Internet Advertising: Gone Offline

Many online players are stepping out to aggressively advertise on traditional media to get more business

 

What is common to Flipkart, Olx, Quikr, Yehbhi and Communitymatrimony apart from the fact that they are online brands? Well, they all share ad space with the Pepsis, the Cokes and the Airtels of the world on television. And are equally visible on print too.

According to industry estimates, in the last two years, online companies have increased their ad spends on TV by a staggering 445 per cent. In 2009, online companies together spent Rs 58.4 crore on television. That figure leapt to Rs 201 crore in 2010. This year, in just ten months (January to October) ad spends by online brands have raced way past the previous year's figure to Rs 315 crore. At this rate they could end up close to Rs 400 crore for 2011-more than six times that were spent two years ago.

The story is no different when it comes to advertising in print media. It's estimated that online brands occupied print ad space worth close to Rs 266 crore between January and October. Radio is smaller, but spends still went up from Rs 4.5 crore in 2009 to Rs 7.7 crore in 2010. This year (January-October), that figure has almost quadrupled to Rs 30 crore. These figures, however, do not include spends by media houses-or their associate companies-which use their own media, be it print, television or radio.

An example of the above would be the Times Group properties like Magicbricks or Indiatimes. The advertising spends against some of their names are so stupendous that only a media-linked or owned brand would have spent that kind of money. Naaptol (that had a private equity deal with the Times Group some time ago), for instance, consumed print media space worth Rs 555 crore this year. Leaving them out might be unfair but including their advertising spends would certainly distort the real picture.

What is it that is pulling so many new age companies to use traditional media to showcase themselves?

Inspired move

It was Naukri.com that started it all. Way back in 2004, it came up with its first TVC that had a painful, irritating boss at the centre of things. Two years after this came the unforgettable Hari Sadu TVC. After a hiatus, Hari Sadu made a comeback in 2010 and took the stage by storm again. Bharatmatrimony was another online pioneer that went the TV commercials way to spread its message.

Success stories like these sparked off an offline advertising rush among digital brands. For long, digital brands were quite happy about using the online medium to generate leads and invite potential customers on to their respective websites. As the search for new customers and brand building intensified, they moved to the traditional advertising route.

Today, most online companies spent 20-30 per cent of their total advertising and marketing budgets online. The rest goes into traditional media. Ravi Vohra, vice president (marketing), Flipkart, one of the largest advertisers on TV among online brands, says, "Traditional media helps create a feeling of reliability and authenticity amongst consumers." Is this trend the proverbial flash in the pan? No, believe industry experts. They opine that this trend is here to stay and will continue to grow together with the digital business.

Small regional TV channels seek share of govt's advertising pie

The Association of Regional Television Broadcasters of India (ARTBI), an industry body of smaller regional news and general entertainment channels, has asked the gov- ernment to allocate 33% of its annual advertising expendi- ture to smaller, regional TV channels.

The industry body also wants changes in the empanel- ment rules of the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP), which handles the activities for the govern- ment, so that smaller channels become eligible for govern- ment advertising.

ARTBI, formed six months ago, claims it has 90 members, including regional general en- tertainment and news chan- nels such as Sadhna News from Sadhna Media Pvt. Ltd, India News from Delhi-based Information Media Pvt. Ltd, Maurya TV Pvt. Ltd in Bihar and Jharkhand, besides Hary- ana's PTC Network Pvt. Ltd to name a few. “The association was formed to give a voice to region-specific and medium and small-sized channels", said Rakesh Sharma, the convenor of ARTBI.

The association representa- tives met minister for information and broadcasting Ambika Soni to discuss their concerns.
Two officials from the ministry confirmed the meeting although they declined to be identified as they are not au- thorized to speak to the media.

The small broadcasters' association has also proposed that DAVP should empanel small, region-specific chan- nels. Currently, DAVP rules prevent channels with an all India viewership share of below 0.02% to get empanelled.
The clause eliminates several channels from the ambit of government advertising.

Is It Time for a Trading Tax?

To its advocates, the idea is a no-brainer: Charge a tiny tax on each stock, bond or derivative trade to raise badly needed revenue, discourage dangerous short-term speculation and make Wall Street help clean up its own mess.

"It seems like an idea whose time has come," says Jack Bogle, founder and retired CEO of The Vanguard Group, the mutual fund firm, who argues that a transaction tax would help curb speculative trading. "Speculation has triumphed over investment, and the implications of that are very bad."

The concept has been around for decades. In 1972, Princeton economist James Tobin, a Nobel laureate, proposed a transaction tax to calm the currency markets. The idea has since been suggested for stock, bond and derivatives markets as well. "It's an old question in finance -- whether you want to throw some sand in the wheels of the financial markets," notes Wharton finance professor Itay Goldstein. "I can certainly see the benefit in having [a] tax, because in some cases I do think that speculation might be getting out of control."

Recently, the idea has gained momentum. In September, the European Union's executive body recommended a 0.1% tax on stock and bond trades, and a 0.01% tax on derivatives trades. In the United States, where members of Congress have introduced transaction tax bills several times, only to see them stall in committee, the issue is getting renewed attention.

What has changed? Following the financial crisis, many want to make Wall Street pay. And, of course, governments are eager to find new revenue. Also, the soaring growth of computerized "high-frequency trading" has triggered concerns that too much speculation is roiling the markets and hurting ordinary investors. The "flash crash" of May 2010 -- when stocks inexplicably plunged 700 points, then quickly rebounded -- raised concerns about the potentially damaging effects of high-frequency trading. A very small tax could curb the practice by wiping out the tiny profits produced on individual trades, millions of which are conducted daily.

"I think we're in an environment where people are looking for someone to blame," says Gus Sauter, managing director and chief investment officer at Vanguard, who opposes transaction taxes. "If it's not Goldman Sachs, it's high-frequency traders."

Limited Seating: Mixed Results on Efforts to Include More Women at the Corporate Board Table

Fortune Magazine's annual Most Powerful Women list arrived on newsstands last week. With it comes inevitable chatter from the business press about who is in and who is out, who moved up a few notches and who has been knocked down a few pegs. And yet, perhaps what is most striking about the list is not the jockeying among the boldface names. Rather, it is the fact that even amid a lingering financial crisis that has highlighted poor governance and the scarcity of senior women at big corporations, the total number of women CEOs in the Fortune 500 is only 15, up from just two when the list debuted in 1998.

