IIPM ARTICLE BROADCAST: January 2013

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Learning to live with Terror

Fighting terror can’t be held ransom to vote bank politics, believes Ranjit Bhushan

The spectre of terror, which has haunted India for a better part of the last three decades – first Punjab and then Kashmir, and then onto mainland India – was never brought out more starkly than it was in November 2008 when the deadly attacks in Mumbai were brought home by live media coverage to a disbelieving Indian public.

The sheer audacity and scale of the slaughter and the impotence of the Indian security mechanisms to put deterrents in place until a lot of damage had been done exposed people to their own vulnerabilities as never before.

Have lessons been learnt? More importantly, is there a bipartisan approach on terror attacks? By the looks of it, some more time would pass before such a consensus emerges. While leader of opposition, L. K. Advani, and Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, have traded charges on whose government is more prone to terror attacks – UPA 2004 to 2009 or NDA 1999 to 2004 – it would be safe to say that the Mumbai attacks remain UPA’s Kandhar. There may have been no shameful ministerial escorts for hardened killers as in Kandhar, but the shifting of IPL, which had the potential to be a sporting brand as big as Wimbledon, on grounds that India was unsafe for hosting such events, falls in the same category of ‘crawling when asked to bend’. In other words, there is now no difference between India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Read more.....

2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
IIPM – FLP (Flexi Learning Program)

Friday, January 25, 2013

Caneel bay, a rosewood resort

This exclusive hideaway turned low-key luxurious resort, encircled by the beauty of the Virgin Island National Park, was established by financier and conservationist, Laurance Rockefeller, over 50 years ago. The essence of its virginity is mirrored by the dearth of room phones and TVs. However, you'll be doing anything but just sitting in one of the 160+ guest rooms, outfitted in soothing untamed nature with slick contemporary furniture and personal patios or balconies, spread over 170 acres. With a Sunset Cocktail Cruise, healing volcanic stone massages, weddings-on-board and a mind-body-spirit rejuvenating centre overlooking the retreat, it is a paradise which craves to be explored, but is still determined not to be exploited.

THE VIEW: Idyllic Caribbean beaches with stark-clear water and sand as white and fine as grinded sugar; not one, not two, but Caneel Bay boasts of seven of such private heavens. Heady rum-tasting, underwater slide show, tennis, fitness centre, windsurfing, scuba clinic, Sunfish sailboats and kayaks; there are enough activities to help you completely forget about your monotonous lives.

ARCHI TYPE: Just a short stroll from the beach, are the pleasantly strewn rooms throughout the resort. Natural wood and native stone form the structures while hand-crafted furniture and richly woven fabrics lend more warmth to the ambience. Celebrities wishing to escape the paparazzi (including Brangelina, Angelina Jolie-Brad Pitt) often book Rockefeller's private beach house, Cottage 7. Air-conditioning and ceiling fans are standard for all rooms, but are free from telephones, televisions and other modern-day diversions.

BON APPÉTIT: Surrender to innovative American cuisine against a breathtaking view at Caneel’s classy Turtle Bay Estate House, or a fixed, seven-course menu highlighting selections from their wine collection in the Wine Room. A more laid back place, called the Equator restaurant, is situated amongst the stone and coral ruins of an 18th-century sugar mill, which specialises in fresh seafood and grilled meats.

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Tuesday, January 22, 2013

What’s good ol’ ‘Holly’ doing in the ‘wood’s?

FROM GOLDEN STATE TO GREEN STATE TO A STATE SANS ANY LUSTRE, THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA CONTINUES TO TUMBLE. ANCHAL GUPTA UNRAVELS THE DETAILS

In the 1510 romantic novel Las Sergas de Esplandián (The Adventures of Esplandián) by Spanish author Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo, he describes a land on the east of the Asian mainland very close to the ‘Terrestrial Paradise’. The land was inhabited only by black women (Amazons), who were led by a queen named Califa. All the possessions of these women were made of gold. He called that island California. Well, modern day California isn’t an island, but being home to Hollywood, and being a land of immense natural beauty, the name does fit in. In fact, if California would be a state, it would, in itself, be the world’s 10th largest economy, with its Gross State Product (equivalent to GDP) of $1.9 trillion, larger than the GDP of the Indian sub-continent. Today, the state is reeling under the effects of a spiraling debt crisis and the global recession, and the Terminator superstar’s various tactics are coming to nought faster than expected. But being the Golden State that it is, California’s economic issues are expectably on a dramatically different plane as compared to other economies in our analysis.

