A 360 degree view of World Biz

Why no posts?

2005-12-02T15:14:00.000-05:00

Its been ages since I posted on this blog and the reason is that we didnt get lazy or anything like that but we found a way to express ourselves in a different format. The contributor at Business360 have started podcasting. Its called IndiCast. Infact we have been doing it for more than 2 months and are going great. We get about 250 listeners every week and a fair number of emails. Infact, the response was so good that we were featured on Itunes in their " new & notable" section which was a huge achievement.

So the reason that this blog has been lying barren is coz we get squeezed out of our creativity on our podcast. So do check us out at http://www.theIndicast.com

Up, Up and Away!!!

2005-11-20T01:38:00.000-05:00

I know how it feels to have a cup of steaming java at 31,000 feet above the sea level in a compressed atmosphere at 880 miles per hour. It has taken me 22 years and a Godrej to scale this high.

It takes roughly one and a half hour to traverse a distance of 1200 Km. from Pune to the capital of India. I’d been to Delhi a month and a half back. While chugging along at 70 miles/hour in an unreserved compartment of Indian Railways, staring at millions of cubic meters of barren land interspersed with grass and watching the sun retire for the day, does hold some rustic charm, racing at 330 miles/hour is an experience that is hard to put down on paper.

Your nervous system goes for a toss/is in jeopardy and you seem to love every bit of it. This is no Disney Ride. This is for real and the massive piece of equipment that is carrying you doesn’t let you down (no pun intended). It helps if the captain has a sense of humor and doesn’t take his job too seriously. He may double up as a tourist guide of the skies. “To your right is the Arabian Sea;” and the 100000 pound liner obeys the pilot and swerves to the left at an angle of 45 degrees as gracefully as an eagle swooping down on its prey. But, for this debutant traveler the heart beats faster that it has ever known. The veins pulsate with the burden of that additional litre of blood and the stomach is home to a million butterflies.

A plane has to cover some ground before it positions itself for takeoff. Then, those peanut sized tires help turn the gentle giant a complete 180 Degrees. She “parks” herself on the designated runway. That’s her arena. She owns the road which will shortly take the beating of her weight. She is silent. Gradually, the engine gets worked up. She is panting. Like a raging bull, she awaits for the final ‘go’ from the control room. I anticipate the obvious. Suddenly, without warning, the engine gives out a roar which would humble a 1000 lions from the animal kingdom. Sitting at the ‘window seat’, I stare at the fins on the wings which close in giving her the perfect figure; the aerodynamics works at its best. A thousand and who knows, may be millions of cogs put together by a trillion gray cells work to get the airliner fulfill its purpose.

She races at 0 to 100 mph in less than 3 seconds. And in less than 30 seconds, the tires give away and we are suspended in thin air gaining speed to rule gravity. In a matter of a few more seconds, the clouds kiss the windows and the sun plays host, inviting you to roam about his territory.

Although the scene outside the window is breathtaking, if is quite difficult to stare away from the beatific airhostesses (Indian Airlines is an exception which believes that airhostesses are like wine.) when they come over to you fulfilling every petty demand of yours with a practiced smile that enamors you because no other beautiful stranger has greeted you with such put on sincerity for years together while on earth.

Once you get used to the skies, the exciting part of the journey ends. The plane is no more than a ‘flying Volvo’ taking you from Mumbai to Pune. Two hours later, you start descending. A concrete jungle captivates you and the buildings look like prototypes created by civil engineers waiting for your approval. Suddenly, within no time, they start getting bigger and my sense of not being a part of these mini massive structures gives away.

You are on land again. This is the true test of a pilot. All bike riders would agree with me that a good biker is judged by how well he uses his clutch in conjunction with the throttle which allows him to change gears without the pillion feeling the change. A pilot has a similar task on hand, the only difference being that a hundred pillions anticipate a safe landing and that the speed is only 300 times more than that of a bike on full speed on a freeway.

A perfect 10. Beautiful landing!

Back to the Basics - Dual existence

2005-10-26T03:15:00.000-04:00

Taking a cursor from an old post of Havoc on the initiative taken by G.A.P to promote its jeans using iTunes, I believe the back to the basics class just had to happen. (Also due to the fact that I had to shed off my garb of the long-hiatus!)

Co-branding (also called Dual Branding) has become a rage in the marketing arena, with companies realizing that isolation is not after all the best policy. Buy a Filmfare magazine and get imitation jewelry free? What’s the relation? What’s the connection? Or free Duracell batteries with a magazine, which costs much lesser than the pair of cells? What’s cooking?

The markets of yesterday saw companies focusing on the customer thinking about "How can I promote my jeans?” The marketers today believe that the myopia needs to clear off to a "How do I define my customer?" approach. By saying, "defining my customer", i don’t mean getting back to classroom and assessing who the target consumer is. Defining a customer means more in terms of creating a persona for the customer, or rather shaping the customer.

Lets take a small example: Consider that i am a dealer who sells fashion accessories and jeans. One of my target customers would be the youth, who want to look hip. Now lets analyze this a bit more.

Customer Profiling - Fashionable India youth

Demographics: Age group of say 15 to mid 20s, SEC A & B max (SEC = Socio Economic Classification), atleast college educated

Psychographics: Fashion conscious, looks more to belong to his 'cult' or 'peer groups', wants to be updated with the latest gizmos in town - mobile phones, fashion accessories, computer and media related gadgets, ready to pay for a premium product which makes him look exclusive.

In such a case, we can certainly identify some items that he/she might be interested in:

Latest Mobile phones
MP3 Players
Cars / bikes
Branded clothing
Fashion accessories
Personal Grooming products
Latest eateries
Non-traditional cuisine
Discos/ lounges / places to party

So if I were a clever marketer, I would easily identify items or rather products, which would define or rather, shape my target audience. After all, a person buying designer jeans cannot live on bread alone! He would also look at other items that would add to moulding his persona or his “outer self”, which many a times also have an important role in defining the “inner self” or feel that one gets after using a product/service.

What the gurus say?

Kotler, Philip (2003) defines Cobranding as "two or more well-known brands are combined in anoffer" and each brand sponsors expects that the other brand name will strengthen the brand preference or purchase intention and hopes to reach a new audience.

Kafperer talks of co-branding being quite beneficial such that:

Many line extensions capitalize on a partner’s brand equity.
Brand extension success rates are maximized in the new market when co-branded with the reputed brand that has established in that market.
Co-branding may help usage extension.
Image reinforcement may take place due to co-branding.
Loyalty programs increasingly include co-branding arrangements. The corporations are sharing the cost of loyalty programs; hence, the promotional costs to the companies are coming down.
Co-branding signals a trade marketing operation.
Capitalizing on the synergies among a number of brands is yet another advantage of co-branding.

Taking from the gurus:

In terms of defining the youth, a company cant perhaps do half as good as what two can, when they join hands… one of the positive take-homes from a co-branding exercise would be the fact that sales of a totally unrelated product would now help sell urs!

The advertising frat always laughed it off saying “Everyone knows that 50% of advertising goes waste – its just that you cant find out which 50% it is!”

Co-branding can be an effective medium to reduce ad-spend and still maintain more of “mindshare and heartshare”, as Kotler would put it.

Moving closer home - some Indian examples:

“Bharat petroleum corporation Ltd. (BPCL) has formed an alliance with Bank of Baroda (BOB) to launch a co-brand credit card Bharat BOB card. The deal works in favor of both the parties. BOB hopes to expand its current customer base. The bank charges 2% fee for this service. the petrol company on the other hand scores on customer orientation and an assured customer base.

Another Indian example is Diners club Citibank British Air ways card. Diners club has been providing the exclusivity of their charge cards through Citibank. The charge has to be paid every month and their targeted customers are business executives, who are mobile and frequently travel abroad. Diners club Citibank card along with facilities and privileges offered to a regular cardholder provides automatic membership to British airways executive club. Every Rs.50 spent on the card earns the holder one executive club mile and as such is a part of the frequent flyer program. This enables additional benefits to both the brands.”

The Final Word : I would say that Co-branding can be like a dual edged sword – G.A.P may well end up being generous with the iTunes downloads and end up not selling even a single pair of denims…on the other hand, the prospective customer would perceptually link iTunes with Music – with style – with class – with exclusivity – and finally with G.A.P…..what happens on the other side of the road…only time will tell.

Source:

Examples: Venkatesh, R. and Mahajan, Vijay. "Products with branded Components: An approach for premium pricing and partner selection” Marketing Science 16 (1997)

Guru-talk:
Kotler, Philip. “Marketing Management The Millennium edition” PHI pvt. Ltd.: New Delhi (2003)

Kapferer, Jean – Noel. “Strategic Brand Management” Kogan Page India Limited.: New Delhi (2000)

Cut the crap

2005-10-19T16:31:00.000-04:00

People usually don’t think very highly of Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer but I think I would love to work for this guy. US corporations have always been hypocrites and adding fuel to the fire are the top MBA producing factories. I had to go through a professional writing and speaking class to complete by graduate degree. My school had to make sure that they were producing a politically correct product. The first three words my professional speaking professor uttered were “Cover Your Ass” better known as CYA.

So what does the Ballmer reference have to do with this? It’s no secret that there is battle brewing between Google and Microsoft. Schools always teach us to say the right thing and maintain corporate dignity. I say screw all that… facts are facts. Google and Microsoft aren’t friends so why pretend to be like that when they are out to cut each others throat. Mark Lucovsky recounts in his sworn declaration that when told Ballmer he was leaving Microsoft for Google. Ballmer threw his chair and said

"I'm going to f---ing bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again," the declaration quotes Ballmer. "I'm going to f---ing kill Google."

Eric Schmidt was a top executive at Sun and Novell (both company were nearly demolished by Microsoft) before joining Google. What did Ballmer have to say about this? – Its gross exaggeration!!

I would love to see a similar rivalry brew between the tech companies in India coz when such a thing happens the consumers stand to gain the most.

Judgementalosis

2005-10-14T23:23:00.000-04:00

Day One: This person seems quite obnoxious......everything he says is so inappropriate…..

Day Ten: I am not sure if he’s that bad after all…in fact, he is quite funny!

I doubt if there is anyone on this entire planet who hasn’t voiced or at least thought these words at some point. Each one of us suffers from an incurable disease called - “judgementalosis”…...The biggest evidence of our suffering would be the celebrities, whose lives have at least a million different versions.

One such example that often comes to mind is our very own unique cricket commentator - Navjot Siddhu. His unconventional ways annoyed many and became the butt of all jokes. But over time, we learn to see the good in everything and many started to actually enjoy his quirky wit.

So here go some one liners, which have, popularly, come to be known as “Classic Siddhuisms”. Enjoy!

1. That ball went so high it could have got an air hostess down with it.

2. There is light at the end of the tunnel for India, but it's that of an incoming train which will run them over.

3. Experience is like a comb that life gives you when you are bald.

4. This quote was made after Ganguly called Dravid for a run and midway sent him back and Dravid was run out in the third test against the West Indies at Barbados."Ganguly has thrown a drowning man both ends of the rope."

