Product

One of the most innovative launches of 2007, ITC’s Bingo, is giving sleepless nights to rivals in the organised snack segment. That’s the power of a great product

Our plan for Bingo! was to offer a truly differentiated product, which had a unique combination of the familiar and the exotic. On the basis of research-driven consumer insights, we arrived at combinations, where either the product itself (Mad Angles, Live Wires) or the flavour (Chatkila Nimbu Achaar, Tandoori Paneer Tikka) were different from what was available in the market, but fundamentally familiar to the Indian palette in terms of flavours, texture & choice. This winning idea has completely redefined the snacking industry in the country and is helping build a steadily growing franchisee of Bingo! loyalists.


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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Read these article :-
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)

IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)

IIPM makes business education truly global

The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)

IIPM Campus

Personality

Big B stands way above others in Bollywood. From the angry young man of yesterday to the suave old man of cinema today, his persona has charmed generations

A generous, magnanimous and down-to-earth man, who believes in doing things silently, is what Amitji is. Although his dynamic persona can simply not be defined in a single word, still, if I have to describe him in one word it would be ‘Karmyogi’. Yes! He is a real ‘Karmyogi’, as he believes in doing things and not preaching others. In fact, the ideals and the sanskars that Amitji inherited from his parents, is what has made him what he is today. For the world Harivansh Rai ji and Teji ji may have passed away, but for him they are still alive, in his memories, prayers and in form of those sanskars. Moreover, he has passed on these sanskars to Abhishek. A person of his stature and repute can easily be driven away by the glamour but he has not. On one hand he frequently helps people, and on the other ensures that no one gets to know about it. Even those who are very close to him do not get to know about these things. In spite of being like a family member of his, I only get to know from others how true a Samaritan he is. His dedication and determination even at this age is worth appreciating. He is a strict disciplinarian and is never late for appointments.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Read these article :-
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)

IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)

IIPM makes business education truly global

The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)

IIPM Campus

Hindustan Unilever (then Hindustan Lever)

Similarly, by the early part of this century, Hindustan Unilever (then Hindustan Lever) didn’t know what was happening to its brands and their market shares. For years, the company’s topline grew by only a few percentage points and margins continued to take a beating. Its stock, considered a blue chip retirement scrip in the past, was discarded by most investors. Nothing seemed to be going right for it.

The problem lay with Unilever’s strategy in 1999 to only focus on power brands. It cut its number of brands from 110 to 30. The idea was to allow the management to spend more time and effort on the already-successful brands and boost their bottomline. But with fewer brands to play with, there were obvious pressures on volumes. In addition, the desired boost in margins didn’t happen as intense competition and higher raw material costs ate into them. In 2004, the company not only did away with the power brand policy, but revived those brands that were once discarded. This process is still on and the new focus is on sustainable volumes and growth-driven profits.

However, the best example of an Indian company that has managed change and, in fact, been able to predict the future, is that of Moser Baer. In less than 10 years, the company has already rejigged its strategy thrice. By 1998, it was a global player in floppy diskettes. But then, floppies became redundant to optical storage devices. Moser Baer was ready for the change and became one of the largest makers of CD-Rs with an annual production capacity of 30 million units in 1999.

Yet again, anticipating the changing market, Moser Baer diversified into the manufacturing of DVD-Rs. But in 2000, another predicament struck. The price of a CD plummeted from an average $7 per unit to just $1, while manufacturing costs remained at around $1.5 per unit. If things didn’t change, Moser Baer would have had to file for bankruptcy. The only way to bring down the cost-prices gap was to crank up volumes. It did, and today, the company is considered the champion of low-cost production and is the lowest-cost producer of optical storage devices in the world. Affirms Manoj, a consultant with Realization, “Change management helps an organisation to think and dream big. Once these dreams are followed up with action, admiration for the company is bound to increase.” As a study by Australia’s Pearson Education group points out: “The business world is not a stagnant one, and the process of globalisation and advancements in technology are two dimensions, which continuously force businesses to change.”

Elaborates Ashutosh Mishra, Founder Partner, Proact Management Consulting, “Change management helps initiate a change in the fundamental aspects of the organisation and thus prepares them to embrace challenges. Shareholders admire the company because the company is prepared to meet the challenges of future.”

Whether or not change management brings about a paradigm shift in an organisation depends on how well and smoothly the transition is implemented. And also on who initiated it – the market, competition, or internal understanding of future changes.