Till late 2006, California was riding high on a never before seen real estate boom, just like the rest of America. This was spurred by two factors. Post the bursting of the IT Bubble in 2000, the Federal Reserve under Alan Greenspan reduced interest rates to historically low levels while George Bush made huge tax cuts to spur a spending boom. This started a chain of events. US households took mortgage loans; many of them at subprime rates, to buy new houses, hence making financial giants invest in subprime mortgage backed securities. The asset bubble kept on expanding until it burst with a bang in late 2007 and culminated in the global recession. California was one of the worst hit, with average residential prices losing nearly 40% of their value by early 2009. Massive foreclosures followed, as people were thrown out of jobs and unemployment rose. As is evident from the table, economy took a nosedive and unemployment soared to newer heights. The state government was the only panacea that citizens looked up to. But, this time, the last bastion of safety and hope is also on the verge of crumbling and the Golden State could enter the darkest period in its history.

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WHEN OIL GREW, RUSSIA GREW; WHEN OIL FELL, RUSSIA ENSURED UKRAINE FELL

WHEN OIL GREW, RUSSIA GREW; WHEN OIL FELL, RUSSIA ENSURED UKRAINE FELL. IF DUBAI IS A CASE IN QUESTION, THEN THE FACT IS THAT RUSSIA AND UKRAINE TOGETHER HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO DEBILITATE THE COMPLETE GLOBAL ECONOMY. SAYS GYANENDRA KASHYAP

This brings us to the biggest paradox of national accounting in the world. If you were to add Ukraine’s 2009 public debt figures with its external debt figures, you’ll reach a cumulative debt figure of 129.3% of GDP. That means that today, Ukraine has borrowed more than what its annual national income is ($180 billion). Despite an almost 60% chance that Ukraine will default on all these kinds of debt, it is amazing that foreign investors still believe in investing in Ukraine, where FDI has increased from $7.8 billion in 2005 to $10.7 billion in 2008.

Comparatively, Putin’s Russia – although not as bad as Ukraine – is the 7th ranked nation across the world on the cumulative default probability ranking (they have a default probability of 13.6%, better than Dubai). From 2005 to 2009, Russia’s fiscal balance has deteriorated phenomenally. While in 2005, there was a fiscal surplus of 8.2%, in 2009, there is now a fiscal deficit of 8% – a 180 degrees turnaround. Although Russia had managed to control its debt service ratio since 2005 (when it was 24.2) and brought it down to 11.3 in 2008, the same is expected to be 18 in 2009, an extremely worrisome rise. To Putin’s credit, FDI investment has increased from $12.8 billion in 2005 to $70.32 billion in 2008. But the forecasts for 2009 are close to half of this figure. External debt that was 33.6% of GDP in 2005 is now expected to increase to 47.1% in 2009. Add public debt of 5.4% of GDP, and you start realising that 52.5% of Russia’s national income of $1671 billion is pure and simple debt. In absolute figures, approximately $840 billion – compare this to Ukraine’s overall debt of $232.2 billion. Russia’s inflation worries continue, with 13.3% being the average inflation in 2008, although the same is expected to come down to 12% in 2009.

Fitch Ratings writes to us that Russia’s foreign currency and local currency long term IDRs have now been downgraded. Russia’s foreign exchange reserves saw an outward flight of almost $200 billion from July 2008 to February 2009. And with almost $137 billion of private sector debt coming up for repayment, these reserves might see a further fall very soon. At one point this year, the Russian rouble had fallen by a killing 37% when compared to the highest it had previously achieved against the dollar. Russia’s real GDP growth this year has been forecasted by Fitch Ratings to be -7%. In fact, World Bank has presented a worse picture, and has said that Russia’s GDP growth has been -9.8% in the first quarter, -10.9% in the second quarter, -9.4% forecasted in the third quarter and -10% in the fourth quarter. Interestingly, population is continuously falling by around 750,000 per year. The UN forecasts that Russia’s population, from 142 million now would go down to just 100 million by 2050. Still, in all fairness, Russia will make it through these times.

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Monday, January 21, 2013

Homosexuals embark on a new fight...

After the fight for acceptance, homosexuals embark on a new fight...