Indeed, at a time when women have gained more standing in politics and society, they have not made equal progress at the top of corporate America. Women comprise half of the workforce but hold only 16% of the board seats in Fortune 500 companies. More than 10% of those companies have no women serving on their boards.

In many countries, the numbers are even starker. Women hold approximately 12% of the seats on corporate boards in Germany, the United Kingdom and France. In China, women hold 8.5% of board seats; in India, that figure is 5.3%, and in Japan, only .9% of directors are women, according to data compiled by Catalyst, a nonprofit group seeking to expand opportunities for women in business.

Efforts to change this, however, have been under way for several years. Norway in 2003 passed a quota law requiring that by 2008, 40% of all board members at state-owned and publicly listed companies had to be women. Today, women represent 37.9% of corporate boards in Norway, according to the European Professional Women's Network. Other countries, including Spain and the Netherlands, have passed similar laws.

But while quotas accomplish one very big goal, they have unintended negative effects. For one, companies looking to appoint new board members end up choosing from a smaller talent pool. Because the pool is narrowed, the candidates are less experienced. Second, quotas could perversely perpetuate discrimination; companies might purposely appoint less competent women to the board as tokens, but not take their views seriously. Instead, rules that encourage companies to foster diversity on their boards -- rather than coerce them into all looking the same -- may be a better way to get more women in U.S. boardrooms, experts say.

"The problem with quotas is that they are a one-size-fits-all solution," notes Wharton finance professor Alex Edmans. "Shareholders have an incentive to appoint the best people to a board. It is true that, in some firms, there may be discrimination, but it is very difficult for regulators to know which firms these are. The best solution [to eliminate] discrimination is market forces. If a firm is not promoting the best people -- some of whom are invariably women -- it will lose business. It's just like a baseball team that refuses to hire ethnic minorities: It will be less effective on the field and lose its league position."

According to Wharton management professor Michael Useem, board composition mattered when it came to which banks, for example, had greater or lesser tolerance for taking on large quantities of subprime loans. "The question is, did we learn anything from the financial crisis in corporate governance? The answer, hopefully, is yes.... Boards are becoming more directly engaged in setting strategy. The more diverse the background, expertise and experience of the board members, the better they will be at issuing guidance."

That's a good argument not just for gender diversity, but also for bringing in board members of different races and nationalities, and from different industries, Useem notes. "You want somebody in the room who, on any given issue, is going to say, 'Hold on a second. Are you sure you want to do this?'" he says. "You want people from outside the U.S., you want people familiar with other countries and people who can think about how consumers, male or female, view the company."

Embracing mobile marketing

Over the next few years, a series of technologies such as near-field communications will reach maturity and converge on our mobile phones, transforming consumer behaviour in ways that marketers, technologists and futurist can't yet predict.

Over the next few years, a series of technologies such as near-perfect voice recognition and near-field communications will reach maturity and converge on our mobile phones, transforming consumer behaviour in ways that marketers, technologists and futurists can't yet predict.

The worldwide demand for smartphones and 'service delivered through software' will facilitate a bewildering array of applications (and apps) through which brands will communicate, market to, and service their customers. Marc Andreesen of Netscape fame calls it 'software eating the world'.

Smartphones will reach near ubiquity as device and data plan prices continue to fall. So, how does the modern marketer, who waits to jump on the mobile marketing bandwagon, navigate through this rapidly changing ecosystem in order to strive for what they've always wanted, acquire new customers, increase sales, and build brand loyalty?

Know your customer

The high functionality of smartphones and the bandwidth provided by 3G now means consumers can be reached via multiple channels (voice, SMS, MMS, email, social and location services) on the one mobile device 24x7. Our phones are truly an extension of ourselves, and the one device that ensures marketers are reaching one consumer, and not one household. And, that is precisely why the burning issue for the modern marketers is one of identity. Failure to resolve your databases of customer phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and social IDs to a unique identity is costly. The over-messaged consumer is a fatigued consumer with little patience for brands who don't really know who they are. The crucial first steps in this journey require you to cleanse and resolve your existing data, and make sure new contact information is validated as you collect it.

Consumer data quality has always been a key issue for the successful direct marketer. Likewise, the key to a successful mobile campaign, as it's always been for any direct channel, is to make sure it's targeted at the consumer's needs and desires. Relevancy is the best tool for high engagement. Marketers now have more data than ever on which to build relevant campaigns. Behavioural data from web browsing and transactional data from e-commerce promise great insight as to what consumers really want, rather than what they told you in a preference page or survey. When consumers opt-in for your mobile communications using their Facebook identity, imagine how relevant your messages can be, coupling their shared social data with behavioural and transactional histories.

Analytics is then crucial to avoid drowning in a sea of data. If you think cross-selling is a myth, consider that 30 per cent of Amazon sales come through recommendations at the point of sale. Aside from propensity modelling, building a preferred channel model based on consumer responsiveness is critical to understand what content the consumer responds to and when. SMS is an interruptive channel, so use it only when the consumer wants to be interrupted, like when product supply is low, or time is short.

Thought of the Day

Think and speak the beautiful only.                                                              

      Christian Larson

Case Study on THE BRAZILIAN SUBSIDIARY

A large, well known Canadian company had fully depreciated the equipment used to make specialized automobile components for North American Automobile producers. Although the equipment had been well-maintained and worked well, it required considerable hands-on labour to use. The result was high labour costs that made the company’s brake assemblies, axle mounts, and related products unprofitable. A decision was made to replace the equipment with more highly automated, numerically-controlled machine tools. Since the economic value of the old equipment exceeded its value as scrap, the equipment was shipped to the company’s Brazilian operations, where labour costs were considerably lower.

Upon arrival and set up of a new facility, the company received numerous profitable orders from Brazil’s rapidly growing automobile industry. Though the labour hours per product remained about the same, the lower Brazilian labour rates per product remained about the same, the lower Brazilian labour rates allowed the new facility to be profitable. Soon a second shift was added, and problems began. The equipment experienced a growing “downtime” because of machine failures. Quality-particularly on part dimensions-declined dramatically.

