Showing posts with label iipm-publications. Show all posts
Showing posts with label iipm-publications. Show all posts

Friday, August 10, 2012

ABOLISH IMPORT DUTY

THIS IS THE ONLY WAY TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE CEMENT INDUSTRY

Cement is certainly an important raw commodity / input for the infrastructure & real estate sectors. However, in the cement sector, import duty on inputs is higher than its finished goods that include high import duty on coal, petcoke and gypsum which are major inputs for the production of cement.

I expect reduction or complete abolishment in the present import duty on our input costs. The budget should also include some special schemes for boosting exports, which is the need of the hour. In fact, India’s exports could witness a significant improvement in coming years if the government adopts proactive measures.

I am also hoping for some reduction in the railway freight rate and more wagons to be added to the fleet in this year’s budget. Further, I expect the finance minister to target the GDP growth of at least 8% or higher for the next three financial years.

On tax reforms front, I would be very happy to see the reduction in individual income tax levels as it leaves the consumer with more spending power hence builds consumption leading to higher economic growth.


Monday, September 22, 2008

Who dares to be CEO?

Lampert must move himself out of a hands on role in Sears
When investor Edward Lampert acquired Sears via merger of K-Mart in 2005 and became the Chairman, he thought of ruling the retail world. However, recent developments at Sears Holding Corp. suggest how poorly he misread the whole scenario. At the moment, the retail giant is facing the brunt from both internal & external factors. Apart from economic slowdown, its army of 3,800 stores is dilapidating with every passing day due to rising complaints related to its stores and customer service. Edward announced massive re-organisation plan on January 22, 2008 (new organisational structure composing of five business units – operating businesses, support, brands, online and real estate).

Surprisingly, just a week after the re-structuring announcement, Edward ousted CEO Allwyn Lewis, who he had only institutionalised at the helm two years back from a restaurant company – Yum Brands. He has appointed W. Bruce Johnson as interim CEO. Howard Davidowitz, Chairman, Davidowitz & Associates, pointed out, “It doesn’t make sense to kick start re-organisation without a full time CEO.” Another analyst on condition of anonymity said, “There hasn’t been clear reasoning from the management on why Lewis is being ousted… ”

Lampert is hardly short of ideas, but recently, quite a few have fallen flat, for instance, his ploy to focus less on market share and more on profits. As per company data, net income for the quarter ended November 2, 2007, was a measly $2 million, compared to $196 million for the quarter ending October 3, 2006 (which included $101 million of pre-tax gains). Lampert then admitted, “We are very disappointed with our performance for the third quarter. We cannot blame our results entirely on the retail and macro-economic environments. We have much on which to improve...”

Lampert must now realise that he may have to oust himself now from a hands on role in the company, as his time is fast running out. Bringing in a new CEO is the easiest advise to present, but presents a huge execution challenge. Without that, Sear’s ploy for a more dynamic organisational structure in order to unleash growth may all be in vain.

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 these article :-
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
IIPM makes business education truly global (Print Version)
The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
IIPM Campus

Top Articles on IIPM:-
'This is one of Big B's best performances'
IIPM to come up at Rajarhat
IIPM awards four Bengali novelists
IIPM makes business education truly global-Education-The Times of ...
The Hindu : Education Plus : Honour for IIPM
IIPM ranked No.1 B-School in India, Management News - By ...
IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
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IIPM ranked No1 B-School in India :: Education, Careers ...
The Hindu Business Line : IIPM placements hit a high of over 2000 jobs
Deccan Herald - IIPM ranked as top B-School in India
India eNews - IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
IIPM Delhi - Indian Institute of Planning and Management New Delhi ...domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Playful networker

With a unique convergence strategy, RCOM now means much more to Indians than a mere price leader. By shashank shekhar
To match the cost of a call to a subsidised government postcard was pioneering enough. Such ideas, often hailed as proprietary of a few gifted people, predictably came from the patriarch, thereby establishing Reliance Communications (RCOM), a telecom major credited with skipping and climbing the golden ladder that leads to the world’s second fastest growing cellular market. That drew in the hordes flaunting white LG phones with blue-lit screens, which could literally be had by just walking into one of those Reliance stores better known as R-World cafes. Of course, detractors were quick to speculate that Reliance Communications would be all about price leadership and nothing more.