While this tussle between the law-makers and the affected party has existed since years, the revoking of Article 377 has brought forth this issue in India. “I would absolutely want the government to re-consider this clause, but till now we see no signs of any such thing happening. It took years for us to get breathing space in the society, so the possibility of gays being allowed to donate blood looks bleak”, mentioned Charlie, a homosexual.

Common sense dictates that laws ought to be formulated according to the needs of a country rather than to blindly follow an existing rule. If the debate is that homosexuals are more likely to be carriers of HIV because of engaging in unprotected anal sex, then isn’t there an equal chance of being infected with HIV due to unprotected peno-vaginal sex? And if the answer to that is a yes, then why should there exist a discrimination on the basis of gender preference for a generous gesture like donating blood? Being the most powerful and advanced country in the world, the guidelines given by the US were considered sacrosanct by all, but in the recent past, countries like Tasmania and Australia have challenged the laws on gay blood donation.

Such a ban, however necessary, is discriminatory and would perhaps cause dissonance. To avoid such a predicament, it’s imperative to develop laws and rules that support the progress of a society and take it forward. But, perhaps for now, all we can do is hope!

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Saturday, January 19, 2013

The road not taken… well taken

B&E’s Pallavi Srivastava catches up with management graduates who looked beyond the traditional corporate career and took up non-conventional jobs... and that’s what made all the difference!

Five years ago, when E. Sarathbabu joined the MBA course at IIM Ahemdabad, he too just like thousands of other MBAs in the country had a dream of working in a plush and grandiose office of a big corporate house. However, destiny had something else in store for him. It was while doing his summer internship at Central Fuel Research Institute in Dhanbad that Sarath realised that he needed a different fuel to run his life. “While doing my internship I came across few statistics that made me think. When I came to know that more than 30% of the people in India live below the poverty line, I was taken by surprise. And that was when the seed to do something to change the situation cropped in my mind,” he tells B&E.

In fact, this was not the only reason that motivated him to take the road not taken by others. Sarath himself had had an early life of difficulties as he was brought up in a slum in Madipakkam in Chennai with four siblings; his mother being the sole breadwinner of the family. Thus, he could feel the plight of those 30% Indians. “I knew the best way to improve their situation was to give them decent jobs.” And that’s how this Chennai lad started off Foodking Catering Services three years ago with a vision to employ illiterate and poor people. Today, Foodking undertakes event catering, industrial catering, and institutional catering. It also has its own retail outlets. In fact, Sarath’s aim is to employ at least 1,00,000 people before he reaches the age of 50. But it was not an easy call for Sarath to reject the lucrative corporate jobs and start his catering business. He admits that he was in a dilemma whether to do something for the social cause or opt for a corporate job. “I thought if I take up a job, things will be good only for my family.

But if I start a company for a social good, things will be really good for the families of the hundreds of people whom I am going to give jobs,” says Sarath. However, Sarath’s efforts to serve people don’t stop at Foodking. He feels that politics is also one of the strong platforms to serve the people and that’s what motivated him to contest for the General Elections from Chennai as an independent candidate early this year.

Read more.....

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
IIPM – FLP (Flexi Learning Program)

Friday, January 18, 2013

TEAB: RELEVANCE

Obama should close down TEAB

Warren Buffet’s invested firms have business interests in making apparels in Asia, Morocco and the Carribean. Anne Mulcahy, member TEAB, is the Chairman of Xerox, which outsourced manufacturing of low end printers and copiers through Singapore-based Flextronics International Ltd.

The fact is, we guess Obama has probably already realised this. One reason why his meetings with TEAB, well, are not held of late. And surprise, surprise, Obama now has a fully active Presidential Economic Recovery Advisory Board (PERAB) that he meets very regularly to push his moves to improve and hasten the American economic recovery. Guess how many members from the TEAB are there in the PERAB? Five! Buffet, Rubin, Mulcahy, all find themselves eased out. If this much is already done, then it’s time for you Obama to formally disband and disengage the skew-minded TEAB!

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Thursday, January 17, 2013

Still on the ‘Bush’wagon?

