(News collection for Management studies)
Volume: 02 Issue :130 28-December,2011 - Wednesday Pages : 10
Slow down, India!
We are too wound up, at work and home. The state of the nation adds to the stress. Take it easy and have a healthy 2012!
The year 2011 is wrapped up. All wrapped up on a cold December morning. Ready to be buried. It's time to take stock of what went into it in marketing terms. What, then, were the trends that defined the calendar year 2011 in marketing and brand terms?
Here goes.
Watch out! Activism is up: This is a trend that is going to define marketing and branding in the years to come. The Anna Hazare anti-corruption movement in India, and indeed across the Indian diaspora, has set a trend all in itself for the marketer to watch, and watch out for. Activism is in. At this moment, the activism is all about an anti-corruption movement aimed at the politician and bureaucrat class at large.
Watch it spread to every terrain there is. Activism and consumer watch movements will now spread to corporate governance and surveillance in terms of corporate corruption, and corporate greed.
Watch it spread even wider in coming years, then. Activism is a bug. A positive bug for sure. Watch it spread to the terrain of wealth. Watch it become a movement that questions big wealth in the hands of a few versus none in others. It will question the possession of big cars versus small. Activism in this space will question every bit of flaunting. Activism in this space will indulge in audits of the rich and what they wear, what they eat, what they use as accessories and what they spend on a single meal, even.
In the immediate year ahead, expect consumer activism movements to gain traction. The marketer better prepare for this with transparent mechanisms. You might as well expect an RTI kind of legislation in the space of the brands and businesses you run and manage. Ouch!
E-commerce is the silent market-maker: If in the year 2010, multi-level marketing firms such as Amway were the silent market-makers which gained big volumes and big acceptance in Indian homes, in the year 2011, it was the e-commerce outfit on the prowl.
Venture capital flowed into the field like vodka and whisky on New Year's Eve. Ideators and promoters of the e-commerce venture therefore went berserk burning money on the track to stardom. Big successes were noted with outfits in B2C commerce such as Flipkart, Home Shop 18, Yebhi, and their cousins in C2C commerce such as eBay try every trick in the marketing book to reach out to distant markets urban, rurban and rural alike.
Cash-on-delivery (COD) worked miracles for the category. The Indian who largely distrusts credit card payments found comfort in paying at the doorstep for orders placed on the Internet. It's a different matter that as much as 16 per cent of all such orders are rejected at the doorstep and the only entity that makes money on this entire transaction is the courier agency which makes money twice over.
At the end of all this e-commerce evangelism at play, one big trend has emerged. India is today a level playing field for all marketers. If you tie up with the right kind of e-commerce outfit, you will be able to reach distant markets, which you have ignored thus far. Distribution in the rural markets is not such a big issue today for relatively higher value products such as microwave ovens, mobile phones and even cosmetics. Just tie up with an e-commerce portal, and sit back and enjoy.
This space saw the proliferation of group-buying sites as well. Localised and globalised outfits even. Snapdeal, Taggle, SoSasta and 94 others to be precise. Many folded up as well. Quick exits, as the category has inherent inconsistencies, which are yet to be attended to.
Telecom confused: 2G to where ji? If there is one consumer category that looked totally confused this year, it was telecom. Most of the biggies were still battling boardroom, parliamentary-committee room and courtroom woes in the wake of the 2G spectrum allocation issues.
3G came in, but everything seemed tepid. Telecom service providers continued their advertising binges and splurged on creatives that kept the interest alive. Handset makers found themselves in a tizzy with market shares getting redefined drastically this year. The biggies were no longer the biggies. The smaller ones were struggling to make their bottom lines look good, even as their top lines boomed. The big issue at hand: Sustainability. Telecom Darwinism is round the corner. The big ones will win and the small ones will struggle to survive.
Mobile number portability came in, the DND register got activated, smart-phones were a rage, VAS gained traction, green-tech saw investments and rural mobility came into sharper focus. And despite it all, the category remained lackadaisical and trends in the category are a bit amorphous at the moment.