Unfortunately for them, nothing could be further from the truth, Reliance Communications is creating waves in the telecom circles in more ways than one, be it with Anil Ambani’s exemplary network expansion drive, his foray to be a dual service provider (CDMA & GSM) or his most innovative convergence plans that transcend the entire gamut of digital media. In particular, RCOM’s endeavour to build a powerful portfolio of VAS services from the grassroots, is a feat arguably unparallaled in the telecom arena. No wonder, Anil enthusiastically commented while announcing the Q3 results, “The Indian telecom sector is poised at the threshold of a significant growth opportunity and RCOM, as a fully-integrated and converged service provider, is best-positioned to capture this growth.” What makes RCOM so different with respect to its approach to VAS?

“Fortunately at RCOM, VAS is treated as fundamental to our telecom business. Starting from handsets, we ensure that each piece is WAP enabled,” comments Krishna Durbha, Head – VAS, Business & Marketing Applications and Solutions. With commoditisation of voice, as is being witnessed by the industry, telcos have but little choice to tap into the services’ revenue stream that attracts a premium in today’s scenario. But most remain skeptical of introducing new products in the backdrop of thousands of ‘ring tones’ or ‘caller tunes’ and are also appalled by prospects of piracy. A point at which Durbha – salt & pepper haired with serious demeanour – lets out a contained chuckle for, according to him, VAS applications from a Reliance mobile phone can’t be pirated as phones are locked from the factory.

Over due course of time, RCOM has successfully tried out innovative services and to say that it is amongst the world’s foremost VAS providers and that too, to over 10 million subscribers won’t require much authentication. “The number of games downloads that we do everyday creates history on a daily basis,” puts in Durbha. Amongst other models, to penetrate into a larger market, Reliance has introduced a unique concept of sachetisation of game downloads, which Durbha calls as its second innovation, the first being introducing multi-player games on handsets. “We’ve introduced sachetisation as we’re very clear of the fact that in a market that is essentially pre-paid, people would not prefer downloading games for Rs.50.” And thus emerged the concept of “pay per play” that is usually about 2-3 rupees. On the content end, the company has encouraged a large amount of content development on mobile, since RCOM initiated its own Reliance Developer program on the lines of Microsoft. Social networking, the latest from the RCOM stable is creating waves too. Already, networking website Big Adda has been a phenomenon with some 1.5 million users within 6 months of inception.

Another point of focus in RCom’s agenda is to provide more regional content in its offerings. “The more local content you give, the more people will consume,” is the mantra on VAS. While at present, entertainment runs through its very veins, the shift towards utility services in near future is seen as a potential driver for growth. “We’ve gone wide. Now we need to grow deeper,” adds Durbha. Indeed, usage has only gone up with increasing regional content, as people are more comfortable in their native language, especially in case of voice based services.

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 these article :-
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
IIPM makes business education truly global (Print Version)
The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
IIPM Campus

Top Articles on IIPM:-
'This is one of Big B's best performances'
IIPM to come up at Rajarhat
IIPM awards four Bengali novelists
IIPM makes business education truly global-Education-The Times of ...
The Hindu : Education Plus : Honour for IIPM
IIPM ranked No.1 B-School in India, Management News - By ...
IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
Moneycontrol >> News >> Press- News >> IIPM ranked No1 B-School in ...
IIPM ranked No. 1 B-school in India- Zee Business Survey ...
IIPM ranked No1 B-School in India :: Education, Careers ...
The Hindu Business Line : IIPM placements hit a high of over 2000 jobs
Deccan Herald - IIPM ranked as top B-School in India
India eNews - IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
IIPM Delhi - Indian Institute of Planning and Management New Delhi ...domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs

Monday, August 25, 2008

What an attitude!

