Wednesday, October 21, 2009

HITTING THE RIGHT CHORD...

PAWAN MUNJAL, MD, HERO HONDA MOTORS
Even as Indian two-wheeler makers like TVS Motors and Bajaj Auto were registering falling sales month after month during the last financial year, Hero Honda was busy strengthening its base in the Indian market. The slowdown period has been the most lucrative one for the company. It even crossed the landmark of selling 25 million units (cumulative) in the last fiscal taking its market leadership to around 57% (60% currently). Moreover, Hero Honda’s bottom-line grew by 33% to Rs.12.8 billion during the financial year. But how did they manage it, when the whole industry was struggling, is definitely a big question.

Well, a right product at a right time is the trick that has clicked. In addition Hero Honda has also utilised the last fiscal to get closer to consumers. The company has built an extensive network of over 3,500 touch-points across the country, selling and servicing its two-wheelers. The company’s rural initiatives too have played a role in strengthening its presence in Tier-II & Tier-III markets, which contribute almost 40% of total sales. Explains Pawan Munjal, MD, Hero Honda, “An unprecedented share of 57% in the domestic market, when the industry has been witnessing a slowdown, is reflective of the strong fundamentals.”

Though auto experts like Murad Ali Baig say that “Hero Honda as a company is known for its continuity and stable approach,” they also accept that when it comes to the premium segment Bajaj Auto rules the roost. And that’s not baseless either. While Hero Honda sold about 185,000 units in the segment during the last fiscal, Bajaj sold 840,000 units. But then, the pace at which Hero Honda is catching up is noteworthy. What is more inspiring is its strong association with the youth and its effective campaigns in the rural markets. However, as Bajaj Auto plans to stage a big show in the executive segment, the days ahead may soon throw up more challenges for Hero Honda.

Pawan Chabra

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

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

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Friday, August 28, 2009

“Innovation is the key to survival and success”


IIPM - Admission Procedure

Innovation is critical for success in the business of online gaming (in fact for the entire service industry), discovers Pallavi Srivastava in an exclusive interview.


4Ps B&M: How important is innovation for the gaming industry?
RS:
The growth of the Indian gaming industry is hampered by low broadband penetration, small consumer base and strong competition from international players. Hence, continuous innovation is the key to survival and success. We need to continuously create innovative means to acquire customers, distribute content and create disruptive revenue models.

4Ps B&M: How did the idea of getting into gaming come about?
RS:
India is all set to become one of the fastest growing digital economies in the world. We believe that with broadband inflection round the corner, India will be one of the biggest digital entertainment markets with online gaming being one of the key growth drivers of this market as it has happened in US, China and Korea. Finally, India has over 50% population below the age of 25. And for the youth, gaming has always been the stickiest form of entertainment.

4Ps B&M: What kind of innovations did Zapak focus on?
RS:
Launching a gaming portal in the nascent Indian market was itself the biggest innovation. We innovated by creating a clutter breaking and wacky brand for the Indian youth and also by creating a new kind of content model in gaming for the Indian consumer. We created new form of advertising option in the Internet space and monetised the adver-gaming platform.

4Ps B&M: Importance of innovation in the company’s success?
RS:
When Zapak entered the online gaming industry in India, the industry was sporadic. We had the vision to create a complete value chain in online gaming for the country and take it to the masses. Innovation was the key to reach out to our target group. We took the route of the wackiest and the most out-of-the-box ideas to get visibility and build the brand Zapak. This innovation helped us to create a brand that the youth in our country connects with and associates itself with today. In just two and a half years of operation, Zapak.com has over 6.5 million registered users and more than 250 brands associating with it, which is an achievement in itself.


4Ps B&M: What worked for the Indian market?
RS:
Global quality, world-class content for the Indian consumer; a strong and vibrant youth brand that the consumer can relate to, a huge latent demand for gaming content, et al, were paramount to work and establish the brand in the Indian market.

4Ps B&M: Strategies undertaken by Zapak to create a brand for itself in this niche segment?
RS:
As mentioned earlier, we got the best of content from all across the world for the Indian consumer. We created a robust and scalable technology platform with a lot of community features to attract and retain consumers. The focus was always on creating a whacky, clutter breaking youth brand. Zapak has been successful in achieving leadership in all components of the gaming value chain – content (Zapak.com, Crazy Kart), access (Zapak Gameplex – Gaming Cafes) and distribution (Zapak Games - Licensing & Merchandising of Gaming Products).

Pallavi Srivastava

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

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

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Monday, August 10, 2009

Mad about discounts?