Brands nudge health: Brands continued to nudge the health bandwagon this year as well. Green tea became the biggest hit in political circles all over the country. Even government offices started offering green tea to visitors. And if it was a special visitor, the ‘Babu' offered honey with it as well, drawn out from the upper drawer of his desk. Wow!
Big opportunities were spotted by the product categories of tea, honey, oats and the services category of Yoga (of every avatar), meditation, gymnasiums and more. Wait for lots more of this in the years to come.
A de-branded India: India got de-branded badly this year. Despite the robust numbers on the GDP growth rates side of dynamics (which itself got scaled down dramatically) and despite the large consumer market we are, issues such as corruption catapulted the nation into the active mindset of a world audience. Noises of shifting investments to other parts of the world did their bit as well. Add to it a one-step-forward, one-step-backward attitude of the government at large, as witnessed on the FDI-in-retail issue, and India is a bit on the backfoot.
But, as I keep saying, India is an idea whose time has come. Nothing can stop it. So watch out as every sector booms despite all this de-branding.
In the face: Even as India as a country was a bit on the backfoot, Indians went places in the world scenario. Nineteen newly anointed CEOs of large-format global companies were Indians. Shah Rukh Khan roped in singer Akon for Chamak Challo, Lady Gaga was in India for the F1 show, Paris Hilton launched her bags in India, Tom Cruise came cruising for the Mission Impossible launch, Snoop Dogg was spotted with Akshay Kumar and Sunny Leone was a porn star Indians loved to watch on Bigg Boss. Bollywood went places.
India went viral as well as Kolaveri Di hit over 20 million YouTube downloads and Jalebi Bai replaced Shiela and Munni of 2010 with a raunchier visual than even Vidya Balan of The Dirty Picture fame.
And what do I see to be the one big trend for 2012?
I would wager a bet on the ‘Slow Down India' movement. Today, the working Indian is a bit too keyed up. There is just too much pressure in our living and working environment. Schools kids are pressurised to perform, college students are on a suicide spree, working adults are working their butts off.
The one big trend I would push for would be a campaign to slow down India. This trend will then have ‘slow food' outlets emerge in our metros where you eat slowly, and enjoy the value of every morsel. Companies can incorporate the ‘Slow Down India' movement in their brand themes as well. If Tata Tea's campaign of yore was all about Jaago India Jaago, with a more awake India today, Vodafone's 2012 campaign could be a ‘Slow Down India' campaign.
The slow down movement is essential for India as we emerge the world's capital for diabetes and hypertension, and are strong contenders to be cholesterol capital as well. As lifestyle diseases of every kind hit us and as Corporate India experiences it all first hand amidst its own employees, this is an idea whose time has come!
Royalties welcome for this idea.
A Happy New Marketing year 2012 then! Slow down, guys!
A manager's lexicon
Words are funny things. They take on different meanings depending on the context and the person using them. A Mafia don uttering the words ‘I hope you continue to enjoy good health' means something very different from what someone close to us means when saying the same. A manager's lexicon is full of such utterances. A tongue-in-cheek look at some of them:
My doors are always open to you: Clearly music to an organisational innocent raising visions of a trusting and welcoming leader. More likely that the said door is open to perhaps ensure better ventilation. Most often the folks who make this statement have their hearts and minds permanently closed
I will get back to you: A positive approach that seems to imply a fair evaluation will be made of the merits of the case. Nothing can be farther from the truth - the reality is that a person's request will be either buried through the efflux of time or creative ways will be found to deny the person the thing that they seek.
We need to follow due process: This is a classic time-tested technique that seeks to imply that while the manager himself is open to saying yes, the organisation requires that things be done is a systematic manner and with due adherence to process. The real purpose is to transport any worthwhile idea on to a decision-making Mobius strip, thus ensuring its death by constant movement accompanied by zero probability of acceptance.