At a staff meeting the Brazilian plant manager met with his staff, including several industrial engineers who had been trained in Canada and the Union States. The engineers argued that the problems were almost certainly caused by maintenance since the machinery had worked well in Canada and initially in Brazil. The HR director agreed that maintenance on the old machinery was probably involved, but also noted that many of the “On-machine” instructions and maintenance manuals had not been translated into Portuguese. He also observed that the problems began after the second shift was hired.

Campuss Buzz

Schedule for  End term semesters exams are displayed on notice board. Exams will be starting from 17-11-2011 as per the given schedule.

All the Best to all Ishanian :) 

WestBridge launches India evergreen fund

Investment firm WestBridge Capital has raised India's irst so-called evergreen I f first so-called evergreen fund from global investors, or limited partners (LPs).

Unlike traditional funds, the $500 million (around `2,500 crore) corpus that WestBridge has raised will not have an in- vestment cycle. Instead, returns generated on invest- ments will automatically be ploughed back into the investment pool, creating a perpetual flow of capital for invest- ments. In other words, this ever green fund will do away with the need of raising subsequent funds for investments.

Typically, private equity (PE) funds have a life cycle of 10 years.

It's a vehicle that is long term, said Sumir Chadha, founder and managing direc- tor, WestBridge, in his first me- dia interaction after the team's split from Sequoia Capital in February. Along with three others--K.P. Balaraj, S.K. Jain and Sandeep Singhal--Chadha left Sequoia to start a fund of their own.

When investors find a good company, they don't want to sell their stake in it, but many of them end up selling because the fund life is coming to an end, according to Chadha.
“The evergreen fund structure allows us to take a very long- term view on companies in a way that can't be done with regular funds".

Real Estate Glossary

Developer An entrepreneur who has an interest in a property, initiates its development and ensures, that this is carried out ( for occupation, investment or dealing) and from the outset accepts the responsibility for providing or procures the requisite funds needed to finance the whole project.

Development control The powers of a local planning authority to control the development and use of land, which includes inter alia:-

a) the refusal or grant (with or without conditions)of planning permission.

b) the issue of enforcement notices.

c) the making of revocation, modification or discontinuance orders.

d) the grant or refusal of listed building consents.

e) the designations of conversion areas.

Development yield In a valuation to ascertain a ground rent, the rate at which costs are decapitalised to find the annual deduction from the occupation rents. It comprises:

a) an investment yield

b) an annual allowance for developers risk and profit and, in some instances

c) an annual sinking fund element

Discounted cash flow analysis Techniques used in investment and development appraisal whereby future inflows and outflows of cash associated with a particular project are expressed in present-day terms by discounting. The most widely used forms of DCF are the internal rates of return (IRR) and net present value (NPV). The techniques may be used for such purposes as the valuation of land and investment, the ranking of projects or their components.

CSR Projects undertaken by Bharti Airtel (Cont...)

Taking everybody along

Community participation and involvement continues to be an integral part of the Satya Bharti School Program. Our efforts at making community an essential part of our operations have not only earned us respect, support and buy-in from opinion leaders, but have also started contributing to future growth of the community. Surely there is a positive behavioural change among the community members.

Direct involvement of community in school activities is undertaken in the programs. 1,400 community volunteers signed up to take classes during the summer camp held in June 2009. They took sessions in local arts and crafts, storytelling and music. Community members also volunteer their services for other school related activities.

Skills beyond Books
The Satya Bharti Schools have turned into mini ITIs where children are learning about other important skills like Carpentry, Tailoring, Gardening, Dancing and Farming from local talent and resources.

-- Nathu Ram Choudhary, Sarpanch

Jati Bhandu, Rajasthan
Design for Giving

Social issues in the community are getting addressed through Community Development Programs. 2,100 children across 91 Satya Bharti Schools participated in the Design for Giving contest. They undertook various campaigns in their own communities like girl child awareness rallies, combating global warming, literacy drives, health and hygiene drives, drug abuse, environment, campaigns against child marriage etc.

The most effective amongst these campaigns the “Campaign against Child Marriage” was undertaken by 32 students of the Satya Bharti School in Lordi Dejgara, Jodhpur, Rajasthan.  Seeing rapid increase in the number of their friends getting married or engaged at an early age, the students identified this as a serious peril affecting their community. As a part of this campaign, the students undertook rallies, performed role-plays against child marriage and also organised meetings with senior community members to discuss the issue. The initiative was supported by all community members and was well accepted. It helped them to prevent marriages of 16 children in the village and neighbouring villages. Inspired, many parents pledged not to marry their children before an appropriate age.

Thought of the Day

    Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!                                                                                                          Dr. Seuss

Case Study on cereal Manufacturer

A Major cereal manufacturer produces and markets standardised breakfast cereals to countries around the world. Minor modifications in attributes such as sweetness of the product are made to cater to local needs. However, the core products and brands are standardised. The company entered the Chinese market a few years back and was extremely satisfied with the results. The company’s sales continue to grow at a rate around 50% a year in China and other Asian countries, and based on the market reforms taking place, the company started operations in India by manufacturing and marketing its products. Initial response to the product was extremely encouraging, and within one year the company was thinking in terms of rapidly expanding its production capacity. However, after a year, sales tapered off and started to fall. Detailed consumer seemed to suggest that while the upper-middle social class, especially families where both spouses were working to whom this product was targeted adopted the cereals as an alternative meals (i.e. breakfast) for a shot time, they eventually returned to the traditional Indian breakfast. The CEO’s of other firms in the food industry in India are quoted as saying that non Indian snacks products and restaurant business are the areas MNC’s can hope for success. Trying to replace             a full meal with a non-Indian product has less of a chance of succeeding. You are a senior executive in the International divisions of this food MNC having post-graduate qualification in management from IIMT and several years of experience of operating in various countries in a product management function. You have been appointed head of the fact finding commission to determine answers to these specific questions?