Professor Arindam Chaudhuri’s Profile

Brand: Big Bazaar

Big Bazaar’s Sabse Saste Teen Din has now become the most awaited sale in India and the credit goes not only to its ‘lowest prices’ strategy but also to the pointed communication. The campaign sent sales soaring (sales of Rs.43 crore in 2006 across stores)...

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

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Monday, July 27, 2009

NIKHIL RUNGTA, MKTG HEAD, YATRA.COM

1. ‘Kya swaad hai zindagi ka’ campaign from Cadbury’s
2. ‘Har ghar kucch kehta hai’ campaign from Asian Paints
3. ‘Where ever you go, our network follows’ ad campaign from Hutch
4. Happydent’s white palace commercial
5. Coca Cola’s ‘Thanda’ series

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

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IIPM Best B-school
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Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Jet set and down you go!!!


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

Have you heard of a shark that swallowed a dolphin and then went for a toss? Well, Jet Airways is the ‘big’ shark we are talking about. It took over Air Sahara forging the biggest deal ever in Indian aviation sector. But soon the Rs.2,300 crore all-cash deal left Jet crippled with losses, and more losses. CAPA observes it as the carrier’s first major strategic error. Analysts believe, allowing Sahara to exit from the market would have resulted in a market correction, which would have helped Jet in more than one way. But then, one wrong decision is all that is needed to fall. And Jet seems to have made that...

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

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Monday, July 06, 2009

Into the ‘Big Blue’ sea...


IIPM Alumni Official on Facebook

Another strategy of Sun that has got its bottom lines bleeding is the developing of free, “open-source” software and the generous giving away of its prized software products under spur sale for peanuts to boost the adoption of its software by the target audience. “In general, Sun has been stuck in a transition between a hardware-centric and a software-centric model and getting stuck in the middle is suicide in any market; in this market, it’s almost instant suicide,” supports Rob Enderle, President and Principal analyst, Enderle Group. Moreover, the factor that has added to the growing predicaments of Sun is that those products, where it bet its money – open-source software, new server and storage systems and new processors; have failed to generate the required responses.

That explains the debacle in the server space. Sun, the famed ‘dot in dotcom’, and popular for its servers in those days, owns only 10.1% of the worldwide server market, while HP holds 30% and IBM leads the pack with nearly 32% (IDC). With the continually shrinking market of Unix operating system dominated by Sun, HP and IBM are clearly taking the honours in the server space.

And now its currently dire financial state has got traditional foe IBM discussing a prospective purchase of Sun’s properties for an approximate $6.5 billion. “I don’t think this will be a company purchase, more of an asset purchase, so conflicting offerings will likely get killed rather quickly. I don’t expect many of the Sun hardware products to survive,” predicts Enderle. Moreover, IBM could use a number of Sun properties to enhance their cloud platform, move back to market leadership in server share, and also ensure that another SCO like event doesn’t occur. “IBM is not and should not attempt to reverse any existing Sun weaknesses. IBM will most likely take the best of the cloud technology, Java and the exceptional talent; replace existing management and fold technical, technology, service and product teams into the IBM environment as quickly as possible. Except among die-hard fantasists, any emotional attachment to Sun has long since been ‘burned’ out,” avers Richard L. Ptak, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Ptak, Noel & Associates LLC. So many jobs at Sun could be rescued. But it certainly seems to be the end of the road now for the Sun of Silicon Valley.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

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

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Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Of two ‘G’s & two ‘R’s?


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

The RIL-RPL merger would lead to the making of one of world’s largest refineries; but is long term growth guaranteed sans shareholders’ smiles?

There’s one ‘G’ that defines short-term prosperity – Gain, but there’s another that pronounces long-term sustainability – Growth! And what’s most critical in the whole kaleidoscope of strategy is the co-existence of the two, a company can’t survive or even trivially dare to make it to the big league! For a change, even in these painfully obstreperous times, where one only hears of bailouts and bankruptcies, Mukesh-led Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL), India’s largest company with an Mcap of Rs.1.9 trillion, and Reliance Petroleum Ltd. with Rs.333 billion in Mcap are together forecasted to report net profit figures of Rs.161 billion – that’s laudable considering many negative estimates that have flown into the market of late. And if that was not enough good news, both entities have announced a merger (effective April 1, 2009) that is in total alignment with the business strategy that RIL has been implementing for the past three decades. Operationally, this move makes sense as even in the past, the company has done well to allow new entities (that were used to initiate new petrochemical projects) of the Reliance Group to merge with RIL, post the initial gestation period. This gives space to the parent to hedge itself against many risks involved with ‘new’ projects.

