IIPM - Student: January 2013

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Why recession will last a bloodied decade!

Why Obama will burn and why recession will last a bloodied decade! [sourced from B&E archives; December 11, 2008]

Already, Obama has made intentions clear about his forthcoming Afghan adventure where he would supposedly relocate the troops to be withdrawn from Iraq. With Al Qaida giving a out a strong message to him, it is for sure that the spillover effects of the Afghan theatre would have far reaching effects. Nevertheless, if Obama engineers the Iraq pullout – the chances are high that – the ethnic fight between the Shias and Sunnis would make sure that the weekly ordeal of car bombings is made an hourly one. A beleaguered Iraq would make an easy prey for the Iran backed Shia groups like Al Sadr and eventually, Iran would directly step in to give shape to ‘Greater Iran’, as their dream goes. In that case, would Obama recommit his forces? We deduce in the negative. Would Obama then have the courage to tell the world at large that the US invasion of Iraq had much less to do with ‘War on Terror’ and more about preventing Saddam from becoming the Gulf oil king? Or would Obama publicly announce the return of all the oil that US has been ‘importing’ out of Iraq? In spite of his victory speech at Grant Park – considered amongst the three greatest ever – we guess Obama would smilingly give such acceptances a bye. Damned if he does.

Bush was blamed for over-stretching the defence budgets; there is little doubt that Obama would reduce it. For the FY 2008, aggregate security related funding of US is estimated to be $549 billion. If one includes the $173 billion supplementary budget for the ‘War on Terror’, then the overall defence budget stands at $749 billion. Likewise, for 2009, the total estimated request for defence budget stands at around $663 billion.

In all, it is futile to expect too much, except Obama’s fight to save capitalism. The world would remain the same and Africans would continue to fight ethnic wars, hijack ships and die of AIDS for lack of antiretroviral drugs. As the rats jump, so does the common man in the US, and elsewhere, who cannot be blamed for expecting Obama to be a panacea for all the ills. Try he will... and fail he will. But love him still, we will! Damn!

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

Saturday, January 19, 2013

The wondrous life of Dr. Zynga!

Online gaming on social networking portals has today grown into a multi-million dollar industry. But while on one hand, international players are making ‘real’ money by selling ‘virtual’ goods, the Indian players are yet to show credible competence in capturing real value from online cash cows; B&E’s Pawan Chabra reports

In their Nobel Prize winning ‘Prospect Theory’, Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, proved how consumers ‘subjectively’ frame the outcome of a certain transaction in their mind, thus affecting the perceived utility from the purchase. And who cares if the consideration is being laid out for ‘absolutely nothing’? At present, there are armies of online users (netizens) who are willingly giving in to the itch for winning on speculative online gaming. So considering that it is a fair deal for the consumers, what’s in it for the sellers not to cash-in on?

Virtual world is what the netizen freaks call it; real money is what online gaming companies like Zynga, Playfish, Mindjolt et al, tag it. Sure enough, it took these names no time to carve out a space for themselves on the social networking portals. Zynga, a company which was founded in 2007 by Mark Pincus (a Silicon Valley veteran) today, has offerings like FarmVille, Café World, Mafia Wars, Texas Hold’em Poker et al, which are the most popular games on the social networking websites. Be it on Facebook (the largest social network with 300 million users and growing at about a million users per week; going by the same rate, by December 31, 2010, the total user base witll touch around 365 million users!) or on the portal of its arch-rival Orkut or others like MySpace, Tagged, Twitter et al, Zynga is ruling the roost when it comes to developing games for social networks.

Pincus, who named the company after his deceased dog is eying huge revenues by selling virtual goods, rather than targeting the obvious online ads. So what are these virtual goods? It includes everything from a blue barn (priced at $5.40) and a garden gnome ($2.40) on Farmville to poker chips which can ‘never’ be encashed by the players ($5 for 75,000 and $50 for 5 million). With a daily user base of 50 million, industry watchers expect the company to become a hot property after it goes public (it expects to do that by next year).

Another not so old start-up, Mindjolt, has been able to attract decent traffic volume for its gaming applications, offering a host of addictive games to users. In fact, these offerings, by both the companies, are equally popular in the Indian sub-continent as it is in the core-targeted western markets.

Read more....

Friday, January 18, 2013

RENAULT: ONE JV TOO MANY?

