Delivered innovative offerings to consumers

In his bid to outclass competition, Reliance Money is making a gallant attempt to offer nothing but the best to his customers. To achieve this objective, the firm is focussing on providing a host of additional services to its customers, apart from simply brokerage services. “we don’t have a brokerage. That is one small part of our whole package. Every single thing we do is targeting and benefiting the industry,” offers Bandyopadhyay. These add-on services include gold coin retailing, money changing and money transfer facilities.

Another strategy that Bandyopadhyay is furiously working on is to track the opposite way. Instead of investing abroad, he is roping in foreign investors and NRI’s to invest in India. “We have taken innovative structure products to NRI’S and we are working with large international trading players,” he enthuses. But, original initiatives are not new to either Bandyopadhyay or Reliance Money. The company has delivered innovative offerings to consumers on more than one occasion, which include loyalty programs for customers (a first in any brokerage or financial distribution firm) and more recently, they have partnered with Recognia, to take the value added service to even retail investors. Bandyopadhyay with his wealth of experience has brought maturity and stability to this initiative of ADAG. Even when you enquire about his leadership model, the answer is not too hard to guess – dynamic and aggressive leadership. Jammed with impeccable charm and efficacy, Bandyopadhyay balances his work and play with only work, “I believe the question of the balance comes when you don’t like the work. If you like the work everything is balanced,” he says with a grin. So what’s next on the chart? “We want to double the number of our outlets to enhance our reach. We are looking at 20,000+ outlets by the end of next year and sky is the limit for enhancing customer base.” he explains exuberantly. Besides, the company plans to set up more outlets in rural and semi urban areas, with a bid to register its presence in 5165 tehsils.

Talk of tall ambitions and Bandyopadhyay would really stand somewhere at the very top of the list. But then, unlike others, he has proven that he has the ability to deliver on the tallest of orders. And in true Dhirubhai style, Anil Ambani’s ambitions are really tall. Get ready for more from Reliance Money’s aggressive CEO then.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

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Funds worldwide

Of late, especially in India, even Hedge Funds have started functioning as de facto PE players. Traditionally, unlike PE investments, Hedge Funds usually have a very short term horizon. According to Evalueserve, “As per our analysis, currently there are more than 10,200 Hedge Funds worldwide, which cumulatively have more than $1,800 billion under management. Since VC, PE and other alternative investment-related firms also have approximately $1,800 billion under management, together these two groups currently manage approximately 6% of all assets under management worldwide.” Consequently, it is gradually becoming harder for many Hedge Funds to find good opportunities. The aftermath is that many Hedge Funds have therefore begun acting like PE firms investing with a ‘longer time horizon,’ especially in India.

Prime examples of Hedge Funds in India include D. E. Shaw, Farallon Capital Management, Old Lane Management, among others. Moreover, after SEBI’s restriction on Hedge Funds, they cannot freely trade in stocks, giving them less opportunity to bow out quickly. Financing costs are also an exit barrier for Hedge Funds, given that the short positions entail higher financing costs than long positions in India.

But amidst the obvious opulence, certain structural problems shouldn’t go unnoticed. Currently, Private Equity contributes the most to the Indian Foreign Direct Investment kitty. According to Sumant Batra, Kesar Dass B & Associates, “Conservative estimates suggest that PE investment could multiply manifold if the central and state governments were to take some long overdue initiatives to create a friendly public policy environment for PE investments.” He stresses that simplification of procedures, new assessment of archaic and outdated laws et al, are needed to nurture PE investments.

But there is also a sting in the tail. Many PE funds have been coming through the Mauritius route and analysts think that the RBI might tighten norms to stop this inflow of ‘black’ Indian corporate money to come back to India. If that happens, PE deals could be in some trouble. For now, the PE knell is tolling deafeningly for India and despite all hindrances, India seems to be on the forefront of global PE map. The large volume of PE investments in India in 2007 stands quiet testimony to this fact. The $17.14 billion PE deluge last year was overwhelming; and if market watchers are to be believed, deal-sizes and numbers are only set to get bigger in 2008. But before that, here’s your chance to take stock of some of the biggest deals which hogged the limelight in the year gone by…

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

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ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
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When phoren movies come calling on India!

A whole new world of cinema that never existed before for the Indian movie buffs has now come alive. UTV’s World Movies and NDTV Lumière are ready with their goodies to quench your thirst for this new genre of foreign language films. By SURBHI CHAWLA

When Dilshad Master, COO, UTV Entertainment Television Ltd., visited the Cannes Film Festival in May 2007, she thoroughly enjoyed watching the more than 3000 movies from across the globe that were screened at the event. Her only disappointment was with the fact that “India gets to see only movies made in Bollywood or Hollywood, which is such a pity, as there are such great movies being made in the world and we don’t get to see them,” she avers. And that’s when Dilshad got the idea of bringing foreign movies to Indian shores. She started working on the concept in April 2007. And the fruits of ten months of hard toil were indeed sweet when on February 3, 2008, World Movies, the world cinema channel of UTV Entertainment Television, went on-air (albeit with a soft launch).

