The plan to clean up the Yamuna is flawed

Suresh Babu suggests an alternative. “Simultaneously, steps should be taken to achieve dilution in the river–mainly by reducing the demand for freshwater by upstream cities like Delhi. Fiscal instruments – like taxing water-guzzling flush toilets – can work. Simultaneously, an attempt needs to be made to revive the water bodies and their catchments to store maximum run-off, which could then be used for local water needs, or could be released into the river for dilution.“

Now, let’s take a look at what’s happened with the cleaning up of the Ganga. According to the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament, the monitoring mechanism for the Ganga Action Plan (GAP) has collapsed, leading to little progress in the river clean-up scheme, The Committee mentioned in its latest report that it “was astonished to note that the monitoring system of such a prestigious and important plan is its weakest link. There was no detailed record of the outcome of the field visits and review meetings with implementing agencies by the National Rivers Conservation Directorate, as also of the follow-up action as has been envisaged in the Plan itself.”

On the funds utilisation under GAP, the Committee has said that while, on the one hand, states have complained of lack of funds as the main reason for delays and failures to achieve targets, on the other, several implementing agencies have failed to spend the money made available to them. “The Committee is of the firm view that no amount of additional resources would rejuvenate the GAP till the system stops tolerating officials who do not perform. This requires amelioration in governance through improved performance and accountability through public participation,” the report added. Worse, in the absence of an effective control mechanism, state governments took full advantage to divert and misuse the funds. Bureaucracy, lack of political will, useless schemes, and government apathy have collectively turned the Ganges and Yamuna – two of the most sacred rivers in India – into cesspools. But successive governments have kept ignoring the issue. After all, cleaning up rivers doesn’t really translate into electoral votes. Therefore, the two rivers continue to flow, and be polluted. And the river action plans get muddied.

the snapshot

Nearly Rs.1,500 crores has been spent to clean up the 22.4-km stretch of Yamuna in Delhi

The initial aim is to lay 50 kms of interceptors, 2-3 metres in dia, to intercept 150 small drains discharging into three main drains of Delhi

There are plans to add another 50 kms of interceptors at a cost of Rs.1,950 crores to intercept sewage from another 150 minor drains

The Problems

The Yamuna Action Plan is not based on any scientific estimate of sewage spawned by Delhi

The plan would require millions of litres of freshwater to dilute the intercepted and treated sewage; the city has no such reserves

In the case of the Ganga Action Plan, the monitoring system was its weakest link; there was no detailed record of any follow-up action

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

Microsoft has also come out with a stand-alone virtualisation server that won’t require Windows Server 2008 operating system, which will be available by March 31, 2008. Sun, HP, Citrix & Red Hat are also envisioning a future in this industry. Talking to B&E, Richard L. Ptak, Managing Partner, Ptak, Noel & Associates says “Virtualisation will become easier to use and a major headache for IT as they scramble to catch up to the ease of use of this technology and the lack of a complete management solution for it. IT operations have to learn about the technology, its benefits, pitfalls and the real threats associated with it”.

This type of virtualisation will allow linkage of various resources and is fueled by growing demand of centralised resources access. Through virtualisation, the users will realise a simpler, scalable & economical technological infrastructure. Virtualised storage space will increase overall business resilience by providing a system through which tribulations can be foreseen and addressed. Moreover, it does wonders for total cost of ownership. Just what the CIO needs to drive the ‘blues’ (pun unintended) away!

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

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Per capita income rising

Then there is the rather weird strategy that Manav adopted during 2007 – of expanding his fleet size (which currently stands at 9 Cessna jetplanes) by ‘zero’. Yes, you read that right; at a time when perhaps only the Martians were making money (with their UFOs?!) in the domestic aviation business, and everyone had taken up ordering planes as their newest found hobby, Manav sat quietly. “We took a decision to consolidate and not to add even a single extra aircraft in 2007. The primary reason being that if capacity expansion took place at such irrational speed, breaking even would become impossible,” explains Manav. With infrastructure improving and with the per capita income rising (implying more clients for Club One), Manav now plans to add more aircrafts to his fleet. He explains further, “We are also thinking of launching subsidiary companies to cater to different segments. We are going to focus a lot on building our own infrastructure and will add aircrafts as our infrastructure gets stronger by the day,” adding that the company already has two maintainence, repair & overhauling (MRO) facilities in Delhi and Mumbai.

