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

Saturday, October 06, 2012

TELECOM: MNP

Mobile Number Portability Promises to Usher in a New Paradigm in Indian Telecom. While New Players would benefit, The Real Advantage would be to the Customers

Clearly, MNP would create a lot of new game changers in India, the world’s second largest mobile market, and would pose many new challenges for the service providers. Introduction of MNP now certainly shifts the balance to a huge extent towards the newer players, who can now attempt to gain from poaching subscribers of the traditional incumbents. Operators would now need to invest significantly on attractive schemes and promotions. Investment would be required on the marketing front with key focus on quality, differentiation and pricing plans. New players will also have to be careful and ensure that the market share they gain in this manner is not fragile and can sustain for a longer time. Hemant Joshi, Partner, Deloitte Haskins & Sells, India agrees, “MNP will mostly increase the subscriber acquisition and retention costs for the operators, especially for the giants like Bharti Airtel who have the greatest revenue market share pie at 31%, Vodafone Essar at 21%, Reliance Communications at 14% and Idea Cellular at 13%.”

The recent trend had been that operators were becoming least interested in investing to improve and maintain quality of services as the margins had fallen to an all time low. As per a latest Telecom Regulator Authority of India (TRAI) report, as many as 24 licenses (out of the total of 211 licensees in all the telecom circles) do not meet the minimum metering and billing benchmark defined by the TRAI. The number is 42 in the pre-paid segment. Similarly, 27 licensees do not match the minimum parameter for 100 per cent refund of deposit within 60 days of closure of service. The report also highlights that the service providers have shown a bad response time to customer calls for assistance. The report released in October 2010 says that 59 licensees in different circles do not meet the required norms. All the incumbent operators including BSNL, Bharti Airtel, MTNL, Vodafone, Idea Cellular and RCOM somewhere do not meet the minimum QoS norms defined by the regulator. Similar is the case with new entrants. So far, TRAI has had a very little role when it comes to forcing telecom subscribers to increase the QoS. “The most effective tool that the regulator has is – naming and shaming, by which the regulator can inform the subscriber about his service provider’s quality shortcoming by putting the report in public. TRAI can recommend a penalty and cancellation of license, but cannot take action on its own,” highlights former Principal Adviser, TRAI Satyen Gupta.

With the introduction of MNP, a poor quality of service will have much more dire repercussions than before. Call drops, problems with the billing, network congestion, failure to have proper customer redressal forums et al would become more critical factors than ever before. Still, players will have to decide what their playing field would be – price or service offering. “Entering a price war is not going to help as there already has been a significant drop in ARPU and margins. Operators need to focus on the quality of services and customer retention plans,” says Abhishek Chauhan, Senior Consultant, ICT Practice, Frost & Sullivan, South Asia & Middle East. Acceptably, the tariff war is likely to take a breather for some time, as the call rates have already touched all time lows.


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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Monday, September 10, 2012

P. R. Somasundaram, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB)

In a tête-à-tête with B&E’s Mona Mehta, P. R. Somasundaram, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB) speaks about the growing importance of retail banking in the Country and the bank’s expansion plans to exploit the opportunities coming its way.

B&E: What are the new marketing initiatives that you are focusing on to increase your customer base in the retail banking arena?
PRS: LVB is an 83 year-old private bank with 1.64 million satisfied customers. In order to increase the base further we are concentrating on wealth management by offering related products and services. We are looking at steady growth in the retail lending space through secured lending measures like mortgage lending. However, as a policy of the bank, we have temporarily restrained ourselves from the unsecured categories like credit cards and personal loans.

B&E: With the number of participants increasing, competition in the Indian banking sector has moved up to a different level altogether. Banks are now competing to reach out to the huge unbanked population. How is LVB planning to deal with the situation?
PRS: The new management’s focus is to reposition LVB as a new generation bank and make it a top performer in terms of customer service, efficiency, productivity and profitability in the next 3 years. And to achieve it we are planning to start a housing finance company, increase our national presence, and leverage on our expertise in the IT domain. We have also tied up with LIC and Bajaj for life and non-life insurance distribution. The insurance venture is taking off really well for us. Apart from the centralised plans, we are also looking at drafting a town-wise strategy soon, particularly for the semi urban areas where we currently have 105 branches.

