IIPM Management College: January 2013

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Unhealthy numbers

India’s standing on most indicators of health has not improved, and the government has failed to play the role that was expected from it, says Vikas Kumar

Public health was one of the priority areas of the UPA government’s common minimum programme. But by the end of the regime, it has been another saga of broken promises and missed opportunities. And it’s thanks to health minister A. Ramadoss, who has squandered his precious tenure on petty squabbles with former AIIMS director, P. Venugopal, and hogged the limelight for all the wrong reasons instead of channelising his energy towards completion of six new AIIMS. Increasing public spending on health to at least 2-3 % of GDP was ambitious target of United Progressive Alliance. And the result is – a mere 15% increase in the allocation in the budget to Rs.165.34 billion.

The Common Minimum Programme states, “The UPA government will take all steps to ensure availability of life-saving drugs at reasonable prices. Special attention will be paid to the poorer sections in the matter of healthcare. The feasibility of reviving public sector units set up for the manufacture of critical bulk drugs will be re-examined so as to bring down and keep a check on prices of drugs.” However, Chemical and Fertiliser minister Ram Vilas Paswan admitted his failure to tame the pharma lobby to B&E, “The lobby is very strong. We had been successful in including 74 drugs in the price control list. However, we are shifting our attention to opening more and more government dispensaries.”

Read more.....

2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
IIPM – FLP (Flexi Learning Program)

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Time to bring in the new kids on the block

The Tata group has several executives in their 60s, this lopsided scenario must change

The Tata Group, in my opinion has done a fairly good job over the years, in terms of succession planning. The various mature businesses of the group, which include steel, automotive and software services have nurtured leaders from within over the years and have groomed them for the top position. Though Ravi Kant himself was an external hire, Tata Motors has built a good leadership pipeline.

One of the areas where the group perhaps could have done a little better is in the area of fast tracking young leaders. In a lot of Tata Group companies, we have a situation now where several business heads are in their mid 60s. So their replacements are now being sought by the company from within.

The Group has also largely struggled to attract good talent for some of the emerging businesses like telecom, where the group has an ‘also ran’ position. Despite the leadership and management depth of the Group, the emerging businesses like telecom have failed to make a big impact. Due to the strong in-house, “bottom up” culture prevalent in the Group, external hires have a difficult task of settling in to the system. V. Sumantran of Tata Motors (he was recruited from GM-Saab) is a case in point. He quit Tata Motors after Ravi Kant was hired to be the Managing Director of the company.

Going forward, with a slew of CEOs and MDs retiring, this should provide opportunities to the next set of talented managers in the Group. Giving timely opportunities to emerging leaders is the key to groom them and keeping them fresh and motivated. The Group currently has several business leaders and MDs who are way past their prime and have to be retired sooner than later. Several of the Groups’ business leaders do not run line jobs and thus they have a choking effect at the top.

Read more.....

Friday, January 25, 2013

The land of snakes, elephants and...growth

Ten reasons why India would grow almost as strongly as it has done in the past many years

Let’s demolish some myths and finally bury some shibboleths while talking about the Indian economy. And let’s do that with unadulterated facts; not prejudice and perceptions. The most pernicious one is the one related to that fancy term called ‘de-coupling’. Last fall, when the meltdown started in Wall Street, many in India insisted that we will not be affected because we are not really all that integrated with the global economy. And now, we have the same set of people saying that we are quite integrated after all; and we will feel the pain. That is utter nonsense as historical data bear out. Even during the old glory days of crony socialism, when the Indian economy was inward looking, global economic shocks always adversely affected India.

In 1967, when Europe and America were hit by a crisis of confidence, the Indian economy literally tanked. In 1973, after the oil shock roiled the global economy, GDP growth rate collapsed in India. In 1979, after the second oil shock, GDP growth rate collapsed all over again and India went to IMF for a bailout. When the global economy was entering a mini recession in 1990, the Indian economy again collapsed and the powers that be again went hat in hand to IMF. GDP growth rates in India tumbled yet again after the East Asian financial crisis of 1997. The ‘dot-com’ bust across the world in 2001 again led to growth rates crashing in India. So let’s stop fooling ourselves with this ‘de-coupling’ nonsense. The Indian economy will definitely be affected during the ongoing crisis. We can’t wish away bad news.