Patrons of this kind of international cinema – till now – were totally at the mercy of film festivals, to see great French, Italian, Latin or let’s say, feature films in myriad languages, other than English & Hindi (or regional languages for that matter!). And the floodgates have only just about begun to open. Apart from UTV, another Indian media house – NDTV – is buoyant on the potential of bringing videshi films into India. Through its new venture NDTV Lumière (collaboration between NDTV Imagine, Manmohan Shetty and Sunil Doshi), the group seeks to premiere the best of world cinema in Indian multiplexes, immediately following their worldwide release. The films would then be made available through home videos or in the pay-per-view format, and will finally make it to their soon-to-be launched channel, NDTV Lumière.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

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Paradigm Shift

There was a time when anything western was hip with advertisers, now everything Indian rocks for them

This is the time when India and Indians are taking a lot of self pride. Our economy, growing at above 9% per annum, is at present in a booming state and people are realising that India is a land of opportunity. All this is also getting reflected in our ads, for advertising is nothing but a projection of the society. Even earlier, we’ve had social awareness campaigns running. Remember, ‘Mile Sur Mera Tumhara’? – that was 15 years back. We’re not selling India through ads and if that is the image which is coming across, then it is completely unintentional. It’s the general mood that is getting reflected through ads today.

Portfolio

They have something for everyone. It is this right fit that has helped Nokia emerge as a market leader in the Indian telecommunications landscape

As the market leader, Nokia’s strategy has always been to offer one of the most comprehensive product portfolios that caters to the budget, lifestyle and aspirational needs of all segments of the market. Since mobility appeals differently to different segments of the market, Nokia recently undertook a consumer study to gain insights into the drivers for mobility. The study, categorised Nokia’s product portfolio into four key segments: Live, Connect, Achieve and Explore. The categorisation of mobile devices has allowed us to bring efficiencies within our product portfolio, and create the right value proposition for consumers.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

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When IIPM comes to education, never compromise

For years, cheerleaders have been dancing to the potential of online advertising in India. But now Internet giants are gung-ho on making online advertising more meaningful for marketers, giving fresh hope to those tired cheerleaders, says VAREEN RAY

It was a bright sunny winter morning and Sagar had just logged on to the Internet to chat with his brother in Philadelphia. While surfing, he couldn’t help but notice the very in-your-face click-able ad of MakeMyTrip.com that popped up on screen. Sheer curiosity made him click on the link, and before you could say Jack Robinson, he was on his way (along with the rest of his family) to Philadelphia, thanks to the irresistible scheme that the travel portal offered through that one ad. A big deal for Sagar and great word-of-mouth publicity for MakeMyTrip.com! The travel portal is not alone in exploiting the growing popularity of Internet surfing within the country, job sites like Monster.com and matrimonial offerings like Shaadi.com are also in the fray.

But apart from sites offering services on the Internet, the vast labyrinth of products and services available in India are still shying away from online advertising. Big ticket players like Pepsi, Maruti (Maruti SX4), ADAG (Zapak) and HLL (Sunsilk Gang of Girls) who have ventured onto the media, have also not tasted expected success. A big reason is the abysmal levels of Internet penetration in the country – just a meagre 46 million users (Internet in India Report 2007 by IAMAI & IMRB), contributing just a miniscule 2-3% to the total advertising expenditure. Prathap Suthan, National Creative Director, Cheil Communications, feels, “If I know that at maximum, I can reach only 5-10% of my total target audience through this medium, I would definitely be less interested in that medium and prefer a mass media, where I can reach the maximum of my target audience.” Even the terrestrial signals of Delhi Doordarshan can reach 87.9% of India’s population. Contrast this to the melancholic 2-3% Internet penetration in India, and you know why online advertising is a poor distant cousin to the traditional mass media.

Says Shailesh Rao, MD, Google India, “It is difficult to be excited about the advances in the telecommunications sector when our computing infrastructure is so far behind from where it should and needs to be.”

However, marketers are increasingly diversifying their media mix to include new genres and technologies like IPTV, broadband TV, mobile TV, et al. Gaurav Arora, Delhi Head, G2 India, asserts, “Fresh blood that is coming on the client side has much more faith in new media. But the decision makers still don’t trust new media.” According to him, every media has its own reasons why users interact with it. While TV and print are what can be called ‘lean backward’ media, Internet is a ‘lean-forward’ media as there is a two way interaction involved, believe marketers.

In as much, the power of the Internet as an advertising media cannot be discounted. Of course, the benefits of online advertising remain far superior for online sites, as a majority of their clients are online. But other sectors are also cashing in. The financial services sector for one is a clear leader as far as online-spends are concerned. Hari Shankar, Business Director, Starcom IP India says, “The industry which has gained maximum by online advertising is banking & finance (banks, credit cards, mutual funds, stocks & shares etc.). They use the Internet as a lead generation medium. Other sectors that are active on the Internet are mobile, automotive, computers & technology, entertainment, to name a few.”

Going by the sheer number of advertisers optimistically looking at online advertising as a strong upcoming media, even analysts have upgraded their forecasts. Earlier reports suggested that online advertisement segment would grow to Rs.9.5 billion by 2011. But according to the Internet in India report 2007, online advertising in India will be worth Rs.20 billion in 2009 itself. Google’s Rao is as bullish as these figures. According to him, marketers “demand to know the concrete value delivered for a given investment. AdWords, as an example, fulfils this by providing a detailed understanding of ROI.”

Though search engines like Google boast of being able to calculate the actual ROI per online marketing campaign, a majority of marketers in India are still questioning the validity of reaping ‘payback’ benefits from this much hyped medium. ROI simply depends on the definition of ‘success events.’ A case in point being the banking sector. Banks have defined success event as ‘lead generation’ (because they possibly see Internet only as a ‘sales tool’). But advocates of online advertising believe that such an assessment is stifling to the vast potential that the medium offers. They prefer to define success events as ‘time spent with content, number of pages viewed, number of repeat visits, number of users who visited as a result of exposure, number of conversations generated as a result of advertising, number of voluntary participations as a result of exposure’. Asserts Rahul Nanda, COO of Web Chutney, “The medium allows you to measure and track reach, it also allows you to be in control of your budgets real-time and target your audience with more focus.”

All said and done, for the present and even in the near future, online advertising in India will just remain an add-on medium or as Titus Upputuru, Creative Director, O&M, puts it, “For marketers it will always be ‘achcha kuch online bhi soch lete hain’.” And even then, for most marketers, Internet advertising simply means banner ads. The more adventurous ones adopt the ‘pay per click’ model. But even here, faultlines creep in as the risk of false clicks is very high and marketers end up paying huge amounts for false clicks. Savvy marketers are therefore increasingly using consumer profiling, demographics and proper media planning to overcome such obstacles. Adds Nanda, “Understanding user behaviour is the first step in the online advertising process. Any online campaign seeks to engage the user with carefully targeted ads based on their browsing behaviour, time spent on different web properties, matching the ad content with the website content and other relevant parameters. The next step is ‘Behavioural Targeting,’ but India is still some time away from it.” Foolproof consumer profiling techniques are also reducing privacy intrusion of surfers tremendously. Intrusive banner formats today, are moving towards a scenario where users are given the choice of making them non-intrusive. Many formats today ask users if they want to play the ad whereas all the formats give the user an immediate option to close the ad. Advertisers also limit the exposure of the ad to the same user these days (example – person sees the ad only once a day) so that there is minimal irritation. The usage of ‘pop-ups’ specifically as a format is largely done by transaction-oriented companies (banks, money transfer etc.) who want an immediate response/action from the user in the form of a lead. This definitely can be an irritant factor, which can disrupt the user experience but this again, is slowly changing to formats which are less intrusive. such as pop-unders.

Online research tools such as Red Sheriff, Nielsen et al, allow media planners to feed in users’ demographics and get real time data on their usage patterns, content consumption & site visits. This enables even seasoned online media professionals to get insights from post-campaign evaluations done across industries and brands. Adds Shankar, “Such seasoned professionals are what I call the ‘road warriors’ who know exactly the answer (media solution) to a question (media brief) without the support of media software runs and research data. But India will eventually have to get to a scenario where third party measurement, auditing, media behaviour analysis and monitoring are available akin to the US (tools such as Nielsen @Plan) and then planners can work with the support of such tools.” Adds Dr. Subho Ray, President, IAMAI, “Collectively setting up proper rules of engagement between advertisers, agencies and online publishers, as exists for other media, will certainly help.” Even new forms of online advertising like Search Engine Optimisation and Social Media Optimisation (very popular in the western world and much effective than banner advertising) are still to be explored in India.