Motorola has to move beyond ‘just’ handsets if it has to treat its plummetting share prices & market share issues

“Motorola has an attitude problem. It thinks it is an amazing company with amazing products. The only problem is that its customers don’t agree,” asserts a confident Jeff Kagan, Telecom Anaylst & Expert. Well, we don’t want to agree outrightly, but beg to add – even investors don’t! Look at its share price on NYSE. ‘Accelerating downhill’ is perhaps the only words you’d use to explain its movement; currently at $16.30 (as on December 10, 2007) – and simply sad days with its share price hitting the lowest levels in 7 years! And this was also confirmed by Gartner Inc on November 27, 2007 when it disclosed how Motorola’s mobile handset global market share had slipped to 13.1% during Q3 2007 from 20.7% during the previous year. The Gartner revelation was followed by Edward Zander’s announcement of an exit on November 30. 2007, alongwith Padmasree Warrior, the CTO – two chiefs who had led Motorola’s revival in the past.

So has the Moto boat hit the rough seas? As per a telecom analyst, “Motorola has once again lost its way. This happened in the 1990’s when the networks switched to digital. That’s when Nokia took the lead.” And what does its financials reveal? Sadly, nothing different! With revenues earned during Q3 2007 touching just $88.11 billion, representing a y-o-y decline of 16.9% and with a lack of a “must have” product felt, Motorola surely has a tough job up its sleeve as Jeff agrees, “Motorola has to break some new ground. We have not seen anything along those lines yet.” Evidently, there’s some ray of hope at the end of the tunnel with Motorola’s announcement on December 6, 2007 that its forecast for Q4 2007 earnings still remain positive as Tom Meredith, CFO, Motorola Inc. declared: “a continuing operational earnings forecast of $0.12-0.14 cents per share”. Surely, Motorola has to move beyond just delivering a killer handset. It has to necessarily focus on its other more successful arms like home and networks mobility and enterprise mobility (its 2nd and 3rd largest units), which allow the company to fall back on other sources of revenue. Clearly, for now, Motorola needs to get ‘stuck’ things ‘rolling’...

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 these article :-
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
IIPM makes business education truly global (Print Version)
The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
IIPM Campus

Top Articles on IIPM:-
IIPM makes business education truly global-Education-The Times of ...
The Hindu : Education Plus : Honour for IIPM
IIPM ranked No.1 B-School in India, Management News - By ...
IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
Moneycontrol >> News >> Press- News >> IIPM ranked No1 B-School in ...
IIPM ranked No. 1 B-school in India- Zee Business Survey ...
IIPM ranked No1 B-School in India :: Education, Careers ...
The Hindu Business Line : IIPM placements hit a high of over 2000 jobs
Deccan Herald - IIPM ranked as top B-School in India
India eNews - IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
IIPM Delhi - Indian Institute of Planning and Management New Delhi ...
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Annapolis – where them desperate souls meet!

The Annapolis conference won t create miracles, but can provide the right impetus

The Palestinians are the cause of exiting and ex-presidents. There’s no real electoral payback anticipated in supporting them. Jews and Israel-loving evangelicals dwarf any Arab lobby to the extent that it’s not even funny. President Bush is now on the exit track. And it’s time to rectify the fundamental error he had made in allowing the war-on-terror rhetoric to wrongly discredit the Palestinian national movement.

His best hope in Annapolis may be the Texas connection. If Bush gets behind Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian prime minister who attended the University of Texas, things may finally move on this front. But for that to happen, he has to stick with him. Fayyad, 55, is the can-do face of the Palestinian movement. Just like his people, he’s long been in the wilderness. Unlike many of them, he hasn’t succumbed to the culture of the victim. “One year,” he said in an hour-long conversation, “is more than adequate to come to a peace treaty and end this conflict.”