B&E: You have only 180 ATMs of your own. Don’t you think this will be a big roadblock in your retail dreams?
PRS: It’s true that we have only 180 ATMs, but at the same time we are also linked to other banks. So our customers can actually use 54,000 other ATMs belonging to various banks. Nevertheless, we are adding more ATMs every month and expect that our own ATM network will cross the 300 mark in the next 2-3 years.

B&E: Apart from CASA, how is LVB planning to strengthen its portfolio in areas like housing loan, auto loan et al?
PRS: Talking about auto loans, we do not intend to enter the 4-wheeler or 2-wheeler segment any time soon as these have collection challenges that may not be ideal in our current set up. However, we do have a presence, though small, in the transport vehicles segment. And we have plans to take it further. So, we are currently piloting a project that is expected to create a mid size opportunity for us in the segment. In the housing segment, we already have sizable portfolio and intend to grow it significantly through alliances; preferably through a Housing Finance Company. Apart from these, our new management team is now focusing aggressively on growing all business verticals of the bank and retail banking products. We have also included loans to MSME sector among our focus areas.


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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Saturday, September 08, 2012

Greek Odyssey

Aniruddha Bahal’s The Emissary is a rocking chariot ride

Aniruddha Bahal’s The Emissary has grand ambitions. Pretty much as grand as one of the historical figures who appears in the book – Alexander The Great. Bahal, whose earlier effort Bunker 13 (an espionage thriller) found a worldwide audience (and also fetched him the Bad Sex writing award; consequently taken very sportingly in his stride by the author) writes this time on a slice of history in ancient Olympia exploring the universal and timeless theme of love and betrayal. He reasons that “The basic human emotions still remain the same. Adventure, revenge, hate, love, war. We haven’t transcended these categories to a robotic existence yet.”

The Emissary opens in Macedonia in ancient Greece during the time of Alexander the Great. Nicanor, an ace chariot racer, is killed by his own horses in a plot hatched by rival charioteer Argus. That leaves Seluecus (who’s also the narrator of the tale) distraught and in his quest for revenge he gets sucked into the mire that is the world of deceit and politics. The presence of Alexander The Great in the backdrop of the narrative makes it riveting reading. Basically, history suddenly seems intriguing and fun. Bahal tells Business and Economy that the idea was “sparked off (after) a conversation with Sir V S Naipaul who strongly urged me to read a lot of history to refine my fiction.” The conversation and the challenge laid by Sir Vidia “speed tracked” Bahal “towards the process of reading the history of ancient Greece.” He confesses that “the period had an existent charm for me. It was while reading about that period in the works of Thucydides, Arrian and Herodotus that the idea started evolving in my head of setting something in the time of Alexander The Great.” What results is a very good and eminently enjoyable piece of historical fiction, narrated in fairly contemporary language keeping the readability high.


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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Monday, September 03, 2012

CAN RONNIE SCREWVALA FINISH WHAT SUBHASH CHANDRA STARTED?

UTV IS NOW ONE OF THE LARGEST PRODUCTION HOUSES IN ASIA...BUT NOT THE BIGGEST YET! CAN RONNIE SCREWVALA AND HIS TEAM MAKE UTV THE FACE OF INDIA TO THE MEDIA WORLD? B&E’S SHEPHALI BHATT PROVIDES A DEEP INVESTIGATION FROM RIGHT INSIDE UTV WITH EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS FROM UTV’S TOP MANAGEMENT

It was a period that saw two little known entrepreneurs make what can be considered their first indelible impressions in the business arena; albeit in markedly different ways. The year was 1981 when a very young man called Ronnie Screwvala started a three-hour cable video channel for households in Maker Towers in Cuffe Parade, one of the suave areas of Mumbai. He charges subscribers `200 per month and realises that there is money in the making. He expands beyond the towers; and within no time, Network, his cable service, gets thousands of subscribers. Within five years, after having made the money he wants to, Ronnie sells off his business and in 1986, convinces a staid old monopoly government television channel to take his services in providing programming content. Doordarshan takes up his offer; and Ronnie even starts presenting shows himself. In 1990, having had enough of the government association, he jumps ship and forms UTV, a company focused on provided content to satellite and cable channels globally.