“This merger is a significant step in our goal to be among the largest global corporations,” optimistically declared Mukesh Ambani, CMD, RIL. This move, besides serving its financials well, would enable RIL to get counted amongst the world’s top 10 refining non-PSUs, with a total capacity of 1.24 million barrels per day. RIL which has 70% stake in RPL, would buy Chevron’s 5% holding in RPL for Rs.13.50 billion, as a part of the deal. The merger is a tax neutral one, thereby enabling both companies to retain their tax benefits. The merged-entity aims to derive various operational & financial synergies from various joint operations like crude sourcing, product placement, supply chain optimisation et al. “RIL expects the merger to provide synergies in crude procurement and product placement,” says Deepak Pareek, Analyst, Angel Broking. At the same time, he warns, “We believe that synergies are likely to be lower as the companies would be sharing facilities.” The deal involves a RIL & RPL share-swap agreement at a ratio 1:16. In order to buy back RPL, Ambani will be issuing 69.2 million new shares of RIL to RPL shareholders. The merged entity would thus have a large pool of 3.7 million shareholders; and this would lead to the rise in RIL’s equity capital to Rs.16.43 billion. But the situation doesn’t seem to pleasing for ordinary shareholders as the current move has resulted in a heartrending evaporation of Rs.68 billion of shareholder equity. Also, not much could be done to avoid the whopping erosion of Rs.67.52 billion in combined Mcap! “The merger definitely leads to RIL becoming a larger player in the global refinery market, but the small investors in the group are being made the scapegoat in the process with their money being turn to dust,” avers N. Wadhwa, MD, SKI Capital.

Yes, cash flow will get stronger post-merger (by $1.5-$1.8 billion), but does prosperity mean paying no heed to petty shareholders? Considering how deep has the principle of shareholder wealth maximisation been embedded in the group, one question gets raised at the end of the day. The merger looks good, in terms of balance sheet affairs, but is big brother trying to redefine the very foundation on which Reliance grew (i.e. Growth@shareholders)? (Ah! That’s a new G there!)

Ratan Lal Bhagat

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

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

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
Detail of all IIPM branches
IIPM set to beat economic slowdown
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Tuesday, June 02, 2009

If size matters, they’re small. If an agency’s recall matters, they’ve happily renamed themselves (twice!!!) in the last ten years!


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

If HR is the most important division to manage creative people, they’ve deliberately done without it for most of their existence! Seriously, what are they thinking? Neha Saraiya takes a rollicking trip inside the innovative chaos called Ignitee (yes!)

“The total size of advertising industry presently is Rs 20,000 crore, out of which the online industry is just Rs 1000 crore,” says an effervescent Atul Hegde, CEO, Ignitee, as he shares the pain of being a relatively smaller fish in the ad-pond. First things first. Their name is pronounced ‘Ignite’ despite the extra ‘e’ trailing the blazer. Hegde spun it off on me that the extra ‘e’ was to differentiate the name (No, I haven’t bought this one yet).

Coming to the more serious affairs on the corporate front, it is true that size is the biggest constraint for ad agencies, and that too in the online arena in India, which is in stark contrast to the international scenario where the online spend is around 25% as compared to the overall marketing spend; though it is also true that the current global turmoil has forced many companies to increase their spend in the online medium because of its cost effectiveness and measurability. Ignitee, with its competencies firmly placed within the online ad space, is well positioned to exploit the current trends. Ignitee was one of the pioneers to introduce the radically innovative concept of “double click” in the online space. That was the beginning of the agency which, within a span of nine years, has ended up being a quasi-one-stop-shop for digital ad requirements of corporate India. And today, as CEO Atul reveals, “The slowdown is actually acting as a catalyst for us. Last year, while we grew at around 30-35%, this year, we expect 45% growth with annual billings of Rs 125 crores.”

Interestingly, the agency, which is owned by Euro RSCG, actually started off as a nondescript agency under the brand name of Media Turf in 2000. Strangely, the agency was renamed Connecturf after a few years of operations. And if that wasn’t enough water that had already flown under the bridge, the agency was again renamed Ignitee this year. My consternation aside, Atul has an answer to the mysterious ways of Benjamin Button, “Rebranding helps in many ways, as it really rejuvenates the brand and creates a buzz in the market. Moreover, we needed a platform to take off. But rebranding cannot be superficial like a name change or logo change. Thus, we did six-seven months of internal research and added a lot more of services before actually going for it.” (No, I haven’t bought even this one completely yet!). Atul justifies further, “Initially, we were very strong on technology; but what we were lacking was a brand. Thus the agency restructured and rebranded itself last year.” However, being one of the early starters, most of the talent in Ignitee was either homegrown or had been associated with the agency in some form or the other.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

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

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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1500-plus IIPM students placed across the country with 44 bagging international offers

IIPM set to beat economic slowdown
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Friday, May 22, 2009

Call it the ‘G’ therapy!