5. Sri Lankan score is running like an Indian taxi meter.

6. Statistics are like miniskirts, they reveal more than what they hide.

7. Wickets are like wives - you never know which way they will turn!

8. He is like Indian three-wheeler which will suck a lot of diesel but cannot go beyond 30!

9. The Indians are going to beat the Kiwis! Let me tell you, my friend, that the Kiwi is the only bird in the whole world which does not have
wings!

10. As uncomfortable as a bum on a porcupine.

11. The ball whizzes past like a bumble bee and the Indians are in the sea.

12. The Indians are finding the gaps like a pin in a haystack.

13. The pitch is as dead as a dodo.

14. Deep Dasgupta is as confused as a child is in a topless bar!

15. The way Indian wickets are falling reminds of the cycle stand at Rajendra Talkies in Patiala..one falls and everything else falls!

16. Indian team without Sachin is like giving Kiss without a squeeze.

17. You cannot make Omlettes without breaking the eggs.

18. Deep Dasgupta is not a Wicket Keeper, he is a goal keeper. He must be given a free transfer to Manchester United.

19. He will fight a rattlesnake and give it the first two bites too.

20. One, who doesn't throw the dice, can never expect to score a six.

21. This quote was made after Eddie Nichols, the third umpire, ruled Shivnarine Chanderpaul 'NOT OUT' in the second test at Port of Spain, T&T. "Eddie Nichols is a man who cannot find his own buttocks with his two hands."

22. Anybody can pilot a ship when the sea is calm.

23. Nobody travels on the road to success without a puncture or two.

24. You got to choose between tightening your belt or losing your pants.

25. The cat with gloves catches no mice.

26. Age has been perfect fire extinguisher for flaming youth.

27. You may have a heart of gold, but so does a hard-boiled egg.

28. He is like a one-legged man in a bum kicking competition.

29. The third umpires should be changed as often as nappies and for the same reason.

30. Kumble's bowling at the moment is flat as a Dosa

Noises Off!

2005-10-12T15:58:00.000-04:00

The 1992 Michael Caine Hollywood blockbuster is making its way to Mumbai….uh uh…not to Bollywood but into Mumbai’s Supreme Court!

What am I talking about?? Well, here goes a brief background……..

Come October and the 17 million people who call Mumbai their home, put on their best ethnic costumes, wear their smiles and step into the night to rock-n-roll…well… in the ethnic way, of course! For, the season hosts the nine day dance and music festival of Navratri (nine nights).

But, this year’s celebrations are a little different. For a petition filed by activists on behalf of the old, ill or the ones simply frustrated with the din, moved the Supreme Court to command - “Noises Off”.

The use of loudspeakers, horns or other instruments causing disturbance to society at large would be banned post 10 p.m. This ruling not only broke the hearts of millions of passionate tradition loving Mumbaiites, but also was a major blow to the SME business sector, including the event organizers, food stalls, musicians and other entertainers.

Distraught enthusiasts and businessmen together proved their passion for fun and festivities, when their objection to the ban, compelled the Supreme Court to make an amendment to its ruling. Under the new policy, revelers can be as noisy as they please until midnight, but only on 15 nights each year. That definitely takes care of the nine during Navratri.

Well, Mumbai’s spirit wins once again…..and for now we do not really need - “Noises Off” (No offense intended to Michael Caine ;-) )

2005-10-10T13:20:00.000-04:00

Gandhi and his sense of Humor

When Gandhi was asked by an Englishman, “Mr. Gandhi, what do you think of Western Civilization?” Gandhi replied, “Yeah, that would be a good idea.” The dreaded half naked fakir to the British, a barrister by profession to the world and a lanky bundle of hope to a million Indians knew a thing or two about humor, timing and his audience. His beatific toothless smile has been the most popular of Gandhi’s portraits. Gandhi was known to have a calm disposition. He seemed unruffled in the most impossible of situations which would have his detractors, mostly the Britishers (at least, initially) in doubt about their ability to poke fun at him.

Gandhi was a brand. He was the man with Harry Potter like glasses, a white loin cloth, and a bamboo stick longer than Gandhi himself. He could easily qualify as a mascot for Johnny Walker’s ‘Keep Walking’ ad campaign, says one of my friends. Robin Williams in one of his Stand-up comedy shows admired Gandhi for not introducing a range of clothing ‘Gandhi – either you are simply not eating or asking the British to!@#$ off’; ‘Gandhi – comes in size 1 and below!’

Gandhi was a freedom fighter and had an ideology similar to that of Christ, ‘Lord, forgive them, coz' they know not what they do.’ If I were to hear this as a child, I would have exclaimed, ‘Are you kidding me?’ But you realize as you grow up, Christ was serious. And that Gandhi was not always kidding.

Gandhi, according to me, disciplined himself to think out of the box. If he were to be successful in the elusive goal of getting the British to talk to the country to settle issues across the table, he had to be different. And he bloody well was. He was just dangerous enough to be trusted by his enemies. He stood his ground, however marshy it was, yet he never resisted arrest. He liked to walk and one of his marathon walks shook the Empire where the sun never set.

I am not a Gandhi fan and neither do I despise Gandhi. But, my mind will remember him. Gandhi is ubiquitous. Editorials like to talk about him. He is used as a metaphor in describing anything remotely associated with non violence on one hand and mindless philanthropy on the other. I will read about him in a newspaper or magazine hours from now and yet be intrigued by the man the nth time I read about his exploits. He is unique like every one, yet different in an outrageous way.

Is this real or what?

2005-10-09T22:25:00.000-04:00

I stumbled upon this while casually browsing the net. Gaurav Sabnis, a blogger is being threatened with a law suit by IIPM legal department for writing negative things about the institution. Aparently this has become a huge topic since JAM MAG's editor, Rashmi Bansal, posted an article about false promises made by IIPM.

For me, IIPM made the worst move by getting a blogger invovled. Desipundit have taken this very seriously and are following this whole issue. I tried to do some investigating myself a bit about the IIPM's Arindam Chaudhary and here is something right from his website.

Professor Chaudhuri did his B.A. with Honours in Economics, Honours Diploma in Industrial Engineering, M.A with Honours in Economics, Post Graduate Diploma in Planning and Management (MBA) and Fellowship of I.I.P.M.
Professor Chaudhuri has been amongst the toppers during his B.A. Economics, M.A. Economics and MBA. He was the recipient of the Academic Gold Medal while completing his Post Graduate Diploma in Planning and Management from IIPM.

How can one have all his degrees (including a gold medal) from the same institute. I wont say anything more and leave it to that. And BTW, What happened to "Freedom of speech"? Do we still have democracy in India?

Harsha speaks for the Nation

2005-10-09T11:56:00.000-04:00

Where’ve you gone, Sachin, a nation turns its lonely eyes to you

Over the years I have watched Sachin Tendulkar play cricket many times. I have marvelled at his skill, admired his work ethic and been taken aback by the unwavering dignity that has accompanied him everywhere, often in the face of some provocation. But now, more than ever before, I find myself experiencing a craving for his batting. I want to watch him play cricket because I want to take my mind off this tenacious shroud that covers and darkens our cricket.
Indian cricket needs some cricket. That is not the most elegant of sentences but it conveys the mood of all of us cricket lovers quite appropriately, caught up as our game has been with intrigue, mistrust and greed.

Never before has cricket itself been such a distant number two in the matters of the BCCI. They need it, but don’t care too much for it; like with the law and some of those that dabble in politics.
And our cricket needs to give those long on imagination and short on facts a holiday as well. Recent events have only confirmed that old philosophy — never let the truth come in the way of a good story. And so the mind has run riot, every action dissected, conclusions found and, where they don’t exist, created.

The old lab principle of experiment, observation and only then inference, is too outdated, too boring. Everybody wants a new spin on events, old theories have been dusted and revived, cricket should be on Star Plus.

Negativity has been assiduously searched and presented, where it has been tough the BCCI has come to the rescue. The fresh wind that blows old thought away has been pushed back, the sunrise that washes away a dark, unhappy night has been shrouded by a fog of poor intent. There is no happiness in our cricket, the bat has suddenly become a piece of wood as a sitar might in the hands of an uncaring baggage handler.

We need to get back to the truth and we need the joy back. We need the cricket lover to applaud and then wait in anticipation, to sigh and then wait again in anticipation. We need to tell the cricket lover: stop, don’t walk away, don’t turn your back on us. This is still a game of skill, of a twirling ball and a flourishing bat, of the heart in the mouth and even sometimes, of the shirt in the hand.

That is why I cannot wait to watch Sachin Tendulkar play again.
Indian cricket desperately needs a talisman; someone who signifies skill and honest effort; someone who can tell India to come and watch him and forget her worries for a while; a responsible man who puts an honest bat to a hardworking ball.

Indian cricket needs someone who worships the game, not the benefits that go with it, for there are such few worshippers at Annual General Meetings. Everywhere there are people looking lecherously at our cricket, eager to make the next penny, searching for the next rupee. And cricket itself, that simple game of bat and ball, of skill and effort, of brilliance and perseverance lies by the roadside, waiting to be noticed.

That is what I hope Sachin Tendulkar can do. I want to see him rock on the back foot and play that stunning drive through the covers, I want to see him take that little step forward and hit the ball past the bowler, I want to see him pull forward of square, come down the wicket and hit over long-off, cut past point, paddle to fine leg. I want to gape. I want to applaud.

Strange that such joy should mean so little in the face of that extra vote from the north or the west.

We’ve spent too much time on penny stocks of late. It’s time to look at the blue chips again. Hopefully it’s time to say good-bye to the prospectors and welcome back to the pilgrims.

I swear!!It's been soo bloody long....Cant wait for HIM to return!

- Harsha Boghle

Interviewing the "en"gadgeteer

2005-09-29T14:32:00.000-04:00

Recently, I got a chance to skype with Peter Rojas, Editor-in chief of Engadget. Engadget is the top most professional blog concentrating on reporting tech stories as they break out. We have also published a few clipping from the interview. So here it goes.

B360: So what is Peter Rojas all about?

I am not an archetypical geek. I wasn’t into hacking or programming but more interested in the social and cultural aspect of technology and not just the hardware specs itself. I am someone who just loves technology and gadgets

B360: What were you doing before blogging?

I have a master’s degree in English from university of Sussex, UK. (B360: he forgot to mention his undergraduate degree from Harvard) After that I moved to California and took up an advertising job (pretty much the first job that I came across) and I was really bad at it. I wasn’t even doing anything fun. People usually think, when you are working in an ad company, you are coming up with crazy stuff and working with around models. I was actually working as a media buyer. Basically, deciding how much money a company should spend on newspaper ads versus radio/television ads. It was just a lot of math. It was definitely more math than I should have been trusted with. So I ended up quitting that job.