SPECIAL FOCUS :
NASA discovered the First Earth-size Planets Kepler-20e and Kepler-20f(Collected by K.MOUNIKA, 09D61E0030)
NASA's Kepler mission on 20 December 2011 discovered the first Earth-size planets orbiting a sun-like star outside our solar system. The planets, calledKepler-20e and Kepler-20f, are too close to their star to be in the so-called habitable zone where liquid water could exist on a planet's surface, but they are the smallest exoplanets ever confirmed around a star like our sun.
The discovery marks the next important milestone in the ultimate search for planets like Earth. The new planets are thought to be rocky. Kepler-20e is slightly smaller than Venus, measuring 0.87 times the radius of Earth. Kepler-20f is a bit larger than Earth, measuring 1.03 times its radius. Both planets reside in a five-planet system called Kepler-20, approximately 1000 light-years away in the constellation Lyra.
The Kepler space telescope detects planets and planet candidates by measuring dips in the brightness of more than 150000 stars to search for planets crossing in front, or transiting, their stars. The Kepler science team requires at least three transits to verify a signal as a planet.
The Kepler space telescope detects planets and planet candidates by measuring dips in the brightness of more than 150000 stars to search for planets crossing in front, or transiting, their stars. The Kepler science team requires at least three transits to verify a signal as a planet.
The Kepler science team uses ground-based telescopes and the Spitzer Space Telescope to review observations on planet candidates the spacecraft finds. The star field Kepler observes in the constellations Cygnus and Lyra can be seen only from ground-based observatories in spring through early fall. The data from these other observations help determine which candidates can be validated as planets.
To validate Kepler-20e and Kepler-20f, astronomers used a computer program called Blender, which runs simulations to help rule out other astrophysical phenomena masquerading as a planet.
Kepler-20e orbits its parent star every 6.1 days and Kepler-20f every 19.6 days. These short orbital periods mean very hot, inhospitable worlds. Kepler-20f, at 800 degrees Fahrenheit, is similar to an average day on the planet Mercury. The surface temperature of Kepler-20e, at more than 1400 degrees Fahrenheit, would melt glass. The Kepler-20 system includes three other planets that are larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune. Kepler-20b, the closest planet, Kepler-20c, the third planet, and Kepler-20d, the fifth planet, orbit their star every 3.7, 10.9 and 77.6 days. All five planets have orbits lying roughly within Mercury's orbit in our solar system. The host star belongs to the same G-type class as our sun, although it is slightly smaller and cooler.
The system has an unexpected arrangement. In our solar system, small, rocky worlds orbit close to the sun and large, gaseous worlds orbit farther out. In comparison, the planets of Kepler-20 are organized in alternating size: large, small, large, small and large.
Women Empowerment : Laws relating to Equality
Contributed by : K.MOUNIKA, (Reg. No. 09D61E0030) In today’s liberalised scenario, women form an indispensable part of the Indian workforce. In such an environment, the quality of women’s employment is very important and depends upon several factors. The foremost being equal access to education and other opportunities for skill development. This requires empowerment of women as well as creation of awareness among them about their legal rights and duties. In order to ensure this, the Government of India has taken several steps.
It has been implementing many programmes which aim at providing access to education and vocational training to women. The most important being, the ‘Women’s Vocational Training Programme‘ launched under the Directorate General of Employment & Training (DGE&T) in the Ministry of Labour. The programme attempts to promote the women employment in industry (mainly organised sector) as semi-skilled, skilled and highly skilled workers by increasing their participation in skill training facilities. Under this programme, a separate ‘Women’s Training Wing’ has been set up at DGE&T Headquarters, which is responsible for designing and pursuing long term policies related to providing vocational training to women in the country. Also, as part of the programme, in the Central Sector, one National and ten Regional Vocational Training Institutes have been set up in different parts of the country. While, in the State Sector, a network of exclusive ‘Women Industrial Training Institutes (WITIs)‘ have been set up under the administrative control of the State Governments. These institutes provide basic skill training to women.