In its bid for careful expansion, Club One Air is now looking at the hub and spoke method with hubs being established in big cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, et al, and spokes in smaller cities like Chandigarh, Kanpur and Mysore. Some would call it a dilution of focus from carriage to MRO business, yet in this era of competitive bloodfights and rising air fuel costs, Manav’s focus is on earning additional revenues from every possible quarter. “We will take another 25 years to reach the levels where airlines in US have reached. They have 130,000 small planes there today. In India, we only have a tiny 250! In another 25 years US will have another 250,000 million, but we will be much closer then,” asserts Manav.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

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Jodha Akbar solves Paheli

Tanishq builds an ‘emotional’ connect through its ads and movies

Come Valentine’s day and you will feel the power of love once again, the mighty power of 16th century’s romance, that the valiant Mughal emperor Akbar and beautiful Rajput princess Jodha Bai shared. And guess who takes all the credit for the ornamentation of the romantic saga; it’s none other than our modern Ratan Tata; all thanks to his successful venture called Tanishq, which of late has also been making news at the box office and how! As 4Ps B&M had disclosed the details in the issue dated January 4, 2008, the beginning of February this year will also see the TVC showcasing the Jodha Akbar collection from Tanishq; indeed an advertising strategy, which goes much beyond what the power of the Hrithik-Ash duo alone can dare to achieve!

Advertising in movies is not something new for Tanishq though. It has always resorted to the right movie for promoting its products. Remember the King Khan starrer period film Paheli? Yes, of course, the film bombed at the box office, yet Tanishq gained, thereby increasing its turnover substantially during FY-06 as Bhaskar Bhat, MD, Titan Industries affirms, “It gave Tansihq a platform to convey its brand image and at the same time we also launched a ‘Paheli’ collection”. So what are the big launch plans for Jodha Akbar? Well, the film also presents another big platform for Tanishq to showcase its offerings. So even if UTV fails to mint moolah from Jodha Akbar, Tanishq has its own advertising strategy in place to reach its target audience. “The movie will be released in overseas film festivals and we want to reach the NRIs and promote it for their marriages,” explains C. K. Venkataraman, COO-Jewellery, Titan Industries.

A unique strategy indeed and goes well with Tanishq’s brand image of commemorating the heritage of the glory days of India. Yes, that’s palpable from Tanishq’s earlier ads, which promoted the product as a classic immortalised design. Agress Alpana Parida, Head – Marketing & Merchandising, Tanishq, “That helped us to become the most trustworthy brand but then it became important to reach out to the masses also.” Surely, this well justifies Tanishq’s revelations of many TVCs, which showcased marriages of different cultures, rich masses indeed! “Tanishq has been always a progressive brand, which has been able to create a trustworthy brand image among the niche as well as masses,” elaborates Vikram Tyanath, Team Leader, Lowe. Concerning its latest ad-splashes, Venkataraman has a word to share, “Tanishq is a brand for the youth also and that’s precisely what we plan to promote through our ads. At the same time, we won’t compromise with the ‘trust’ image.” He is also open to tie-up with movies and to create special TVCs. “Such association has always helped us to sustain our brand image and we needn’t talk about trust anymore. Rather, now our ads will talk about craftsmanship & designs,” reveals Parida. So whether Jodha Akbar works at the box-office is a tale for another day, but as far as Tanishq is concerned, it couldn’t have imagined a more romantic side to history!

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

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Towering motives

A slew of strategic initiatives are on in the tower business space

The tower business in the telecom space is buzzing almost with an equal bass and treble effect as that of the spectrum rows right now. In December last year, Airtel’s tower arm, Bharti Infratel sold 9% stake for $1 billion, to Singapore’s Temasek led consortium, taking the total valuation of the company to a whopping $10 billion. A couple of days before the Bharti tower sale deal, Spice Communications also sold as many as 600 towers to Quipo Telecom for Rs.6 billion and in August 2007, RCOM sold 5% for $337 million in its tower subsidiary, escalating the value of RCOM’s tower business to $7 billion. The obvious reason is to unlock value.

