“Intel and Qualcomm are Two Different Rivals”

Eight years back, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) promised to become ‘the’ Intel-killer. It still does. With a modest market share of 12.1% in the microprocessor space, AMD believes that its Fusion and Vision technologies will work magic in the notebooks & mobility devices platforms and enhance consumer experience radically. B&E’s steven philip warner discusses AMD’s status and strategies with Marty Seyer, Global Chief Strategy Officer, AMD.

B&E: AMD has had a rather modest time during the past few years. But it’s still willing to bet on the “next era” of computing. Could you share something about AMD’s future launches?
Seyer: As the only company in the world that develops and designs both x86 CPUs and discrete Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), AMD will play a critical role in pioneering the next era of computing with the first Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) that combines graphics & computing technologies onto one chip. This new processing approach, which AMD calls Fusion, uniquely capitalises on the company’s strengths, while forging into new technology that is designed for a better, faster, more seamless computing experience. Directly tied into our Fusion approach, looking ahead, AMD has a strong focus on enabling a complete computing experience with stunning graphics, accelerated application performance and video capabilities to fulfil consumer demand

B&E: Late last year, AMD settled a $1.25 billion anti-trust complaint with Intel. What are the benefits from this settlement to AMD and what’s your growth strategy for 2010?
Seyer: The November 2009 legal settlement with Intel paved the way for both companies to look ahead and finally compete on a level-playing field. We enter 2010 with one of the strongest platform & technology road maps in our history. AMD’s strategy is to continue delivering exceptional platforms, serving as a one-stop-shop with the essentials for customers across server technology, client platforms & graphics.

B&E: AMD is investing heavily on server & graphic technology. What’s all the talk about your new ‘Vision’ approach that follows the ‘Fusion’?
Seyer: We are seeing strong demand in a variety of markets, including a rebounding server industry that is being driven by cloud computing and virtualisation, among other technologies. On the graphics side, there’s unprecedented demand for immersive graphic experiences, be it gaming, video or otherwise. In fact, in just the three months after the launch of the ATI Radeon HD 5800 series, the first DirectX 11-capable graphics products from AMD, we have shipped more than 2 million DX11 cards. In 2009, we introduced Vision Technology from AMD, a new way of communicating with consumers, retailers and PC manufacturers that breaks the traditional model of how PC benefits are communicated by emphasising real-world usage models that communicate the value of the whole system, not technical specifications. The positive response to the Vision approach prompted the launch of Vision Pro at The Consumer Electronics Show 2010, which expanded the program to AMD’s enterprise customers. At CES, Lenovo debuted its first AMD-powered ThinkPad notebooks, using Vision Pro.

B&E: Intel & Qualcomm are two of AMD’s biggest competitors. What challenges do they pose to AMD?
Seyer: Intel and Qualcomm are two different competitors. The former is well established in the computing market, and the latter in the communications market and is just beginning to enter the computing market through smartbooks. The key to success won’t be based on past achievements, but on forward-looking innovations and through our Fusion approach, we have plenty of capability and assets to lead in our target markets. The semiconductor market has always been, and always will be fiercely competitive, but AMD is keenly focused on what we need to do to succeed.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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

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BRIC: Is it still relevant to India?

Contrary to the belief that BRIC would overtake the economic might of the West, the lack of progress of the bloc due to China’s hegemony and pessimism calls for a rethink of policies, especially for India. Perhaps, it is time for us to look at other partners that could actually help India’s growth story.

Bilateral problems between India and China have existed for long and border disputes keep simmering every now and then, especially in relation to Kashmir, the Aksai Chin area and Arunachal Pradesh. Experts believe that China, because of its own domestic politics and strategic interests, would never foresake its claim from Arunachal and return Aksai Chin to India. The government of India has claimed and reclaimed this area, which legitimately belongs to India and was captured by China during the 1962 Indo-China war, every now and then. China, however, due to its own strategic policies does not seem to be in any mood to give up this land which is basically a corridor connector between the Xinjiang and Tibet. China has constructed an all weathered metal road through Aksai Chin which starts from Lhasa and goes all the way upto the capital of Xinjiang. A part of this metal road (called the Karakoram Highway) also passes through Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) and connects Islamabad with China. It’s said that China even has plans to link Karachi with Gwadar, a sea port that China is developing in Pakistan’s Balochistan province (Makran coast area). There is a strategic motive of China behind this and the question of China giving up the Aksai Chin territory does not seem likely to arise. As long as this dispute remains, the relation between India & China is not going to be cordial in the real sense of the term.