In seven years in office, Bush has been, in fact, quite uninterested in such an ending. He has hallucinated about roads from Baghdad to Jerusalem. He also talked about two states and later lost interest in the initiative. The American Middle East policy has, in fact, been quite distracted and unbalanced on the whole. Now, overcoming his Clinton angst, Bush has summoned the parties to Annapolis, Md. But clearly, it’s happening too late in the day. The rising Middle Eastern power, Iran, has not been invited to the conference. Nor has the Hamas. What’s instead present, and that too in abundance, is desperation. Bush must use it.

The Palestinians, on one hand, are desperate because they are now looking at a dead end. They’ve been the losers over six decades of strife, through ineptitude, corruption & Arab hypocrisy, apart from their susceptibility to victims’ hollow consolations. As Fayyad had earlier noted, “Last year more than 50,000 Palestinians emigrated. How is that consistent with ending the occupation?”

The Israeli desperation, on the other hand, is relatively quieter. The economy has indeed blossomed, but not the Israeli soul. Four decades of occupation since the 1967 war have been a scourge for the country. Jewish precariousness still persists. The diaspora Jew did not go to Zion to build the Jew among nations.

Bush faces Palestinian weakness and compromised Israeli strength. He must offset the weakness by standing with the Palestinians on core demands. He must insist on Israeli sacrifice – territorial and ideological – in the name of US-guaranteed security. “Without peace,” Bush should tell the Israelis, “the Arab birth rate and the jihadist tide will eventually wash over you.”

Fayyad told me he’s coming into the conference Tuesday “disappointed that more progress has not been made.” On core issues – Jerusalem, borders, settlements – the impasse has prevailed. Annapolis can solve nothing actually; all it can do, realistically speaking, is to jump-start an intense process.

That process then needs essentially three elements, Fayyad told me. First, there should be an explicit framing within the context of UN Security Council resolutions, including 242, that makes clear Israel’s obligation to, in Fayyad’s words, “end the occupation that began in 1967.” Second, the Annapolis conference must result in an Israeli commitment to freeze the West Bank settlements and to remove illegal settler outposts, which will be paralleled by Palestinian commitments to “institution building and fighting terrorism.” Third, “we must get a reference to a timeline, a conclusion of final status peace within the Bush presidency.” Fayyad is right. A return to the 1967 lines, plus or minus agreed swaps, is the only plausible basis for a two-state accord. An Israeli settlement freeze is the first step to a Palestinian buy-in. A time table is the anchor all the talking needs. I asked Fayyad how he’d reassure Israel about security. He became animated. “Political pluralism is fine, but I can’t tolerate security pluralism. There’s no such thing as militias running around taking decisions! That has led to catastrophe. Law and order is basic. I said in a speech the other day that Nablus is more important than Annapolis! It is. The people of Nablus need security, just like Israelis.”
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 these article :-
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
IIPM makes business education truly global (Print Version)
The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
IIPM Campus

Top Articles on IIPM:-
IIPM makes business education truly global-Education-The Times of ...
The Hindu : Education Plus : Honour for IIPM
IIPM ranked No.1 B-School in India, Management News - By ...
IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
Moneycontrol >> News >> Press- News >> IIPM ranked No1 B-School in ...
IIPM ranked No. 1 B-school in India- Zee Business Survey ...
IIPM ranked No1 B-School in India :: Education, Careers ...
The Hindu Business Line : IIPM placements hit a high of over 2000 jobs
Deccan Herald - IIPM ranked as top B-School in India
India eNews - IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
IIPM Delhi - Indian Institute of Planning and Management New Delhi ...
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Wikipedia lists

Get onto a website called www.massively.com, which chronicles happenings in MMORPGs and you will realize how many of these are actually out there. For it’s not just Second Life, but more like There (www.there.com), World of Warcraft, Tabula Rasa et al creating the buzz. In fact, Wikipedia lists at least fifty of them on its MMORPGs page. At the last count, there were over 10 million people across the world registered with some MMORPG. And this number is doubling every year. The addiction is allegedly far worse than drugs or junk food. So what is this attraction based on? Well, first, an online 3D virtual world allows you to hide behind the screen and be just about anybody. You can make your deepest desires come true in a virtual world. This is the single most important driving factor behind this revolution.