The spectrum tangle still persists, but interestingly, to make substantial cost savings both in capital & operational expenditure, even bitter adversaries are turning bedfellows, with respect to the tower business. As per RCOM’s estimates, a new cell site will ensure capex and opex saving of 30% and 3036% respectively & an existing site will result in savings of 10% & 1518% correspondingly. Recently, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone & Idea Cellular announced plans to jointly form an independent tower company called Indus Tower. As per a statement by Vodafone, “The primary benefit will be accelerated expansion of coverage, especially into rural areas, and wider access to affordable services for all”.

While telecom giants are divesting stakes in tower companies to rake in the moolah, they also understand that while rivalry is necessary to keep the competitive spirit going, as far as the tower business is concerned, collaboration seems to be the most viable option.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)

Applying minds!

MINDTREE: SALIL GODIKA

Applying minds!

At a time when all and sundry in the Indian IT milieu are spending sleepless nights, having borne the brunt of the rupee appreciation, MindTree Consulting is busy painting the town red. – what with its net profits for FY08 Q2 increasing at a walloping 34% (Q-o-Q) to touch $6.7 million! Moreover, its favourable market image can also be substantiated by the fact that during the time of its IPO earlier this year, the investors offered more than $5 billion against the actual requisite of $50 million – some faith! But then, it’s all been a matter of toil and no magic, for today, its operations have globally & handsomely spread across different verticals. These are not ordinary strategies; these are the big 3F strategies, as Salil Godika of MindTree Consulting while talking to 4Ps-B&M said, “The 3 pillars of our strategies are: First, focus on superior execution around our core business. Second, focus on growth initiatives and third, focus on identifying future shifts & non-linear models.”

However, the company is not resting on its laurels and is very confident of achieving its hard-line revenue and profit targets of $180 million and $22.6 million respectively by the end of FY08. So what’s the secret broth that’ll help them run past the finishing line before the stopwatch stops? Elaborates Godika, “Over the years, we have built a very strong emotional infrastructure with MindTree minds and this is reflected in MindTree having one of the lowest attrition levels in the industry and many best places to work awards. This human capital values added to our strategies will see us through.” Well, all this is just a sneak peak into the company. One can be rest assured that many more successes, awards, achievements will bear fruit in this ‘tree’ which continues to nurture talent and surprise ‘minds’!

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

In the cradle of innovation

ZENSAR: Ganesh Natarajan

In the cradle of innovation

Zensar believes in ‘innovation’ being the differentiating factor, a belief that has for sure delivered the goods... Explaining its intellectual make-up, Ganesh Natarajan, Dy. Chairman & MD, Zensar Technologies expressed confidence as, “The vast repository of knowledge within the organisation, built over the years, is an agile and dynamic value proposition.” Zensar was the first to conceptualise the innovative technology development Solution BluePrint (SBP); a unique framework, which automates software engineering process. “This framework has been our USP & has shown significant productivity improvements in many customer projects. It also forms the framework for our Global Delivery Platform (GDP),” avers V Balasubramanian, Head - Innovative Technology Solutions, Zensar. The company has a strategic focus on the Retail Services sector and has been a provider of domain expertise & IT solutions to Tier-I retailers across the globe for over twelve years now.

Zensar recently acquired the Intellectual Property Rights for Point of Sale (POS) software from domestic Retail-IT firm Seacom Solutions Pvt. Ltd., and is working on further enhancements and licensing out the same. With a vision to become one of the Top 10 Global Oracle providers, it recently acquired a US East Coast-based Oracle company. It has also devised a FTO (First Time Offshoring) methodology, focusing on the large market of companies that have never outsourced before, or have had bitter experiences in the past with outsourcing. No doubt, innovation has taken different shapes and sizes at Zensar; some real reason therefore that it makes it to the India’s Top 20 IT companies list.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

Telecom; an era of endless possibilities!

It’s exciting to see how quickly telecom is revolutionising the way we live...

Telecom is a much different place today than it was just five or ten years ago. And the exciting aspect is the pace of change is increasing by the day. Telecom is becoming one of the hottest and most interesting areas to follow. There are so many emerging technologies in telecom that, at times, it is difficult to keep up with the changes happening in this sector.

Yesterday, we were an industry of smaller companies competing in separate sectors. Today we are watching mergers transform the industry. Today we have fewer, but larger companies that compete across sector lines. Today, we see the telephone companies offer services of local, long distance, wireless, internet and now television. And they do this to compete with cable television companies who are also offering a similar big bundle of services.