Honda Motorcycle likely to set up two more plants

Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (Pvt.) Ltd (HMSI) plans to set up at least two more plants in the country in pursuit of its ambition to become India's largest selling two-wheeler company in the next 10 years, according to three people familiar with the development. The company is already in exploratory talks with the Gujarat and Uttarakhand govern- ments for setting up the plants over the next three-four years.
The proposed plants will add another 2.5 million units to HMSI's capacity.
“The idea is to become a leader in the Indian market in another 10 years,“ said a per- son familiar with the development. “The two-wheeler industry is expected to double in another four years, and by 2020 it may double again. This expansion plan is keeping such demand in mind. In the longer term, HMSI aims to have a capacity of 10 million units.“
The Indian two-wheeler industry will grow at an average annual growth rate of 14%, according to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers.
At this rate, the market is expected to double every four years till 2020. The industry sold 11.8 million units in 2010, registering a growth of 26% over the previous year.
HMSI's market share in the first seven months of this fiscal to October stands at 13.4%. It trails Hero MotoCorp Ltd, which dominates the two- wheeler market with a 45% share, and Bajaj Auto Ltd, which has a 20% share. While Hero MotoCorp has a total capacity of 6.4 million units, Bajaj has a capacity to produce 5.5 million units a year.
Japan's Honda Motor Co. Ltd exited its joint venture with the Hero Group--Hero Honda Mo- tors Ltd--in December 2010 and is now focused on HMSI, its two-wheeler subsidiary, for its plans in the Indian two- wheeler market.
HMSI already has two plants in Gurgaon (Haryana) and Tapukara (Rajasthan) with a capacity of 2.8 million units.
It is already building a third factory in Narsapuram in Karnataka, which will add another 1.2 million to its capacity in 2013.
HMSI executives have visit- ed Gujarat a couple of times in the past three months and held preliminary-level talks with government officials for setting up a new plant in the state.
The company is looking for 250 acres of land for its new factory, said a government official on condition of anonymity.
“Honda officials told us that they have been asked by the top management to survey potential sites in the country for setting up a new project. Gujarat has emerged as a new auto destination with companies like Ford and Peugeot deciding to set up their new plants here, and Honda was keen to know about the incentives offered to these auto companies,“ he said.
While Honda has not submitted a detailed proposal, the company plans an investment of `500 crore in the plant, ac- cording to the government official.
The state government offers incentives including soft loans and some tax benefits to companies aiming to invest at least `1,000 crore on a project. “If Honda wants to avail these benefits, they have to invest `1,000 crore or more,“ the official said. The company is also in talks with the Uttarakhand government for another plant in the country, said the person cit- ed above.
“We have laid the foundation of a third factory at Narsapuram, Karnataka.
With the three plants, we shall have a capacity to produce four million units by 2013,“ the company said in an emailed response.
“Any further expansion is not decided and it depends upon market demand".

Economy Glossary

Economic cost: Another term for opportunity cost (the highest valued alternative foregone in the pursuit of an activity) that is used in the study of economics to indicate the fundamental role opportunity cost plays in economics. The value expressed in terms of satisfaction of the foregone activity is your opportunity cost. Because there are usually several alternatives that aren't pursued, opportunity cost is the highest-valued one. An opportunity cost is sometimes compensated with some form of payment, like a wage. However, the existence of an opportunity cost is independent of any actual cash outlay.

 Enterprise: An organization that combines scarce resources for the production and supply of goods and services. The term enterprise is generally used synonymously with other terms such as business, firm, and company. If a distinction exists, enterprise can be profit oriented, nonprofit, privately owned, or government controlled. Alternatively, the term enterprise might also be used more in reference to the production activity itself rather than the organization.

Exchange: The process of trading one item for another. Exchange is fundamental to the study of economics, markets, and market-oriented economies. Most exchanges in a modern, complex market-oriented economy involve a commodity on one side and a monetary payment (that is, price) on the other. In essence, a buyer gives up money and gets a good, while a seller gives up a good and gets money.

Education: An increase in the knowledge or skills processed by people. Education is generally view from a "formal" perspective, in which "students" sit in classrooms attuned to enthralling lectures from teachers before they are forced to reveal their education through exams. Education, however, can be much less formal, acquired on the job or through the real word experiences. An important economic aspect of is how it enhances the productivity of labor by increasing human capital. Education, in fact, has been one of the prime sources of economic growth and improved living standards. 

CSR Projects undertaken by Bharti Airtel

Company's Slogan	Together good things happen...
Company's Vision	By 2010 Airtel will be the most admired brand in India: -Loved by more customers -Targeted by top talent -Bench-marked by More Businesses.
Company Type	Indian Multi National
Industry Sector		Telecommunication Services
Products / Services		1. Basic and Cellular Telephone services 2. Broadband services 3. Long distance communication services  CSR ACTIVITIES Driven by the desire to create a meaningful difference in society; at Bharti Airtel we make conscious efforts to achieve higher socio-economic goals. Over the years, we have aligned our business processes and goals to make a more deep rooted impact on the society directly. There is an absolute belief that the transformational projects undertaken by us are contributing towards strengthening trust of all our stakeholders. India being a youthful and growing country, education is considered to be the most important tool for social and economic development of the nation. Most of Bharti Airtel’s welfare activities are routed through Bharti Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Bharti Group. Set up in 2000, the Foundation aims to bridge the existing education divide and make quality education accessible to underprivileged children in rural India. Bharti Airtel’s passionate participation in various programs of the Foundation got recognised when Bharti Airtel received the ‘Corporate Social Responsibility Awards 2009-2010’ of Business World-FICCI-SEDF (FICCI Socio Economic Development Foundation). Temples of Learning Under the aegis of its flagship program, the Satya Bharti School Program, Bharti Foundation imparts primary and higher education to help in both holistic and academic development of underprivileged children and youth across the rural pockets of India. Girl child gets special focus in these temples of learning, radiating knowledge and excellence. This helps them connect with their own community and stay rooted to their local culture. The senior school program trains students in vocational skills to help them emerge as employable citizens and contribute towards community development. Currently 236 Satya Bharti Primary Schools are operational across 5 states of Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu; reaching out to approximately 30,000 children and recruiting over 1,000 teachers from local communities. Bharti Foundation launched the Satya Bharti School Program in Murshidabad district of the state of West Bengal this year. The foundation stone for this new initiative is a first as a part of the expansion plan to set up 10 such primary schools in the district in due course of time. Of these 236 operational schools, 49 schools are adopted government schools, under public private partnership reaching out to about 6,000 children, across Neemrana and Amer blocks of  Rajasthan. The adopted schools continue to follow the state-prescribed curriculum, supplemented by interesting teaching-learning material and processes developed by the curriculum design team of Bharti Foundation. The most striking achievement of the program has been the participation of girls which gets reflected in a healthy girl:boy ratio of 47:53. The program aims to provide academic support to children, healthy nutritious mid day meals and also contribute to their holistic development. Launched in 2006, just three years into operation the schools have, slowly but surely, started to make an impact on the children, parents and the village community.                                                                                                                             Cont...........