Marriages are made in heaven, so what’s wrong with three of them? Ask Renault, whose problems in India are linked to having too many JVs, says B&E’s pawan chabra

Apart from M&M, Renault has a tie-up with the CV major Ashok Leyland for light-commercial vehicles and with Bajaj Auto for the ultra-cheap car that the company had earlier proposed to launch by 2011 in competition with the Tata Nano. Renault is also facing difficulties in its ultra-low-cost car project (in alliance with Bajaj Auto). The tie-up is facing problems in areas like branding and technology, where the partners have had significant differences, which have reportedly been handled finally. The company, which showcased the prototype long time back hasn’t been able to get the project rolling in full flow till date; the only relieving point is that the forecasters comment that the market potential for the ‘Nano’ segment is too high for players to worry about competition as of now. But this is one forecast B&E has consistently believed is way off its mark.

Further, the more Renault delays the launch, the more they will lose in terms of business opportunity. Experts like Tutu Dhawan tell us that Renault has already missed the deadline, “keeping in mind the delay with regard to the technological fronts.” The company is also facing rough waters in its bid to achieve the $2,500 price tag for the small car. “I am not sure whether it is going to be $2,500 or $2,800 or $3,000. I am stuck into making customers happy and satisfied, but it is not going to be very far off,” admits Ghosn.

The JV with Ashok Leyland is what Ghosn may want to call his favourite JV right now w.r.t. the Indian market. The segment the company is operating in (light CV segment) is different vis-à-vis the other tie-ups, but the company may have to check its strategies when it comes to tie-ups with Bajaj Auto and M&M. And when one looks at the kind of response Tata Ace has already generated in the segment (Tata sells an average of around 10,000 units), the JV agreement has been widely expected to benefit both i.e. Renault and Ashok Leyland, which is still missing from the lucrative LCV segment. But the global financial situation has created problems for even this JV, since the liquidity crunch has forced the duo to postpone plans of setting up a separate plant for the manufacturing of light trucks. The trucks will now be manufactured within the current Ashok Leyland facilities and the Renault-Nissan plant.

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

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

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

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Birth rights of sperms & eggs

The debate on abortion has moved away from the empowerment of women to cutting religious propaganda

Of course, all this is not happening for the first time. Since time immemorial, a woman’s body has been the theoretical and unembellished territory for societal and political war. From the theoretical, scientific and religious end, there are numerous logical stages that define the starting point where ‘human life’ begins. Many schools of thoughts believe that sperms and eggs have life; and put them at par with humans, thus considering them as preconceived life. Many don’t! But almost all blocks ranging from political to religious are in some or the other form discussing the issue of abortion – or as the critics call it, immoral killing of a life.

So what is the debate all about? That’s simple, as that rests on the analysis of the options a woman with unwanted pregnancy has, and those are: one, she can put up the child for adoption; two, she can accept the child; and three, she can abort the unborn child. And that is where the whole debate on abortion starts, with opposing philosophies promoted by two schools of thought: Pro-choice campaigners (who demand a mother be allowed to choose whichever of the three options she might wish to undertake), as opposed by pro-life campaigners (who generally argue in terms of foetal rights rather than reproductive rights). The pro-choice group believes that “a woman should have complete control over her fertility and the choice to continue or terminate a pregnancy,” and demand that a woman is given ‘the guarantee’ of reproductive rights – access to sexual education, fertility treatments, contraception, to safe and legal abortion, and even legal protection from forced abortion. The pro-life group’s philosophy revolves around the argument that “…human foetuses and embryos are persons, and therefore they have a right to live.” Thus, the movement is characterised by extreme wingers opposing sale and use of contraception, practise of death penalty, euthanasia, cloning, embryonic stem cell research et cetera. Philosophers and writers have been key in this debate, saddling further complicated arguments. Mary Anne Warren, noted American writer and philosophy professor (cited in major publications like Peter Singer’s ‘The Moral of the Story:

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

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

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

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Passing the baton

why have the birlas stayed relevant and a force to reckon with in india inc. while their peers are fading away? sutanu guru traces the evolution of the family and the inheritor through triumph & tragedy