Yesterday, we used a simple phone service offered by a simple phone company. Today, it can come from a large variety of technologies and companies like telephone companies, cable television companies, wireless companies, broadband companies using VoIP, and more. The wireless business and the broadband business are the most sought after businesses in telecom. Interestingly, these are the areas from where some of the most important ideas are coming up. Like the wireless phone, that logs off of the wireless network when you come home and logs onto your wireline network using a wireless connection, this phenomenon lets customers save money and improves quality at the same time.

Tomorrow, we would have one voice mail box and one phone number and our lives will become much easier to manage. Wireless is becoming a new and different industry. You can still buy traditional wireless phones, but you can also buy a variety of new technologies from a variety of new competitors like Apple with iPhone and Google with their wireless phone. The way they charge for the service can also be different. Interestingly, the cellphone business is breaking into separate sectors; the traditional and the new.

Features on the cellphone have exploded over the last few years, thanks to new technologies and increasing speeds on the network. Over the last few years, we have watched cameras; video, movies, live television, music, and a variety of other features take off.

Today, we use a variety of features other than making voice calls which is what we think we buy the phone for. The cellphone is becoming the third screen, after the television and the computer. Banking is the next big trend on wireless devices. Using the cellphone as a credit card, or to access our bank accounts, to transfer funds or pay bills, is soon to be a reality.

So, buckle your seat belts: the next few years will be more exciting than the period gone by...


For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

Aggressive intents

Meet Sanjay Behl, the Marketing Head at RCOM, whose clever strategies changed the rules of mass marketing game in the telecom sector
This is one telecom company, which has maintained its aggressive marketing intents, despite undergoing various advertising and positioning changes over the last four years. Right from the days of the Monsoon Hungama campaign in 2003 to the current Yeh India Ka Cricket Hai, RCOM has always managed to develop an instant connect with its customers. So much so that the brand is now fast closing the gap with market leader Bharti Airtel in number of subscribers. Talking to 4Ps B&M, Sanjay Behl, Marketing & Branding head at RCOM, reveals the strategic mantra behind RCOM’s marketing initiatives.

What has been RCOM’s marketing thrust?
The main thrust of our marketing strategy has been to lead the market growth. And to follow our vision, we at Reliance Communications, have initiated a series of unique and breakthrough initiatives. Whether it is the One India plan, handset bundling, mobile TV, we have always aimed at changing the whole paradigm in customer space.

Visible in all RCOM’s campaigns is the aggressiveness on the pricing front. What is the strategy?
We always strive to stick to our commitment to offer the best deals to our mobile users. In the last few months, we have launched various handsets at varying price points, starting from the Monochrome handsets for Rs.777, Classic Celebrations handsets for RS.999 and the colour handsets for as low as Rs.1234. We also broke the price barrier in the value added service arena by launching a caller tune for Re.1/day.

Most successful RCOM campaign in your opinion?
A campaign which deserves a special mention is RCOM’s Go Colour campaign stating Baton Baton Mein Rang – that really caught on the emotions of mobile users. The Bus Batan Dabao was also a hit, reflecting RCOM’s focus in the VAS market.

What is your strategy for rural markets now?
Targeting the rural customers has been at the forefront of our marketing blueprint. Apart from the ads, we have tried to penetrate deeper into the villages through unique concepts like mobile vans and e-recharging, thus, reaching to almost two lakh retail outlets spread across the country. We have also kick-started the world’s fastest and largest telecom infrastructure roll-out to provide coverage to more than 2,34,000 villages.

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

Chak Diya India!

‘India Disco, Pakistan Khisko’. The entire country was jumping with joy and gay abandon when a bunch of brash youngsters in blue killed the demons of the World Cup debacle and came back with the maiden T-20 World Cup. The swashbuckling Yuvraj Singh created history by smashing six consecutive sixes in one over. Nobody missed the big stars. And Joginder Sharma did to Misbah Ul Haq what Javed Miandad had done to Chetan Sharma more than 20 years ago in Sharjah.