I was then hired by Red Herring as an associate editor (thanks to a friend so referred me there). Its funny how they hired someone with no experience in professional writing but it all fell in place. They offered me an option to join the web team or the magazine. I chose the magazine because being in magazine was still considered to be better than on a website (or probably because it had a better job title). Red Herring was a wonderful experience since it was where I developed my journalism and moreover who would send you all over the world to write about technology.

B360: How did you get into this?

I started blogging in the summer of 2001. Blogging wasn’t as popular back then but people were beginning to notice them. I was laid off from Red Herring and a close friend encouraged me to start a blog. So I blogged for a few months and then stopped. I was almost broke then and wanted to do something that would pay my bills. 9-11 had happened and the publishing business was in shambles. Magazines were cutting ad pages etc so work was difficult to find.

This made me think about starting a blog that wouldn’t loose money. That’s how Gizmodo was founded. We didn’t start it thinking it would make millions but something sustainable. As time went on, I left Gizmodo to start Engadget to get editorial freedom and to do something that would be better for me long term.I think it was a philosophical difference between nick and me. (Nick Denton was the co-founder of Gizmodo along with Peter.)

B360 : Was it supposed to be a full time thing?

Well, Engadget was started with the intention of being a fulltime job. From day one, I had decided that this was going to get 100% of my time, no more freelancing. I poured all my energy into Engadget and hoped that it would become successful. It was difficult in the beginning. I just lived off my saving for nine months. Even though we had ads, I didn’t take any money out of the site until this year.

B360 : So can I start a professional blog as well or do you need special skills?

Yes, you absolutely can. But the important thing is that you cannot make blogging your fulltime job or start a professional blog unless it’s something you are passionate about and are interested in. If you are not passionate about the subject matter, it comes out in your writing.

B360 : Any regrets about not having a regular job?

Seriously, I don’t even tell people that I have a job. I love doing this. I write about video games, cell phone and ipods, this is not a “job”. It’s like the 12-year old in me is making all the money. I get to play with all the gadgets for a living but lately I have been so busy that I can’t even do that any more. That can be frustrating sometimes.

B360 : How do you compare blogs and magazine?

Blogging to me is a lot more honest than the journalism I was doing before. (Not that it was specifically misleading). In magazines, you are writing for a mythical reader who is not as familiar with what you are writing and so you have to dumb things down to a certain level. The idea is that you don’t want to leave anyone behind. In some respects it better because then an average person can pick up the magazine and at least understand what’s going on but then it also means that you cant write stuff at a certain complexity. Moreover, blogs share a lot more information between them than magazines do. Engadget frequently refers other sites that might interest the reader as opposed to a magazine. For example, we refer to Om Malik’s blog all the time.

B360 : What defines the ethos of your blog - what you want to write, or what the audience wants to read?

That’s really tough. You definitely feel a pull towards what YOU think the reader would like but it’s a bit of a balancing act. But everyone has their pet subjects like I am really interested in IP TV, smart phones with QWERTY keyboard. But we try to cover the news and what’s going on as best as we can. And anyone who reads the sites knows that it’s not only product announcements but also stories that have been floating around on the web, pictures. But finally, the deciding factor on what goes on Engadget is whether I personally find it interesting. Everything on Engadget is something that I would want to read. For example, we did an Engadget 1985 feature that was definitely unconventional for Engadget.

B360 : Did you ever have to promote your blog: How to promote one's blog to bring more visibility and readership?

When you have a good blog, people will find you and it’s the people that don’t have good content or writing are the ones who have to beg for links. In the blog world, quality tends to rise to the top.

B360 : A big question - Is blogging just a fad? More specifically, has blogging become more of a fashion statement, basically, "demonstration effect" in the weblog arena.

I don’t think it’s just a fad. People tend to talk about blogging as a very monolithic thing but blogging is just a platform. It’s just a tool. Blogging is just a very easy way to publish online, which is incredibly valuable and is very meaningful for a lot of people. As for professional blogging, its fate is somewhat tied to online advertising and if there was a massive crash in online advertising then some of the smaller professional blogging sites will go out of business. But I see blogs going in every direction. More personal blogs will be started and even more professional ones. Soon every topic is going to have a blog on it. Probably the top 2 blogs, a year from now haven’t even been started. We just started last year and we are already the number one blog. That makes me happy but anyone can replace us in a relatively short period of time. We can afford to take things for granted.

B360 : A major feature on your blog is releasing scoops that you get. Do people just email you with this stuff or are these your friends working all over the place.

Engadget has signed no NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) so our hands aren’t tied. Another way at looking at it is that we don’t get exclusive reviews that run on the first day a product is released but they are not as important to us. Those reviews are important but its not worth trading the freedom. Posting leaked photos of a product brings the fun element into Engadget. Occasionally people send us fake stuff to try and trick us. So we have to exchange a few emails before we can trust a source - especially stuff related to Nintendo. So it’s not as easy. We do have to smoke out the fakes. Moreover, bloggers share a lot of infomration amongst them. We always refer to site like Om Malik's blog (The best one person tech blog) and other sites like phone scoop

B360 : PODCASTING Versus BLOGGING - are they complementary or will the former cannibalize the very essence of blogging - writing?

I am not so sure about that. I think they are pretty complementary. At the end of the day they are different kind of media and are meant to be enjoyed in different ways. Engadget views the podcast as a supplement to the site. We get about 60000 to 70000 podcast downloads a week which is nowhere near the millions of hits we get each day. But those 60000 people are really the hardcore Engadget readers. They want to know the story behind the story and that’s what the podcast is for us. It’s a way for us to connect with the reader in a different way and provide some additional background

B360 : What’s next? Engadget Magazine? Are you looking for other business model based on blogs?

We thought the magazine for a while but for now we are going to expand by rolling out Engadget in foreign languages like German, French, Korean and as many foreign languages as we think necessary. Technology is a global evolution so we want to provide the reader information in their native language. We might to something with vid-casts (podcasts but with video). But we still have to figure that out since its more complex than an audio output. We don’t want to start something and then stop it after a month.

New Bombay on Earth

2005-09-28T13:22:00.000-04:00

Many of my friends liked my last post with all the pictures of mumbai. It brought back some memories they said. Anyway, I was just playing around and dug up a few other sites.

This is the Vashi railway station and International Infotech Park. This place actually looks grander than the Mumbai international airport.

And guess what we have in the photo below. Its Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City (Reliance Infocomm HQ ) near Vashi. The blueish structure is actually a railway station which (if am not wrong) is named after Dhirubhai Ambani.

I promise that this is my last post of google earth photos unless I find something super cool.

Virtual touring

2005-09-27T18:27:00.000-04:00

I have been pissed off with google lately but how much ever I try, I just cant hate them. From time to time I make a post which is a bit away from the theme of this blog but the cool index of this was just too high to resist posting.

Google released adding "mapped" Mumbai and a few other cities in Google Earth so I thought I would take you on a virtual tour.

The above picture shows flora fountain (top left) and Mumbai High Court region. An importnat attraction for people is the road connecting the two where you'll get the cheapest books in the world.

The above picture is of Gateway Of India and the famous Hotel Taj which is probably the biggest blunders in construction. The french architect committed suicide when he found out that the hotel was being constructed backside front.

Here we can see Chatrapati Shivaji Terminal (a.k.a Victoria Terminal). Mumbai can be a nice place to visit if manage to survive the crowd in the local trains.

Here we see Wankhede (bottom left) & Brabourne stadium (Top right). Interesting story, Wankhede stadium was constructed because Cricket club of India (CCI) refused BCCI to use its stadium.... or something like that.. I had heard that it was constructed as away to get back to CCI. This is where Cricket's god - Sachin grew up with his heavy bat.

If I am not wrong, This is Bhaba Atomic Research Centre, in Mumbai. I am sure this image is going to be blurred out soon.

Its surprising how Google hasnt respected places of national security like a nuclear research centre and even naval docks. Sites from Dadar, bandra and other suburbs havent been mapped as yet. Similarly, they have some details for New Bombay. I'll try to get some photos for you guys later.

Dumb & dumber

2005-09-27T12:32:00.000-04:00

Business 2.0 is one of my fave magazines and recently it had published really cool story on the 101 dumbest things that companies have done. I dont think it must have been that difficult to compile this list. People do stupid things (that's how God made us) and companies are managed by the very same people.

You can laugh most of the things off when you read in the countdown but if you ask me #14 took the cake.

Dumb Act #14 : Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) funds a two-year study comparing its cholesterol drug, Pravachol (a BMS product), with Pfizer's Lipitor, only to blanch when the results come out in March: Lipitor actually does a better job of preventing heart attacks. After the report is published, the number of patients saying they're going to ask their doctors for Lipitor jumps by more than a third.

There is nothing better for a CEO to know that payed someone for two years to get statistcial data on how his product sucks and his competition is better !!! I am sure he called in sick for the next board meeting.

Sports fashion

2005-09-23T17:13:00.000-04:00

Beating some one in a sport is just not enough these days, it has to be done in style...I mean it in the literal sense. What would Anna kournikova (or sharapova these days) be without a colourful skimpy tennis outfit.. no seriously. The lady hasn't won a single title. What do you think she was famous for? (Guys, here is something you might enjoy).

Soccer has its set of fashion icons like Beckham (ladies, you might appreciate this) but the Italian soccer has spiced up its referees as well. Italian referee will be sporting a bright yellow and lime color jersey for this season.

All sports have their own fashion icons but what about cricket. We dont have a cricketeer whose a fashion leader? Last time I was in India, I had heard rumours about Tendulkar coming out with an apparel line, whatever happened to that? How come the fashion houses thought about leveraging the demi god status that our cricketeer have? I see some serious money to be made there.

Basking in glory

2005-09-20T13:30:00.000-04:00

Vishal Gondal isnt a very known figure and until this rediff article nobody had really captured the good work he has been upto. I am not sure if this 28 years old, CEO of IndiaGames got a larger high when he got his 3.25 crore seed capital from Infinity and IL&FS or was it when China's Tom Online acquired 80% of the IndiaGames for $17.73 million.

Where were the media biggies when all this was happening? Agreed that it is not even half of what the Baazee buy out was but $17.73 million is no small amount either. This story is even bigger in my mind because I have met him personally. Infact, I think Genuisoid and Dhishum have met him too.

This happened when we arranging a computer gaming competition at our college in Mumbai. We had received a call from IndiaGames saying that they would like to meet us. Our first impression of their office was not the best. In 2002, IndiaGames was operating out of an office which could be easily mistaken as going out of business. During the short meeting he talked passionately about gaming, especially about mobile gaming and moreover he is a Podar alumni so we love him even more ;-)

In the rediff article he talks about how Indian's have to think beyong outsourcing and IT services which I totally agree on. Its time that we become a product developing company eespecially because thats the best way to encourage innovatation. It was heartening to read that a product company is doing well in India. Go IndiaGames !!