Interestingly, even Subhash Chandra’s story started more or less in 1981, when he set up Essel Packaging Company after visiting a packaging exhibition. While rigmarole business was pretty satisfactory, Chandra saw a latent opportunity in the television arena, where India had only one Doordarshan. In 1992, Chandra, realizing the potential of television and cable, takes a huge risk and launches Zee TV. With no past experience of content programming, Chandra starts looking out for outsourced suppliers of world-class content. He searches for people harbouring a similar vision to him; and purely on gut feel, hands over a mammoth 520 episode contract to a young, highly enthusiastic man whose only experience is starting a local cable network and working for Doordarshan. The twain between Chandra and Ronnie Screwala becomes indelibly inseparable.

Within 6-7 years, Zee TV becomes one of the most popular TV channels in India and expands its reach across continents. What CNN was to America then, Zee becomes for India. And then competition from South Asia enters, with Murdoch owned channels like Star TV trying to ride over the Indian satellite TV space hook, line and sinker. Zee TV takes up the challenge superbly and with its fantastic programming, becomes the ultimate epitome of Indian business aspirations and Indian enterprise in the media and entertainment industry in the home market at that time. But despite being in the same business, there was something that characteristically differentiated Ronnie Screwala from Subhash Chandra.


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Friday, August 31, 2012

AGRI SECTOR: INVESTMENT INCREASE

It’s magnanimous and astounding, but agriculture of all the sectors has seen huge increases in private and public sector investment in the past five years. B&E does a quick news synopsis and update of the investment scenario in the agricultural sector and commentates on visible issues by Angshuman Paul

Another key change has been in the interest of PE firms and venture capitalists right at the start of the value chain. According to Venture Intelligence, from early 2009 to June 2010, purely the Indian cultivation sector attracted a PE support of $102.46 million. Clearly, farmers and institutions investing in cultivation are giving a reverse multiplier effect. Sanjeev Goyle, Senior VP Marketing (Farm equipment sector), Mahindra & Mahindra shared with B&E how M&M has now become the world’s largest manufacturer of tractors; a feat they achieved only in the previous financial year. Says Rana Kapoor, MD & CEO of Yes Bank, “Agriculture provides employment to over 60 per cent of the population in the country and this [current growth] is because many of these farmers are today connected to the global market.” And much of that due to PE investments. Examples like the Washington-based Small Enterprise Assistance Funds (SEAF, which is engaged in investing in experienced agri-companies and has invested an astonishing $75 million in Indian agriculture-related businesses) or Rabo Equity Advisors (which has recently invested $10 million in the Global Green Co, from the stable of Gautam Thapar’s Avantha Group) are now a dozen heavy.

What is clear is that the investments are focused specifically on the JV or partnership route. Says Hemendra Mathur, MD of SEAF India Investment Advisors, “It is important that in agri-business if you are adding some value you should be involved through the entire circle of cultivation; and for such involvement it requires to create a partnership or joint-venture model,”

In all, what is being seen in the Indian agricultural sector has possibly not ever been seen before. Till now, growth in agricultural produce was significantly a government proposition; with successive central and state budgets going towards various versions of green revolutions – most of them highly successful. Added to that was the fact that over time, the varied news reports of farmers committing suicides in various parts of the country along with many others slipping into a destitute status due to the vagaries of Indian monsoons led to the sector not being viewed as one that would be the destination for the billion-dollar classes.

But suddenly, there are entrepreneurs, business houses, foreign institutional investors and other funding agencies that are realizing the ever present potential of the agricultural sector and the powerful business sense within this sector. And with 17% of India’s GDP being contributed by the agricultural sector – the highest contribution ratio compared to the world’s top twenty nations according to nominal GDP – there’s only an explosively positive future that lies ahead in the upcoming decade.