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

Wooing the retail investors

So is it that MF companies are really not interested in wooing the retail investors? Says Amit Saxena, CEO, Planman Financial to 4Ps B&M, “Partly, yes! Wooing corporate money is always advantageous from the fund’s standpoint. Leaving Tier I cities, retail investors from other cities are not even thought of by MF houses. But added to this is the fact that even the retail investor is strangely thoroughly disinterested in investing in mutual funds.” Have the Indian retail investors overnight gained the acumen to leverage knowledge of global cues and associated periodic bouts of volatility to directly invest in the stock market? Or have they become so risk averse that they now prefer opting for FDs or insurance products? And why is the continued disinterest of MF firms towards Tier II cities? Saxena of Planman Financial answers, “Over the years, the contribution of the metros toward the AUM of the industry has increased considerably (from 78% in 2001 to 81% in 2006; of which, 49% belongs to corporate clients, banks and FIs and the remaining 32% to retail investors).

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

High on energy and tanked up on optimism... oil’s well with him!

ASHOK SINHA... CMD, BPCL
High on energy and tanked up on optimism... oil’s well with him!
When many public sector units have been performing rather shabbily, in stark contrast, Bharat Petroleum CorporaLtd (BPCL) has consistently made its mark among the Fortune 500 and Forbes 2000 list. A part of the credit can easily go to Ashok Sinha, the man who has been adding value to the company for the last 30 years, almost since its inception in 1976. An IIT alumnus, Sinha served the company in almost every arena; be it finance, corporate affairs, treasury operations and management, before finally taking over the reins as Chairman and MD of BPCL in August 2005. A stalwart of the industry, Sinha is recipient of several awards including the India CFO Award 2001 for Information and Knowledge Management by the Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU) India. Besides being the CMD of BPCL, he is also on the board of Kochi Refineries Ltd, Petronet LNG Ltd and Bharat Shell Ltd. This astute professional reflects the fortitude of Bharat Petroleum – as also the courage, conviction and pride that got the company to where it is today. Now, he is fuelling BPCL’s belief in the future...

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

BRAND : Himalaya

AGENCY: Meridian
BASELINE : Himalaya sabse pehle
DESCRIPTION: A girl locks herself inside her room – so that no one sees her skin rashes. The VO says, “Skin trouble agayi poore ghar pe trouble.” Her sister makes sandalwood paste and her brother gets her imported creams – all in vain. The VO says, “Pehle haath se chupayengi, phir baal se, aur weekend pe khud hi chup jaayengi.” The girl buys Himalaya Neem Face Wash and washes her face with it. In the end, the VO says, “To jab devi ji ko pata hi tha to pehle kyon nahi istemal kiya.” 4Ps TAKE: Targeting youngsters (especially looks-conscious girls, who bring the house down!), this is a whacky ad that makes its point effectively. The communication talks about the healing quality of Himalaya’s neem face wash – which works better than home-made remedies and imported stuff! The USP is the Neem that has great medicinal benefits. The ad marries a big brand name with Neem very well, and comes up pretty much on top! Himalaya’s mantra – A Neem face wash a day, keeps the rashes away!

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

FIRST PHASE

The first phase of the research was initiated by preparing a list of brands under various categories. All kinds of brands available in India (38,756) were considered and a list of 1057 brands was short listed based on the growth, reach, demand and availability (in at least the 4 metros) in India through various secondary sources and company websites. Compare this with the original list of 852 brands last year, and you realise how the size of brands in India has grown.

Both domestic and international brands were taken into consideration for this first phase of the research. Please go through the alphabetical Index of all brands considered (Pages 80-84) for the study. Moreover, as per the list given alongside 44 broad categories with 38 sub categories were taken into consideration. In order to conduct one-on-one interviews with consumers structured questionnaires were designed and circulated in 5 major cities of the country (Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore & Chennai). The total sample size of respondents (for short listing 150 brands from the master list of 1057) was 1000. All the respondents were asked to tick against brands based on the parameters of Brand Awareness and Brand Preference. After careful significance and factor analysis, we selected the top 150 brands (across all categories). Read the methodology of the survey’s final phase on page 85.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

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Laloo Prasad Yadav as a brand

Laloo Prasad Yadav as a brand, in our minds we can see a very clear picture of him and his physical identity. There is a certain Laloo Prasad Yadavness in the way he dresses, in the way he appears, in the way he speaks, in what he says, in what he believes in, et al. There is a certain factor of expectation that defines a brand and Laloo Yadav is of course a brand because in his case there is a clear factor of expectation that he depicts. And that is why people were surprised when his Railway Ministry did as well as it did and became an IIM case study. For many it seemed to be completely paradoxical because it seemed to be antithetical to the brand Laloo Prasad Yadav. Now we could also read this in the larger sense that it was part of the brand, but the fact of the matter is Laloo Prasad Yadav’s Railways turnaround became an IIM study because people expected certain things of him and that is why his brand value shot up after he was juxtaposed with IIM. will therefore become a brand, sim- ply because he or she is a celebrity.