I may be a lowly clerk pushing paper in a government office by day; but once online, I can be a super-hero who is always surrounded by beautiful women. Technology has made it as simple as using the mouse and keyboard to make the transition. And society, as we know it, will undergo a change never seen before. There are now people in Second Life who have already quit their day jobs and are making a healthy living in-world. They are earning more money than they did in their real world jobs. People could get married without ever meeting each other in real life and disgruntled wives could be suing their husbands for having affairs with the queen of Gunthor who has a perfect ten figure and the voice of a nightingale. Divorce law could well change to include virtual cheating. Government bodies may end up creating policies – and law enforcement agencies could come up – just to control crime in virtual worlds. Police personnel, who don’t use actual guns or handcuffs, will be patrolling the streets of a digital space that exists only in wires and cables. And avatars (your online being) will go to jail for stealing virtual works of art from a virtual museum. What I am trying to say is that sooner or later, they will pull out the ‘G’ from MMORPG; and it will imitate life itself.

But before we look into the future of these virtual worlds, let us understand how the underlying framework of Virtual Reality (VR) technology is changing over time. Virtual Reality is not a computer, but a technology that uses computerized clothing to synthesize reality. It has been around for more than two decades now mostly in the military and university laboratories.

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 these article :-
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
IIPM makes business education truly global (Print Version)
The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
IIPM Campus

Top Articles on IIPM:-
IIPM makes business education truly global-Education-The Times of ...
The Hindu : Education Plus : Honour for IIPM
IIPM ranked No.1 B-School in India, Management News - By ...
IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
Moneycontrol >> News >> Press- News >> IIPM ranked No1 B-School in ...
IIPM ranked No. 1 B-school in India- Zee Business Survey ...
IIPM ranked No1 B-School in India :: Education, Careers ...
The Hindu Business Line : IIPM placements hit a high of over 2000 jobs
Deccan Herald - IIPM ranked as top B-School in India
India eNews - IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
IIPM Delhi - Indian Institute of Planning and Management New Delhi ...
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs

Monday, August 11, 2008

Great insecurity among end consumers

As a result, there is great insecurity among end consumers, who have found their money incomes depleted with respect to purchasing power. As per a survey by National Association of Convenience Stores, 45% of American consumers reported a decline in spending power due to rising petrol prices. While 19% wanted to buy more fuel efficient cars, an astonishing 13% had already reduced their driving on the back of $3/ gallon gasoline prices! As a result of earlier oil shocks, consumers have increasingly adapted an ‘aftermath attitude’ and eventual demands for automobiles have sagged significantly through out the world. A total of 38,214 hybrids were sold in the American market alone in March 2008, proof that these cars are now being perceived as a value proposition that’s beyond ‘fashion’.

Oil prices are very sensitively balanced as incremental spare capacity (according to some sources) is limited and there is a general perception toward a future oil deficit. To rein in this monster, one needs to first answer the question as to who is the culprit?

If you think rising consumption is to blame, hold your horses. According to OPEC estimates, the organisation’s proven reserves are expected to be somewhere close to 900 billion barrels and conventional sources are secure. Contributing close to 77% of all reserves, OPEC is the primary body controlling the world’s major oil sites.