And yet, there are very strong reasons why the Indian economy will be the most successful one when it comes to riding out the current storm. And there is little doubt that it will be the first economy to emerge stronger with a more solid foundation of sustained growth. Surprised with such a statement when all you get is hysterically bad news from media vehicles? Don’t be. Here are the ‘fact’ based reasons why:

Read more.....

Monday, January 21, 2013

No. 1, Frunzenskaya Street, Moscow, Russia

WHEN OIL GREW, RUSSIA GREW; WHEN OIL FELL, RUSSIA ENSURED UKRAINE FELL. IF DUBAI IS A CASE IN QUESTION, THEN THE FACT IS THAT RUSSIA AND UKRAINE TOGETHER HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO DEBILITATE THE COMPLETE GLOBAL ECONOMY. SAYS GYANENDRA KASHYAP

If you were to walk up the Frunzenskaya Street in Moscow right up to address number one, on a quiet wintery day you might just be able to hear the echoes of a brilliant ensemble playing somewhere around. If you tried hard, you’d realise that the sounds are coming from right behind the monolith doors engraved into the building facing you – that’s the building housing Moscow’s State Academy of Choreography, better known as the Bolshoi Ballet Academy, one of the world’s most renowned opera houses. If you were luckier, you might get to even steal an entry into a show at the Bolshoi. And better, if you were an economist, it wouldn’t have taken you a Kremlinisque second to notice the similarities that the Russian economy, and for that matter, the Ukrainian economy, have with ballet performances at the Bolshoi – with their splendiferous share of joy, sorrow, dramatics, emotional crashes, violent drama and an ending too, happy or sad depending upon which part of the official release you were fed. Today, Ukraine and Russia together have the power to break the back of the global economy. And if the world really needs an answer to which of the two could be the next Dubai, Ukraine unfortunately tops the chart.

Ukraine has the world’s highest cumulative default probability of 57.3%, almost double that of Dubai, which has a default probability of only 31.3% (Chicago Mercantile Exchange data). World Bank data shows that fiscal deficit (as % of GDP) in Ukraine has more or less grown from 2.3% in 2005 to a most worrying 7% in 2009. Public debt (as % of GDP), similarly, has grown from 17.7% in 2005 to 36.7% in 2009, an extremely dangerous rise. Worse is the fact that debt service ratio (debt service payments as a ratio to export earnings) in the last four years has almost doubled, rising from 14.6 in 2005 to 27.9 in 2009. Sample Ukraine’s inflation rate for the past five years – 2005 (24.55%), 2006 (14.88%), 2007 (22.75%), 2008 (29.09%) – and you start realising the enormity of the problem facing you. As per a World Bank report released in October 2009, external debt has increased from 45.3% (of GDP) in 2005 to a gut wrenching 92.6% in 2009, more than double.

Read more......

Sunday, January 20, 2013

The hilarity of a photo-op show!

There were few forums across the year that allowed unknown environment ministers of different nations to meet each other. And then someone worked out a brilliant concept of global warming meets! by anchal gupta

It’s extremely tough to understand the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (COP 15, if you please). But if you really wish to understand the COP 15 summit, you would have to first understand that it’s already an open secret that there is going to be no deal. To understand what does one mean by ‘the deal’, you would have to understand that post the Kyoto Protocal period (where developed nations allowed developing nations leeway in controlling their emissions), developed nations now wish developing nations to sign ‘the deal’ wherein all nations will undertake legally binding measures to control their future emissions. But before that you would have to understand that of the 192 nations attending the meet, key ones – including India – have already rejected the concept of ‘legally binding’ emission controls. And also that many have already formulated their internally acceptable voluntarily implemented emission control standards. And further that these countries have already communicated their stands to the other nation members through various channels and some, like India, have also clearly mentioned why they will not sign at all on a deal that is ‘legally binding’. That brings us to another question – why then have the summit? Steal a glance to the first line of this paragraph, and you will have the answer of how tough it is to understand...