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

GDrive will revolutionise the world of storage devices. Simply stated, you won’t have to carry your hard drives around! Yes, we’re talking about high-capacity here!

When Google launched Gmail on April Fools’ Day of 2004, users were wowed by the unheard of 1GB mailbox limit. In a world of e-mail services that offered anywhere from 1MB to 10MB of storage, Google’s offering stood out. But here’s more surprise for Google fans – Google’s long rumored ‘GDrive’ is finally speculated to see the light of the commercial day sometime this year. It is a service that would enable users to access their PCs from anywhere, (over the Internet, of course!)! Some tech news sites are claiming that it might be the “most anticipated of Google products so far.” Analysts also predict that it could literally “kill” the desktop computer that has so far lived on promises of hard drive capacitites. The Google drive would mark a shift away from Microsoft’s Windows OS, towards cloud computing, whereby storage and processing would be done in data centers.

With enterprises around the world already converging on delivery of Web-based services, neither the service companies nor the users will have to be bothered about hard drives crashing, since data would be saved on the Web. With Google drive (call it GDrive), a PC would be a device acting as a portal to the Web, enabling users to treat their computers as softwares (and not hardwares!). As the demand of cloud computing from enterprises increases, users might just vote heavily in favour of the GDrive. The concept from Google first came to public attention in March 2006, when Google officials dropped a mention of it during a PowerPoint presentation intended for a gathering of industry analysts. “With infinite storage, we can house all user files, including emails, web history, pictures, bookmarks, etc, and make it accessible from anywhere (any device, any platform, etc). We already have efforts in this direction in terms of GDrive, GDS, Lighthouse, but all of them face bandwidth and storage constraints today,” was how the official revelation read.

Then, about a year later, The Wall Street Journal reported that Google was quite possibly “a few months” away from releasing a hard-drive-meets-net service in November 2007. The Journal’s sources said that Google planned to offer some storage for free, while charging for additional space. They also revealed that Google wanted the service to behave “like another hard drive that is handy at all times.” But the latest rumors sound very much prosaic. According to a blog from Google watchers, Google might roll out its GDrive, combining it with its already existent Google Docs and Spreadsheets, offering a means of synchronising online files with those on the desktop.

Undoubtedly, this is part of a ‘Google-grab’ scheme to put an Android into every hand. If Google pulls this through, it might just mark its dominance over the online planet for another good half-a-decade (where it has been much criticised for relying way too heavily on ad-revenues only!); thus giving it enough time to come out with something newer... say, maybe even a hardware semiconductor Google Integrated Circuit! reality!

Arun Kumar Roy

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

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

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Detail of all IIPM branches
1500-plus IIPM students placed across the country with 44 bagging international offers
IIPM set to beat economic slowdown
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Friday, May 01, 2009

THE SURVIVOR


IIPM set to beat economic slowdown

Once constantly under attack for all-too-easily giving up his first mover advantage in the Indian satellite television sweepstakes, Subhash Chandra nevertheless deserves accolades for the manner in which he has retained reasonable profitability compared to peers, against changing dynamics of traditional media businesses, stiff competitive onslaught and ever-demanding consumers. What sets him apart is his completely unique way of doing business. Will he survive the new threats to his empire, asks Pallavi Srivastava

Even as senior creative honchos at Zee vent their feelings with perhaps a twinge of wistfulness (and jealousy toward their carefree money-burning counterparts at rival Star), the utter uselessness of this ‘hot discussion topic’ was not lost on them. They knew that they could discuss and debate all they liked, but Zee head honcho Subhash Chandra Goel, with his trademark salt n’ pepper savvy hair-do and a legendary business acumen to match, would not ever dream of allowing such ‘grotesque wastage’ of money. Today, those very same creative types (now employed elsewhere of course) can’t stop praising Chandra’s low-cost training, especially in the present economic gloom. “Though it was a forced training for us, but it was good training indeed. I learnt the basic fact that you don’t need mega budgets to make a show hit,” reminisces Vivek Bahl who was a part of the Zee creative team in 2005, working on shows like Saat Phere, Dulhan, et al before he left to join Star Plus. He’s now Senior Creative Director, Star Plus and Star One. Ironically, to ride the present downturn (with steep falls in future advertising revenues indicated), even Star is now picking a leaf out of Chandra’s low-cost model and giving it an energetic heave-ho. That perhaps is the primary reason why its top show Bidaai… is made at a significantly lower cost compared to Ekta Kapoor’s high budget K-soaps that have now unceremoniously been taken off air.