It was April, 1992 and Bombay was sweaty, humid and heady. The promoter of Sobhagya Advertising, Ravindra Singhvi wasn’t sweating; but he was nervous for sure. This reporter had flown down to Bombay for an exclusive interview with Aditya Birla, a man who wasn’t really excited at the prospect of answering questions from pesky journalists. Singhvi of Sobhagya came into the picture because his agency was handling the media for the maiden public issue of Mangalore Refineries & Petrochemicals Ltd. (MRPL), a joint venture through which Aditya Birla had clearly announced to the world that his group would try and become a major player in the oil and petroleum sector (Dhirubhai Ambani had already announced the formation of Reliance Petroleum). As we were ushered into his office in Nariman Point, Aditya Birla clearly looked uncomfortable and impatient and even told this reporter to get on with it. He was actually embarrassed when the photographer requested him to ‘pose’. Giving staccato answers, Aditya Birla kept insisting on how infrastructure will be a key area of investment for any serious business house in the country. He was also gracious enough to invite this reporter for a function at the nearby Oberoi in the evening to celebrate the marriage of his young son Kumarmangalam.

Later in the afternoon, this reporter met the then 72 year old B. K. Birla, father of Aditya Birla and grandfather of Kumarmangalam. He was even more brusque than his son; his words coming out forcefully in an utterly confident manner. Then, B. K. Birla had had predicted that the Birla business family will remain a force and power to reckon with in India Inc. well into the 21st century. And he thought the 25 year old grandson had a very cool and level head on his shoulders. The grandfather was as gracious as the father while inviting us to join the family function to celebrate the marriage of Kumarmangalam. For while, we did attend the function, to observe how painfully shy and reticent Kumarmangalam Birla appeared.

Nobody had an inkling of the momentous events, the triumphs, the failures and the tragedy that were about to unfold in the Birla family and India Inc.

Read more.....

Finally, some really real good news!

For almost nine months, I have been waiting for this single press release even as two pundits offered five opinions on when India will emerge out of the latest 'recession' (Ask the pundits how a 6% plus GDP growth rate can be categorised as recession!). Even in July, 2009, when it was reported that industrial growth grew at an unexpected 7% or so, I had my doubts. Even when the Prime Minister, the Finance Minister, the RBI and sundry other oracles pronounced that the bad times are finally over, I was sceptical. And yes, even when the automobile industry reported higher sales of two wheelers and cars month after month since January, 2009, I wasn't very sure. But finally, a press release of September 2, 2009 has cleared all my doubts and I can add my two bit of pseudo-wisdom and say decisively that the bad times are finally over. For the second consecutive month, Tata Motors has reported a positive growth in the sales of medium and heavy commercial vehicles. In July, 2009, they grew at a modest 5.5%. And in August, 2009, they have registered an almost double digit growth rate of 9.6%. Yes, I am talking about the sale of trucks – the mini and maxi monsters of Indian roads that carry two thirds of goods transported across India. Don't ask me to explain the esoteric theory and jargon of how a growth rate in truck sales means that the Indian economy is back on track. It is. Suffice to say that when businessmen buy more trucks, they are confident that more goods will be produced, transported and sold across the country. Equally important, when businessmen buy more trucks, it means that banks and financial institutions have again started lending money to them (Even billionaires don't buy trucks by paying cash down). Even during the last two 'recessions' – after the East Asian meltdown of 1997 and the dot com meltdown of 2001, economic recovery was confirmed and gathered momentum only when actual sales of trucks started growing. And yes, the Indian Railways did miss freight targets for the first five months of fiscal 2009; but freight traffic actually grew by close to 10% despite a crash in iron ore business. In fact, railway freight grew almost 12% in August, 2009.

There is a little more than truck sales and railway freight to confirm my hunch that the economy is now well and truly bouncing back. The cement industry reported an 11% growth in despatches and sales in July, 2009. The steel industry reported a 6% growth in despatches and sales. What does that mean if you ignore the jargon and the number crunching? It means that more roads, houses, plants and other things that need cement and steel are being built across India. It means that, in spite of the poor monsoon, there is simply no way that the economy will grow at anything less than 6% in the current year.

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Monday, January 14, 2013

Without the help of subsidies

ONGC has to still find a way to beat the oil volatility cycle without the help of subsidies, says ratan bhagat

One has to realise that ONGC’s profits actually registered a 3% yoy decline. One top expert in the industry tells us that ONGC’s small, yet visible decline could primarily be attributed to “the subsidy burden and higher DD&A [depreciation, depletion and amortization] expenditure during the quarter and 8.1% decline in crude oil sales volumes.” And oil price volatility has been killing in the past few quarters. But if the government taketh, the government giveth too – for the subsidies that the government provides ONGC hover at the top of critics’ radars. CMD R.S.Sharma accepts, “The volatility in the crude oil prices has definitely affected ONGC, but its impact for us is not as severe, as the company is hedged against it, given the current subsidy practices of the government which neutralises the major chunk of the price volatility.”