Enterpreneur's hell

2005-09-16T14:20:00.000-04:00

Thinking about starting a business in India? Wait and think again. According to a World Bank study, India ranks pretty low in the table of "Ease of doing business". Countries like Pakistan, Ghana, Israel, Kiribati (I had never even heard of this country) !!!

The final scrore given to a country was an average of various areas of boind business like getting a license, getting loans etc. India was lowly rank of 116 out of 150 countries studied. But dont misinterpret these finding. This table is not an indication of how successful businesses in these countries are. This study stressed more on the process of starting/running a business and not on the profitability. New Zealand was ranked as the easiest place to do business and Republic of Congo was the last one on the list.

More you study, poorer you get

2005-09-15T18:28:00.000-04:00

Geniusoid wrote a very eccentric post and I am just going to carry on where is left. We, Indian always like to get more and more education under our belt. Quite often you will hear about how proud a mother is because her son god into IIM-A,B,C.

But then from time to time when I come across articles like this one on rediff, I wonder if I have already ruined my life by getting a masters degree from a good school. The trick to almost guarantee success (of course I am exaggerating) is to get admitted into a very good school and then drop out. Check this article if you dont believe me. Gates dropped out of Harvard and Steve Jobs dropped out of Stanford.

Dont let education ruin your career ;-)

A few more examples of "uneducated" business tycoons

Bhagwaan tumhaara bhala kare!

2005-09-14T02:11:00.000-04:00

Recently I decided to analyze one of the most clichéd phrases used by beggars on the streets of Mumbai:

"Garibon ki suno, woh tumhari sunega
Tum ek paise dogey, woh dus lakh dega"

English translation:

"Listen to the poor, HE will listen to you,

If you give a paisa, he will give you 10 lakhs"

Firstly, I decided to analyze the much ambiguous statement as quoted by the beggar:

".......woh tumhari sunega" - here is it not too clear that the WOH actually means God, since neither of the lines clearly state that. Hence the source of the revenue to the person making the contribution is not known.

Time value of money: Finance grads will recognize the importance of the concept of time while talking about money, returns, NPV etc. As can be observed from the quote used, there is no mention at all about the time after which the so called "Dus Lakh" will be given to the donor. This is too ambiguous, since, even if we go by the market rates, getting returns of 10 lakhs for a paisa invested will take us ages to get!

I discussed the investment avenues possible with my dad, who came up with the following alternatives:

Investment Avenue----- Min/Avg. Returns---- Comments
Share market--------------- 20% ------------------No upper limit to your returns!
Equity Mutual Funds----40 – 50 %-----------------Depends on the market!
Debt mutual funds---------8%

Public provident fund---- 8%----------------------Your money gets locked for long!
RBI Bonds--------------------- 8%----------------------Very safe
Real Estate---------------- Cant say
Bullion--------------------- Cant say

We came to the conclusion that if we were to remit money to the beggar and God were to repay us, the beggar must be some sort of broker/sub-broker or agent for God. Now the more important issue in hand is about where God will be investing the money…..certainly I’m not undead to know as to what investment options are available up there. So I presume that God must be having a lot of black money that he wants to give away to “HIS CHILDREN” down here, so that he may not end up in hell himself!

Now another thingy that interests me is about what will happen if I were to actually receive my Rs. 10 Lakhs by donating 1 paisa. Assuming that I get the amount in a single year (highly impossible!), what will the treatment of that money? Certainly giving money to beggars does not count under any Tsunami relief fund contribution, even if Mr. Beggar were to be rechristened as Mr. Tsunami or Mr. Katrina or something like that. Also, I guess deductions under Section 80 C may not apply. So I believe I may have to pay tax for the money - around 30 percent on this amount (tax slab for any amount exceeding Rs. 2.5 lakhs is taxed @ 30%).

One technical question – so far, government has been taxing people for money earned on this planet, which has passed on from another human being. So if I were to beget money from a divine source, should I still be taxed? Also, I am infact adding to the circulation of money in the economy (assuming that I invest the money and not store it in my safe) – I should get a tax holiday!!! Vilasrao! Are you listening??? I want my money back!!!

Ok now one more important thingy – as discussed above, since we are not sure who the source of the remittance is, the only possibility (in case its not God) is the hand of the underworld. In that case, doesn’t this become like some sort of an illegal activity? Should we ban beggars? Or rather capture them and try out third degree torture? Maybe they`ll tell us where Dawood is???

Ok one more possibility just came to my mind – it could be lottery!!! Bhikari Chaap Super Lotto!!! Yeah and we`ll get some scratchy gal in rags to read out the lucky number as well, maybe…

Selling God

2005-09-06T23:25:00.000-04:00

It was a bit sad when I read about Ganesh Idols being imported from China but rediff.com made my day. Rediff profiled a place called Pen which is famous for its clay ganesh idols. Pen is just half an hour from my home town and it is nice to see the local artisans getting some attention.

Redefining the Queen's Language

2005-09-06T23:18:00.000-04:00

Relish the next few minutes because they will set you rolling with laughter irrespective of the mood you are in at this moment.

During the induction process at a very well known family owned company, many speakers from various departments present their "power points" and some are not very proficient in the English Language. I've maintained a diary which has some of these misnomers -

A 26 year old guy is presenting about how the company practices Safety in all its manufacturing operations.... So, here goes -

'It does not does anything.'

"Are there stress in the workplace?"

'If we take decisions with stresses, can this happen?'

'Let's talk about fire. Whern it is small, you can control it.'

Initial 2-3 minutes in any emergency is very important'

'It does not leaves you with your responsibilities' What the presenter meant was that you cannot shy away from your responsibilities.

"A road is dugged up."

"Am I answering right?" What he meant was, "Did I answer your qusetion?"

Sign off statement - I wish you all the luck and (pause pause pause) safety things at Godrej.

Here are some one liners speech by the CEO of XYZ Infotech-

'It depends on how dynamically they want to push the business forward.'

'Not many people use it but.... there are some who use it.

'Information is available evey morning as yesterday evening.' What he meant was - "Information is updated every morning (on the server) and you can access the information of the previous evening)

'I am sure you are going to benefit this.'

My Personal Favourite - We have to delearn the people and then make them learn again. This comes from the VP HR

These men may send a chill down the spine of many a writer of 'The Economist', but they bloody well know how to do their jobs!!!

Do it the desi way

2005-09-01T11:46:00.000-04:00

As mind blowing as it may sound, Indian military will be teaching warfare to American soldiers. 50 US military officers will arrive in India to learn low-intensity guerrilla warfare from Indian anti-terror experts in the jungles of Mizoram. Surprisingly, The Counter Insurgency Jungle Warfare School (CIJWS) has already trained about 150 US military officers in Sept 2004. As put by an Indian military official, "The motto of this institute is to fight a guerrilla like a guerrilla."

I just hope that Indian military is charging loads of money for training all these foreign soldiers. Previously CIJWS had Bhutan, Nepal, and the Sri Lankan armies attend these courses but after the Americans started seeing the value in it, the French want some guerrilla “Gyan” as well.

Reference : MSN NRI edition

Comedy is serious business

2005-08-29T16:54:00.000-04:00

There is nothing funny when a standup comedian signs a $50 million deal with Cable Channel. In 2003, Dave Chappelle got paid $50 million for two seasons and the DVD release while our Johnny Lever never graduated to even a fulltime actor status. Don’t get me wrong, I have been to his standup acts and he was amazing. But since then we haven’t had a single actor or performer who wanted to become a comic.

In the US, Comedy central has gained top spots in the cable world and recently it beat all the channels to gain the highest viewership on Sunday, Aug 14th with 4.3 Million people tuning in for the roast of Pamela Anderson by the meanest bunch of stand up comics. Jeff Foxworthy made his money when he quit his IBM job and became a fulltime comedian and sold 14 million copies of his comic album.

I know its all about the TRP and Ad sales but just go back a few years, Indian television had two awesome sitcoms in the form of "Dekh Bhai Dekh" and "Zaban Sambhalke". I am sure those would generate a lot of ad sales even on re-runs. Selling 14 million copies might be a lot an Indian comic but as far as I recollect, “Agri Ramayan” had become immensely popular in Mumbai before it was pulled off the market because it “disrespected our mythology”. Are Indians to uptight to handle a joke that someone could make a business out of it.

The Maximum City of INDIA!!!

2005-08-29T07:17:00.000-04:00

Here is what I feel about one of the most beautiful books that I've read in the past two years!

Editors of popular news papers have started acknowledging the phrase, 'Maximum City' as synonymous with Bombay. If Harry Potter has enchanted the youth, Suketu Mehta's Maximum City has charmed many a reader with its beautiful account on the most sought after city of the second most populated country in the world.

Being a Mumbaikar (formarly a Bombayite), you are not surprised or flummoxed by the idiosyncrasies of the city that have been verbosely described in the book. But, you nod in acknowledgement to the author's opinions time and again as you can relate with this NRI who has painstakingly researched his first work.

A writer's uniqueness can be gauged by reading the first few paragraphs and more often than not one can safely predict what to expect in the subsequent pages especially if it is a work of non fiction. But, Maximum City can catch you off guard. The city of dreams is introduced to the reader in a very gentlemanly manner. The initial paragraphs obey the Queen's English rules. But no sooner do you reach page 11 than you realize how difficult it must have been for Suketu Mehta to restrain himself from using the language that the average Mumbaikar wants to read. What follows is a treat to the eyes and a mockery of the purveyors of authentic use of prose. Mehta respects the reader and writes in a colloquial manner. To an outsider, the book is incomplete without a Hindi English Dictionary.

How does one define Mumbai? Is it the gaping pot holed roads where a Mercedes would be humbled or is it the city of the poor which houses a fourth of its denizens on footpaths? Is it the place where the underworld and the police survive equally well even after having bullets for breakfast or a place where carnal opulence breeds the dance bars which satisfy the hunger of the elite and the thugs alike. Suketu Mehta has it all covered.

"For every selfish politician, there is a dedicated hero", Abraham Lincoln had announced about two centuries ago. Mehta reinstates this by dedicating chapters to Thackeray, the self proclaimed Godfather of Mumbai and Arun Lal, the man heading the city's Special Task Force, second only to the Scotland Yard.

The slime of the slums, the soporific bar girls dancing to the tune of 'ek do teen' in the wee hours of morning, the indomitable spirit of Sanjay Dutt fighting crime, lies and threats, the frighteningly under qualified censor board and the paragon of unprofessionalism - making of a hindi philum have merited huge portions of the book. To a person from Bombay, there is nothing new that Mehta has to say, but the matter of fact style that he chooses to word his experiences without glamorizing any of his trysts with different characters from the city is what makes the book so special.