Business Quiz

1.        1. In marketing parlance what does AIDA stand for?

2.       2. What is the maximum permissible FDI cap in multi brand retail in India?

3.       3. Which company produces the Palio brand of four wheelers?

4.       4. Which diversified conglomerate owns the John Players brand of formal wear?

5.       5. Which Bollywood superstar has been nominated the brand ambassador of Ministry of Commerce,  Government of West Bengal?

6.       6. Which corporate czar is credited with innovating the Digital Dairy?

7.       7. Which management guru coined the term DAGMAR in the field of advertising?

8.       8. The American tennis star Andre Agassi was the brand ambassador of which sports wear company?

9.       9. Name the first Indian company to be enlisted on the NYSE?

10  10.Which corporate czar is nicknamed Neutron Jack?

Thought of the Day

"Democracy is a form of government in which it is permitted to wonder aloud what the country could do under first-class management"

Life After Advertising

Just as advertising draws people from other professions, other professions too draw people from advertising

What could be common to a high-end travel tour organiser, an adventure cyclist, a jungle safari conductor, a stand-up comedian, a ceramic maker, a farmer, an author and a production house owner?

In this case, all of them have had something to do with advertising.

Advertising is a very accommodating industry. Accountants, engineers, doctors, dentists and even tea-tasters have made it big here. There are some who have moved away to pursue other career interests, which more often than not, have nothing to do with advertising. What makes them do it?

The perfect platform?

Advertising as a profession is different from others. It provides independence and the constant opportunity to unlearn things. It exposes one to lots of other interesting things all the time. A banker might be an expert in banking and finance, but an advertising person could be a Jack-of-all-trades. Is that what prepares one for an offbeat career?

Former senior vice-president and managing partner of JWT South (Chennai and Hyderabad), Anita Gupta, quit advertising a few years ago to craft high-end adventure travel experiences for special interest groups such as corporate professionals, NRIs, artists and museum teams. Gupta, whose company is called Travelling Lens, also manages a travel-cum-photography brand by the same name. She agrees that being in advertising has helped. "To be able to do justice to your job, you have to have a passion that feeds into your job." Travelling Lens takes, on an average, 40 select clients out every year.

Or take Amitabh Bhattacharya. He quit his job as creative director, McCann Erickson, to co-found his own film production house with Junaid Memon, a friend. But the partner and executive producer of Nomad Films is also an inveterate adventure cyclist. "Compared to other fields, advertising provides a wider exposure. Besides, advertising is a great teacher."

So, why did he quit as creative director of McCann Bangalore in 2003 after 10 years in the business? "My hard work was being ignored and it was my lack of being politically correct all the time that became my nemesis at my senior level agency post," he says.

Running his own production house the way he wanted to is the kick that keeps Bhattacharya going. "This brings me to cycling. It is a 'calling' of sorts. Either you ride, or you don't. There's no scope to feel shortchanged. It is an overwhelming and satisfying form of self-expression that helps me perform better on the job too," says Bhattacharya explaining his love for cycling.

He started cycling in 2008, and participated in the Geneva-Cannes Fireflies Tour this year. The Fireflies Tour (an eight-day, 1,000-km ride through the French Alps) is a cycling event that raises funds for research on Leukamia. Bhattacharya cycles close to 10,000 km a year.

"This is just something that advertising does to you," exclaims Sanjay Krishnan an ex-JWT man, who launched Wilderness Safari in 2008. "At an ad agency, people are exposed to so much creative thinking. They're more likely to act on their passion," he says.

Krishnan organises tours to Dudhwa National Park. He was an account director. He joined advertising straight out of college but lasted just five years in the business. Even so, he insists that being in advertising helped. "Servicing clients in an agency and dealing with people at a camp are not too different. Both involve handling people." Is it smooth sailing then after switching careers?

Glossary of Real Estate

FAIR MARKET VALUE ‑ Legal term synonymous with MARKET VALUE.

FEE ‑ When applied to property, an inheritable estate in land.

FEE SIMPLE ‑ The most comprehensive ownership of real property known to law; the largest bundle of ownership rights possible in real estate. Fee simple title is sometimes referred to as "the fee".

FEE TAIL ‑ An estate or interest in land which cannot be conveyed but which must descend to the heirs of the holder; abolished in most states.

FIRST MORTGAGE ‑ The mortgage on property that is superior in right to any other mortgage.

Virtual team

A virtual team (also known as a geographically dispersed team or GDT) is a group of individuals who work across time, space and organizational boundaries with links strengthened by webs of communication technology. Members of virtual teams communicate electronically and may never meet face-to-face. Virtual teams are made possible by a proliferation of fiber optic technology that has significantly increased the scope of off-site communication. Virtual teams allow companies to procure the best talent without geographical restrictions.

According to Hambley, O’Neil, & Kline (2007), "virtual teams require new ways of working across boundaries through systems, processes, technology, and people, which require effective leadership...despite the widespread increase in virtual teamwork, there has been relatively little focus on the role of virtual team leaders".