Obama may not fare much better than Bush on intelligence oversight

Would it be intelligent enough to keep activities of intelligence agencies under wraps? Or is it time to let accountability take priority? Obama is not finding easy answers to these questions as the debate on the Intelligence Oversight Bill gains momentum. If and when the bill is passed, top level intelligence agencies like CIA, NSA or FBI would be accountable to the people. So far, their operations have only been known to the President and his team of advisers. A similar bill was raised earlier during the regime of former President Bush and he vetoed against it; giving former Vice-President Dick Cheney full authority to run anti al-Qaeda operations secretly. And whenever there has been scope of scrutiny; for instance, on the methods of interrogation used for al Qaeda suspects or the illegal use of state surveillance, the process has been stalled on the basis of the argument that information revealed would be detrimental to security interests of the US. The proposal is that US Attorney General Eric Holder and a team of Justice Department lawyers will personally approve any such arguments about state secrets; making it difficult for the government to escape with this ‘alibi’. However, it may not be too easy. Significantly, just hours after the hours after the Justice Department reiterated that it would limit use of state secrets privilege in new cases, the administration was busy invoking the state secrets clause in a five year old case where two American lawyers for a Saudi charity (non-existent today) were subjected to illegal surveillance. Further, seven ex-CIA directors have demanded that Holder’s ruling to investigate into CIA interrogations post 9/11 be reversed. Obama will need to muster a lot more gumption to make this legislation work.

Read more.....

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
IIPM – FLP (Flexi Learning Program)

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

“Govt. has promised to reimburse the royalty but we have got only sympathy”

A.K. Hazarika, Director (Onshore) ONGC in an exclusive interaction with B&E

B&E: ONGC currently has seven on shore fields in India. Can you give us the current standing of these fields across the country?

AKH: We have total of seven assets out of which six assets are producing both oil and gas and one is producing only gas. Currently all the six assets produce a total of about 8 million tones of oil and the total quantity of gas produced by all our assets are around 5.7-5.8 billion cubic meter of gas.

B&E: Cairn has made a major onshore discovery of the Barmer field in Rajasthan in which ONGC holds a 30% interest. Can you throw some light on the discovery and your collaboration with Cairn?

AKH: The region was earlier being explored by both Shell and ONGC. Unfortunately both of us failed to discover any fruitful fields in the region and Shell gave this field to Cairn Energy. Exploration is more of a gambling, who gets what no body knows. Cairn Energy was lucky enough to find hydrocarbon fields after drilling 14-15 wells. Now though discovery has been made by Cairn the catch is that the government has given those blocks on nomination basis but the licensee is ONGC. And as per the policy all the royalty for this blocks production has to be borne by the licensee. Today ONGC owns 30% of the blocks but it has to pay royalty of the rest 70% also. Thus ONGC has to give 100% royalty for being the licensee for the entire production. This is going to badly impact the financial standing and profitability of ONGC. Though the government has promised to reimburse the amount but we have got nothing but sympathy from the government so far. And as the production has already started and it is very high so our loss would also be very high. We are happy for the country but this has definitely put ONGC’s financials in trouble.

B&E: What are the challenges for ONGC as far as onshore fields are concerned?

AKH: The last major onshore field discovered by ONGC was in 1984, since then unfortunately we haven’t been able to make any major field discovery. All the fields that have been discovered date back to the 1960s, 70s and 80s with minimum period of discovery being of 25 years. Now for any field its life cycle begins to decline after 15-18 years. Thus all the onshore fields of ONGC have already passed their maturity and are now in declining phase of production. Efforts are made through new technologies to sustain and maintain reserve pressure to derive optimum output.About 85% of the wells are not self producing today as reservoir pressure have gone down.

Read more......

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
IIPM – FLP (Flexi Learning Program)

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

INDIA: CONNECTIVITY

Wireless networks are not enough

In a country with Internet penetration at just about 1%, we cannot afford to let a huge majority of our population miss the information age. Although the auctions of 3G spectrum may happen very soon, the real implementation would take a while, as thousands of base stations need to be set up and 3G enabled mobile devices need to be rolled out. Even then, speed will remain an issue. When we talk of rural India, we need to understand that with their very basic education, they would be needing more information in the form of pictures, videos, et al, rather than text; so the bandwidth requirements are huge.

Thankfully, there is hope that the government is going to utilise a part of its massive USO (Universal Services Obligation) fund, for which operators, and (hence customers) have been paying since 2002. The government plans to set up 5,500 telecom towers, improve fibre optic connectivity and provide all rural kiosks with broadband access, besides bringing in WIMAX services. This one-size-doesn’t-fit-all approach is immensely crucial to ensure that millions of Indians are able to stay connected.

Read more.....