One tends to believe extremely strongly that irrespective of whether global warming is really at work or not, the fact is that the climate and environment ministers of various nations – post the creation of the masterstroke called United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (the latest fashionable name for the almost extinct Kyoto Protocol – or was it vice versa? Don’t bother if you don’t know) – now have a fashionably important portfolio and an all expenses paid tour schedule that they can look forward to throughout their tenure.

Imagine this scenario. Around fifteen years back, if you had been an environment minister in a developing nation in South Asia, you would mainly have had to worry about policies regarding cattle, livestock, forests (of course), and other nick nack. Cut to the present, and the environment minister’s post is perchance the most coveted one dealing with the ad nauseum claim of how to “mitigate the effects of global warming” (you’ll find this statement copied in many policy government documents in many nations) leading obviously to massive media exposure, public glory, global speech making and a sureshot future book.

Read more.....

Friday, January 18, 2013

My MBA education complements my marketing responsibilities...

Jitin Prasada, CMD, PI Indisutries Ltd. & Union Minister of State for Petroleum & Natural Gas

B&E: Lawyers have dominated Indian national politics since the days of India’s struggle for independence. However, today, the new council of ministers has many MBA-qualified leaders. Is there a cultural shift occuring?

Jitin Prasada (JP): I would like to see this in a different way. For those entrusted with responsibility through electoral politics, a good educational background always helps, whether it is a law degree, a management degree or some other qualification. You would recall that not too long ago, most government heads in Latin America were alumni of Ivy League Institutes of the United States. But at the same time, in a democratic set-up of governance like ours, the real education comes from working amidst the people by seeking to understand their concerns and trying to provide solutions acceptable to them.

B&E: The MBA degree is thought to be one of the most prestigious and coveted in the world. Does it add value to your political career as well?

JP: I have already mentioned that a good education always helps. To take conscious and judicious decisions, an admixture of proper education and a sense of ground-reality is always helpful...

B&E: An instance from your life which proves the same...

JP: During my stint as Minister of State for Steel, a conscious decision was taken to launch projects of Steel Processing Units in the backward rural areas of the country, where the raw material linkages were unavailable. The idea was to invigorate the rural economy, so that such projects act as multipliers to catalyse economic activities in these areas. Also, recently we launched the ‘Rajiv Gandhi Gramin LPG Vitrak Yojana’ again, with the objective of taking the cleaner fuel to the rural areas. Furtheron, my MBA education complements my marketing responsibilities for the OMCs that I have today. We have been striving hard to attain maximum customer satisfaction through new initiatives like SMS LPG booking, Smart Card project for kerosene oil etc.

Read more.....

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
IIPM – FLP (Flexi Learning Program)

Thursday, January 17, 2013

How to reinvent India’s agriculture sector

Sompal Shastri puts eight points which must be followed if something has to done

There is hard evidence to indicate that the initial gains of the Green Revolution are now petering out. Food grain production is slackening. Its rate of growth is much slower than that of population. Pulses and edible oils have been regularly imported, while wheat and sugar too are at times sourced from abroad. So, even the self sufficiency in food production seems to be in jeopardy. Natural resource base of agriculture is crumbling. Use of land for urbanization and industrialisation is constricting the availability of cultivable land, which was 0.36 hectare per capita at the time of independence, but has come down to around 0.12 currently, and is likely to shrink to 0.09 by 2025. Soils are experiencing serious fatigue. Yields have started showing declining trends in terms of input output response, as several soil nutrients and organic matter have depleted drastically. Area under irrigation, instead of expanding, is contracting.

Approximately, 60% of our agriculture still remains rain dependent. Ground water is depleting at an alarming rate. The frequency and severity of natural disasters is increasing on account of climatic changes. Costs of cultivation have been rising at a faster pace than the prices of agricultural produce. The law of diminishing returns has already set in squeezing farmers’ profits progressively. Fragmentation of land holdings has rendered about 80% of them as economically unviable. Mono cropping patterns are causing severe imbalances in the soils and endangering biodiversity. India although has become the world’s largest milk producer, but the live stock economy is in distress. The process of economic liberalization and globalization, instead of benefiting the farmers, is compounding their apprehensions and insecurity. Rural unemployment is increasing making the rural youth desperate.