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)

New ‘zune’box

Is it a futile attempt?
The portable music industry is witnessing increasing action by every passing day, as existing players challenge the almighty status of Apple iPod. Microsoft which has been silent for quite some time now is all set to get people into the groove with an upgraded version of its player Zune. Microsoft has unveiled three new models of Zune, which would be available in the US by mid-November. It consists of Zune 80GB hard-drive model, with a 3.2-inch screen, priced at $249.99. The other offerings are Zune 4GB space, (priced at $149.99) and Zune 8GB (priced at $199.99). Another addition in these new Zune devices is the touch-sensitive Zune Pad navigation button. A wireless sync has also been added that allows Zune devices to automatically sync over the device owner’s home wireless network when connected to an AC adaptor in a speaker dock accessory.

“Today we’re making big bets on games, music, video and connecting these entertainment experiences to help change the way people play,” says Bill Gates. Microsoft has also come up with a community website built around music that would provide information & chat topic about Zune players and also help music lovers exchange notes on the latest music that is creating waves. Another notable player in the portable music players space – Sony is already offering its patrons an opportunity to shake a leg with its latest offering which it calls the ‘Rolly’. Rolly can record movement in order to dance on the music that is being played on it.

Ipod to in order to maintain its top position has been equally aggressive in terms of getting innovative products in the market and marketing them equally hard. It would be interesting to see who would be the last man standing or shall we say singing in the race of portable players.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

On the crest of the technology curve!

Deepak Puri on challenges in the IT storage and peripherals industry and the road ahead...


We are living in an age where digitisation of information is happening at an exponential pace. And the year gone by was no exception. The information explosion continued without any respite and so does the demand for cost efficient storage.

As far as the global optical media industry is concerned, it steadily recovered and is driven by a confluence of factors - including continuing consolidation of capacity, growth in consumer demand and softening of input costs. Players further consolidated their positions. And no doubt, in India too, with continued growth in consumer demand for optical media, industry variables have improved and are reverting to normal levels. In such a scenario, efficient manufacturers with scale should benefit from the consolidation, which has followed the recent turbulent period in the industry. While the estimated global demand for blank optical media products was 19 billion units in 2006, representing a growth of 15% over 2005, the year also saw the commercial shipments of next generation formats like the HD DVD and Blu-ray. However, their shipments are still small but we expect these formats to be the key growth driver for the industry. But, this does not mean that demand for CDR/RW format will slow down. Consumer demand for the CDR/RW format will continue to grow in Asian, Latin American and Middle Eastern markets. There are also certain emerging corporate applications and niche segments like printable media and LightScribe, which are seeing a rapid growth in the CDR/RW space. Moreover, shifting consumer preferences, increasing drive penetration and improving price-value proposition of DVDR/RW media is leading to a sharp growth for the format. We expect DVDR/RW shipments to clock a 43% growth in 2007.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

The guru delivers again

K. V. Shridhar, NCD, Leo Burnett took giant strides in 2007. Here he speaks about his most recent success...

Don’t let his laid-back, gentle looks deceive you, for K. V. Shridhar is one of the best brains at Leo Burnett who incessantly keeps rolling out great positioning ideas for brands and incredible ad campaigns to match. His unbeatable quality – to get the best out of every individual. The year 2007 saw the maverick ad guru deliver stunning campaigns for RCOM, Thums Up and many others. He’s one you’d really want to meet.

Dhoni is RCOM’s ambassador, but we don’t see him in the creative. Any reason?

Reliance Communication could not get Dhoni’s time. It is such a huge task to think of a cricket related ad without any cricket celebrity. It’s difficult to bring in the same level of energy and cut-through. The idea was perfect from the start.

What was the company brief?

We had to depict how Indians own cricket, especially during an India-Pakistan clash. The idea was to try and portray that cricket insight. As 20-20 was such a hit and so was Apun ka sapna, therefore we thought why don’t we use children to show the new insight. When we win, we go all ga-ga over the team with fireworks, but when we lose everyone has an opinion to offer. The idea was to portray the so called reality of cricket. It was to pour out the real emotions as people haven’t changed; in fact, they have become even more passionate about this game. Unlike sportsman spirit, where winning and losing is a part of the game, Indian public takes it more like a war.

So the power idea just struck out of the blue?

Reliance Comm is Nitesh Tiwari’s account; he works on it so he was the one who came up with the idea. The entire commercial has been done by him right from the script to the execution. We went through a couple of ideas though but we all agreed on something to do on the lines of Apun ka sapna as it was a hit, in fact fantastic. We portrayed the brutal reality of the Indian cricket fans in a metaphorical way, depicting the new found aggression in the fans through children in the form of rejoicing when the team performs well and abuse, humiliate when it doesn’t. These kids show no sympathy, they want the team to go, get it. These kids invented the new confidence in themselves and we perfected them. In fact, we just gave the kids an idea, they just acted naturally.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

The Wall can crumble

When he dislodged Saurav Ganguly as the Captain and won 16 consecutive one day matches for India, Dravid looked even more formidable than the Great Wall of China. But then the cookie crumbled sudenly and India under Dravid started looking like a bunch of hopeless losers. The ‘Wall’ quit captaincy after the England tour and also lost his form. Saurav made a spectacular come back. Does Dravid have it in him to stage an encore?

Ooh Aah India! Gaya India!

The much hyped and vaunted team India was feted, wooed and wowed before it left for the World Cup in West Indies. Pepsi, Britannia, ITC and many top brands even designed ads thinking that the Men in Blue will at least reach the finals. Unfortunately, a humiliating loss to minnows Bangladesh in the first round itself, meant a rapid exit for the Indian team. Well, at least, unlike Pakistan, Team India did not have a coach die mysteriously.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

Tier-I cities are themselves so untapped

Clearly, when the Tier-I cities are themselves so untapped, why would MF houses invest in tapping the unexplored terrains (aka rural markets and Tier 2 towns and cities)?” To that effect, the insurance sector has done much better in tapping the rural riches and the sotermed uncharted territories, reasons enough to explain why its retail clientele is much higher than that of the mutual fund industry, despite the fact that it offers lower returns as compared to mutual fund. On another front, the step-motherly treatment of the government towards the MF industry in terms of regulation and taxation has also played its fair part in keeping certain retail investors at bay. For example, as a regulatory compliance, quoting PAN is imperative while investing in MFs [relatively, one doesn’t need to provide such documentation while initiating insurance policies]. The recent call by SEBI for a review of the twenty year old threetier structure of mutual fund houses (pyramid structure – sponsor, trustee body and AMC), will perhaps help rope in more retail investors and increase their investments. But till the time SEBI provides stricter regulatory guidelines forcing the MF lobby to reserve high-end quotas for retail investors, the retail participation in the MF industry would remain to the liking of the funds – that is, pathetically small.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

Padma Shri Naina Lal Kidwai

NAINA LAL KIDWAI...
CEO, Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp., India Adroit & astute: she’s a lethal combo
Padma Shri Naina Lal Kidwai. Yes! The first Indian women to graduate from the Harvard Business School, she is also one of the first buccaneer banker’s who would put those male pirates to shame. Country Head of HSBC Group Companies in India, her pioneering leadership has helped HSBC India record the highest growth in net profit – a whopping 64% in FY07 – among all major banks in the country. Small wonder that the lady was awarded the highest civilian honour, Padma Shri in 2007 for her exemplary work in the field of Trade and Industry. Reaching the pinnacle of success in her chosen field of International Business and Management, Kidwai has won many laurels, including being named in the “50 Women to Watch” report issued by the Wall Street Journal in 2006. Passionate as much about her profession, as for social work, Kidwai advocates many causes including education, environment and women issues. “It is imperative for corporate India to engage with rural women and to translate corporate skills to NGOs and vice versa,” believes Kidwai, whose stature as an understated yet effective leader, is gradually moving beyond just the financial world.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

Latest Commercial is to showcase

The premise for the latest commercial is to showcase the relationship between a father and his son. The ad begins with a toddler coming out of his school. His driver has come to pick him up. Just as the two are about to head home, it starts raining. Energised, the little boy, breaks into an innocent dance and blissfully makes his way to the open lawns and greenery. Our little man then heads home—soaked to the skin. He calls daddy dearest who is seemingly away and busy in a meeting. The kid asks his dad to close his eyes and makes him hear the sounds of raindrops. The dad smiles indulgently at his son’s gesture. The ad ends with a voiceover that says: Kuch bandhan atoot hote hain, jaise Airtel ka network! “Since the earlier chess film had done extremely well, we wanted to follow it up with another film that would connect to consumers in a big way,” explains Chax, adding that the setting for the ad was decided due to the reigning monsoon season.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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