Showing posts with label IIPM PUBLICATIONS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IIPM PUBLICATIONS. Show all posts

Monday, October 08, 2012

WORLD: ENERGY CRISIS AND WHY EVEN WE COULD BE WRONG :-)

The lethargy to move to alternative fuel seems almost insane...

The reality is that many underdeveloped and developing nations have similar sources of alternative energy; yet, fail to see the potential. If most of the major metropolitan cities turn to CNG as the standard fuel for all public transport systems and private vehicles, it would reduce the oil demand significantly. While billions of dollars are being spent in most nations for construction of highways, a fraction of similar investments for the creation of mass rapid railroad transport system running on gas (not gasoline, but hydrogen based gas) would not just drastically reduce the need for fuel oil, but would also help in creating a cleaner environment.

Reports state that India’s natural gas production is slated to touch nearly 170 million standard cubic metres per day by 2011-12. So, when natural gas and CBM can run power plants and vehicles, when an Iran or Russia based pipeline can meet the rest of the demand, why is such a price rise paranoia?

As the oil reserves near depletion in Middle East, the price of the same can only go up. A war between Israel and Iran might never happen but the fear factor of the same would continue to push the price northward. It’s time to exit this game theory of US (who perhaps benefit the most as the more the price of oil rises, more becomes the demand of dollar to buy the same). Let’s hope that the day gas becomes the preferred fuel is not far. And what would be proof of that? That’s easy. That would be the day an exemplary American President bombs a state called Bihar in India and claims he did it for saving the world from weapons of ‘gas’ destruction.


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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
 
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face


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Friday, October 05, 2012

India’s Upcoming B-Schools

A list of the B-Schools that Nearly made it to The Top 30 Ranks in the B&E-ICMR B-School Survey. And well, They Might just Make it Next Year!

B-schools of today can ill afford to stick to age old theories and management practices. In this dynamic business world, they have to continuously imbibe the changing trends and embrace the emerging buzzwords like sustainability, ethics, environment and entrepreneurship. And with an ever growing number of competitors, they cannot avoid the marketing aspect as well, since they have to be able to make their target audience aware of their courses and opportunities available post education. While in the west, b-school rankings keep changing almost every year, with even institutions like Harvard Business School not coming in the top ranks because of competition, in India, the situation has been quite different till now, with legacy rankings continuing for ages and the same b-schools coming in at the same ranks more or less. To that extent, the B&E ICMR B-School Survey has pointedly ensured that such legacy issues are avoided – and positively so, this year, while the usual suspects did make it to the top thirty, here’s a list of those b-schools which just about escaped from being included in the main list. There is no taking away credit from them, as India needs more and more b-schools to reject legacy rankings and to be the new change. Here they are:


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
 
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
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Tuesday, September 04, 2012

BANKS ON THE MOVE : IDBI BANK

Better late than later, IDBI Bank has finally understood the power of numbers – or rather, of Indian masses. With their renewed focus towards retail banking, the bank seems to be re-mastering age-old strategies… and quite efficiently. B&E does a snapshot insider of what’s up! by Mona Mehta

The tactical move to install point of sale (or PoS, in industry terminology) machines deserves a deeper mention. The bank intends to allow IDBI Debit Card customers a withdrawal of up to `1,000 through these PoS machines kept with small shopkeepers. Thus, with a target to install 100,000 new PoS machines over the next 3 years, the bank is aiming to get hold of the mass by facilitating higher financial inclusion. The fact is that this move is perchance the biggest ever strategic ground level move in the Indian banking industry undertaken by any bank ever to ensure direct retail consumer interaction – after the credit card inclusion program undertaken by banks, of course. Considering India as a whole, a figure of 100,000 is quite a small and insignificant figure to make a huge change. But multiply that by ten, and one starts seeing how IDBI Bank has the wherewithal to become the largest retail bank in India, and purely through ground level marketing.

As mentioned before, the parallel corollary is the bank’s intent to increase branches. And this long term strategy is not necessarily to provide ease of use to consumers (for that, the PoS and ATMs are enough), but more to reduce the cost of its lending. At present, for lending, the bank is more dependent on borrowings. Even this year, the bank is setting up around 250 new branches to increase its tally to 1,000 branches.

And Some Caution Too!
Still, it would make sense for the bank to be cautious on a few areas, where it seems (on the face of it) that logic and empirical evidence are not matching – the bank is busy in expanding itself by adopting the inorganic route – for example, the bank at present is in the process of merging IDBI Housing Finance with itself. The hope, as top management of IDBI Bank revealed to B&E, is that synergies would ensure that duplication of operations is reduced (for example, in home loans itself) and operational efficiencies are realised optimally. While most such mergers have known to fail in the industry, what might work to IDBI Bank’s benefit was that the housing finance wing was originally an offshoot of IDBI Bank itself – therefore, the danger of culture collisions is immediately reduced. While the logic for the housing wing is synergy, the bank – almost going against this same logic –has floated a wholly-owned subsidiary, IDBI Asset Management Ltd, to undertake mutual fund business. This is apart from the bank’s insurance business in partnership with Fortis (which creditably is doing wonders; see chart). Across divisions, therefore, there still exists differences of opinions on strategic imperatives and intent.