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

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People Movements

•Rediffusion DY&R has roped in Amitesh Rao as National Business Head. He will be responsible for the Airtel account and will oversee the business nationally. Rao was earlier working with JWT, where he was handling the Pepsi account.

• Perspectrum, the integrated marketing consultancy division of Percept Holdingshas roped in Debhashis Das as its CEO. Das was earlier with Lintas Group where he was President, Linterland – the rural and activation division of Lintas, and President, Lintertainment – entertainment division of Lintas. Meanwhile, Percept Picture Company’s COO, Mahesh Ramanathan, has joined Reliance ADAG’s motion picture production as its COO.

• Antoine Villeneuve has been assigned the role of Senior VP and MD, Walt Disney Television India. He will now be overseeing Disney Channel, Toon Disney/Jetix and the newly acquired Hungama kids’ television channels in India.

• The Tata Power Company has appointed Anil K. Sardana as Executive Director. Prior to this, he was MD of North Delhi Power Ltd., which is an associate company of Tata Power.

• Brent Gosling, Lowe India’s global planner has been appointed Chief Strategic Officer for Unilever brands of the agency.He will be responsible for strategic plans for global Unilever brands such as Lifebuoy, Clinic Plus, Fair & Lovely and Surf Excel.

• After bidding goodbye to BAG Films last month, where he was at the position of COO, Rajiv Mishra has now joined Digital Broadcast, India, as Managing Director- Southeast Asia.

• Vikas Bahl, VP and Business Head, SAB has moved on to UTV Communications’ new brand ‘Spot boy Motion Pictures’ as Executive Vice President.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

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‘Sin’

They’ve, on cue, garnered the appropriate gasps and wows but hardly ever touched the crucial areas of selling! It’s not a crime but a ‘sin’! The agency should be sacked immediately,” Chanda says. However, Chanda believes that often the clients are to blame too, “Because the promise of glitzy awards amidst glamorous settings at home and abroad works as a seductive carrot for them.” To director sahiba Leena (Shabd) Yadav, “The entertainment quotient works as a superseller. Used in appropriate manner – Happy dent, Cadbury, Fevicol,Naukri.com, Airtel - they rock! They go beyond the cut and dry product features to create an emotional synergy and connect that ensures top of- the-mind awareness.” However, she is quick to add that flippant and casual endeavours, hoping for shortcuts to accelerate consumer preference is doomed “because it neither entertains nor sells!”

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

Read More:-

The Sunday Indian - Greatest News weekly
IIPM, GURGAON
Maya jaal spreads far & wide!
RCOM rings in the fabricating tone!!
The Noodle House comes to India
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Cricket isn’t just cricket
Puravankara gets stuck in bad weather
Harry Potter strikes a million!
Serious dangers
Colourful
Hazards related to kidney, liver and lungs
Stock ‘boom’!

Financial services business

As the table indicates, both Ratan- Tata and Kumar Mangalam Birla have a steep mountain to climb if they want their groups to become serious players in the financial services business. In many ways, the two are classic example of established business houses and families failing to exploit emerging opportunities in sunrise sectors (See Box). Their plight in financial services is not a stand alone exception. In yet another sunrise sector, telecom, both Tata and Birla are struggling hard to play catch up with the market leaders. Tata Teleservices and Idea are way behind market leaders like Airtel, Hutch, BSNL and Reliance. Perhaps the saving grace for them in telecom, in contrast to financial services, is that the duo have not yet been written off by analysts.

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2007

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

Read More:-
The Sunday Indian - Greatest News weekly
IIPM, GURGAON
Maya jaal spreads far & wide!
RCOM rings in the fabricating tone!!
The Noodle House comes to India
Re-cycle...
Cricket isn’t just cricket
Puravankara gets stuck in bad weather
Harry Potter strikes a million!
Serious dangers
Colourful
Hazards related to kidney, liver and lungs

Stock ‘boom’!