Major members are Middle Eastern sates such as Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Kuwait. Various other regions are also represented in the organisation; countries like Venezuela, Indonesia and Nigeria are among major members as well. Thus, as a holistic approach towards understanding the oil crises spread across the planet, it is important to understand the composition of OPEC first. According to OPEC facts & figures, “The world’s Ultimately Recoverable Reserves (URR) is to continue to increase in the near future.

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 these article :-
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
IIPM makes business education truly global (Print Version)
The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
IIPM Campus

Top Articles on IIPM:-
IIPM makes business education truly global-Education-The Times of ...
The Hindu : Education Plus : Honour for IIPM
IIPM ranked No.1 B-School in India, Management News - By ...
IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
Moneycontrol >> News >> Press- News >> IIPM ranked No1 B-School in ...
IIPM ranked No. 1 B-school in India- Zee Business Survey ...
IIPM ranked No1 B-School in India :: Education, Careers ...
The Hindu Business Line : IIPM placements hit a high of over 2000 jobs
Deccan Herald - IIPM ranked as top B-School in India
India eNews - IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
IIPM Delhi - Indian Institute of Planning and Management New Delhi ...
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Components requirements

There is another pressure on the new aspirants, their foreign touch aggravating their troubles. Ashok Jainani, Head (Research), KSL India critically divulges, “Of all the information available, Bajaj wouldn’t be able to compete with Nano, for lack of expertise and components requirements. Moreover, payment of royalties to foreign collaborators puts Bajaj and Hero Group on the backfoot; something that Tata need not bother about.” To add to the chaos, Bajaj will also face pressure from auto-component suppliers. Recently, Minda and Sona which are scheduled to supply parts for Nano production lately cried hoarse over costing pressures and asked Tata to increase the price of Nano, to give them better margins.

If the two are successful, India will have its first two companies that have a presence in both two wheelers and four wheelers – a lethal combination. A complete metamorphosis into four wheels-making however is not to be expected as Jainani forecasts, “At the moment, I don’t see them getting completely into four wheelers as there will always be a new set of target audience for the two wheeler industry.” Surely, for the moment, Bajaj and Hero Group are not bidding goodbye to Street Hawk; Knight Rider is just a part of their on-road strategy.

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 these article :-
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
IIPM makes business education truly global (Print Version)
The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
IIPM Campus


Monday, August 04, 2008

Citigroup is claiming its international operations

While the Citigroup is claiming that its international operations are running smoothly, one must go through the Indian example before believing the same. The scene in India is not at all enticing. Though most banks have raised their minimum annual income criteria for a credit card to Rs.1,20,000 from Rs.80,000 and the know-your-customer (KYC) norms have become more stringent, the total amount under credit cards default stands close to Rs.200 billion, data from Credit Information Bureau of India reveals. Probably such kind of data might have scared the officials at Citigroup. As during March 2008, speculations were rife that Citigroup may sell-off CitiFinancial, a NBFC, which belongs to the group. Once considered to be the most aggressive sub-prime lender in India the NBFC was forced to change its norms and issue only collateral backed loans. On the other hand Citibank has also tightened its norms for issuing credit cards and now-a-days is focussing more on financing consumer durables and two-wheelers through credit cards. In rest of the markets Citigroup is now taking a cautious approach.

However, it’s a fact that the company might have suffered huge losses in its investment banking arm, but substantial measures have been adopted to improve the company’s financial health. “Citigroup’s capital position improved noticeably in the past seven months because the company has issued over $30 billion in regulatory capital”, reveals a report published by Moodys, a leading credit rating agency.

But still one question remains to be answered. Will this huge credit card default lead to another financial crisis or it can still be avoided? If one believes Tim Westrich it can actually be avoided. As per him, “Implement a credit card safety rating system that can give consumers better information about their credit cards and thus help them make better decisions. In addition to a credit card safety rating system government should go further to mandate a higher level of fairness in credit card terms.” Or else, well...umm... get ready.