Also, the Government has been making efforts for creating a congenial work environment for women workers. For this purpose, a separate ‘Cell for Women Labour’ has been set up in the Ministry to focus attention on the condition of working women and bring about an improvement therein. The Cell has the following functions:-
Formulation and coordination of policies and programmes for the female labour force within the framework of national manpower and economic policies.
Maintaining liaison with other Government agencies to secure effective implementation of the programmes in respect of women workers.
Monitoring the implementation of the Equal Remuneration Act,1976.
Setting up of an Advisory Committee under the Equal Remuneration Act, 1976.
Giving grants-in-aid to Non-Governmental Organisations/ Voluntary Organisations to formulate and execute action oriented projects for women workers.
Moreover, a number of protective provisions have been incorporated in the various laws enacted for equality and empowerment of women, the proper enforcement of which will create an enabling environment for women workers.
DAY FOCUS :
Japan help sought to build 46 agro-processing zonesIndia on Wednesday sought Japanese investments and expertise in infrastructure, electronic hardware and agriculture-related sectors, especially in the setting up of 46 agro-processing zones in the country.
Speaking at a luncheon meeting in the presence of the visiting Japanese Prime Minister Mr Yoshihiko Noda, the Commerce, Industry and Textiles Minister Mr Anand Sharma said, “We are focusing on agriculture, agro-processing and food-processing to build an entire integrated value chain. We will be developing 46 fully-equipped agro-processing zones or parks (in India). This is one area where Japanese technology, knowledge and experience could be of much help.”
Pointing out that the projected investment in India’s infrastructure sector (including ports, airports and power projects) in the coming Five Year Plan (2013-17) is over $1 trillion, he said it will be another area of opportunity for Japanese companies.India also needs Japanese partnership in electronic hardware, Mr Sharma said. “Though India is a leader in IT and ITeS, it is in electronic hardware where India is going to invest. That is an ambition as we accelerate our efforts in (boosting) manufacturing. We request Japan to be a partner in achieving this,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mr Noda said both the countries are strengthening their ties including on issues of economic, political, security and regional cooperation.
Speaking at the luncheon meeting organised by Indian industry bodies CII, Ficci and Assocham, Mr Noda said India and Japan should capitalise on mutual complementarities, adding that the bilateral Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement will enhance the trade and investment relationship between the nations. He pointed out that around 420 Japanese companies located in India have helped generate more than 1.5 lakh jobs in India. Mr Noda is accompanied by a team of top officials from leading Japanese companies such as Mitsubishi, Hitachi, Sumitomo Chemical, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Daiichi Sankyo, Toshiba, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ and NYK Line.
Mr Sharma said the current global economic uncertainty has made it imperative for India and Japan to work closely together for mutual benefit and to address the global challenges.He said both the countries are “very much on course” to achieve the bilateral trade target of $25 billion by 2014. Mr Sharma added that the Japanese government has committed $4.5 billion for the implementation of the $90 billion Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) project. Japanese companies have decided to invest in six smart cities coming up along the DMIC, he said, adding that the Centre had earlier decided to allocate Rs 18,500 crore for financing the DMIC’s trunk infrastructure.
Japan also has another huge opportunity in the recently announced National Manufacturing Policy which envisages encouragement of green technologies and to bring up integrated industrial townships for high-end manufacturing, Mr Sharma said. He wanted Indian healthcare and pharma industry, especially the generics sector, to access the Japanese market.No stimulus package for exporters: Khullar
In a dampener to the export sector, the Commerce Secretary, Mr Rahul Khullar, on Thursday said that the rising fiscal deficit does not offer the possibility of any stimulus package for exporters.
“We don't have the money to throw at this point of time,” he said at an Assocham function.
Indicating that India's traditional export markets such as the US and Europe — hit by financial crisis — are unlikely to recover soon, he asked Indian exporters to diversify to African and Latin American markets to meet the target of $450 billion by 2013-14.
Mr Khullar said exporters should diversify their product basket and invest in research and development to infuse innovation in manufacturing processes. He added that Indian exporters should reduce the cost of doing business to gain competitiveness.