Economic reforms

What is true of the world is also true of India. Since 1991, when economic reforms were first introduced, financial services has been one of the hottest, fastest growing and arguably most profitable sectors to be in. With each passing year, more and more new opportunities are opening up in the financial services sector as the government has systematically dismantled state monopolies of yore. Corporate banking, retail banking, asset management, mutual funds, retail brokerage, wealth management, foreign currency trading, insurance and consumer finance are all considered sunrise segments where growth and profits are guaranteed for the smart investor and promoter. India Bulls is a classic example of how savvy entrepreneurs have made a killing in the Indian financial services market. In just about five years, the market capitalization of India Bulls has zoomed from zero to more than $ 2 billion!

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2007

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

Read More:-
The Sunday Indian - Greatest News weekly
IIPM, GURGAON
Maya jaal spreads far & wide!
RCOM rings in the fabricating tone!!
The Noodle House comes to India
Re-cycle...
Cricket isn’t just cricket
Puravankara gets stuck in bad weather
Harry Potter strikes a million!
Serious dangers
Colourful
Hazards related to kidney, liver and lungs
Stock ‘boom’!

Here’s looking at better Indo-UK ties

The man behind Airtel – Sunil Bharti Mittal, who is also president of CII, headed a 12-member delegation to the United Kingdom. The group went to strengthen Indo-UK trade tries, explore investment opportunities and also discussed global warming and climate change. Among the list of people the group interacted with were industry honchos like Rolls Royce CEO Sir John Rose, Vodafone Chairman Arun Sarin and British Airways Chairman Martin Broughton. “UK and India are critical for each other. One of the ways that CII reflects this is by taking the annual CII CEOs Mission to the UK, led traditionally by the CII President,” CII commented in their statement. Currently, Indo-UK trade is pegged at around £8 billion, and, over the last 12 months, India has emerged the second largest investor in the UK.

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2007

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

Read More:-
The Sunday Indian - Greatest News weekly
IIPM, GURGAON
Maya jaal spreads far & wide!
Another hogwash!
COMMUNALISM
While the mayhem continues!
Billions spent on million light years...
The art of splitting hair?
POTA? Funny!
The army’s fallen behind China
The Man of Steel gets his hands in Oil
HLL ‘Lever’ ages the power of Hindustan

FMCG projects

They will begin to dominate the supply chain and shift the power from the FMCG companies to themselves.” And HUL clearly has to take up the cudgels in the semi-urban and rural segments as well, where ITC has pipped it to the post in setting up its retail outlets called choupal sagars. A recent Assocham study on FMCG projects that rural & semi-urban FMCG market size is projected to grow by 10% and 6% respectively by 2010. Urban India market size, on the other hand, is projected to fall by 25% as the market moves towards organic products. While that should be the preferred course of action for the future, there really seems to be little HUL can do currently to reinvigorate its stock. Indeed, more rocking quarters and expansions into sunrise areas could improve investor confidence. Surely HUL would not wish to wait for a generation for that to happen!

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2007

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

Read More:-
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Olay Olay for P&G in India!
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Committing for a lifetime…
The ‘democratic’ route to self-destruction?
Nine Jersey Nights...
Lung ‘crack’ers!
David or Goliath?
New dress up games
Just try & stay away!
“Europe is anti’ american”

POOJA BEDI

"There are not one but two festivals I enjoy celebrating. One is Diwali when I decorate my house with rangoli, do puja, then burst crackers. It is very good for kids as they love bursting crackers and praying on this day and for adults, as they can gamble and shop for the house and decorate the house. The other one is Christmas. I have been celebrating Christmas since 1982. I love decorating the Christmas tree and the traditional dinner. On Christmas, I get gift s for everybody, including my kids, my dogs & servants. We celebrate both the festivals in a big way."

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2007

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

Read More:-
The Sunday Indian - Greatest News weekly
IIPM, GURGAON
Maya jaal spreads far & wide!
Another hogwash!
COMMUNALISM
While the mayhem continues!
Billions spent on million light years...
The art of splitting hair?
POTA? Funny!
The army’s fallen behind China
The Man of Steel gets his hands in Oil
HLL ‘Lever’ ages the power of Hindustan

Goddess Lakshmi, 164,500 INR

India’s actually gone global…and what better example to prove it, than the Spanish moulding Hindu deities? Lladró, the high-end Spanish porcelain house, has recently come up with an exquisite edition of Goddess Lakshmi, seated on lotus blossom and holding lotuses in the hands, the figurine’s been craft ed to revel majesty and with bright tones that look typically Indian. Bring home the divinity this festive season… bring home well-being, prosperity & purity....

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2007

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

Read More:-
The Sunday Indian - Greatest News weekly
IIPM, GURGAON
Maya jaal spreads far & wide!
Another hogwash!
COMMUNALISM
While the mayhem continues!
Billions spent on million light years...
The art of splitting hair?
POTA? Funny!
The army’s fallen behind China
The Man of Steel gets his hands in Oil
HLL ‘Lever’ ages the power of Hindustan

Immersions in water tanks

Quips actor Ashmit Patel, “Ganesh Chaturthi is my favourite festival... but I feel, we must do something about the water contamination that happens as a result.” The sight of dead fish washed ashore has also invoked hue and cry from environmentalists about protection of the flora and fauna. So does that mean we do away with what has been a part of our culture for centuries? Certainly not! The solution is to settle for more environment friendly alternatives and do away with environmentally avoidable customs. Use of bio-degradable material such as natural clay or even imitations made of plastic and metal can re- place POP idols without compromising either tradition or the environment. Immersions in water tanks instead of natural water bodies will ensure that the aquatic life that depends on them is not affected. Along with preservation of tradition what is also crucial is the maintenance of ecological system. And, if festivals are a way to please the Gods, then why should nature itself, which again is a creation of the same God, bear the brunt?

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2007

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

Read More:-
The Sunday Indian - Greatest News weekly
IIPM, GURGAON
Maya jaal spreads far & wide!
Another hogwash!
COMMUNALISM
While the mayhem continues!
Billions spent on million light years...
The art of splitting hair?
POTA? Funny!
The army’s fallen behind China
The Man of Steel gets his hands in Oil
HLL ‘Lever’ ages the power of Hindustan

Cheap money floating

Unfortunately, the trouble that we are in now can be backtracked to the very same year. In this year, with the Fed and other central banks cutting rates like there was no tomorrow, the whole world went on a binge. The cheap money floating around not only went on to fuel bubbles across asset classes, but also triggered inflationary pressures. Then there was a series of rate hikes to fire-fight inflation, which stemmed the long streak of cheap money sending the financial and asset markets in a tizzy. Rising interest rates saw the US housing sector cripple and defaults crashing through the roof. Over indulgent bankers that extended credit to sub-prime borrowers saw their assets turn bad as interest rates continued to rise. Well, if the recent crisis were given a chance, then it would choose Greenspan as its most accurate alibi.

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2007

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

Read More:-
The Sunday Indian - Greatest News weekly
IIPM, GURGAON
Maya jaal spreads far & wide!
Another hogwash!
COMMUNALISM
While the mayhem continues!
Billions spent on million light years...
The art of splitting hair?
POTA? Funny!
The army’s fallen behind China
The Man of Steel gets his hands in Oil
HLL ‘Lever’ ages the power of Hindustan

Indian consumers

“This will be for the first time that Indian consumers will have such off erings under one umbrella and in the festival market there’s a huge demand for home furnishing & furniture,” feels Mahesh J. Shah, CEO, Home Solutions Retail India Ltd. Diwali is the time when Indian consumers are seen fanatically occupied buying white goods, which the Tatas & Ambanis are banking on. Reasons Ajay Baijal, President, Consumer Durables, Reliance Retail Ltd, “You have to give the widest choice and when consumers will be making more than one purchase during the festival, you need to have all types of electronic goods.” Ratan Tata’s consumer durable retailing venture – Chroma is gung ho with expansion plans and by 2008, the total number of Chroma & Westside stores will be close to a 100. So, customers can indeed rest assured regarding a bonanza of sorts this festive season when they go hunting for bargains, as retailers, big & small, will be looking to squeeze their margins to the hilt during this critically important period, to undermine each other. And the fireworks have just begun!!!

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2007

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

Read More:-
The Sunday Indian - Greatest News weekly
IIPM, GURGAON
Maya jaal spreads far & wide!
Another hogwash!
COMMUNALISM
While the mayhem continues!
Billions spent on million light years...
The art of splitting hair?
POTA? Funny!
The army’s fallen behind China
The Man of Steel gets his hands in Oil
HLL ‘Lever’ ages the power of Hindustan