Mere government support and the titular Navratna status can only get one so far. Ergo, one has to accept that ONGC must have done some great things to become Asia’s largest oil and gas explorer, a continent which has intense competition from countries like China and Australia, which have companies like China National Petroleum and BHP Billiton that are placed four hundred odd ranks above ONGC on the Fortune 500 list globally. But the future is where Sharma is playing the roulette game. One has to realise that for decades, ONGC has basically been an upstream oil and gas company, that is, it has focused more on oil and gas drilling; while Indian Oil Corporation has been the traditional downstream firm marketing the oil and gas products. Sharma wants to change that now, using a wholly owned subsidiary – Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemical Limited (MRPL).

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Friday, January 11, 2013

“We refresh our consumers...”

B&E: What are the strategies that you think have make Coca-Cola successful in India?

AJ: Brand Coca-Cola worldwide stands for positivity, upliftment of body, mind & spirit and universal connection. The same values define the brand in India. In addition, we are constantly looking for opportunities to reach out to our consumers and strengthen our connect with them. Innovations in advertising, 360 degree communication, strong distribution network and chilled availability of the product in different packages and at appropriate price points have had a role to play.

B&E: How did Thums Up fit in?

AJ: Thums Up today is India’s largest selling sparkling beverage brand. Born in 1977, Brand Thums Up was added to the Coca-Cola portfolio in 1993. During this period, it moved towards a more individualistic masculine positioning in ‘I want my Thunder’. In, 2002, Akshay Kumar was roped in as the brand ambassador and the brand continued to strengthen its position as a Male Iconic Brand through consistent positioning. To further enhance the appeal and connect with consumers, the Thums Up logo too has been contemporized. The sharper edges are added to the ‘Thumb’ in the Thums Up sign to bring out the core masculine values of brand Thums Up more prominently.

B&E: Please tell us about your future plans for the Indian market?

AJ: We have grown consecutively for the last twelve quarters with the quarter ending June 2009 registering a 33% growth over the same quarter previous year. This was the 12th straight quarter of growth, with 9 out of the 12 quarters delivering double digit growth We believe that this growth has been led by our continued focus on the route-to-market strategy and ongoing investments in technology, infrastructure and consumer marketing. At Coca-Cola India we follow an OBPPC model which is all about marketing the right brand, in the right pack at the right price, sold through the right channel and at the right occasion.

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

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Keys to the executive suite

A clear focus on select and premium clients has made ABN AMRO Bank a familiar name among the über-rich in India

You get the drift, quite a bit, as soon as you enter ABN AMRO’s swanky office located on the 9th floor at the ultra-urbane Cyber Greens in Gurgaon. From sophisticated interiors to a switched on working environment, it almost gives you a feel of a place that is certainly not meant for the masses. And if that’s the impression you got, then, my friend, you are bang on.

“The target segment for a public sector bank or even for a private Indian bank consists mainly of the common masses; with the middle-class forming a bulk of its customers, while we have a niche market to cater to. Through our private banking services in India, we offer our select & premium clientele, which mostly consists of HNIs and major institutions, a comprehensive range of quality banking services coupled with a sophisticated execution platform,” reasons V. Vasantha Kumar, Senior VP and Head – Marketing and Communications, AMN AMRO Bank, India. Though the bank started its India operations way back in 1920 (like any other foreign multinational bank focused primarily on wholesale banking) to service top-tier corporate clients, the philosophy somewhat changed 1990 onwards, when strategic business imperatives and an increased level of competition, both from domestic and multinational banks in India, forced the bank to look at retail banking as a key engine for growth. But then, the target audience remained the same – the HNIs.

In fact, by leveraging its global reach and size (with assets over $504 billion, ABN AMRO Bank ranks among the top 10 banks in the world in size and strength) along with a clear cut focus on select and premium clients, the bank has succeeded in becoming a familiar name among the über-rich in India. This, in fact, was a reason healthy enough even for The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) to value ABN AMRO Bank’s India operations at about $500 million, when it took over the latter in 2008. (RBS was part of the consortium that acquired ABN AMRO in 2008, with Fortis group of the UK & Banco Santander SA of Spain).

Read more....

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

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

BIG B vs. SRK: A clash of state-ments!