There are three main aspects to a virtual team - purpose, people and links. While purpose is an important aspect for all organizations, it's the most critical aspect for virtual teams; purpose is what holds a virtual team together. Virtual teams do not have hierarchy or any other common structures because they may not be from same organization, and purpose here brings and holds the team together. Purpose is generally translated into certain action steps for people to work on with a defined structure consisting of common goals, individual tasks and results

Advantages of virtual teams

Ø  Increased productivity: Virtual teams often see an increase in productivity because more personal flexibility is achieved, commute time is reduced, and work is not limited by the traditional 9-5 work day schedule. In turn, the company never sees an off hour. The team on the other side of the globe simply picks up where the prior team left off. This approach is commonly referred to as “Follow the Sun Approach”. This advantage can translate to a much faster time to market for new products and technology.

Ø  Extended market opportunity: This is a major benefit of geographically dispersed teams due to direct access to different market opportunities. With work teams located in different parts of the globe, organizations are able to establish their presence with customers worldwide. This also gives small business owners the ability to compete on a global scale as well without being limited to a particular customer base.

Thought of the Day

"Lots of folks confuse bad management with destiny"

Case Study

Kerala had always been considered the ‘backwaters’ of India - in a negative way. Tourists thought of it as a nice but far away place, to be visited if you had the time, after covering the more popular destinations like the Taj Mahal, Delhi, Jaipur and Goa. But all that has changed, with a single great campaign, based on a memorable line - God’s Own Country. As tourism marketers know, a tourist destination sells imagery first and then depends on the tourists themselves to recommend the destination to their friends, relatives and peer groups. For a long time, Kerala had advertised its boat races held at Allepey (now known as Alappuzha) and the elephant ritual at “Thrissur Pooram” and gained some mileage from these too. However, the advertising really started getting into the limelight after the tagline “God’s Own Country” was added to the beautiful images. In addition to the foreign tourists, the campaign successfully drew the attention of domestic tourists and as a result Kerala has successfully entered the tourist map of the world. New investments in Kerala include tourism – related projects at Bekal in the Malabar (North Kerala) region. Tangible things such as good air and road/rail connections and availability of different types of  hotels and resorts also helped, along with cosmopolitan food habits of Kerala which is probably the only state apart from Goa where meat and seafood of all types are easily available, to cater to the palates of foreigners who may be predominantly non-vegetarian. Ayurveda practitioners also abound in Kerala and the oil massages add to the mystique of the destination. Apart from traditional hill stations like Munnar, Kerala offers a forest experience at Thekkady (Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary) and in the hills of Wayanad district bordering Tamilnadu and Karnataka.

Business News

ENERGY ASSET BG Group to divest stake in Gujarat Gas
British oil and gas company BG Group Plc. is looking to divest some or all of its stake in its subsidiary Gujarat Gas Co.
Ltd (GGCL), India's largest private natural gas transmission and distribution firm.

BG Group has informed GGCL, in which it has a majority stake, that it has initiated a process towards divesting its shareholding in the firm, the Ahmedabad-based company said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange on Tuesday.

A GGCL spokesperson re- fused to comment. Mint could not ascertain how much stake BG Group wants to divest.

The London-based compa- ny, through BG Asia Pacific Holdings Pte Ltd, holds 65.12% in GGCL. Foreign institutional investors own 15% and the public, 9%. The balance stake is with mutual funds and Indian institutions.

GGCL's market capital based on Tuesday's closing price of `418.50 a share is `5,367 crore.

BG Group's stake in it is valued at `3,495 crore.

Marketing Glossary

C.I.F. A contract of sale "cost, insurance freight" of the documents of title, not the goods, whereby the buyer is under an obligation to pay against the shipping documents irrespective of the arrival of the goods. 

Cluster analysis. A technique for grouping similarities or differences between a set of objects or persons.

Comparative advantage. One country enjoying a lower production ratio (input to outputs) than another country under total specialisation. 

Comparative analysis. Comparing the same set of statistics within a category of one country with another for the purpose of estimating potential demand. 

Competition. A product, organisation or individual, in either the same or another category which can be directly substituted one for the other in fulfilling the same needs or wants.

Great Tips for Improving Business Communication Skills

You are probably like most businessmen and are interested in tips for improving business communication skills, but really do not know how to get started and do not fully understand the importance of communicating effectively in the business world.

However, the best tips for improving business communication skills are just as valuable if not more so than your knowledge of a particular business so tips for improving business communication skills are very important and should be made a priority.

If learning some some tips for improving business communication skills is something you would like to focus on then consider the following suggestions and implement them into your work life. You will see the difference in no time at all and these so tips for improving business communication skills will become even more important to you because you will realize the importance.


1. Open Communication

If you are in management then you need to use these tips for improving business communication skills and focus on open communication throughout the business and with all staff members. The reason for this is employees have specific knowledge of their focus area and can provide insight you are not privy to in management.

This will help the business grow and be more successful. Also, when there is open communication problems can be avoided because the lines of communication are open and individuals feel comfortable sharing information. This is really important and one of the best tips for improving business communication skills - something you will want to focus on significantly.

Always encourage employees to share information, whether good or bad, because it will help the business as a whole.

Bikki Oberoi

Prithvi Raj Singh Oberoi, better known to the world as Bikki Oberoi, is the son of late Rai Bahadur M.S. Oberoi, the founder of the Oberoi chain of hotels. Building up on his father's legacy, Bikki Oberoi steered the Oberoi chain of hotels to further heights, taking every opportunity that came his way and making 'Oberoi' a brand name to reckon with. Coming from an affluent family, Bikki Oberoi had an experience that very few people could boast of. Using this experience into his business, Bikki Oberoi has managed to come a long way, becoming one of the leading hoteliers in the world and making significant contribution in the hospitality industry. He is known for using novel strategies that have become a boon to the business of Oberois-making himself indispensable to the company and proving himself as a worthy heir of the great empire.

Early Life

Prithvi Raj Singh was born to Rai Bahadur M. S. Oberoi. Right from his childhood, Bikki showed keen interest in his father's business. By the time he was in his early twenties, his father had already established himself as an hotelier and had expanded his business to an extent that he could pamper his son with all the luxuries in the world. After completing his education, Bikki Singh left for a long trip, travelling around the world and experiencing new places and their best hotels.

Thought of the Day

“The closing of a door
can bring blessed privacy and comfort
the opening, terror.
Conversely, the closing of a door
can be a sad and final thing
the opening a wonderfully joyous moment.”