Mehta makes writing look very easy. George Orwell would turn in his grave if he were to read some of Suketu's idioms. Had Satyajit Ray edited the book, a fourth of it would never have seen light of day. But I am glad that Mehta's Bombay is raw and real. I would not trade a single page of the book for its prolixity because every page fulfils its purpose, every view has been thought out loud and seconded by facts which the writer has diligently saved on his laptop which was a constant companion throughout his visits to the cops, the villages, the dons, the politicians, the footpaths, the dance bars, the hotels, , , , ,

None of the essays end with oomph or move you to tears and Mehta succeeds by following the theory of moderation. He could have allowed himself to be carried away and the book would have ended up like another hot selling fairy tale. Some of the essays may even seem incomplete and the reader would want to know how the life of the split personality, Manoj aka Honey ends, or what future has in store for the 20 year old Monalisa, the innocently mature prostitute. How long would underworld test the patience of Arun Lal? Though every essay has a distinct identity, it is not mutually exclusive from others. Yet every topic is laid thread bare and you allow yourself to get intoxicated and disregard other essays while reading one.

I loved it… You go read it!!!

Flirting - It's All Business

2005-08-20T22:50:00.000-04:00

"Girls – can’t live with them, can’t live without them.”
- Anonymous

According to me, men and women are two different species from the Manimal Kingdom. Though, biologically, only one chromosome separates the two, they seem to come from two different planets altogether.

Ask a man and he’ll tell you; girls will be girls – mercurial and hence unpredictable, especially when in a “relationship”. My years with Podar and Welingkars have reiterated this anomalous behavior of girls. Don’t get me wrong. It is not an unpleasant trait, but only when practiced in moderation. Men complain, “Just don’t keep us guessing all the time.”

Flirting, on the other hand is sans all these inhibitions. We (Men) are game for it. It is a healthy exercise. It hones your mind. You qualify as a good flirt if you have a good sense of humor. But knowing when to shut up is equally important.

A beautiful face with an arresting smile invites conversation. Go take the invitation. Be suave, not only in content but also in your mannerisms. You’ll notice that your eye brows do most of the talking when you hear her talk.

…But, flirting should be within the confines of its definition. That, flirting should not be taken personally falls in the purview of its definition.
Look, but don’t stare.
Like, but don’t love,
Reciprocate, but don’t seem too desperate,
Humor, but don’t joke,
Hear, but don’t listen.

Lastly, remember that she’s just an object of your affection. It was a pleasant accident that you bumped into her in a crowd. Don’t try to buy her attention by pitching yourself as a salable product. This obfuscates your mind and upsets your intentions.

Till the time you were flirting, nothing was personal; everything was business, as the godfather would have put it. You indulged in some friendly banter and you liked it. It held her attention. It boosted your ego. It was purely business.

Once you start expecting more than a smile and a few words that you want to hear, you’ve taken the road oft traveled which more often than not defeats the purpose of flirting. Your ego takes a beating. Flirt and leave it at that. Don’t sell (yourself), only advertise.

Pirates of the Silicon Valley

2005-08-20T13:29:00.000-04:00

A recent addition to my top movies list is Pirates of the Silicon Valley. The movie is based on rise of Apple Computers and Microsoft and has perfectly captured the Bill Gates's shrewd busienss acumen. It also makes you realise why he is the richest man in the world when it could easily have been Steve Jobs. If nothing else it just reaffirmed my belief of "do whatever it takes" ideology in business.

The reason I am writing about this is because a friend of mine sent me a newspaper article on how Bill Gates hasn't lost his busienss proclivity. Apparently, Microsoft beat Apple in filing a critical patent concerning portable audio players. Apple released the Ipod in November 2001 bbut waited to file a patent until July 2002. Meanwhile, Microsoft snuck in and filed for the patent in May 2002. According to the article, Apple has to pay microsoft close to $10 for every ipod it sells (sweetest way of making money). The patent is about menu system in a portable audio player. I am sure someone at Apple got fired over this.

Scalpel and a camera

2005-08-16T23:59:00.000-04:00

There is a new phenomenon sweeping America – Medical Toursim. Medical tourism is concept where people travel to other countries and get dental, medical and surgical treatment while vacationing. The rise of this medical tourism can be attributed to the ever increasing healthcare cost in industrialized countries, reduced travel expenses, the improved medical services in other countries and the biggest of all is the cost saving. On an average, a heart surgery costs about $50000 in the US but the same operation can be performed in Mumbai’s best hospital for $10000 and a visit to the heavenly backwaters in Kerala.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that every country has its own “medical toursim” specialty. India is known Heart and ophthalmic surgery. The Indian government has been pretty co-operative in welcoming the foreign tourist by providing them with special medical visas.

Its surprising how organized this industry has become in such a short time. Its is estimated to become a $2 billion industry in the coming future.

Check out : India Medical Tourism

Grow up guys

2005-08-11T23:51:00.000-04:00

It’s been 10 years since the Internet was consumerised by Netscape but for some reason India information portals like Indiatimes and Rediff still don’t get it. Indiatimes and Rediff are undoubtedly the top 2 portals in India but even then they are far from quality source of information.

To make my point , Check out the Indiatimes screenshot below (obviously, content might have changed)

What appalls me the most (besides the cheezy attempt to drive traffic by having a bikini clad female on the homepage) is that out of the 12 links under “Top Headlines”, three are cricket links, almost 5 links are celebrity or dating oriented. What sort of top headlines are these? Infact, Indiatimes reports more on how to score on a date rather than having “real news”. According to me, Indiatimes.com has become a “Page 3” website.

Rediff.com is better when it comes to providing valuable content but it has to stop its teenager like behavior. For the first 10 seconds, a users screen is splashed with a flash based ad (typically, a matrimonial site ad) and the icing on the cake are the pop-up ads. Each time you click on rediff’s homepage you get a splash screen and then a pop up ad. Don’t they get how annoying that is?

Its high time these portal start caring about their consumers web experience but sadly I don’t see things changing unless a new competitor comes in.

It happens only in India

2005-08-11T17:13:00.000-04:00

022104 agra 5
Originally uploaded by thatannemarie.

This perhaps might be the most blatant act of consumer discrimination.

This is a photo of Taj Mahal's entry ticket window. Summary of the two boards is Indians pay Rs. 20 but Foreign visitors have to shell out Rs. 750. Whatever happened to "Athiti Devo bhava".

India Shining : Global interns

2005-08-10T20:10:00.000-04:00

This is just another example of India shining. Its becoming common place for Non-Indian graduate students to do an internship with India's top 3 - Wipro, Infosys & TCS. Recently, NY Times ran this article (account required) on some students choosing to go to India instead of WallStreet for their summers.

Although this might seem petty but think of it as an international acknowledgment of the need to understand India's coporate existence. Infosys has 40 interns this year through its InStep internship program. They received about 3000 application from top business schools for 40 positions.

Think Tank Series : Lending Boom

2005-08-09T09:12:00.000-04:00

I consider myself more of a techie (even though my undergrad was in Commerce) but economics theories have always interested me because they work on simple logic. The toughest part in developing a theory is to get the data to support ones logic. So this question goes to all the MBAs and Ph.Ds that are out there.

Fact : The banks loans in India grew 31 percent to Rs.11.43 trillion with the Indian economy growing by 6.3 percent. Under current Indian scenario, I can attribute this increase in bank loans (greatest increase since 1971) to a combination of higher incomes and lowest interest rates in about three decades.

But what interests me about this is the co relation between increase in the issuance of bank loans and an economy.

Question : Does a country’s economic performance always have a direct relation with the bank loans?

Corporate blah blah

2005-08-08T23:07:00.000-04:00

Public relation and communication has never been more important especially since the emergence of all the news website, 24 hour news channels and don’t forget blogs. The saying - news spreading like wild fire begs to be amended to news spreads like bits and bytes. A very popular website during the dotcom crash was fuckedCompany.com which survived due to the shear tendency of bad news spreading.

I frequently hear the senior execs saying there is nothing like over communication and I see their point. I would rather be blamed for over communicating something rather than being accused of being secretive.

Lets consider the recent legal battle between Grokster & MGM studios, The only reason the verdict went against one of the largest P2P company, Grokster, was some internal PowerPoint presentations that the lawyers found which encouraged sharing of copyrighted material. So it has not only become imperative to be selective in external communications but also what’s being circulated within the company.

Communications has gained so much traction that there are Ph.d programs in corporate communication and of course here’s a lesson in email etiquettes (what , no smileys in an email!!!!)

Whats being promoted?

2005-08-08T21:12:00.000-04:00

This post follows a GAP commercial that just aired on TV. GAP (A clothing retailer) is offering its customer a free iTunes song download for just trying its jeans on !!!

What I fail to understand is that I see this to be more of an advertisement for Apple's iTunes rather than GAP. Apple stands to gain much more than GAP because the accounts that people will create has a more lock-in compared to a GAP customer who just has to walk-in and walk out . GAP isnt going to get any information on the customer. Unless, Apple decides to share it with them but then will Apple's privacy allow them to do that?

War Letter - A Lesson in communication

2005-08-07T01:25:00.000-04:00

The following letter was written by Capt. Marshall to a berieved mother who had lost her four sons in the great war. A special team was deployed to fetch her last son. The team succeeds. This letter was found in the armoured vest of the captain leading the special squad who was KIA.

The clincher is the last sentence. Keep reading -

Dear Mrs. Ryan,
It is with the most profound sense of joy that I write to inform you that your son, Pvt. James Ryan is well, and at this very moment returning home from European battlefields. Reports from the front indicate that James did his duty in combat with great courage and steadfast dedication even after he was informed about the tragic loss that your family has suffered in this campaign to rid the world of tyranny and opression.

I take great pleasure in joining the Secretary of War, men and women of the United States Army and citizens of a greatful nation in wishing you good health and many years of happiness with James by your side.

Nothing, not even the safe return of a beloved child can compensate you, or the thousands of Americans that have suffered great loss in this war. I may share with you a few words that have sustained me through long dark nights. I quote:

I pray that our heavenly father may assuage the anguish of your aggrievement and leave you only with the cherished memories of the loved and the lost and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice on the altar of freedom.
-Abraham Linclon

Your's sincerely and respectfuly,

Capt. Marshall
(Ground Chief Staff)

For all the slackers

2005-08-04T20:58:00.000-04:00

This goes out to all the slackers out in the world. A dummies guides to get a day off from work. a must read for newbies like us.

Lagaan - An institution in itself; but an exception nevertheless :(

2005-08-04T16:36:00.000-04:00

Nicely written. You are right, havoc. The production houses in India lack professionalism. In the indian film industry, most films are on the mercy of the whims of the director who prides himself on writing lines for his stars (nobody is an actor in India... they are all stars) on the eve of the shooting.

Films like Lagaan are a case study on how a film should be made. The pre-production was to be shot in one schedule so that the shoot would wind up before the monsoons. (All those who've seen lagaan would know why). A bounded script was provided to every person who was involved in the making of the film. Every actor was chosen after a tedious audition process.