At another end, the bank has also begun its overseas operations by opening its first foreign branch at the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). While the hope is that this might have a promising future in helping the bank to provide a range of corporate banking services (including the extension of commercial borrowings, foreign currency loan syndication and trade finance), the fact is that not only is Dubai the biggest recession hit area of the Gulf region, such international expansions take away considerable capital, manpower and other resources from the bank’s core focus.


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Friday, August 24, 2012

Race to sign Priyanka!

Director Abbas Mastan is trying to rope 27-year-old Priyanka Chopra in a sequel of the hit action flick Race that was released in 2008. While Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan have already been signed for the movie, it is Priyanka’s sex appeal that’s drawing Mastan to get her on-board as soon as possible. Intended to be slicker than the 2008 film, with Piggy Chops it will definitely be sexier!


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Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Stratagem-NATIONAL : TATA NANO - BACK IN DEMAND

Direct connect between Advertising and Sales in The Indian Market. But Perhaps, this is also a Great time to Re-‘Reposition’ The Car. B&E does a Case Summary 

The company has also extended Nano’s availability from the 617 odd regular sales outlets (of the 248 odd dealerships) by setting up Special Nano Access Points (as of now about 210 across the country) where customers can experience, test-drive or even test-ride (if the consumer do not know driving) the car. Besides, the product is also being made available through nearly 151 Tata Authorised Service Centres, which help give consumers an enhanced touch-and-feel experience of the product. Currently, the company is exploring opportunities to appoint full-fledged dealerships only for the Tata Nano, in small towns. And to make up for its earlier marketing snafus, the company is now going beyond traditional selling strategies. Brilliantly, it has homed in on discounted retail formats like Big Bazaar for selling the Nano. “The response to the Nano has been overwhelming as both the prospective Nano buyers and Big Bazaar consumers share a lot of commonalities,” says Future Group’s Customer Strategy president Sandip Tarkas. Tata Motors now has plans to bring the Nano to Trent’s Westside retail chains (owned by Tatas).

Finally, Carl’s doing the Indians the way they should have been done at the start – offering discounts and promotional schemes. The company is offering a 4-year / 60,000 km manufacturer’s warranty, at no extra cost. In addition, new customers are also being offered optional comprehensive maintenance contract just at Rs.99 per month. There’s also an offer of full replacement of all Nano spare parts for an installment of Rs.4000 for a year. The company offers appropriate financing options that are a great help to customers wanting to graduate from two-wheelers to cars. Easy financing can be a great inducement to buying the Nano, whichever segment one is looking into.

Experts like Kevin Freiberg, co-author of Nanovation, a book that uses the Nano as an analogy to “teach the world to think big”, believe that the way forward for Nano is to help villagers in rural India and those at the bottom of the pyramid to get financing and make the process of buying their first car less intimidating. On its part, the company has set up financing arrangements with 29 banks and non-banking finance companies, with almost 90% assistance at “easy rates.” Additionally, Tata Motors Finance, a subsidiary of Tata Motors that helps finance their vehicles, helps process the loan of those applicants who might have unclear documentation (a rampant problem with customers in that segment) and that too in just 48 hours.

With its changed marketing strategy, Nano seems to have struck the right chord. The impact on sales is clearly visible over the past few months. In December 2010, Nano sales were over 5,700 and rose to 6,700 in January 2011. In February, the company sold a total of 8,262 Nanos, and the numbers for March stood at 8,707 units, which is very near to its all-time peak of 9,000 units sold in July last year. Tata is aiming to ramp up sales well into 2011, too, and hopes to boost production from March this year. Clearly, improved marketing strategy, brand positioning and advertising and improved supply chain management are now having a gainful impact on Nano’s sales and performance. Buoyed by its recent uptick in sales, the company aims to sell around 15,000 units in the coming months. This means an ambitious target of 1.8 lakh units in a year.

But that can be achieved if, and only if, CEO Carl does the final change that we believe needs to be undertaken now. The leitmotif of Nano’s campaign still personifies the rural/low-end/non-rich consumer. Once this positioning is changed into “Your first, second car,” there’s no telling how exponentially Tata Nano’s sales could zoom. And yes Carl, keep advertising – Indians forget, and too fast.

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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.

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IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
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Tuesday, June 12, 2007

While India Inc. is busy going global, India’s indigenous space programme has not been too far behind

However, with the Agile development, India has joined the select club of nations (China, Russia, USA & France) capable of using space technologies for commercial purposes. “Although the primary aim of India’s space mission is to improve the lot of our teeming millions, we certainly intend to be recognised as a serious commercial player. The aim is to acquire 20% of the satellite launch market, with plans to carry out two or three missions a year,” says Shridhar Murthy, Executive Director, Antrix Corp. while talking to B&E.

Technologically though, the Indian PSLV as well the GSLV (geosynchronous) varieties have limited capabilities in terms of launching more sophisticated communications satellites. With Russian launch facilities being one of the cheapest in the market, the competition is intense. Added to this are strict restrictions imposed by US unilateral space policy, which does not easily permit US satellites as well as satellites built with US components from being launched from anywhere else except from NATO land.

With such imponderables in place, the first thing which India needs to do is to develop cutting edge technology. Developing advanced technologies, such as GSLV Mark III, will take a little while more. So while India has entered the commercial space, there remains a huge distance to cover before ISRO can be a force to reckon within the satellite launch market.


For complete IIPM article click here

Source:- IIPM Editorial, 2006

An IIPM and Management Guru Prof.Arindam Chaudhuri's Initiative

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