                                                                                                 ~ Andy Rooney

The Tweaker

Not long after Steve Jobs got married, in 1991, he moved with his wife to a nineteen-thirties, Cotswolds-style house in old Palo Alto. Jobs always found it difficult to furnish the places where he lived. His previous house had only a mattress, a table, and chairs. He needed things to be perfect, and it took time to figure out what perfect was. This time, he had a wife and family in tow, but it made little difference. “We spoke about furniture in theory for eight years,” his wife, Laurene Powell, tells Walter Isaacson, in “Steve Jobs,” Isaacson’s enthralling new biography of the Apple founder. “We spent a lot of time asking ourselves, ‘What is the purpose of a sofa?’ ”

It was the choice of a washing machine, however, that proved most vexing. European washing machines, Jobs discovered, used less detergent and less water than their American counterparts, and were easier on the clothes. But they took twice as long to complete a washing cycle. What should the family do? As Jobs explained, “We spent some time in our family talking about what’s the trade-off we want to make. We ended up talking a lot about design, but also about the values of our family. Did we care most about getting our wash done in an hour versus an hour and a half? Or did we care most about our clothes feeling really soft and lasting longer? Did we care about using a quarter of the water? We spent about two weeks talking about this every night at the dinner table.”

Steve Jobs, Isaacson’s biography makes clear, was a complicated and exhausting man. “There are parts of his life and personality that are extremely messy, and that’s the truth,” Powell tells Isaacson. “You shouldn’t whitewash it.” Isaacson, to his credit, does not. He talks to everyone in Jobs’s career, meticulously recording conversations and encounters dating back twenty and thirty years. Jobs, we learn, was a bully. “He had the uncanny capacity to know exactly what your weak point is, know what will make you feel small, to make you cringe,” a friend of his tells Isaacson. Jobs gets his girlfriend pregnant, and then denies that the child is his. He parks in handicapped spaces. He screams at subordinates. He cries like a small child when he does not get his way. He gets stopped for driving a hundred miles an hour, honks angrily at the officer for taking too long to write up the ticket, and then resumes his journey at a hundred miles an hour. He sits in a restaurant and sends his food back three times. He arrives at his hotel suite in New York for press interviews and decides, at 10 P.M., that the piano needs to be repositioned, the strawberries are inadequate, and the flowers are all wrong: he wanted calla lilies. (When his public-relations assistant returns, at midnight, with the right flowers, he tells her that her suit is “disgusting.”) “Machines and robots were painted and repainted as he compulsively revised his color scheme,” Isaacson writes, of the factory Jobs built, after founding NeXT, in the late nineteen-eighties. “The walls were museum white, as they had been at the Macintosh factory, and there were $20,000 black leather chairs and a custom-made staircase. . . . He insisted that the machinery on the 165-foot assembly line be configured to move the circuit boards from right to left as they got built, so that the process would look better to visitors who watched from the viewing gallery.”

Business News

• CORPORATE ONGC nod to buy ADB's Petronet stake
• ENERGY Koodankulam: Kalam for R200 cr plan

Economics Glossary:-

Divisibility: One of four characteristics that enables an asset to better function as money. The other three are durability, transportablity, and non-counterfeitability. This characteristic means that the item used as money can be easily divided into small increments so that it can match commodity values more precisely.

Diseconomies of scale: Increasing long-run average cost that occurs as a firm increases all inputs and expands its scale of production. This is graphically illustrated by a positively-sloped long-run average cost curve and typically occurs for relatively large levels of production. Diseconomies of scale overwhelm by economies of scale for relatively large production levels. Together, economies of scale and diseconomies of scale cause the long-run average cost curve to be U-shaped.

Duopsony: A special type of oligopsony market structure dominated by exactly two large buyers controlling the buying-side of a market. Duopsony is the buying-side counter to the duopoly selling-side market structure. As market structures go, this is perhaps the most obscure one around.

Currency depreciation: The declining value of one currency, in terms of its ability to purchase goods and services. This is most often seen as a change in the exchange rate of the currency for the currencies of other nations.

Consumption line derivation: A consumption line, a graphical depiction of the relation between household sector consumption and income, can be derived from a simple consumption schedule, a table or chart showing the relation between household sector consumption and income. This is easily accomplished by plotting the consumption-income pairs from the schedule as points in a diagram that measures consumption on the vertical axis and income on the horizontal axis, then connection the points with a line. The consumption line can also be derived directly by plotting the consumption function using slope and intercept values.

Retail: Value orientation of new employees critical in this sector

Bijay Sahoo, President - HR, Retail & Infotel, Reliance Industries Ltd. shares that hiring demand in retail sector would reach 17.6 million by 2022. He discusses hiring trends, skills and qualities required, future outlook, etc. 

 

What are the hiring trends that you foresee for the retail industry this year?

Retail industry is on the eve of a second growth phase after the first phase was punctuated by the slowdown. Despite the uncertainties looming again on the economic landscape, I foresee major players expanding operations this year. This expansion will require talent in all retail functions including store operations, merchandising, supply chain and support functions such as Marketing, Finance, HR and IT. However, the industry will be cautious this time not to go overboard in recruiting based on long term growth projections. The hiring is likely to be closely aligned with annual business plans.

What are the major challenges that the industry is facing today?

At the macro-level, retail industry faces the challenge of bridging the gap between demand and supply of talent. According to a research report by NSDC on skill gap in the retail industry, the aggregate talent demand in Indian organised retail is projected to be 17.6 million by 2022. The current employment figure for the sector is roughly 0.6 million. Thus, on the demand side, we need 17 million additional employees in organised retail within a decade. In other words, for every employee we employ currently, we need to recruit, train and productively engage 28 additional employees in the next 10 years. It is not about finding people - it is more to do with skills, training and development investments all retailers have to commit to.

Since Indian economy is growing at a rapid rate of 7-9% per annum, there are opportunities for young Indians in multiple industries. Attracting talent in such a competitive scenario will be a big challenge.

Where do you see this industry headed in the next few years?

The industry will become more mature over the next few years. There are quite a few emerging trends one can notice. The organised retail will grow beyond metros and will expand greatly in the second and third tier cities. Retail will employ a large share of Indian workforce. The need to attract and develop large pool of talent within short span of time will stretch people development capabilities of retailers. We will have to show the same ingenuity and drive in developing people that Indian IT and BPO industries demonstrated in the last decade. During initial period, we need to invest in experienced expat talent to fast forward the business while developing Indian talent.

Case Study of DHL

DHL used to have one-price-fits-all list prices for shipping packages in the United States and around the world, and when potential customers called for rates DHL scared them off by asking for more than FedEx or UPS. With Web pricing tools, DHL tested the market by offering cold callers different prices to see how low prices could go and still make a profit. In the end, DHL wound up changing hundreds of prices. There were plenty of surprises. Most prices did go down, but the company did not have to match the competition. In fact, by lowering prices a bit, DHL’s “ad hoc” business not only stabilized but it also grew. For instance, of people who called to get a quote, 17% actually shipper prior to the pricing overhaul. The new prices have increased the ratio to nearly 25%. Constant price revision, however, can be tricky where consumer relationships are concerned. Research shows it tends to work best in situations where there is no bondbetween the buyer and the seller. One way to make it work is to offer customers a unique bundle of products and services to meet their needs precisely, making it harder for them to make price comparisons. This tactic is being used to sell software, which is vulnerable to price wars because the cost of producing more copies is near zero. Application service providers are ‘renting’ their software and support by the month instead of selling an unlimited-use license.

Business News

CORPORATE GE Capital to expand leasing business

Wikipedia focusing on India this year

Finance Glossary

 Black-Scholes Equation:  The Black-Scholes equation is used to determine the value or price of a stock option. It is a comparatively simple formula, with only a few common variables, developed by Fisher Black and Myron Scholes in 1973. It makes some simplifying assumptions about free-market economics, but it has become an industry standard.

 Deming Cycle:  The Deming Cycle is a set of activities (Plan, Do, Check, Act) designed to drive continuous improvement. Initially implemented in manufacturing, it has broad applicability in business. First developed by Walter Shewhart, it is more commonly called the Deming cycle in Japan where it was popularized by Edwards Deming.

   

Golden Parachute: Golden parachute is the name give to the benefit provided, usually to top executives, that provides income when the person is terminated or forced out of the company before the end of a specific period of time. 

 Cross Training: Cross training is training someone in another activity that is related to their current work. The name comes from the fact that you are training them across a broader spectrum of the organization's work.

  

Performance Budget

Performance budgets use statements of missions, goals and objectives to explain why the money is being spent. It is a way to allocate resources to achieve specific objectives based on program goals and measured results.” The key to understanding performance-based budgeting lies beneath the word “result”. In this method, the entire planning and budgeting framework is result oriented. There are objectives and activities to achieve these objectives and these form the foundation of the overall evaluation.

Performance based budgeting has been defined as a system wherein managers are provided with the flexibility to utilize agency resources as required, in return for their commitment to achieve certain performance results.

Performance budgeting comprises three elements:

·         the result (final outcome)

·         the strategy (different ways to achieve the final outcome)

·         activity/outputs (what is actually done to achieve the final outcome)

N. R. NARAYANA MURTHY

 

 

(Born on August 20, 1946)

________________________________________________________________________

Nagavara Ramarao Narayana Murthy better known as N. R. Narayana Murthy is an Indian industrialist and software engineer. He and six other engineers founded Infosys in 1981. Mr. Murthy served as CEO from 1981 to 2002. From 2002 to 2011, he served as Chairman. In 2011, he became Chairman Emeritus.

N. R. Narayana Murthy is the Founder-Chairman of Infosys, a global software consulting company headquartered in Bangalore, India. He founded Infosys in 1981. Under his leadership, Infosys was listed on NASDAQ in 1999.

Mr. Murthy articulated, designed and implemented the Global Delivery Model which has become the foundation for the huge success in IT services outsourcing from India. He has led key corporate governance initiatives in India. He is an IT advisor to several Asian countries.

He serves on the boards of HSBC, Ford Foundation and the UN Foundation. He served as a member of the Unilever board between 2007 and 2010. He also serves on the boards of Wharton School; Indian School of Business, Hyderabad; Rhodes Trust, and International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore.

The Economist ranked Narayana Murthy among the ten most-admired global business leaders in 2005. He topped the Economic Times list of India’s most powerful CEOs for three consecutive years: 2004 to 2006. He has been awarded the Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India, the Légion d’honneur by the Government of France, and the CBE by the British government. He is the first Indian winner of the Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur of the year award and the Max Schmidheiny Liberty prize, and has appeared in the rankings of businessmen and innovators published by India Today, Business Standard, Forbes, Business Week, Time, CNN, Fortune, and Financial Times. He is a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering and a foreign member of the US National Academy of Engineering.

Early Life:

Born into a Kannada Madhwa Brahmin family in Mysore, Karnataka on August 20, 1946, Mr. Murthy graduated with a degree in electrical engineering from the National Institute of Engineering, University of Mysore in 1967. He received his master's degree from IIT Kanpur in 1969.

 

Career:

Mr. Murthy's first job position was at IIM Ahmedabad, where he worked as the chief systems programmer. He developed a time-sharing system and designed and implemented a BASIC interpreter for ECIL (Electronics Corporation of India Limited).

After IIM Ahmedabad, he started a company named Softronics in 1976. When that company failed, he joined Patni Computer Systems in Pune. Mr. Murthy met his wife Sudha Murthy in Pune who was an engineer working at Tata Engineering and Locomotive Co. Ltd. (Telco, now known as Tata Motors) at the time.

After settling down in Pune, Mr. Murthy co-founded Infosys in 1981 with an initial capital injection of Rs 10,000, which was invested by his wife Sudha Murty. Murthy served as the CEO of Infosys for 21 years and was succeeded by co-founder Nandan Nilekani in 2002. At Infosys he articulated, designed and implemented the Global Delivery Model which has become the foundation for the huge success in IT services outsourcing from India. He also led the company through several key decisions including its listing on the Indian stock exchange and on the NASDAQ.

He had the executive position of Chairman of the Board from 2002 to 2006, when he became the "non-executive" Chairman of the Board and Chief Mentor. In August 2011, he retired completely from the company and taking the title Chairman Emeritus.