The attention to details woulld have made Stanley Kubrick proud. The elephant which made a guest appearence for a few seconds during the fag end of the match was also chosen on various parameters. The entire cast of british actors was authentic. A british agent was appointed and the director chose the english team not only on the basis of acting but also on how well they could wield their bats and how believable their bowling action was. The producer of the film, Mr. Aamir Khan who also was the lead actor was skeptical about the two british actors that Mr. Gowarikar had chosen. Aamir Khan, who is famous for being a perfectionist relieved the actors from the film before the shoot began; but paid the requisite promised amount to the actors reasoning that a verbal agreement is a contract in India.

The village was recreated on a barren land spreading hundreds of acres and the characters playing different roles from diverse castes were asked to live in their respective huts to get a "feel" of their character and hence bring something new to the table.

Ashutosh Gowarikar was fresh from his two doomed ventures, Baazi and I can't even recollect the other. But he secluded himself to a lonely place far away from civilisation where only a pot of coffee kept him company for six months. The result - A 135 page script with detailed study of different camera angles.

Lagaan was the face of the indian film industry at various film festivals throughout the world. Even in countries like Switzerland, people evinced interest to unparalled levels. A scene where Paul Blackthrone, the british ruler challenges the perceived country bumpkin, Bhuvan to enter the maidaan and fight the british raj in a game of cricket, the result of which would decide the fate of the village that is ridden with debts connected with an audience which was far away from India. The entire crowd at the screening understood the poignancy of the scene and started whispering aloud, "Accept the bet, accept the bet" and when the camera panned on Bhuvans eyes as he thought out aloud, "sarat manzoor hai" (i accept the bet), the entire audience erupted in anticipation of an exciting feature film.

A total of 10000 villagers were arranged to visit the sets so that the crowd noise and the participation of the villagers could be filmed.

The cast assembled at sharp 5:00 am everyday and boarded a bus which would take them 50 Km. into the expanse of the brown soil. You show up at 5:01 and you were too late. When Aamir Khan was left behind on the second day for having missed the deadline by 2 minutes, it set the tone for the entire team.

I expected things to get better with time. But such examples are few and far between. We have a long way to go in acknowledging the essence of cinema. "We'll get there", is a refrain of the patrons of the film industry, but I'm afraid, we are moving towards an era where creativity in movies is getting relegated for the want of commercial success. If David Dhavan's 'Mujhse Shaadi Karogi' was announced as a super hit fot the year 2004-05, I am not very optimistic about the Indian film industry's capability to woo the audience with films with more meat in them.

Researching Bollywood

2005-08-04T13:30:00.000-04:00

These days a comment like “Bollywood has become big business”, often gets a sarcastic reply. It’s no secret that the art factor in Bollywood has been diminishing over the years. Bollywood is all about the ticket sales these days but it still lacks several characteristics of a typical business industry.

A stark difference that immediately stands out in my mind is that almost all the movie production houses in India are family based businesses (not that there is anything wrong with it. Read: take what you get from your family) as compared to Hollywood, where most of the movie production banners are publicly traded companies. Like any other family run business, lack of professionalism is bound to creep into the business which one may argue leads to sub standard products. As compared to a public company there is no accountability for failures in Bollywood. It’s not evident that production houses actually sit down and analyze why a particular movie failed – was it bad casting, bad direction, or did the story just suck?

At least I am not aware of any research/business organizations that crunch data for Bollywood. Doesn’t Bollywood like to know about upcoming movie trends? Or wouldn’t Bollywood appreciate that someone has historical data which compares the economic/social situations to the movies that people have like. For example, if the country is facing war, heroic war movies are a hit. So if you plan to release a chick flick in that period the chances of its success are nearly zero. This might seem to be a very basic example but it might mean revenue loses that run in millions.

Forget films, this would even benefit Television studios. Think how happy UTV would have been if someone would have told them that family based soaps should be on late night TV and not at 8PM when all the mothers are busy in the kitchen.

sOid Speak: Unity in diversity?

2005-08-04T02:36:00.000-04:00

Yes! sOid Speak is back!!!

No! This is not a heart warming post on the feeling of 'one-ness' in the country.

"According to the announcement made by Communication and Information Technology Minister Dayanidhi Maran, the government is working towards OneIndia, a scheme aimed at bringing in uniform telecom tariff."

Thats an interesting newsbit I found on the BSNL knowledge portal.

My last post on telecom spoke about how number portability in the telecom industry meant more than just a technological extravaganza - more towards service marketing and customer retention and customer delight. This news also delves into the same areas - customer delight...

What can play more music into the consumer's ears than getting to know that his daily lovey dovey calls to his/her dear ones far off will be fre from the hassles of getting a calling card, or having an STD line, or typing any magical long numbers before you actually get to share those special moments.

Single Call Rate or OneIndia plan is a policy where calls made to any destination within the country will be treated as calls made within a state. Ya hold your breath - there is more... Under this plan, there will be no diverse call rates, whether you dial a local number or a long distance one. There will be only one call rate.

One India, one country, one rate.....unity in diversity perhaps? Redefined???

Well what this also means is that in case the same applies to the mobile subscriber base in the country as well, the Indian cell user will no longer need to pay roaming rates. "Roam like home..." like one of the service providers once promoted its services, will actually mean much more and cost much less if the One India plan is to be implemented.

So now what's the con side of it?

The implications and views of the views submitted by the industry need to be understood clearly, in addition to reworking on the present licensing and ADC (access deficit charges) regimes before implementing the policy.

"Besides, operators will have to rework their interconnection agreements, before the country can move towards uniform rates. This would require a truly unified licence, treating the entire country as a single market. In addition, the local call rates in rural areas needs to be revised" so reads the article further...

Once the One India initiative is implemented, there would be no difference between your local call to the nearest grocer, and an STD call to your call to an important customer in another city. The big question is whether you are willing to pay as much for a short distance call, as you will have to shell out for a longer one?

The rules just get reversed - customers will now face comparatively costlier local calls since an STD costs the same! Does this mean that users will cut on their local calls, because they now PERCEIVE them to be costlier, even if they were to pay perhaps the same rates?

Customer perception will once again play an important role in this initiative - the authorities have to take care not strike an axe on the local call market, and at the same time make an STD cheaper and viable! To me it sounds like asking me to shorten a piece of string so that it looks shorter, yet remains the same length! A knot in the middle perhaps? But is it as easy as that? Mr. Maran and co. please reply!

I`ll like to leave with another interesting question that comes to my mind - how will the calling card industry take this news, considering that the entire calling card market will become defunct and useless, once One India happens...

A revelation

2005-08-01T21:13:00.000-04:00

Have you ever had a random thought, that turns out to be a sort of a "revelation"? While arguing with my roommate about something (we do that a lot !!!), I just happened to say that psychologically Indians perceive Indian companies as an individuals. For example: Infosys and Narayan Murthy are almost synonymous in India but when we think of an American company, its always as separate entity and has no personal attachment. Obviously, with a few exceptions like waltons = walmart.

Why is that so?

Naomi Klein's No Logo - A brand today!

2005-07-30T12:09:00.000-04:00

Here is my take on Naomi Klien's one sided account of why brands are a bane to mankind. Her book, 'No Logo' which has been widely publicized, ironically for a book with the title that it sports, but when you have the beautiful Naomi's picture on the second page, the book garners attention. i bet that was the intent of the author!

In three words - I felt cheated.

Here is a beautiful account of why brands are a bane to mankind. All those who want another reason to sue the McDonald's of the world for for not mentioning that hot coffee may cause rashes if dropped on skin, can enjoy this as a bed time storybook.

Naomi Klein sure knows how to make her point. No Logo is a chronicle of events which makes us sit up and doesn’t spare us the time to sit back and ponder over different anecdotes and startling facts about the brands that many of us revere.It is a book for customers and brand managers alike. She wages war against the known names from the “branded” world.

Naomi Klein takes a shot at companies like McDonald’s and Starbucks, among million others accusing them of creating a halo around their brands, which leads the customer in believing that brands are icons and that they have to be worshipped.

The book doesn’t spare the likes of, Microsoft, Shell, Wal-Mart, Nike and the like for creating a larger than life picture. A substantial part of the book is dedicated to highlight the fact that the brands like Nike are a farce and that they have developed a strong reputation at the cost of poor inmates of underdeveloped countries. She lambastes Coke for a foolhardy attempt for branding itself in schools and colleges.

The author is against celebrity endorsement. She cites the example of Michael Jordan who is bigger than the brand he endorses. In an amusing incident, the author recalls that a large part of the school going population thought that Jordan paid Nike for popularizing himself in the Air Jordan Campaign.

Klein doesn’t advocate acquisitions and mergers. According to her they are a social waste. When Phillip Morris acquired Kraft Foods in 1988, it had to shell out a stupendous sum of $12.6 billion. This is an astronomical sum even today. The irony is that Kraft was acquired at six times its actual price on paper. The price difference was apparently the cost of the word “Kraft”.

The book is strewn with many such examples that appall you and sometimes anger you. Since, the tone of the book is very provocative, the reader has to choose which side he is on. The reviews that the book had drawn when it was released were extreme. The readers either liked it, or despised it. According to me, the author takes too many liberties in accusing the brands and questioning their existence. The book is an easy read, but is disappointing because it conveys only half the truth.

Sue the SOB

2005-07-28T23:01:00.000-04:00

These are exciting times in the Silicon Valley. Business and tech rivalries are forming everyday and things are getting ugly, especially the search engine war. Yahoo was always considered to be Google’s #1 competitor but guess who decided to show up to the party- Microsoft.

Microsoft openly displayed its discontent over Google hiring a Microsoft employee (Kai Fu Lee) by doing what American corporations do the best – filing a legal suit. Google wasn’t going to take this sitting back, guess what they did, sued Microsoft back for trying to intimidate them. You can get detailed report about Microsoft's suit and Google’s retaliation.

I wonder how Kai Fu Lee must be feeling about two best tech companies suing each other over him!!!

Take what you get from your family

2005-07-28T22:14:00.000-04:00

Usually when people mention family business, a picture of “mom & pop store” appears in their minds. With the rise of India Co the idea of family business is becoming quaint.

But lets see which companies might not have become what they are if the next generation would have given up on their family business

Wal-Mart: How can one forget this giant !! This company was started by Sam Walton in 1962 as a family business and currently has 1.25 million employees and 4000+ stores around the world. The family owns 38% of the company stock.

Reliance Industries : Should I even bother!!!

Wipro : Wipro is not just a software vendor, Wipro was set up in the small town of Amalner in Maharashtra in 1945. Azim Premji joined wipro in at the age of 21 after his father sudden demise. And look this family business now!!! Check out this site for a of wipro’s milestone.

Ford Motor Company : usually owning 5% to 10% percent of a public company gives you controlling rights of the company. Guess what, Ford family owns 40% of the voting rights.