The situation obviously calls for inventing a new approach and strategy. The broad contours of such a strategy could be the following.

First of all, investment in agriculture, which sustains 62% of India’s population, has remained stuck up at around 1.3% of GDP since the Fifth Five Year Plan. Irrigation though the most critical input for agriculture is the most neglected sector. I have repeatedly suggested that we should immediately formulate a Ten Year Water Plan to harness the total irrigational potential through major, medium and minor modes which includes rain water harvesting and water shed management.

Read more.....

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Still on the ‘Bush’wagon?

Obama may not fare much better than Bush on intelligence oversight

Would it be intelligent enough to keep activities of intelligence agencies under wraps? Or is it time to let accountability take priority? Obama is not finding easy answers to these questions as the debate on the Intelligence Oversight Bill gains momentum. If and when the bill is passed, top level intelligence agencies like CIA, NSA or FBI would be accountable to the people. So far, their operations have only been known to the President and his team of advisers. A similar bill was raised earlier during the regime of former President Bush and he vetoed against it; giving former Vice-President Dick Cheney full authority to run anti al-Qaeda operations secretly. And whenever there has been scope of scrutiny; for instance, on the methods of interrogation used for al Qaeda suspects or the illegal use of state surveillance, the process has been stalled on the basis of the argument that information revealed would be detrimental to security interests of the US. The proposal is that US Attorney General Eric Holder and a team of Justice Department lawyers will personally approve any such arguments about state secrets; making it difficult for the government to escape with this ‘alibi’. However, it may not be too easy. Significantly, just hours after the hours after the Justice Department reiterated that it would limit use of state secrets privilege in new cases, the administration was busy invoking the state secrets clause in a five year old case where two American lawyers for a Saudi charity (non-existent today) were subjected to illegal surveillance. Further, seven ex-CIA directors have demanded that Holder’s ruling to investigate into CIA interrogations post 9/11 be reversed. Obama will need to muster a lot more gumption to make this legislation work.

Read more.....

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
IIPM – FLP (Flexi Learning Program)

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

“Competition is no cause of concern!”

R. S. Sharma, CMD, ONGC, in an exclusive with B&E counts the challenges and the strategies to tackle them.

B&E: ONGC profits fell by 3% in the last fiscal, how much of it would be attributed to the economic slowdown and volatility of oil prices and how are you tackling the same?

RS: Actually, we have a lot of upsides and these come into play when you are under pressure, especially when the crude price came down from $147 per barrel to $34 per barrel; we were in a much better position to withstand that onslaught because of the same strong fundamentals. When oil price peaked we never got this upside because of the subsidy sharing mechanism. Thus we were naturally hedged in the business. So during those times we got maximum $69 per barrel against $147 and the remaining $70 was shared as subsidy discount. And we gave a huge discount of almost 50% .But the same phenomenon played in our favour when the prices crashed. For us the prices did not crash from $147 to $34, they came down from $69 to $34. And of course our last fiscal’s performance has not been able to match up to our growth trend over the past few years. Well the prices are again on a rise but the government cannot do away with the subsidy mechanism yet we are more comfortably placed in comparison to others.

B&E: KG basin has been in the news for long. What are your plans for the KG basin production? What is your take on the coordination and competition with private players like RIL?

RS: ONGC is working on developing East Coast discoveries in an integrated manner in three phases starting from this year itself. Twelve wells have been planned to be drilled in the first phase and more than 35 wells in the subsequent phases. Reserves are estimated to be quite substantial.

Production is expected to commence from 2011. It is a global practice that in the oil and gas business the sharing of infrastructure and resources is very common among the operators. To derive the benefit of economies of scale, to synergise and reduce the cost, sharing of rigs and resources is a common practice. We are happy that we have good synergy with Reliance. They are our equity partner for Panna Mukta field and we are also in talks with them for the sharing of infrastructure, some of the board facilities, online processing facilities, pipeline structure, et al. So I am sure that in times to come instead of duplicating all these investments it will be of national interest if we shared our resources. As for competition, it is very good from the country’s prospective and also if there is no competition one does not get enough motivation to do better. So to stay ahead ONGC is applying the world class technologies and domain experts. As a result we find that our own efficiency has improved. Our exploration success has improved in the last 4-5 years as we have been sourcing and deploying best of these technologies in our activities. And I would say that competition is not a cause of concern as in this business India is so much dependant on imports that I don’t see a situation in the coming future where this competition would be detrimental to the interest of the business.