The relevance here is that border disputes between India and China are going to have a major repercussions on the BRIC bloc. For the sustainability of BRIC as a viable alternative to the West, it is extremely crucial that India has a friendly and cordial relation with China. Historically, India has very friendly ties with the other nations of BRIC, i.e, Russia and Brazil. The only problem for India lies with China which is a major component of BRIC. Even thinking of BRIC as a bloc without China is not practical. But then, because of historical differences, territorial claims and counter claims, reasonable relations between India and China also do not seem likely in the near future.

Apart from the territorial disputes, there is also a huge trade imbalance between these two countries. The balance of trade is abnormally tilted towards China and despite India making repeated requests to China to give it the most favoured nation status for several goods, the Chinese leadership is yet to oblige. Even though Indian companies have requested the Indian government to take up this issue with China, no fruitful results have emerged yet. On the flipside, when it comes to Chinese companies, they are making huge profits here in India. India’s trade imbalances, as a result, have been increasing everyday.

If we come to the question of power play within the BRIC nations itself, Russia still has major problems with China with respect to Central Asia and countries around it. The problems are in relation with countries such as Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, which have huge reserves of natural resources, especially oil and gas. While China has major interests in staking claim and forging partnerships with all these countries for exploration of oil and natural gas, Russia does not seem too happy with it as it does not want any other power to have stake in any of these countries which are close to its sphere of influence. China already has problems with India and with the Indo-China dispute over the South China Sea that has recently come up, things have gone from bad to worse. Further, India’s penetration into the South China Sea for oil exploration (after Vietnam’s invitation to ONGC and OIL for exploration on a 50:50 basis) has Russia’s tactic support because of its interests in Central Asia. South China Sea (SCS) is an inland sea which has a stake of four nations – Philippines, Vietnam, China and Taiwan. The SCS has huge reserves of natural oil and gas, uranium, thorium, plutonium etc. The dispute here is territorial between the four countries as China feels that it has the right to claim this whole area of Spartly Islands as the area historically belonged to it before the United Kingdom took over. The stakes have gone high after the discovery of oil. Today, these four nations have staked claim to portions of the SCS, which happens to be in accordance with the international jurisprudence. China here is just playing the big bully and its claims are against the international jurisprudence on the laws of the sea, according to which the South China Sea should be equally divided between the four surrounding nations.

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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. 

IIPM Best B School India
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Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM's Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting

“We’ll never sell through retail!”

Tupperware started in India in 1955 and since then has achieved near dominance. Asha Gupta, MD, Tupperware, tells us why continuous focus on word of mouth publicity and a home sales networks run by housewives is more important than selling through retail

Can you tell us about the journey of Tupperware in India?
The brand itself is a 55 years old. India is a very exciting channel. Globally, India is a very big market for us. When we started off, middle level families started to buy Tupperware. We have achieved a nice position. We are not a company which advertises too much. We use word of mouth, traditional social marketing and women selling to women technique. We want Tupperware to enter every home in India.

Can you explain your product selling technique? What exactly is the ‘Party Plan’?
We sell through our own network of demonstrators. It starts with a lady hosting a Tupperware party at her home and inviting her friends; and a Tupperware demonstrator demonstrates the product among the group of people. We call it the Tupperware Party where they get together and have fun, discuss recipes too – which adds value to people for spending time out together. The lady gives a date afterwards where she tells about the future Tupperware Party. She will actually endorse such parties with a network of few people where she gets to know more friends.

Who’s your target group (Are they just housewives?) and how do you reach them?
The decision maker in our product category are women. On one hand, we have a network of people who keep on moving along and penetrating home to network. Conventionally, we sell through a direct selling network. We have a tie-up with Big Bazaar, where we put up a show kiosk and provide people the opportunity to see, to touch and feel Tupperware products because everybody wants to buy Tupperware products but don’t know where to get them. So over there (at the kiosks), Tupperware people guide you.

Can we expect to see retail outlets of Tupperware?
We don’t plan to sell in any retail outlets as we are giving women the opportunity to run a business directly from their homes. There is fun in selling our products because they are sold from homes; if that product is available everywhere, then what’s the fun of selling it.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

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

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