In an interview with 4Ps B&M, Chandra admits proudly: “Essel group never believes in over-doing things.” He goes on to preen about how new GECs launched last year are operating on a high cost model–spending big money on programming, human resource and marketing–that translates into longer time period to survive on internal money before they break even. His assessment is not too far from the truth. Viacom 18’s Colors that has nearly displaced Zee from its number two position in the GEC space has spent Rs.150 crores only on marketing and distribution. As per estimates, just the programming budget of the channel is over Rs.500 crore for a year! While on the face of it, the model does appear high-cost, yet Colors has benefited. Within just three months of its launch, Colors replaced Zee from the number 2 spot in the Hindi general entertainment space.

But tell that to Chandra and he remains unfazed. “We will not fall for this high cost model trap. We would keep our heads down and let the storm pass,” avers the protagonist of Zee’s success saga. And a true-blue, self-styled protagonist he is! Unlike his peers, he’s never really been in the TRPs rat race; instead preferring to stick to his own business model, which has made him a billionaire over the decades; and he makes sure that his key people maintain the same zeal. Echoes Barun Das, CEO, Zee News Ltd., “There’s no point going for the rat race of hyped TAM ratings if you are unable to make profits.” Chandra’s eyes are always on the bottomline - be it the short, medium or long term outlook. According to an equity analyst, despite being at number four or five in the Hindi news category (in terms of TRPs), Zee News is one of the two channels in the category to make profits. It is Chandra’s low cost model only that has enabled his regional channels like Zee Telegu and Zee Kannada to break-even in less than two years, when the average break-even period for a channel is minimum three years.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

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

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
1500-plus IIPM students placed across the country with 44 bagging international offers
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Friday, April 03, 2009

‘U’BIQUITOUSLY ‘T’ELEVISING ‘V’ICTORY


IIPM set to beat economic slowdown

FROM THEIR MOVIES TO THEIR NEW CHANNELS, EVERYTHING SEEMS TO HAVE FALLEN IN THE RIGHT PLACE FOR RONNIE SCREWVALA’S PRODIGY UTV

In an alternate dimension, even if Pandora’s Box would have unleashed all the good for mankind, it would still be beyond the term ‘cornucopia’. The entertainment industry’s evolution into a full fledged industry has resulted in a spurt of specialised and general entertainment channels vying for viewer attention and almost nothing seems to be enough! And Ronnie Screwvala is the latest entrant into the lucrative club of broadcasters, even as he seeks to transform UTV from being just a production company to a 360 degree entertainment conglomerate. On his radar is not just traditional broadcasting, but Bollywood masala flicks too. More on his Bollywood ambitions later, but so far as his broadcasting line-up is concerned, it was natural progression for a production house. However, unlike others, UTV did not make a bee-line to launch another Hindi entertainment channel, instead focusing on a variety of channels catering to unique sets of audiences. According to Shantonu Aditya, CEO, UTV Entertainment Television, “We did not want to enter the market with a 12th GEC or any other mass market channel and hence we have launched differentiated channels.”

UTV World Movies, for one, is an international movie channel which screens movies from across the world. Even though the nascent channel faces stiff competition from conventional Hollywood channels like Star Movies, HBO, Sony PIX, et al, it has still managed to hook its selective set of patrons. What’s more, the channel has 45 advertisers on board and over 650 titles to its credit. The plan is to double the number of advertisers in the coming year. Apart from that UTV also launched its Hindi movie channel –UTV Movies–this year, which caught the attention of audiences thanks to its collection of movies. During the year, Screwvala also launched a sub-brand bindass for the youth and launched two channels with this brand name – Bindass and Bindass movies. Though trade pundits are not much impressed with these channels, the company maintains a positive outlook. English business news channel, UTVi, introduced in association with ABC, is also catching up on the popularity charts, and much sooner than expected.

And now for Screwvala’s Bollywood quotient. His movies have certainly caught attention. Ingeniously, even though there were a lot of movies released under the UTV banner, the bouquet presented a unique genre mix. All the movies had a relatively diverse budget range (ranging from Rs.2 crore to Rs.45 crore) and transcended typecasting. There were the stereotyped masala flicks like Race, epic sagas like Jodha Akbar, unconventional movies like Aamir and Wednesday, and even low budget fares like Welcome to Sajanpur. The bigger surprise was that almost all these movies fared convincingly at the box office. Riding the present movie marketing wave, a key reason for the success of Screwvala’s productions has been the accompanying slick promotional extravaganza. Great content sells, but long live marketing!

Surbhi Chawla

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

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

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
1500-plus IIPM students placed across the country with 44 bagging international offers
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Tuesday, March 24, 2009

It really pays to Think Hatke!