But for online advertising in India, the biggest hurdle to be crossed is in changing the mindset of the traditional marketer. Of course, there’s no way that the Internet can ever replace traditional mass media, but once marketers start looking at online advertising as an ‘add-on’ media strategy rather than a ‘now off-now on’ strategy, it won’t be long before things brighten up for this fresh kid on the block.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

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Public: Going Public

Going public means converting your closely-held company to a widely held one. Reliance Power shows the way to go about it

The IPO by Reliance Power was the most awaited public issue of FY 2007-08. Thus the unprecedented oversubscription of the issue by 73 times was not a big surprise. Rather, it was expected. The brand name of Anil Ambani and the goodwill of Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group can be said to be the foremost reasons behind the issue proving to be a hit among investors who grabbed it with both hands. In short, Reliance Power’s plan to raise money through a public issue for 28,000 Megawatt project for 2016 was a runaway success! Keeping the aforesaid risks in mind, it is also easy for all to forecast that people who invested in this IPO would make money.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

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Moving beyond...

...the obvious, Rajiv Singh plans for telecom and financial services

Rajiv Singh’s claim to fame stems not just from him being the son of the legendary K. P. Singh of DLF. At 48, Rajiv, an engineer from the famed Massachusetts of Institute of Technology, is playing a key role in shaping DLF’s future. When 4Ps B&M met up with the dynamic Vice-Chairman of DLF, Rajiv was gung-ho on DLF’s future. “Be it revenues, profits, land bank or market cap, DLF is the biggest among its peers,” he says, reiterating that the group is now standing at “an exciting juncture of immense opportunities.”

With a total developable land bank of 738 million square feet under its belt, DLF today has a pan India presence with projects spread across 32 cities. Under Rajiv’s aegis, DLF is building a ‘New Bangalore City’ by pumping an investment of $12.5 billion in equal partnership with Dubai’s Limitless Group. The company has also signed an MoU with Nakheel to develop two projects in Gurgaon and South Maharashtra, with an investment totalling $12-14 billion.

In fact, the group’s portfolio now extends much beyond residential and commercial office space to gigantic projects in the hospitality sector (the JV with Hilton to open 75 hotels in next 5-7 years), SEZs, malls, infrastructure, et al.

But Rajiv is aiming for more. Full of zeal as he maps out the future of DLF, the father-son duo are reportedly planning to raise $5 billion and list their five business units separately (Homes, Retail, Hotels, Utilities and Infrastructure). This fund-raising map is separate from the Singapore listing of DLF Assets ($2 billion, awaiting regulatory approval).

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

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Tarot cards might be a better bet

Persistent blunders with exit polls endanger the credibility of mainstream media


Dr. Pranoy Roy was famous as a psephologist across India before he became better known as the suave television anchor and sophisticated media entrepreneur. But for the latter two incarnations, Roy would be a deeply embarrassed man in contemporary times. Every time his news channels NDTV 24x7 and NDTV India touch an opinion and exit poll, the actual election results are so far off the mark that Roy and his merry band of pundits, psephologists and commentators start searching desperately for excuses to justify why their exit polls were worse than many forecasts made by asserted astrologers and tarot card readers. Yes, things have reached such a stage in mainstream media that Bejan Daruwala and Ma Prem Usha have more credibility when it comes to reading the mind of the voters than Roy and the ebullient Dorab Sopariwala. Of course, to be fair to Roy, he and NDTV are not the only culprits when it comes to hopelessly failing to forecast electoral outcomes. Virtually all mainstream TV channels fall into the trap. Says psephologist and political analyst Yashwant Deshmukh whose C-Voter conducted exit polls on behalf of Zee News, “Quite obviously, the exit polls of late have not been able to accurately predict electoral outcomes. Some soul searching is in order.”

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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

B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
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Da Konvict was here!

When Delhi let Bhangra be...
At 15 years of age, the man had already recorded his first song. Soon after, like all rap/hip-hop artists of repute, he too served time (for armed robbery and drug distribution). And also like all other rap/hip-hop artists, Akon emerged from the slammer inspired and ready to conquer the world! Unleashing singles like Lonely and Belly Dancer (Banaza) Akon ensured his first album Trouble (2004) went Platinum. His second album Konvicted released in November 2006, and is still topping the charts. And on October 6, 2007, India’s capital city, usually starved of international acts, was offered the rare treat of seeing the man himself, Akon, perform live!

The largest selling international artist in India, Akon was also awarded a Double Platinum Disc by the MD of Universal Music Group, Mr. Rajat Kakar on October 6. Said Kakar, “Akon has been a rage with music lovers and has recorded maximum sales for Universal Music across Asia.”

The concert was a huge success with over 7,500 persons coming in to see Akon in the flesh. It started out with a popular Punjabi number played especially for the Delhi crowd. The concert was presented by HDIL in association with Delhi Times, VH1 and Reliance Mobile and was produced by Oranjuice Entertainment.

People went crazy trying to catch a glimpse of the world famous Senegalese-American hip-hop star. He spoke about how he believes in money, power and respect. “I initially hated Hip Hop… it seemed kind of weird,” said Akon. Yet today India loves hip-hop thanks to artists like Akon…

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

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