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
IIPM – FLP (Flexi Learning Program)

Monday, January 14, 2013

Lighting up the twilight years

Senior citizens are increasingly enjoying sex into their 80s…

They say time is a great healer, the same holds true for sex, used by many sexual healing therapists; but what happens when these two healing powers come together? The reference here is to old-age sex! It has been observed that senior citizens of today are not shying away from some between-the-sheets action. And this has been confirmed by a study conducted by the University of Chicago that finds a mention in The Journal of Sexual Medicine.

The survey conducted between 2005-2006 involved face-to-face interviews with 1,550 women and 1,455 men in the comfort of their homes. The results were encouraging, if not impressive, with 68 per cent men agreeing to having had sex in the past year with women following not too far behind at 42 per cent.

While these are the trends in the sexually-liberated west, what about countries like ours where sex is spoken of albeit in hushed tones? “Indians have been active since time immemorial, in fact, sex is the only “indoor sport” for majority of (old) people that they can enjoy and afford,” says India’s leading Sexologist, Prakash Kothari. In fact, he is quick to add, “In India, more than 50 per cent of the 65+ population would be enjoying sex at that age. In fact, most senior citizens are more active than the youngsters”.

Read more.....

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
IIPM – FLP (Flexi Learning Program)

Friday, January 11, 2013

What some called a seat-of-the-pants strategy

arun sarin pulled off what some called a seat-of-the-pants strategy, when he entered india as a suspected knee-jerk reaction to vodafone’s japanese exit. b&e does a run-on with current vodafone head of marketing, cmo harit nagpal on the whys and more...

Did they just flow with the tune and let things happen or did Vodafone India actually undertake this Blue Ocean variant knowingly? Didn’t the earlier presence of Hutch, a Whampoa group concern (Singapore/Taiwan) cause a huge culture collision in the taken over entity? On the contrary, as Harit Nagpal, the Chief Marketing Officer, Vodafone Essar Ltd, says to us, “The advantage with Hutch was that it already had good practices, right kind of people and a healthy customer base, and all that has been enhanced many folds under Vodafone’s umbrella.” Deepak Kaistha, Consulting Partner, Planman HR, who has interacted closely with the top management of the company on the HR front since Hutch times, tells us, “They achieved that by ensuring that the takeover was not in the face of employees. You wouldn’t have ever heard of any layoffs or huge employee restructuring plans, even during the economic slowdown.”

But we have to accept that if not strategic pricing (where Vodafone has repeatedly failed to differentiate itself from Airtel), one area that, on a post hoc analysis, has ‘all that ends well...’ written all over it is the transition from the ‘Hutch’ brand to Vodafone in the customer’s minds. “Vodafone was already a known brand in India and rather than being a challenge for the company it worked in the favour of the company,” says Harit. However, the transition was not as seamless as Harit puts it. In the years that Hutch was Hutch, it had very sincerely worked towards creating a strong brand perception and was hugely popular amongst the youth of the country. Vodafone to its credit used tactful advertising and instead of doing what the colloquial b-stream calls the Thums Up strategy (Coke initially tried to destroy the hugely popular Thums Up brand, which, much to its discomfort, just refused to die as customers kept demanding), pulled off the SBC houdini (When SBC took over AT&T, instead of changing AT&T’s name to SBC, they changed SBC’s name to AT&T recognising the huge brand potential brand AT&T had). Thus, despite gadzillions of Zoozoos walking all up your screen and modesty, the pug refuses – cleverly – to be left out of positioning. Vodafone says it’s today even a bigger brand than was Hutch! A claim that is used to point us to the fact from the time of acquisition to now, Vodafone had displaced the state run telecom player BSNL from its third rank. Well, BSNL who?

Read more......

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

“I don’t want parents and children to be traumatised”

The latest Union Budget has given ample scope to HRD Minister Kapil Sibal to realise his grand dreams to completely revamp and restructure the education system in India. In an exclusive interview to priyanka rai, Sibal lays down a road map for how he will do to education what Manmohan Singh did with the economy in 1991. B&E wishes him Godspeed.

B&E: At what point of your life did you first think of joining politics?

KS: I think I was 14. I was sitting in the Parliament gallery. I heard someone speak. He was from Kashmir and was speaking in beautiful Urdu. I found it fascinating. I said to myself that I had to be here.

B&E: Was there anything in particular in our education system that frustrated you back then?