So basically - Business is Business, Its not about “mom-pop”.

Patent Pending :-)

2005-07-25T15:56:00.000-04:00

I was checking out a site and it talked about how important it is to patent an idea or product. So just for curiosity sake, I did a search on who owns the patent for instant messaging (which I still dont know !!!) and found this patent application. Apparently Microsoft has filed a patent for Emoticons. Go figure!!!

Mirror mirror on the wall...

2005-07-25T02:08:00.000-04:00

Ok so I’m hooked to Mumbai Mirror - but then who isn’t?

The Reason: Not because I find it really useful as a tabloid - or a newspaper, but rather because it comes free!

Mirror mirror on the wall... or rather mirror mirror on the newsstand, is the reception quite grand?

Branding has never failed to escape my attention or my interest.....add a bit of consumer psychology to it - and you’re ready with the purrrfect recipe for a new post!

Mumbai Mirror is the latest offering from Bennett Coleman, the largest print media establishment in India. Simply put, it’s a tabloid - for those who are Midday loyalists. However, Times of India cannot afford to be seen or heard as down market, they avoid the 'tabloid' terminology like the plague, and call it 'compact'.

However, the main focus is the mini-war that’s setting in the skies of the newsprint industry - with Hindustan Times' Mumbai edition and DNA from the Zee-Bhaskar Group combine dressing up for the kill. OOH (Out of Home) advertising is on the rampage with huge banners and billboards flocking the city.

Times does seem to have done its homework on the human psychology, especially of the average Mumbaikar - who wants useful news, along with lots of glamour and glitz, a few Sodukus, a neat crossword, not to forget my favorite - Astro predictions for the week, and yea - typical tabloid type entertainment.

In the era where the average executive looks for a quick glance through his favorite daily or business yellows, while he is on the move, a tabloid might not seem to be the ideal choice for a company like Times. But then there are issues other than that which the smart marketer might recognise!

They say that you get free lunches only in mousetraps. Well here is one set for the customer - will he fall for it? The tabloid (my apologies to the Times group for calling it that!) seems to be focusing on one key aspect of consumer psychology in the Indian market - if it’s free, it will be accepted!

Even the Mercedes driven, Armani clad households of today certainly don’t mind anything free! Add some news, some gossip (actually lots of it), and a free goodie every now and then - VOILA! You’ve got a winner in your hands!

The Times group seems to be trying to get the most out of the "give it to me for free" mindset of the average Indian consumer, with a keen interest in the marketing basics underlying it...

Kotler might agree if I mentioned, "Habits define consumer purchase traits as much as brand preferences". If I were used to purchasing Brand X (for some reason which I cant even pinpoint!), I would continue to use it and be hesitant to change over unless there is enough incentive to switch brands.

This is something that can be called "Consumer Inertia", where the average consumer would like to stick to his brand X, even if Brand Y offers the same attributes or benefits! This has been one of the key reasons why "Maintaining customer loyalty" has become a key issue in today's market scenario.

Here is where I believe my definition of a customer gets some meaning in addition to sounding nice – “A customer, is one an accustomed user”. By this I mean someone who is using your brand not just because of its utility, but also because this Brand X has been in use since ages, and wont like to switch brands for some reason he cant pinpoint exactly!

Coming back to the Times plans, I strongly believe that their philosophy includes making the reader used to reading their ‘tabloid’ to such an extent that once it stops coming free with the daily TOI, the customer would actually like to go to the newsstand and ask for his copy of ‘his brand’.

This strategy looks to be an interesting one, as compared to competitor DNA’s quest to prove that their newspaper is one that has been built over an extensive survey of readers, so as to provide news that you can actually use. DNA as most Mumbaikars might recollect, carried out an extensive survey, followed by which it is now offering the DNA membership card, and a newscopy at subsidized rates to patrons.
Will the reader follow his DNA or simply stare at the Mirror on the wall??? Only time will tell…

Swapping to be freely allowed in India: Game anyone?

2005-07-23T02:56:00.000-04:00

No this is not an article on wife-swapping or swinging couples.

Nor is it an article trying to promote it or sell our services regarding the same.

And no, this article is also not about the effect of consuming intergalactical gargleblasters, when consumed in excess by the human species... (ya H2G2 can have quite an effect on ppl!)

Brands today have become much more than a label for recognizing or calling a product. Gone are the days of the 'mom and pop stores' who sold goods wrapped in yesterday's newspapers. A brand today not only defines the product, but also to quite an extent symbolises the character, or rather the personna of the user. A customer today opts for ThumsUp not because a pepsi or coke can is not available - rather he goes for it because he thinks it makes him look 'macho'. This very aspect of the brand is the reason for companies looking to create a 'power-brand' that not only defines the user, but also epitomises the ethos behind the company.

Moving over to the topic for discussion for the day, branding has been important even in the Indian Telecom market - with the Hutch 'dog' symbolising more than just another service - an Ornage/Hutch customer would think twice before switching brands because he thinks that the brand symbolises something he/she believes in, or rather is trying to portray.

The reason why I decided to go back to classroom, is because of the news thats abuzz in the telecom domain today. "TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) has initiated a consultation process on mobile number portability..." reads a news article from one of the dailies in Mumbai. The news is of great interest to me and to several users of the mobile telephony in the country for one primary reason - the ability to maintain one's identity and yet getting the freedom to choose.

Mobile phone numbers (or other Telephone numbers for that instance) have this very unique characteristic - they are almost like a part of you. Imagine the difficulty that one might face, having to change numbers - informing a million friends, colleagues and relatives about your new number could well be a nightmare for today's mobile-savvy consumer, who believes that his number is a part of his identity.

An Orange or a Hutch customer today believes that he is a premium user, and will surely think a million times before switching to a BSNL line, not only beacuse of the hassles, but also because psychologically, he thinks that owning an Orange number has some status, or charm attached to it - something that a BSNL number wont give him.

A mini-research showed that people associate differently with each brand:
eg:
Orange - premium customer/user, high-society, dependable
Airtel - Youth, an 'Indian' brand
BSNL - Cost conscious user

The new TRAI initiative under discussion means "a service that would allow users to change their telecom operator without having to change their phone number".

What translates out of this is that the mobile user of tommorow may have an Orange-series number, but may be well using a BSNL connection for a few months to experiment (and perhaps stick to it if he finds it actually better), without losing his identity.

In marketing parlance however, this means much more - customers would now not stick to a service, just beacuse of the brand-name or the image that it creates for the user. Instead, marketers will have to concentrate on providing better services to retain customers.

Customer acquisition has never been an issue for most of the top prepaid service operators - however the big game now would involve retaining them. Service marketing talks about this very are of focus - " How to retain customers, and ensure customer satisfaction?"

The Indian markets have predominently focused on "sell the product" concept. However, the telecom industry might see the start of a new era of marketing where the need for the hour will be to sell "an experience" rather than a mere 10-digit number.

While the top-notches in the business have already started focusing on maintaining customer loyalty by providing excellent service, network, and quality, the concept if implemented would mean simply that the so-called average player in the market would need to pull up more than just his socks to get his stufff in place if the customer churn needs to be curbed.

“While India can learn from the experiences of international implementations of number portability, some specific issues in the Indian context such as ensuring tariff transparency and amending the national numbering plan would need careful consideration,” TRAI said.

Will this swapping freedom be successful? Is this the rise of a new sun or is it just another dark cloud in the telecom sky? Only time will tell...

Reference: Mumbai Mirror - Business section (23rd July, 2005)

P.S: Direct link to this reference seems to not work for some eerie reason!

(Re)Emergence of Pink slips

2005-07-22T14:10:00.000-04:00

According to reports, HP is going to lay off anywhere beween 5000 to 25000 jobs. If you parse a couple of business websites, you'll see many such reports about companies laying off people. But in a stark contrast, th scene in India is quit opposite.

According to NASSCOM, the IT sector itself is going to add about 2,00,000 more jobs in 2005. And thats just the IT sector !!!! Rediff usually carries news about Infy/wipro/IBM or accenture adding 15000 jobs individually. I wonder how do they manage to recruit so many people.

Does anyone have any idea how large the HR organization is these companies are?

Standardized Shopping - Back to the basics

2005-07-21T01:06:00.000-04:00

Well to deviate from the telecom buzz and delve into something that interests me was a hard decision to take. However, I really felt that Havoc's post needed a detailed post, rather than an inconspicuous comment!

Well talking of business models, the west has been know and has been the forerunner in terms of creating business models and management jargons. The retail store-oid of a concept was too, a western offspring adopted in India by leading retail chains such as Shoppers Stop, Pantaloon, Westside… to name a few.

However, when we talk of ‘economies of scale’, we need to understand the basic cornerstone of the economics-related concept that, it is applicable more to areas where manufacturing is a part of the process – manufacturing here covers the gamut of production as well as assembly. Imagine a hair cutting saloon trying to adopt economies of scale! At the most it could stock a year’s supply of talc and shaving lotions, which may not be in best interests.

Talking of food-chains and cafes, we need to first understand the basic difference between selling a product and a service. When a customer goes to a Mars outlet, he /she looks not just for the food (which is of course one of the aspects in his perception bundle which scores quite high) – the customer also looks for other aspects such as ambience, pricing, customer service, seating comfort, offers available, etc.)

Companies need to understand that a “BRAND is nothing but a perception in the minds of the customer about his perceived quality and features and attributes of the product which could define him in some way, in addition to satisfying the basic underlying need associated with the purchase of that particular brand, when the market has several ‘me-toos’ with barely any difference!”

Economies of scale cannot apply to a consumer-consumable based sectors, as logically, no one would like to eat your month old pizza and give out a 100$ bill! Talking of the condition of stores such as Mars and Café Coffee Day in India, we also need to understand that Indian consumers cannot be treated like those in the West.

In today’s world, the call of the day is for a ‘glocal’ focus, rather than mass merchandising and treating your cocks and bulls as one. The Indian consumer generally looks for a better bargain on most products – someone whom you would classify as a “bargain hunter” in marketing terms. The same customer who just purchased a Mercedes will haggle at the local market when he/she knows that the prices can be reduced!

An Indian consumer will look for the maximum value or rather ‘utility’ out of the product/service that he/she goes for. I use the economics-term ‘utility’ here just to point out the difference between utility and usefulness – I may purchase a crystal Spongebob doll for a million dollars! (No I wont actually!!!), because it has utility for me – this is irrespective of whether it is useful for me!
Talking in terms of personnel selling, the Indian customer has his own ZOPA (Zone of Potential Agreement), which generally is less flexible towards the higher price side, but extends more towards a lower price. In simpler terms, for a quoted price of Rs. 10, I as an Indian consumer would have a price band of say Rs. 12 to 5 for that product when I go to the market. In short, customers generally look to get a less price for almost most goods.