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

With a tagline that says ‘Think Hatke,’ Virgin Mobile had to live up to that image. Hence, it decided to be hatke from the rest of the service operators. For starters, rather than being a mass brand, it decided to concentrate just on the youth segment. All its services & offerings kept in mind the needs of the young Indians. Hence the concept of get paid for incoming and all calls @ 50 paise beyond the first three minutes is a huge hit. The marketing honchos at the Richard Branson-promoted telecom company has plans to develop innovative distribution legs for their offerings, especially targeting places frequented by youngsters, which could be as accessible as their college campus and other hangout joints.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

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Saturday, March 14, 2009

The content blackout on GECs is over, at least for now. But the after effects will remain. 4Ps B&M's Pallavi Srivastava finds out more...


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For the past one year General Entertainment Channels (GECs) have been the talk of the television town for some reason or the other. And last week the blackout of fresh content on GECs, owing to the scuffle between the TV producers and the Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE), has given everyone a reason to burn midnight lamps to find out the action on the teletube. Although the 10-day long standoff had been called off even as the magazine was going for print, yet after effects may remain for some time...

Sample this: GECs lost an average 35-55% GRPs during the first three days of the content blackout (aMap, for November 10-13). The advertisers, on the other hand, stood by in solidarity with broadcasters. They did not pull out their ads as per a decision taken by the Advertising Agency Association of India. “Advertisers are supportive of our stand against increasing cost of content, which in turn leads to increase in ad rates,” says Keertan Adyanthaya, EVP & GM, Star Plus. Industry insiders however feel that the strike was called off just in time or advertisers would have started pressing the panic buttons. Anita Nayyar, CEO, Havas Media, believes that had the content blackout continued, "the advertising revenues of GECs would obviously have started falling because of stagnating viewership.” Take a look: During November 10-14, Star Plus’ GRPs have fallen by 52.9% to 107.19 points as against 227.9 during November 3-7. Similarly Zee TV has seen a fall of 49.53% (see table). Nayyar adds, “The advertisers may have pulled out some ads and negotiated rates for some.” Admits Tarun Mehra, Business Head, Zee TV, “Revenues would have been affected, but I can’t say how much.”

However, for channels at this juncture, more crucial than advertisers and their potential reactions are perhaps the viewers. After all, the soaring popularity of GECs is an out-and-out eyeball game. If viewers come back, advertisers will easily follow suit. But once migrated to other channels and genres, it becomes difficult to get audiences hooked back to programmes. As Naresh Gupta, EVP, Planning, Publicis India warns, “It is a dangerous scenario for many serials. Once the viewer gets out of the habit of watching daily dose of soaps and gets used to other programmes, it can lead to a long term change in habits.” And TV viewing is all about habits! But this does not literally means that the future of GECs is in peril. As Nayyar argues, “A week or two is too short a period to break TV watching habits," but get ready to see some huge advertising – billboards, in-TV placements etc – from broadcasters to entice every last viewer back and then some more.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

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Thursday, February 26, 2009

Government policies were not made in a day


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Clearly, it’s a catch-22 situation. Along with their titanic losses, there is the pressing need to pay up on their bills urgently. In fact, sources say that after paying these outstanding bills, these airlines may not be able to drum up adequate support to fund the travel season ahead, which is a great opportunity to make money. There is perhaps merit in the argument that the terminally ill industry needs a bailout package. Without government support, they would obviously be forced to do whatever it takes to survive – form cartels, merge, layoff people and goodness knows what else is in store...

Although both Mallya and Goyal have categorically ruled out that their ‘alliance’ is a cartel, market watchers differ. “Cartelisation like this has not only affected airlines industry, but other industries too, but that remains mostly invisible. As a result, people who lose their jobs do not have the required skill set for being employed elsewhere. So recruitment agencies also face tough times,” explains C.K. Santhakumar, Director, TRITIUM Consulting, Bangalore.

The Indian aviation industry is expected to post losses of over $2 billion in the current financial year, of which Air India alone will estimatedly post 50%, while Kingfisher’s losses are expected to cross $500 million in FY09. Industry growth has dropped from 33% in 2007 to 7.5% in the first half of this year. To reduce losses, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has even called for reduction in excise duties and other fees.

When bureaucrats in MRTPC go around sniffing for competitive malpractice around Jet and Kingfisher headquarters, they will have to take into account the overall despondency in the air. The situation really looks so black and white and bleak that despite fears of a monopoly in Indian skies, one almost begins to sympathise with Goyal and Mallya. After all, kissing thy enemy is anytime preferable to total extinction, ain’t it?

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

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Monday, February 09, 2009

We cannot replace one imperialism with another


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In an exclusive interaction with Shashank Tripathi, Shipra Tripathi, Director, CII, Africa Desk speaks about growing dominance of Indian & Chinese brands in Africa...