Read more.....

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
IIPM – FLP (Flexi Learning Program)

Just ‘USO’ it!

Wireless networks are not enough

So when was the last time you spent a decent amount of time talking to your acquaintances on your good ol’ landline? Hard to remember, right? And to think that a little over a decade back, a mobile was supposed to be the privilege of the ridiculously rich.

As per data revealed by the CIA fact book, total number of mainlines in use in 2005 was 1,263,367,600 while number of mobile cellular users reached 2,168,433,600. While the total number of land line connections in China is 365.4 million, mobile connectivity was galloping ahead with 547.286 million in 2007. In US, the number of land lines is 163.2 million with 255 million mobile users. If these figures are stark, then the Indian context is shocking! While total number of land line connections in India is 37.75 million in 2009, mobile connections reached 362.3 million.

However, that does not in any way mean that we would be getting rid of wires; as we need to move beyond the concept of communication being predominantly restricted to voice. The wireless infrastructure has to be supported with a wireline infrastructure as well.

Read more....

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
IIPM – FLP (Flexi Learning Program)

Thursday, January 10, 2013

In the lair of adephagia

there was hardly anything ‘fast’ in the manner in which this fast food chain spread its reach in the indian market. but mcdonald’s would still look back at the past 19 years with satisfaction, for indians have accepted them quite well

She did it again! It’s quite well established now that there is a lot that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton looks forward to whenever she visits India. And Indian food definitely figures up there on the list. That is why, when she came to the Taj Palace in New Delhi during the current visit, she had an extended 2 hour dinner session, where she got to taste the best of Indian cuisine, one of the main reasons why she made headlines in her previous visit as well.

Visiting India and enjoying Indian cuisine is one thing. But when it comes to bringing cuisine from back home to tantalise Indian taste buds; well… MNCs haven’t exactly been having a ball there, have they? Firstly there is the tremendous competition that MNCs have with traditional Indian food. That’s where many failed at the onset – to adapt their tastes to Indian likings and sensitivities. Moreover, careful planning was missing in most of the forays, so was the kind of investment that is needed to sustain in this market; where breaking even can take what seems like eternity. And price… who can forget price? They made strong attempts to make Indians adjust to their pricing norms, but in fact ended up adjusting their own. Brands like KFC and Domino’s, therefore, learned the hard way. But the most recognisable Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) brand in the world – McDonald’s, was a notable exception.

As journalist John F. Love points out in his book – McDonald’s – Behind the Arches, that in the 1950s, McDonald’s realised the importance of logistics and supply chain to maintain the consistency of the brand. While the initial aggressive approach followed by most American MNCs ultimately gave way to a humble growth model, the McDonald’s headquarters at Oakbrook had other plans for India. The company has always had the policy to wait for as long as possible to find the right franchisee along with a sturdy supplier base, before entering any country. Critics have lambasted it for running bullock carts in the era of jet planes. But its patience is showing results, as it’s the only American MNC in the fast food chain business that has seen success from day one and reached break even in 17 years in India.

Read more.....

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

UNREST: CHINA

More trouble lies ahead in China as scores die after clashes between ethic groups in Xinjiang

There are nearly 8 million Uighurs in the region. “It is component of administrative attempt to attenuate Uighur culture in its homeland. We face oppression on a series of fronts. What more, they have unsuccessfully tried to link us to al-Qaeda,” says Dolkun Isa, Secretary General of World Uighur Congress, while talking to B&E.