My marketing friends here would start arguing about products and the concept of BRAND, wherein a consumer purchases products just because he/she wants to feel like a part of a clan or a niche. However, I personally believe that brand as a perception has more to do with the perceptions in the minds of the customer about what the product offers him, rather than what will be the perception of the same product in the minds of the niche or clan he wants to be a part of. I do agree that there do exist a lot of products wherein the sole motive is to just feel special and exclusive.

However, the argument doesn’t apply to a Café Coffee Day outlet or a Mars outlet in India, primarily because these are not what the marketing frat calls “Cult brands”. The market has changed from looking for the product, to the service on the whole, to the newer concept of ‘experience’ – marketers today are selling you an experience. When I as a customer go to a Barista outlet, I go there not to drink coffee, but to spend 2 to 3 hours – for which I believe charging 50 bucks (my Mocha costs only 40) is pretty cheap!

Who lets you sit in an air-conditioned clean environment with comfortable seating, let you play the guitar, or rather challenge a buddy to a few games of scrabble or Pictionary, and of course, not to miss sitting amidst the exotic aroma of freshly brewed coffee?

The reason why such stores aren’t doing well is not because the niche of such customers is small in India – I myself have seen a lot of middle-class family people frequent such outlets to spend some time. I really don’t think Barista is catering a niche, since they already slashed their prices a lot a year and a half ago, which clearly signals that just serving the so called ‘elite’ is not what they solely target!

The reason for a Café Coffe Day’s success can be attributed quite a lot to their retail presence as well – in terms of the Coffee Day Xpress vending mnachines seen at several places across the nation, their mini snack bars set up at prime locations, and not to forget their focus on providing much more than coffee.

A Café Coffee Day outlet scores high in terms of selling food items along with coffee, which naturally increases their average revenue per customer. Barista on the other hand has been a coffee pioneer, and doesn’t believe in providing that much of variety in terms of food-items to accompany the coffee.

Another interesting aspect of Café Coffee Day’s success is the assortment of the snacks they provide – mainly items which are Indian, in addition to catering to the western tastebuds as well. You naturally cant have your mother in law to munch happily on a chocolate doughnut, and expect her to have as much fun as relishing the all-time favorite Punjabi samosas or puff pattice!

The Bottomline: Economies of scale may not always be possible in the consumables industry. In terms of success of brands, they need to focus more on customization and studying the local market and its needs (including PRICING), so as to compete viably with the competitors.

Standardized shoppping anyone?

2005-07-20T23:01:00.000-04:00

Many of the major corporations in the US are chain stores. US corporations have perfected the art of creating a business model and repeating it over and over again. All of them work on one simple rule that we all have heard about – Economies of scales. So why have Indian companies been so lethargic in adopting this model. The apparel retailers in India have taken the lead and in the past couple of years Shopper’s stop and Pantaloon stores have started showing up here and there in Mumbai. So the apparel retail industry is caught on but What about other consumer items like electronics, food/restaurant outlets? Mars restaurant have tried to bring the chain restaurant concept to India but unfortunately the clientele for these restaurants are restricted to the “better off” crowd. Majority of the Students can’t afford to eat at these places twice a week. When do we see the rise of low cost, “value for money” quality food?

The Coffee café day chain has substantial eaten into barista’s market share by having a sensible pricing structure. I can’t imagine students shedding Rs 50+ for a coffee!!!! What were they thinking? Some might argue that they targeting a niche market.

Other avenue open is the appliances and electronics business. Typically, local businessmen who are authorized resellers in a particular locality have run this business. But they don’t have enough turnovers to go big. There has to be bigger reason than that. Keeping reading our blog, as I try research a bit on possible reasons why chain store culture isn’t present in India

May we come in, India?

2005-07-18T18:20:00.000-04:00

Today, ManMohan Singh’s visit to the white house was the top news link on Google News (atleast when I checked). Google news algorithm is based on the popularity of a particular event. An event that lands on the top of Google news means that majorities of news websites are reporting it. So why is Indian Prime Minister’s visitor so important?

One reason is that our PM is going to ask for nuclear technology transfer, which looks highly unlikely since India is not a part of nuclear non-proliferation treaty. Apart from that, the word on the street is that Wal-Mart and other retailing giants are pushing India to open up its retail sector. Entering China was easier than setting their up shop in India. China let them in so that they could sell their cheap products to Wal-mart. But as opposed to China, India grew its economy by providing IT services and BPO, which gives India the upper hand. Wal-mart sourced only $1.5 billion from India compared to China’s $18 billion. (No wonder, a communist country opened up its doors to a capitalist company)

Another reason why getting into India is a big deal is because the numbers are ridiculously encouraging for retailers. An average Indian family spends about 44% of its income on groceries compared to 14% in US.

Another reason for the international retailers trying to gain entry is because they see a clear demand. The consumer has become aware of things available in developed countries. No matter what the source of the information is – Internet, magazines, or even bollywood – they know that they should have access to all the things that consumers in other countries have.

The India retail industry is worth US $250 billion dollars growing at 7.2% annually, now who gets the largest piece of this cake remains to be seen. Will it be Wal-mart or Big Bazaar?

sOid Speak: Understanding WLL

2005-07-17T10:49:00.000-04:00

Understanding WLL services and how they are classified has been a big confusion not only for consumers but even to an extent some services providers have taken a long time in understanding the services completely.

CDMA in India is known as WLL (Wireless in local loop). This WLL is further divided into two categories fixed and mobile. However, the technology standard is similar in both cases i.e. CDMA 2000 1X WLL fixed refers to handsets which can replace the existing fixed line sets.

WLL mobile refers to handsets which have all the features like GSM handsets. WLL fixed works within a city while WLL mobile functions similarly as that of GSM mobile.

There are 2 categories to choose from in WLL Fixed:

1. WLL- FWP: Fixed Wireless Phone (without wires)

2.If consumers are willing to keep their old phone set then they have an option to opt for WLL (FWT) Fixed Wireless Terminal. FWT is connected to existing telephone set.

Both the phones come with a data port which can be connected to a PC/Laptop serial port through a special data cable. The data cable comes along with an installation CD and it is available in the open market for five to ten Euros.

Presently LG, Samsung and Nokia are the leading equipment suppliers for WLL mobile in India. For WLL fixed, LG and Samsung handsets dominate the market. WLL fixed phones have an option to send SMS.

WALKY - The New Generic Name in Indian Telecom Market

Tata Indicom branded its FWP offerings as "Walky", a name that has been synonymous in the Indian market, with the FWP category. The WLL concept has come a long way, with several features being offered in the market, such as"

Backlit LCD display
Phonebooks with capacity upto 500 contacts
Wallpapers, screensavers, polyphonic ringtones
Inbuilt games
SMS capability in English and Hindi, with T9 predictive feature
High speed internet (upto 153.6 kbps)
World Clock, Calculator, Stop Watch, To-do List, Sophisticated Alarm, Calendar
User profiles

The most important aspect of this service is the tarriffs that are offered, which are cheaper than wired-line rates.

The big question however, is something that can be pulled out from a Kotler - one of the basic fundamental of marketing - "What does the consumer want?"

Java easier than ever

2005-07-15T21:23:00.000-04:00

The "Cool" index was too high for me to resist posting this. BTW, I would highly recommend buying spillage insurance (Yes, there exists something like that) for your laptop if you are considering the MugMouse.

If you look at this product from a b360 view, this is a very good example of innovation. Something that India lacks immensely. We are known to be cheaper, faster, better but when do we become innovators. If you will, India can be compared to Dell. India lets a technology become mature and then define processes to produce it at a cheaper price tag than their counterparts in the US. Dell adopts a similar strategy and has been mighty successful. The only difference is that we are still in the services mode and still havent gathered enough courage to become product oriented. But frankly, Innovation isn't going to happen until we start concentrating on developing products.

Ref : Engadget

Does India Co need foreign leadership???

2005-07-14T20:54:00.000-04:00

As you may all know IBM’s PC division was bought by Lenovo – a Chinese company (surprise surprise!!!!).The $1.3 billion deal includes IBM’s famous Thinkpad laptop series. Lenovo will retain the IBM brand name on all the machines they manufacture and I am not sure if they have any plans to sunset the IBM brand in the PC business. Infact, IBM not only retained the brand name but also appointed IBM’s chief of PC division as the CEO of Lenovo. Lenovo recognized that their core competency is manufacturing quality computers and not executive leadership. It’s a less known fact that a lot of upcoming Chinese companies have outsourced their leadership to US!!!

Taking this as an example, the question I have is should India Co adopt a similar strategy? Most of the revenue for India Co is in dollars so having foreign leadership might make sense. The likes of Wipro and Infosys have hit the $1 billion revenue figure under Indian leadership. But will they need foreign help to take them to the next level? I don’t know the answer to any of these questions but realizing the opportunity is a big step in itself. A foreign coach did the trick for us in cricket, may be it’ll work in business as well.

Ref: New face of IBM - Wired Magazine
Photo : Wired Magazine

sOid Speak : FWP - the Indian Superman?

2005-07-14T00:52:00.000-04:00

The current Indian telecommunications market is predominently ruled by the GSM technology (Global System for Mobile Communications), with players like Orange, Hutch & Airtel ruling the roost.The new kid on the block - CDMA (Code division multiple access) finds company in the battling duo of Reliance Infocomm and Tata Indicom.

The point of discussion today however, does not focus entirely on the mobile market in India, but towards something that has been a mainstay in the country for quite some time. The landline or the POTS (Plain Old Telephone System)as techies would call it, has been a necessity in most houses in the country, with a mobile only being an "Addition to landline".

Well then again the point of discussion is not even the landline telephony system in India, but something which is rather new to the Indian arena of 'PostPaid' or 'Billing' systems.

FWP - as the header reads stands for Fixed Wireless Phones, or rather Fixed Wireless Telephones (FWT) - a WLL based technology (Wireless in local loop). Currently the Indian market has only two key operators using the CDMA technology for their fixed wireless offerings - Reliance InfoComm and Tata Indicom. And the point that interests me the most is this field of offering a 'like mobile' product, which promises the freedom of a mobile at landline rates.

Only future (or rather my next post) will let us know what lies ahead for this new superman in the Indian Telecom market, who claims to be able to give the customer more than what he ever imagined of......will it succeed.....is this what the customer wants.............catch the next episode of 'sOid Speak'

Ready, Steady ... Go !!!

2005-07-13T21:24:00.000-04:00

So whats Business 360 all about? There are many people blogging about gadgets, politics and other hot topics but only from one perspective. Business 360 is a collaborative effort of recent college grads who have just stepped into the world of corporate business. All the contributors of this blog have received education in different streams of business and in different cultural settings which I am sure will bring an interesting twist.

We’ll be reporting on the latest business news in different countries maintaining an Indian perspective. People will also be posting about the idiosyncrasies and bureaucracies that grip India Co. and the famed corporate USA (Yes, it not perfect!!!). But its not going to be all serious biz talk here, I am sure you’ll see a few crazy posts from time to time.