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2008
An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Friday, August 01, 2008

Highest bid possible

The M&A folks of any business are always supposed to solicit the highest bid possible. Plus, with companies like Google, as well as aggressive PE groups, there is always that theoretical chance that something more desirable for Yahoo! would emerge. It may be more an issue of Yahoo!’s management really believing that there is great upside potential if the company remains independent and not wanting to transfer that potential to Microsoft regardless of price. “If it were ever put to a shareholder vote, however, I imagine shareholders would look at the situation much differently and line up in overwhelming numbers in support of a sale to Microsoft”, feels Richard.

At the end of it all, Microsoft is in too strong a position and Yahoo! in too weak a position for the latter to fend off Microsoft’s overtures indefinitely. “Microsoft may have to increase its bid by a dollar or two per share to get the deal done, but I suspect that it will ultimately prevail in this takeover battle,” concludes Richard. A Google-Yahoo! merger has way too much antitrust risk to even consider absent major divestitures, and an independent Yahoo! has been losing a several year battle to both Google and Microsoft. “Ultimately, I believe a lot of this will come down to antitrust issues - would regulators approve Microsoft-Yahoo! merger, and how should those two parties allocate the risk in case regulators either do not approve the deal or require significant divestiture,” says Marc.

To sum up, if Yahoo! posts better Q1 results, it may be able to put up a better case in front of its shareholders for now; but the key consideration is whether the company is ready for plan B, that is standing on its own if need be, since that could very much be a possibility now.

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2008
An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Thursday, July 31, 2008

people challenges

Like any other company, Nucleus Software has its own set of people challenges and has its own style of handling these challenges. For Nucleus the major challenge has always been hiring and retention. “I don’t talk about retention in terms of compensation. The major challenge is how we manage the people.” Further adding, he says, “Normally on a project we’ve 7-8 members from project managers to project leaders. The biggest challenge is that apart from the leaders the rest are fresh pass outs with just 1-2 years of experience, so development of these project managers is of utmost importance.”

For a company that finds retention & hiring as a big challenge, then what is it that Nucleus does to be an employer of choice. Verma gushes, “We have to ensure that our employees are well equipped with the technologies and domain knowledge and only then we can be one of the best employers in the country.” The company undertakes many initiatives including the ‘Toyota Way’ which according to Verma is “nothing but a book, which the employees refer to. We have also understood (after reading) that the matter in the book can be implemented not only in the automobile & manufacturing sector, but it can also be done in the IT sector.” The Toyota Way is enabling Nucleus employees to learn quicker and on their own. And who knows by following the book and its learnings to the tee, Nucleus could well be the next Toyota of the IT sector.

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 these article :-
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
IIPM makes business education truly global (Print Version)
The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
IIPM Campus

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Search Engines

Though search engines like Google boast of being able to calculate the actual ROI per online marketing campaign, a majority of marketers in India are still questioning the validity of reaping ‘payback’ benefits from this much hyped medium. ROI simply depends on the definition of ‘success events.’ A case in point being the banking sector. Banks have defined success event as ‘lead generation’ (because they possibly see Internet only as a ‘sales tool’). But advocates of online advertising believe that such an assessment is stifling to the vast potential that the medium offers. They prefer to define success events as ‘time spent with content, number of pages viewed, number of repeat visits, number of users who visited as a result of exposure, number of conversations generated as a result of advertising, number of voluntary participations as a result of exposure’. Asserts Rahul Nanda, COO of Web Chutney, “The medium allows you to measure and track reach, it also allows you to be in control of your budgets real-time and target your audience with more focus.”