This low level separatist movement has indulged in several attacks in recent years and Chinese government accuse that National Endowment for Democracy, an American institution has aided these unrests. The name of the movement had figured in recent Iranian protests as well. In this recent unrest as well, China has accused several Uighur American agencies for inciting passion. The name that has figured more promptly is that of Rabeya Kadeer. Her name first cropped up as an incisive businesswoman and then as an example of inter-ethnic harmony. She owned a chain of departmental stores and was appointed in the national legislative body. But later she fell out with CCP as the latter became apprehensive of her loyalties.She as jailed but was released following international hue and cry. She currently heads World Uighur Congress, an umbrella organisation for various Uighur groups.

Read more.....

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

The Famous

Will their comeback tales have a happy ending?

They say it is not easy at all to carve out success, reputation and a name that you are proud of in today’s fiercely competitive markets. But you know what? It is even more difficult to rebuild the same if hubris, history or bad luck have contrived to put you down. Yes, comeback tales are way too tough; that’s why they are that much more interesting. In contemporary India and its arena of brands, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Auto, Nokia, LG and jet Airways are classic examples of once blue chip brands that encountered misfortune and worse after the Great Recession of 2008. But they are clawing back, some more successfully than others. Some have decided that going back to basics is the best idea; some have decided that it is time to wield the broom and sweep the Augean stables; others have opted for simply hunkering down and waiting for the ill winds to blow away and still others have taken the risk by gambling on radical new strategies. In each of the cases, the advantage was a huge base of customers that stayed loyal. But they all realised that it was not enough by itself. Guess what? These tantalising tales are about to reach stirring climaxes as the famous five hit back at competitors.

Read more...

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

5ES OF ADV“A great idea means a lot. But without proper execution, it’s worthless”ERTISING

What according to you are the critical factors that make a great advertising campaign?
Consistency:

The campaign must be consistent with the value of the brand. It’s very much like we will take a recommendation for a night club from a youngster, but we’ll suspect it if it’s coming from somebody who is over 60. Similarly, brands have distinctive values and represent something unique.

Meaningfulness of the proposition:
The most unsuccessful campaigns are just telling one-sided product stories. That is something, which consumers don’t take in very good spirit.

Creativity:
Has the purpose and proposition been expressed through an interesting creative idea? Because in today’s cluttered world, very often, propositions are similar and not the same. And what sets them apart and makes them stand out is the creative idea, which helps in putting the proposition across.

Execution:
A great idea does mean a lot. But without proper execution, it remains nothing but an idea. All the supporting, copy-writing, visuals, editing et al have to be seamlessly weaved in, in order to ensure that the advertising campaign fulfils its potential.

Content:
All these four factors have to do with the creation of content. The content has to be expressed through the right contact points with enough frequency. It’s never about huge marketing budgets. Thums Up – a brand, which we’ve been handling for almost 17 years now, has always had a fraction of the budget allocated to rival cola brands. It succeeded because all of their campaigns were backed by these five factors.

All these five factors are extremely critical. A lot of beautiful campaigns fail because they don’t understand the brand DNA. We know plenty of cases where advertising doesn’t have a clear purpose and as a result, the consumer ignores it. If you look at the detergents category, almost every brand is claiming whiteness. There is just too much of clutter. So, you need to have a clear idea to get through your purpose to the consumers at large.

Read more.....

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

Saturday, January 5, 2013

National treasure

Why Hitler, Osama love the Swiss

On June 15, 2009, Mr Andreas Baum (Swiss Ambassador to Nigeria) made it clear that his country was not all about stolen money and the country will try to make it possible for that money to be given back to the rightful owners.

That kind of sums up what Switzerland has stood for since more than three quarters of a century. Over the past years, Switzerland has shamelessly matured into a vibrant investment service for laundered money of tax evaders, criminals and the likes. Recently, the Swiss bank UBS accepted deliberately hiding money of thousands of American tax evaders from IRS (Internal Revenue Service) and agreed to pay a fine of $780 million to settle the US Justice Department’s criminal suit against UBS. The US government also has accused the Swiss government of protecting a bank that knowing handled the moneys of Osama Bin Laden.

Under the insolent garb of ‘Swiss secrecy laws’, Swiss banks for ages have additionally helped many corrupt individuals and politicians from third world countries in hiding their illegally gained money.

Read more....

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.