“The external environment is not good – especially in the European Union and the United States. The next two years are going to be difficult. There are going to be cutbacks in government expenditure, exchange rate fluctuations and financial sector problems,” he said while releasing an Assocham strategy paper on exports.
However, he said it is within the realm of possibility to reach the export target of $300 billion this fiscal.
Mr Khullar said, “India is negotiating free trade agreements with the European Union, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia and Thailand. This will reduce tariff levels and provide access to new markets. We should create industrial clusters and upgrade infrastructure to boost exports as rising imports could create serious balance of trade problem.”
Meanwhile, the Assocham President, Mr Dilip Modi, called for procedural rationalisation and measures to enhance market access. He said the right incentives will help reach the trade target with Association of South East Asian Nations of $70-100 billion over the next two years, up 30 per cent from $50 billion in 2010-11.
ISB: Future-ready @ 10
The new campus at Mohali is not the only thing on the agenda for the Indian School of Business.
The Indian School of Business' (ISB) tenth anniversary celebrations started on December 18 last year, in Hyderabad. After events in San Jose, Philadelphia, London, Chicago, New York, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi and Singapore, December 17 saw a finale in Hyderabad. The year-long celebrations are reflective of the spread of its 3,800 alumni across 25 countries.
Started with a student base of 128, the Hyderabad-based premier business school has 570 students today. This number will go up to 780 when its second campus in Mohali opens in April 2012.
For many captains of industry, including ISB's Chairman Adi Godrej, the success of the school is reflected in factors beyond the numbers it churns out. The next 10 years would mark a different phase of evolution for the B-school that has made its mark on the industry in its very first decade.
The New Manager caught up with Ajit Rangnekar, Dean, on the next laps in the race for excellence. Excerpts:
Of late, ISB has been talking about increasing its research endeavours. What will be the focus areas?
Research at our school is two-pronged. The faculty members engage themselves in individual research projects in the areas they think relevant. We will encourage them to continue doing so.
At a broader level, ISB has identified some areas of research, which we believe are of importance to India and emerging markets. For instance, various aspects pertaining to small and medium enterprises, such as their connectivity to and use of information technology, funding aspects and global competitiveness.
Low-cost but high-impact entrepreneurial models are another area of focus, along with business innovations for developing markets. For example, there has been concern among the pharma companies about the high cost of product development. This can be addressed by innovation.
At the Mohali campus, research would be carried out in infrastructure, manufacturing, healthcare and public policy.
Are you working on new alliances or collaborations for academic programmes?
Our DNA is one of collaborations. Of course, I don't know whether we have any bid collaboration to be forged soon. Whenever we think some institute has good expertise, there will be no hesitation to collaborate.
At present, ISB has academic alliances with the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, London Business School, MIT Sloan School of Management and The Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, Tufts University.
Now that ISB has completed 10 years, what kind of new direction do you wish to take?
Right now, we are in the process of a complete review of our curriculum. This is a complex process; it may be completed in the next two years. On the other hand, the ISB curriculum has been a dynamic one ever since its inception.
What, according to you, will be the top three trends in the global business scenario in the next two to three years?
There is going to be more emphasis on values and ethics. Inclusive growth is also becoming a buzz word. From a purely management perspective, the focus would be on managing in uncertain times and conditions.
What are your faculty expansion plans?
We have around 50 faculty members currently. Ideally, we may add six to ten faculty members every year depending on the availability of talent.
It is becoming increasingly tough to get quality resources. The business schools in Singapore and China are recruiting faculty in large numbers. They can also afford to pay more. However, we plan to leverage our brand value (and attract faculty). The faculty strength may touch 100 in the next 10 years.
Any plans to increase the fees?
We are facing pressure with the depreciation of rupee and inflation. About 50 per cent of my teachers are from abroad; they deliver guest lectures. The cost on this front has gone up by about 20 per cent. But, this year's fee has already been announced and we cannot increase it mid-term.
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