Is Africa fast becoming the testing ground for India Inc.’s ‘brand’ war with corporate China?
Africa is a relatively known territory for India historically. In the mind of Indian industry the space provided by Africa as a market place is large enough to house partnerships with India and China. In the minds of Africans it is no longer India or China. The relative advantage provided by the two Asian giants is required for the development of Africa – the technologies from India and the inflow of funds from China. There is a need to build Brand India but not in competition with Brand China, instead in its own right as a destination for adaptable and appropriate high quality technologies.

While China has till now adopted a largely heavy industries led investment approach in Africa, India’s approach is more entrepreneur and brand led. Which one do you think is a better approach?
The question here is not what is going to help India or China but what is going to help develop Africa. While I am not in a position to speak on the strategy being used by China, India has a long term perspective of engagement with Africa. The intention is to do business and to build capacities by ways of institutional links and skills development.

Is the time really ripe to enter the African market? Moreover, can private investors and entrepreneurs alone transform the continent?
Indian industry is private sector driven and this is what drives the economy. The private sector moves where it sees opportunity. The other aspect of Indian industry is that till a few years ago we were not prepared as organisations to take risks particularly in markets with low credit rating. If you look at the statistics now six of the fastest growing economies are in Africa and that provides opportunity for Indian industry to invest and get the results that are expected. The change in the perception of the world regarding Africa is also helpful such as the decisions taken at the Gleneagles where a majority of the G8 countries decided to give debt relief to a host of African countries giving them ready capital to invest in development related activities. So it is a combination of factors of private sector investments, government policies, & political will and institution building that will help transform Africa.

What, according to you, are reasons behind this renewed focus?
A lot of it is related to resources required by the growing industries in the two countries but in India a large amount of investments are going into no resource areas like infrastructure, power and water management, et al.

No doubt, African governments are welcoming investments by India and China, but Africa’s independent voices do not share this enthusiasm? What’s your take on this?
Africa has to stand on its own feet on its own terms. We certainly cannot replace one imperialism with another. Our inputs should support this process not go against it. Moreover, the challenges are largely from the lack of knowledge of the countries and the opportunities that it has for investment and resource allocation.

How do you think the West would react (rather is reacting) on the growing dominance of Indian and Chinese brands in Africa?
The West is looking keenly at the new and emerging influence of India and China. Think tanks are assessing and studying the growing presence in the region. Asian countries do not seem to be an immediate threat to traditional partners like UK and France.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

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Tuesday, February 03, 2009

“There is a huge opportunity in Africa”


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SUDIP BANDYOPADHYAY, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, RELIANCE MONEYSUDIP BANDYOPADHYAY, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, RELIANCE MONEY

Can you please elaborate on your plans for the African market? Where and how much do you plan to invest in this continent?

Having established our base at Lagos in Nigeria we are already in the African market for quite some time now. This base has been operational since July 2008. We plan to further extend our operations to few other countries in Africa over the next six months.

Critics say Africa is fast becoming the testing ground for India Inc.’s ‘brand’ war with corporate China? What’s your take on the issue?
As far as financial services industry is concerned, there are no Chinese Companies in Nigeria and hence this question is not relevant for us as of now and for the Indian financial industry as a whole.

In the past, business in Africa has been very slow when compared to its global counterparts. Do you think this is the right time to enter this market? There is certainly a huge opportunity in Africa. We have selected Nigeria as our base since this country has the largest population in Africa (about 140 million). Nigeria also has the 7th largest Oil reserves in the world. Moreover, for the last 15 years this country has a democratic set up. Having been under British rule (Nigeria gained independence in 1960) the laws are almost similar and foreign investments are welcome by the Nigerian government. Even the financial services market is under developed and this way the opportunity is certainly significant.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

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Saturday, January 17, 2009

Wal-Mart or Walmart? Is a change in logo enough?


There are also problems on the global platform for Walmart. As David Livingston, Principal, DJL Research asserts, “The biggest challenge according to me for Walmart is being able to open more stores without resistance from local governments.” As far as international presence is concerned, Walmart hasn’t gone through its best times in this regard during the recent past. The company had to sell-off its outlets in Germany to Metro (accepting the fact that the Walmart model would not run in the country), labour rights-suits issues in China, Bangladesh, Mexico, Brazil, Philippines and many more... However, the company has little choice when it comes to going global; it has to! Mark Linen, Consultant, Retail Technology Group clearly explains, “Walmart needs to allocate capital to the highest alternatives and nothing else. Generally, that means expansion outside the US, not within it. In other words, more locations in US would mean lower returns on investments for Walmart.” An analysis would prove that Walmart had blind trust in the low-cost model every time it entered a new market, with little regard for quality standards – the very fact that forced it to close stores in many countries.