All said and done, for the present and even in the near future, online advertising in India will just remain an add-on medium or as Titus Upputuru, Creative Director, O&M, puts it, “For marketers it will always be ‘achcha kuch online bhi soch lete hain’.” And even then, for most marketers, Internet advertising simply means banner ads. The more adventurous ones adopt the ‘pay per click’ model. But even here, faultlines creep in as the risk of false clicks is very high and marketers end up paying huge amounts for false clicks. Savvy marketers are therefore increasingly using consumer profiling, demographics and proper media planning to overcome such obstacles. Adds Nanda, “Understanding user behaviour is the first step in the online advertising process. Any online campaign seeks to engage the user with carefully targeted ads based on their browsing behaviour, time spent on different web properties, matching the ad content with the website content and other relevant parameters. The next step is ‘Behavioural Targeting,’ but India is still some time away from it.” Foolproof consumer profiling techniques are also reducing privacy intrusion of surfers tremendously. Intrusive banner formats today, are moving towards a scenario where users are given the choice of making them non-intrusive. Many formats today ask users if they want to play the ad whereas all the formats give the user an immediate option to close the ad. Advertisers also limit the exposure of the ad to the same user these days (example – person sees the ad only once a day) so that there is minimal irritation. The usage of ‘pop-ups’ specifically as a format is largely done by transaction-oriented companies (banks, money transfer etc.) who want an immediate response/action from the user in the form of a lead. This definitely can be an irritant factor, which can disrupt the user experience but this again, is slowly changing to formats which are less intrusive. such as pop-unders

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 these article :-
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
IIPM makes business education truly global
The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
IIPM Campus

Monday, July 28, 2008

The real question is: will an eye for an eye work?

Well-seasoned by his 16 years of work-ex in an eye care company, he thought of taking that next step, of creating something new using his knowledge. With eye-care hospitals still at a nascent stage in India, a chain of super-speciality hospitals fitted the bill perfectly. Affirms Rajat, “I wanted to create an eye-care hospital in areas where specialised eye-care is not possible. So I started testing the option in January 2007.” Roping in five ex-batchmates in June 2007, he created the brand Eye Q. Today he spearheads the organisation in the role of CEO & MD.

The first two hospitals were started in the remote areas of Gurgaon & Rewari. The strategy was simple – make maximum of the first mover advantage in these areas. It clicked and within three months of its start-up, the Rewari hospital broke-even. The success of these two hospitals propelled them to open four more hospitals, while the initial target was just three in the first year! Adds Rajat, “What became important was to have the latest technology in eye care and we started tying up with other players.” Not a hollow boast as the company today has tie-up with players like Bausch & Lomb, Zeiss and is expanding its arms into places like Ganganagar (Rajasthan) and Haldwani (Uttrakhand), where no other player has dared to go. “We have tie-ups with the providers of latest technologies in eye-care and we are going where it’s actually required. We will never focus on the metros and our promotional activities would always rotate around the availability of high-standard eye care in towns,” elaborates Rajat.

Banking on such innovative strategies he’s planning to open 100 more hospitals by 2012 with a total turnover of over Rs.200 crore. Surely, this ‘Eye’ looks all sharp and focused in doing what many could have never imagined. And the time has even come when its promoters can today think of taking the private champion public. In all probability, its will also become the apple of the public eye soon… not forgetting the huge revenues of course!

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2008
An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Protectionism

This ‘P’ of marketing had given Indian (Airlines) a competitive edge over others. But with the opening up of Indian skies, the state-owned airline had to change track

Indian has been “protected” by being deployed on certain routes as an exclusive airline where consumers have no option but to use it. So it’s out of compulsion and not choice that consumers choose it. The government aid has also helped, for cost benefit of such routes for a private player are adverse. The logic to protect Indian is to have a stable stronghold in a strategic sector where the rest of the players are private. This is a remnant of our socialist policy. Not surprising, since this ‘P’ does make companies complacent. However, when the Indian skies were thrown open to private players, the state-owned airline wasn’t able to hold its own in terms of market share, which kept sliding in favour of new private entrants like Jet & Kingfisher. Today, competition is forcing Indian to concentrate on activities like brand building, customer satisfaction, et al. Thus partial protection in a consumerist economy actually works to the detriment of the protected entity.

For Complete
IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2008
An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative