Friday, January 11, 2013

What got them here, might get them there!

That we irreverently make a slim play of Marshall Goldsmith’s quote is obvious (we use him inside too), but that we do so to describe a group of intemperately argumentative entities that refused to accept India as a losing proposition, is perhaps slimmer than they would agree with.

Ejerome McCarthy, professor, Michigan State University, in the 1960s, wrote a discreet discourse for his spring students where he proposed that marketing should be undertaken in a structured manner, perhaps using a four parameter model, 4Ps! Those were the 60s, and models were just waiting to be lapped up. McCarthy’s 4Ps was no exception to the rule. In fact, the model became the rule itself over a matter of years.

Over time, many more Ps were added to this marketing mix, with each proposer invigoratingly justifying his P’s inclusion – our own group magazine, 4Ps Business & Marketing, once ran a cover story, The 50Ps of Marketing! That said, if India were the test ground, any post-hoc analyst of contemporary times would have found it really astonishing that, forget 50Ps, many multinational corporations operating within India forgot to structure even McCarthy’s initial 4Ps, blindly assuming that if people have purchasing power, they’ll buy any product.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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Thursday, January 10, 2013

India’s incredible future potential

In an exclusive interview to B&E’s pathikrit payne, Sir Richard Stagg, British High Commissioner to India speaks about India’s incredible future potential and the positive impact of its outsourcing business...

B&E: Many Indian companies are trying to takeover companies in Europe especially in UK. So what is the mood over there about that?

RS: We are very positive about it and we in fact, encourage companies to come and takeover companies in UK. Even in 2008, ONGC bought a very big UK based oil & gas company, HCL bought a very big UK software company and we are very keen to help them do that as we think these Indian corporate owners are good owners. They are going to help in developing the business. They are good investors in terms of bringing money into our economy and helping to create jobs. So, we have lot of dealings with these investors both before they decide to come to UK, and later when we offer them after carriage support package and try to ensure that they flourish in UK environment. And most of them do. As you must have read in the newspapers that the CORUS and JLR brands are going through difficult period because of the cycle and the sectors they are in. But there are many others in other sectors in UK who are doing very well and have a very happy experience of investment. So we think that it’s a good thing for UK economy and also a good thing for these Indian business houses.

B&E: Is UK lagging behind US and Russia when it comes to high profile defence deals with India?

RS: There is quite a lot going on in this field. The Hawk Advanced Jet Trainers have arrived and we are very much involved with the proposal to provide Indian Air Force with VIP helicopters. We are also interested in selling new artillery, which is something involving a JV with Mahindra & Mahindra. We are keen to sell the Eurofighter Typhoons to your Air Force. In terms of aircraft carriers, I think the experience that India has had with the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Ghorskhov, may make some of those involved, in the longer run look elsewhere for future supplies. So we think we are good partners because we sell equipments in general, which the Indian Army is familiar with and I think we have good understanding of what India requires.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

 
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Wednesday, January 9, 2013

A bumpy ride no more

Rajiv Bajaj’s nifty maneuvers were just the right recipe to nurse Bajaj Auto back to health... and wealth.

A few years ago, around this time, Rajiv Bajaj was living his worst nightmare. The young and strapping MD of Bajaj Auto was being assailed from all fronts. It was not just stock market analysts and newshounds that seemed to be baying for his blood, the company’s vendors, dealers and even his own board seemed to be nitpicking his every move. Constant criticisms were new for Rajiv who took over as the MD of India’s second largest two-wheeler maker in 2005. All was well for a couple of years. Pulsar was the new blockbuster in Bajaj’s arsenal and with sales clocking over 30,000 units a month it was making more money on each bike it sold than ever before. Other products like Discover 125cc and 110cc were slowly making a dent in Hero’s dominance in the entry-level segment. By 2006, Bajaj seemed within a whisker’s reach to regain market leadership, a position it had lost in the 1990s.

But then things started going downhill. Rajiv Bajaj famously declared that the company would exit the 100cc segment. He launched the XCD 125cc in an attempt to give 125cc to customers at the cost of 100cc. The strategy backfired. Not only did the XCD bomb but Bajaj’s exit from the segment left the field clear for arch rival Hero Honda (now divorced from Honda) to consolidate its position in the bread-and-butter segment.

The 2008 global meltdown added more grey to the picture. Caught in the midst of slowdown in the domestic market, the young Bajaj found it tough to give a new lease of life to the company which once ruled the industry under the leadership of his father, Rahul Bajaj with products like Chetak and Priya.

Rajiv Bajaj had had enough by 2009. He crafted a three-pronged strategy to deliver sales, profitability and brand image. First, the engineering graduate from Warwick re-entered the entry-level segment with the launch of Discover 100cc. In just four months, the company sold more than 200,000 bikes. Rajiv next announced the company’s exit from the scooter segment, bringing down the curtains on an iconic product line. The twin moves set tongues wagging. Some jeered at the young MD for having to eat his earlier words of exiting the 100cc segment; others openly lamented the decision to drop the scooters line calling it the end of an era. But Rajiv was like a man possessed. His next move was to drop the parent brand from its product portfolio in July 2010 since it was common to different product segments ranging from electricals to insurance to automobiles. The three decisions, in quick succession caught many off guard, including father Rahul Bajaj.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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Tuesday, January 8, 2013

“A very important criteria is the brief itself”

The success of an advertising campaign does not depend on one or two factors but on a combination of many factors. However, it is extremely important that the fundamentals are kept in mind first. Once that bit is done, the other factors come into play.

In an ideal scenario, it should start with the right team – team that you think would be perfect for a given brief. A team’s understanding and experience of a category can go a long way towards getting a breakthrough creative. However, that is not to say that someone with zero experience of the category won’t come up with a pathbreaking creative. But if a person has to make a choice and he decides that he wants to take a great opportunity, then there will be questions about his eligibility for the succession. It’s all about retention.

Of course, a very important criteria is the brief itself. A brief needs to open up creative thinking. It doesn’t need to be a written brief. Anything that can trigger off a whole lot of ideas is on target. You just know it when you are sitting on a great brief, as ideas will fight for mindspace, even while you are midway through the process.

Now the most important criteria of them all – the idea itself. The idea needs to be new. More often than not, the creative that stays with you is one that you’ve never seen before. When it comes to ideas, there are two boxes to be ticked – Telling and Selling. It’s extremely important how you tell your story, as you have to first sell your story.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

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Saturday, January 5, 2013

Success begot...

Sharad Gupta investigates what led to the failure of BJP and what is stopping it from being a success

The BJP is undergoing the biggest-ever churning in its 25-years of existence. While the party is yet to officially start a serious analysis of its overwhelming rout in 2009 general elections, discontent has surfaced in many quarters within the party. Its much hyped up image of a party with a difference has failed and failed miserably to click with the voters and the discontent is evident in every quarter of the party. What is strange and more discouraging is that this time its not the small fries but stalwarts like Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha, Dr.Murli Manohar Joshi and Arun Shourie, who have questioned the party’s electoral strategy and handling of post-election results situation. Their contention is that those responsible for the party’s electoral debacle, instead of being punished, have been rewarded.

Indeed, success has many fathers while failure has none. Its also true that while CPI, CPM or even the BSP and SP have done some introspection of their defeat, the BJP leadership hasn’t undertaken any such exercise. BJP’s national executive committee meeting scheduled for June 20-21, too, is likely to be a hogwash. “Brushing issues under the carpet would lead to more disastrous situation. Until we address the issues, how would we resolve them,’’ says a senior leader from Madhya Pradesh.

So far, the BJP has received flak for misguided electoral strategy, lack of ideological focus and absence of a cohesive leadership. The party had been showered with lavish praises only five months ago for retaining power in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The BJP has done extremely well again in Karnataka and Chhattisgarh but, no one in the party has bothered to pick up the positives and try to implement popular programmes in other states. And the result is in front for everyone to see - even for the party leadership which continues to believe that not much has been lost .


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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Friday, January 4, 2013

RaBieD!

Latest stats on Reverse Brain Drain

Nirad. C. Chowdhury’s shallow claim to be the sole Briton living today who is aghast at the degeneration of Anglo Saxons, does not undermine his deep rooted admiration for the all conquering Britain in their heydays of colonial rule. Many before and since have had a quintessential fancy for the Western lifestyle, their values and their education, the inspiration of which provided them the driving force to land up on foreign shores. The colonial rule is gone now, but the magnetism of the West still persists.

Notwithstanding the fact that US has replaced other nations as the most favoured destination for immigration – with Indians and Chinese forming the bulk of them either in Silicon Valley or in American Universities – the current presentiments are alluring many to return to their home countries. A joint team comprising researchers from Harvard, Duke and Berkeley has forecasted recently that approximately 100,000 Indians and the same numbers of Chinese will return to their respective countries in the next 3-5 years (the research showed how 60% Indians and 70% Chinese feel they are better off in their own country). Compare this to the 50,000 Indians and similarly numbered Chinese who returned home in the past twenty years.

This ‘Reverse Brain Drain’ is happening not only because they are being forced to, but also because of the fact that India and China are comparatively more insulated from the clutches of recession and are surely going to be the markets of the future where investments by global corporations is definitely going to increase on a mammoth basis. One can gauge the positive feeling (or the ‘home country factor’, as experts put it) by the fact that about 44% of the returnees to India are/were placed in managerial positions with hefty packages. Time to rejoice?


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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Thursday, January 3, 2013

Unpolitically incorrect, Sir!

Most terrorist movements eventually wither away for they fail to replace an armed struggle with a political one

First, a Big Moose question. Who defeated the LTTE? Answer: The LTTE did! Even before the Sri Lankan Army!! Lest you start blaming the Big Moose thought process [Well, who defeated the British? The British. Who defeated Napolean? Napolean... Duh], read on to understand our take on Orwellian avatars that need not necessarily have Brad Pitt’s river running through it.

Guerilla warfare is not a new phenomenon and is not essentially another gift of the 20th century. For ages, those fighting a potent enemy have used subversive tactics to preempt and ambush erstwhile uneven contests to obtain a more even keel in which the seemingly weaker eventually turned out victor. If David proved it in fables against Goliath, then the kiddy king Robin Hood vindicated it successfully against King John. Yet, it was essentially the 20th century when guerrilla warfare, freedom struggles, armed resistance and political activism, all started getting enmeshed into one. The flowchart logic was pretty simple when faced with adversaries who weren’t necessarily Presbyterian ministers. When your ‘demands’ are not being met [and have no hopes of being met through dialogue – well, not every ruling government is British], then throw a few bombs, burn a few trains, kill a few security personnel/ruling politicians, and to add special effects, showcase a few suicide bombers. There; once you’ve got the attention of the powers that be, enter into a negotiation dialogue, grab whatever best political power you can out of the deal, and live life happily ever after as a part of the matrix. In case the ruling party reneges on the deal, go to the start of this paragraph and follow sequence to the tee.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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