KS: I found the system completely unrelated to the outside world. Basically everything was ratta (learning by rote) examination. Remember, there are all kinds of people, there are those that are by nature disciplined, and those that are not. There are young boys who are full of ideas. For them curriculum discipline is oppressive. The system must make education entertaining. Today education is a torment for young minds. Education is basically about life and the existing syllabus doesn’t complement what you learn from life.

B&E: Did any particular incident make you think this way?
KS: Not in my case. I was the captain of my school team in cricket, hockey and football. I was also the winner of the first prize in 100 meters, 200 meters and 400 meters. I was an athlete. I was least interested in studies. As life moved on, I became more serious about studies. I took up theatre in college. In my first year I was Julius Caesar with Kabir Bedi playing Casca. Then I was the lead character in Richard III. I also directed plays in St. Stephen’s College.

Read more.....

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

Wednesday, January 09, 2013

Can LG bounce back?

LG ruled the Indian consumer durables market for long. But since 2011, it has been struggling to play catch up with the new #1 Samsung. The road to regaining glory isn’t an easy one for LG

LG has no problem getting attention. Just that, it’s unpredictable. No one would have imagined the Korean to return to the Indian market, after its two previous efforts in the late 1980s and early 1900s failed to make any impact. But it did. The very first year (1997), it earned a topline of Rs.136 lakh. By that year, Samsung, Panasonic, Sony, Godrej and others were already busy surfing the high tide in the Indian consumer durables (CD) market. Given its poor track record in the Indian landscape, most didn’t give LG much chance of making it big amongst the Indian diaspora. Ten years later, by 2007, LG had become the largest entity in the CD arena, outrunning Samsung by a handsome margin (topline of LG in 2007 was Rs.8,000 crore, while that of Samsung stood at Rs.5,200 crore).

Then came the slowdown, but someone forgot to tell LG that. The three years that followed saw LG rise to the top of every segment in the CD market, and its revenues rose steadily – two steps at a time or maybe more, doubling within a span of just thirty-six months – from Rs.8,000 crore in 2007 to Rs.16000 crore in 2010. Suddenly, LG had become the new star in the Indian CD market. Samsung was being talked less about. Perhaps it enjoyed the lack of attention and in the process, rose as fast as LG did during the years, if not faster. Samsung’s topline trebled from Rs.5,200 crore to Rs.16,000 crore (Rs.15,935 to be precise). Truth was, no one in India had informed Samsung about the slowdown too!

This story of two canons blazing in the Indian CD market has resulted in an interesting outcome. Quickly back to 1997. Then it was the Samsung-talk-in-town. Post 2007, it was LG ruling. Today, suddenly there seems to be another power shift in progress. In 2011, Samsung outdid LG in the money-making game. Its revenues stood at Rs.20,005 crore (a y-o-y rise of 25.6%), while LG with Rs.16,200 crore (growth of 1.25%) was found floating in stagnant waters. This unsettled the LG India top management, and as per media reports, got the India MD and President Soon Kwon summoning the 30 senior-most folks in the company, to warn them of the road ahead of LG India. He had concerns to share about the manner in which competition was getting tougher. The previous year, there were others besides Samsung who grew at a brisk pace. This list especially included the Samurais – Panasonic, Hitachi and Daikin whose growth ranged anywhere between 20-65%. He also spoke on another issue – how the slowdown in the CD market was here to stay. Understandably so, for the growth in the Indian CD market had plummeted to 6% in CY2011 after growing by 13% in CY2010.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

Tuesday, January 08, 2013

Entertainment is engagement

What are the ingredients that make an advertising campaign successful in today’s time?
Proposition, insight, idea, story telling and execution – club them together and you’ll have a great campaign. The entire process has to be necessarily based on the insights that connect a brand to customers.

What role does a good proposition play in the entire creative process?
Proposition is about how the brand wants to project itself to target customers. It is about convincing consumers about the relevance of the brand in his life. It could be attitudinal, emotional or rational.

Which one of the elements is the most important according to you?
No factor is important in isolation. When looked upon as a package, then insight, idea and execution are the most important.

What is it that can destroy a campaign?
Advertising is full of clichés. An idea which has worked once shouldn’t be repeated to a point where it gets irrelevant. This is what advertisers should beware of.

Is the concept of ads as entertainment overused?
Not at all. When I say engagement, it has everything to do with entertainment. If an advertisement is just an advertisement, the consumer will develop a defence mechanism and not watch it. So it’s extremely important to deliver entertainment.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.