years, Indian IT companies have taken up opportunities for cost arbitrage and have developed newer capabilities in the IT domain, wherein they could capitalise on the arbitrage as best as possible. How companies like Infosys, Wipro and TCS became the new age industrial giants in the process is well known.

Even though the ‘cheap’ label does make us cringe at times, criticism of this approach is both logical and illogical, depending on the period that you consider for your assessment. Till the 1990s and the early years of this century, this was the best foot they could put forward, at a time when the lower end of the IT ball game was a blue ocean of sorts, and they had the right fishing gear! They did it brilliantly then; no question about that. But while it is important to know when it is the right time to latch on to a particular business strategy, it is equally important to know when to let go. And with the Indian IT sector, the time to let go is coming sooner than anticipated. Moving up the value chain has been a desirable and aspirational business approach for quite some time, but it may not be too far-fetched now to deem it a necessity. The lingering questions that now come to mind are why, when and yes...how?