However, there is good news for the giant too, especially in the near future as John Crossman, President, Crossman & Company puts it: “Walmart has opportunities to grow now as competition and land prices are decreasing, so they have more opportunities to sign more deals and expand...” So while many feel that Walmart should go back to the great old Sam Walton days, here’s something that would make well-wishers happy: Walmart has now changed its logo to something similar to the one it first used in 1962. Hopefully, this hyphen (‘-’) will be put to better use... to bridge the gap between Walmart and long-sustained margins!

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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


Wednesday, January 07, 2009

For the fact is, beyond him, the world does not know even one of his leaders!


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One of them is CFO Srinivas Vadlamani, who has been with the company since 1992. He is a strong proponent of corporate ethics, and one of his most critical contributions has been in restructuring Satyam to make it more transparent and stakeholder friendly. He has been at the helm of Satyam’s rights issue in 1995 as well as the overseas listing in 2001; and he takes care of corporate services, legal, finace and secretarial circles of Satyam. When we asked him about the impact of the slowdown in US, he commented, “Even as the US recession shows signs of a slowdown, it will still help Indian IT companies to leverage on the opportunities arising out of compulsive cost reduction and productive enhancement measures that the companies would need to adopt. We are also seeing the current environment providing us opportunities of transformational nature where the need is to deliver immediate near-term value to our customers. The pipe line of large deals for almost all major IT Indian companies has not dried up.” He highlights the importance of diversifying from the US market, specifying how Satyam now gets around 40% revenues from Europe, APAC, Middle East and South Africa. He adds that the company has “made considerable efforts to build niche consulting skills and competencies with acquisitions such as Knowledge Dynamics, Citisoft, Nitor Global Solutions and Bridge Strategy...” These have helped Satyam connect with some of its customer’s core business areas and secure lasting relationships.

Understanding a customer’s business is very critical and integral to the Satyam’s philosophy. That brings us to another very important knight in Satyam’s portfolio. S. V. Krishnan, head of Human Resources. Considered to be the oxygen pump for any organisation, the HR manager of Satyam is no different. Krishnan has an expansive over-three-decades long experience in the information technology domain spanning business development, programme management, operations management, project delivery and human resources development. Now one might ask how an HR guy with such a varied work history will be able to do justice to his HR profile. But one must not forget that to hire professionals who can understand clients best, you need to necessarily have as a diversified background as Krishnan to understand all the dynamics of the client’s business. That’s why Satyam has stressed on Krishnan as an important leader, who is leading his army of professionals in the right direction. In his own words, Krishnan reflects on Satyam’s unique diversified leadership, “At Satyam, we believe every associate is a leader, and is groomed/encouraged accordingly. Irrespective of nature of business, parametres for measurement are same all across, providing for a consistent experience throughout our organisation.”

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

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Friday, January 02, 2009

The India Shining campaign lost because it was never designed to be an election campaign in the first place


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But ask Prathap Suthan, then National Creative Director of Grey Worldwide (now with Cheil Communications) and the guy who coined the India Shining slogan, and he’s quick to rebuff the argument. “The India Shining campaign lost because it was never designed to be an election campaign in the first place,” he says, explaining that the Ministry of Finance had commissioned the campaign to boost investor confidence in India. Once the campaign aired, BJP went to polls in four states and won in three of them. Suthan says that party insiders latched on to the by then very popular campaign for the looming General Elections 2004.

Congress’s planned rebuttal also played havoc with the campaign. Conceived by Orchard Advertising (affiliated to Leo Burnett) Congress’s ‘aam aadmi ke liye’ positioning worked. “BJP’s India Shining failed miserably. Congress changed its positioning from a party for the poor man (remember garibi hatao?) to a party for the common man,” avers KV Sridhar, National Creative Director, Leo Burnett India. Congress even hired a separate media planning agency – Starcom, which literally burnt midnight oil to ensure maximum impact on voters. Explains Anita Nayyar, then at the helm of Starcom India, “The last 6-8 weeks in the run up to elections were highly focused. We coined different campaigns for each state. Burning issues were taken up and party’s point of view was put forward.”

The 2004 elections have conclusively proved to our netas that the India Shining campaign may not have worked, but political marketing complete with full-on advertising blitz, technological innovations and selling tactics is here to stay. Little wonder that with less than a year left to D-day, the run up to the voting booths has already begun for Elections 2009.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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When IIPM comes to education, never compromise
Why Study Abroad When IIPM Gives You 3 global Advantages!
IIPM Ranked No. 1 B-School In Global Exposre - Zee...