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Thursday, August 30, 2012

STEEL & CEMENT: Q1 RESULTS ANALYSIS

Despite the obvious rationale going against it, steel and cement players in India have had a markedly subdued first quarter. Virat Bahri of B&E analyses the dynamics behind the numbers

The causes for oversupply are two-fold. Firstly, there has been a capacity addition of at least 60 mtpa since the past two years but demand isn’t growing at the same pace. Rakesh Singh, Joint President, Marketing Head, India Cements, comments to B&E: “Capacity has been increased by 12-13%, but demand has increased by only around 7% y-o-y.” Industry observers point out that these capacity additions were done with a 2-3 year time frame in mind. Prices in May were down by 3.8% (Mumbai) to 14.3% (Hyderabad) y-o-y in different regions (Angel Broking-CMA research). Markets of South and West India were particularly impacted by sluggish growth, lower offtake and shortage of wagons. The monsoon effect is visible here too, and is likely to last till September. But for companies relying on the southern market, oversupply may persist for at least two years. Raw material costs will also continue to pester players. In Q4 2010-11, raw material costs are expected to grow (y-o-y) by 34.11% for Ultratech, 4% for India Cements and 25.4% for J. K. Lakshmi Cement (Jaypee Capital).

Jinal Joshi, an analyst with Jaypee Capital, feels the prospect of cartelisation cannot be ruled out in such situations. It is possible that players create artificial scarcity to push up the prices. The Builder’s Association of India, however, has alleged that this has already happened in the April-June period, citing price increases in certain regions. But the Cement Manufacturer’s Association refutes the claim, saying that prices have actually been falling.

From a 2-3 year perspective, the tidings are pleasant for both steel and cement. India is reaching the close of the 11th Five Year Plan and infrastructure spending is expected to double in the 12th five year plan. At that time, players of both segments should see the pricing game move more convincingly in their favour.



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Wednesday, August 29, 2012

“We are focussing on being no. 1 in" India”

Mankind Pharma founder Ramesh C. Juneja speaks with B&E's Steven Philip Warner & Jayant Mundhra

A little-known entity till recently, Mankind Pharma is now one of India’s fastest-growing pharma firms. The firm’s success was initially built by its focus on rural India. Started in 1995 with the aim to serve the suffering humanity, within a span of a decade, the company has achieved what certain companies would achieve in a lifetime. The company is backed by a rich experience in the oharma industry. Its core strenghts are its 6000 plus medical representatives and an extremely strong distribution network. The Indian pharmaceutical industry is undergoing a lot of changes. And thats not it because a lot more is yet to happen. But amidst the cut-throat competitions, the pharma giant is espousing new strategies to sustain its robust growth and become the number 1 pharma comapny in India!

B&E: From its inception as a dream with an initial capital of `5 million, Mankind Pharma has turned into a mammoth worth more than `10 billion today. What were the past 15 years like?
R C Juneja (RCJ): After quitting Lupin in 1984, I went on to start a company named BestoChem. It was a family run business and both my brothers Rajeev and Girish were a part of it. The company was doing fairly well till 1994 but in 1995, one of my brother took over it. Coupled with my experience in the pharmaceutical industry, I along with my brother Rajeev and nephew Sheetal started Mankind Pharma Limited. During the initial days, we started investing in western parts of UP. We were headquartered in Meerut and clocked revenues worth Rs.4 crores in the first year itself. Some pain killers were part of the initial product line up. Soon we also came up with antibiotics.

B&E: How did you manage R&D initiatives in your initial days?
RCJ: R&D requires a minimum capital of `10 crores at an initial level to start with. We got our products manufactured through contract manufacturers under our brand name. But we have come a long way since then. When we launched Mankind Pharma, we were having around 10-12 products in our basket. Today we have over 200 products.

B&E: How has the brand evolved over the years? Have you created sub segments products? Which are the most lucrative?
RCJ: We are today ranked no. 1 in terms of prescriptions/doctors/month PAN India. Apart from Mankind Pharma we have six sub divisions namely Discovery Mankind, Life star Mankind, Future Mankind, Vet Mankind, Magnet Mankind and Special Mankind (for OTC products). Mankind Pharma is obviously the most lucrative as it is has been in the industry for 15 years. We are very optimistic about Discovery Mankind, Life Star Mankind is doing fairly well, Future Mankind is on an expansion spree and covers 2/3rd of India in terms of geographical reach, Vet Mankind and Special Mankind are also catching up fast.

B&E: Over the past two years, you have suddenly increased your advertising expenditure. Are there any particular reasons?
RCJ: For the initial 13 years, we concentrated on penetration. Our 6000 medical representatives went to doctors all over the country and we were completely over Doctor's prescriptions. That still remains our core strength till date. Then we started working on Manforce Condoms which became a runaway hit. This encouraged us to go for more promotions. We believe in advertising only products which we think need to be advertised like Unwanted-72, Manforce Condoms. We have allocated a budget of `50 crore for advertising while `28 crores has been invested so far in R&D this year.


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Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Deprival of the weakest

India’s water problem will continue to grow to mammoth and daunting proportions unless an integrated approach is taken. PPP is a great model, provided profiteering is curbed successively.

In a recent education tour to Singapore under IIPM GOTA program, we happened to visit an industrial plant of NEWater. NEWater is a joint venture of Singapore’s Public Utilities Board and Ministry of Environment and water resources. What is unique about NEWater is that it not only supplies pure drinking water to its people but also recycles water from the reservoirs of Singapore. This gave us an idea of how the state is committed to provide safe drinking water to its people and to ensure maximum replenishment of water supplies.

When we think of India, it presents a stark and unfortunate contrast. There is an ironic diversity when it comes to the availability of water, leave alone the safe and drinkable part. While hundreds of lives are in danger because of shortage of water in states like Rajasthan and Gujarat, which often experience drought and water scarcity, thousands others die in states like Bihar, Orissa or West Bengal, which are often inundated by flood.

Worldwide, an estimated 1.2 billion people drink unclean water, and about 2.5 billion lack proper toilets or sewerage systems. Over 5 million people die every year from water-born diseases such as cholera. In India too, about 70 million people in 20 states are in danger due to excess fluoride and around 10 million are at risk due to excess arsenic in ground water. In the gross sense (pun intended), about 10% of the population from both urban and rural areas does not have access to regular safe drinking water.

India is not very far from a water crisis, in a world that recognises that water will be just about as important by 2025 as oil is today. Over 85% of the rural population in Indian solely depends on ground water, which is depleting at a faster rate.


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Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Digest this!

It’s all about respect for Nicholas Cage. He has recently confessed that he eats only those animals whose sex lives he respects. Nicholas believes that birds and fish mate ‘respectably’ and thus he chooses to eat fowl and fish, but pigs on the other hand are spared from becoming his dinner as their sexual pursuits are not dignified enough! One mad hatter, that. We advise Nicholas Cage to keep further details on how he hogs to himself!


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Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Marketing mantras

Hrithik Roshan is busy promoting his home production Kites, and everyone is going ga ga about how hot this blue-eyed boy is looking and the smouldering chemistry he shares with his co-star Barbara Mori. Hrithik though feels that he needs marketing lessons from Shahrukh Khan and Aamir Khan! But considering all the hype around his co-star Mori to the edited 90-minute version of the film in English, Hrithik we bet, is just trying to being modest!


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Monday, August 13, 2012

Punit is now focussing on expanding the regional and sports channel portfolio

After fixing up the group’s GEC, Punit is now focussing on expanding the regional and sports channel portfolio

B&E: Coming back to your flagship channel Zee TV, it has been growing very consistently in terms of rating over the past 18 months. So, when do you see Zee holding the No.1 spot?
PG: I would put it this way: Are we here to change the No.1 ground? Zee is frankly does not believe in that business model. We are not in this business to raise money from third parties. In terms of profitability no one can match Zee. So that ways we are already No.1. Top rank, in rating terms, is of no use if you don’t monetise and make profit.

B&E: One thing you appreciate most about your father...
PG: His vision is something that I appreciate the most. You cannot imagine how he comes up with these ideas. He had told us about the slowdown in the first quarter of 2008. At that time things were exceptionally well and no one could have guessed what was coming, but he did. If it wouldn’t have been his prudence and vision we would not have achieved what we have in the past four years.

B&E: Any particular challenges that you think Zee needs to work on?
PG: The negative growth in the industry is the key challenge that Zee Group needs to work on and make sure that it turns around. Otherwise it’s like a whirlpool that will suck you one way or the other.

B&E: In India, cricket as a sports is given maximum importance by corporates, while other sports take a back seat. Do you see the trend changing?
PG: That has already started changing. If you see hockey, it has already got support from several corporate houses. In fact, I feel that other sports too will soon get the importance they deserve.


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