Breaking News! The towering inferno suddenly has competition in his role from Badshah Khan! Nah, not products or services, but in the promotion and selling of a region, state, city! Wassup wonders

Let’s face it. Bollywood is the land of dream merchants and who bigger than the Big B and King Khan! In recent times (beyond movies and product endorsements) these two superstars have been coaxed to take on new roles: Brand ambassadors of state (Gujarat) / city (Kolkata)! While this task is both daunting and challenging – to say the least – what drove the powers-that-are to make this amazingly daring move? Avid and informed B-Town and ad experts invite us to remember one simple fact: the overwhelming domination of film stars and cricketers in the public domain and media! Are all brand custodians and marketing heavyweights idiots or passionate philanthropists to offer them telephone number, pay cheques to endorse their stuff, they ask. Surely, somewhere, in some way, there has been an impact and mass connect, of a rewarding nature?

Veteran communication consultant Gullu Sen initiates the debate with “how successful this connect is or will be, in terms of the conversion ratio, will depend on the quality of the ad, but the fact that the ad will be noticed and be a clutter buster, is undeniable. Why? Because in a star-obsessed country people will definitely watch any communication with a star as compared to an everyday Joe (Jaggu) or plain Jane (Janaki)! That’s for sure!” Crayons’ Client Servicing Director Sanjay Chauhan agrees with a slight reservation. He remains both amused and confused at the levels of desperation of many brand and marketing gurus who really should know better. “Shouldn’t there be a connect between endorser and product that appears credible, exciting and positive to the TG,” he asks. Besides, isn’t there any palpable or tangible difference between hawking hair oil and confectionery, cement, cars, and ... a city or region?

“Not required,” retorts respected and renowned adman-writer Kamlesh Pandey. He believes that while never in the history of showbiz has star-power been so overwhelming, “effective results can only come when there is an appropriate brand fit. Shakti Kapoor may not be the ideal role model to sell a state, but the aam admi will certainly be attentive, interested and open to what an Amitabh Bachchan or Aamir Khan have to say, as both, the recent Gujarat campaign and Atithi Devo Bhavo have demonstrated.”

The Gujarat case study with the Big B is interesting. Till 2010, Modi’s Gujarat – say experts – was a classic example of “how to dissuade tourists from coming!” Right from perception to image perfection, everything about the state was a mess. Enter the Shahenshah, and bingo in record time, he did to the state what (in his heydays) he did to the film industry and his fans ... dynamically redefined the meaning, in scope and scale, of groundswell and footfalls! His pathbreaking Khushboo Gujarat Ki campaign (brilliantly & evocatively scripted and shot, gloriously narrated) showcases the many-splendoured state with appropriate style & panache. In fact, the campaign has placed a new and strange problem at the doorstep of the Gujarat Tourism HQ: How to deal with the sudden tsunami of tourists flooding the state?!

Read more.....

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

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Blogger uses rap to teach pithy business lessons

Ben Horowitz, a prominent venture capital investor in Silicon Valley, says rap holds a trove of lessons for tech entrepreneurs

Silicon Valley, where engineers in khakis write software code, might not at first glance have much to do with the world of rap music, where artists in sagging pants write irreverent lyrics.

But Ben Horowitz, a prominent venture capital investor here, says rap holds a trove of lessons for tech entrepreneurs. Throw business classes and books out the window, Horowitz says, and listen to rap lyrics instead.

Horowitz applies his theory on his blog, where he has attracted a following of tech readers and other executives by offering business lessons, almost all of them preceded by a rap lyric that summarises a moral, and with recordings from Grooveshark, the music site. In the process, he has linked two cultures in Silicon Valley, which is not exactly known for its racial or cultural diversity.

Entrepreneurs may do well to listen to Horowitz’s advice. He started the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz with Marc Andreessen, the co-founder of Netscape, and the firm made vast amounts of money on investments in companies like Groupon and Skype, and stands to make more on Facebook’s initial public offering. Late January the firm announced that it had raised its third fund in three years, $1.5 billion in fresh capital, a large amount even in Silicon Valley. The two men previously started Opsware, a data center software company, and sold it to Hewlett-Packard (HP) in 2007.

Horowitz uses rap as an introduction as he philosophises about business challenges like how to fire executives, why founders run their companies better than outside chief executives and how to stand up to difficult board members. “All the management books are like, ‘This is how you set objectives, this is how you set up an organisation chart,’ but that’s all the easy part of management,” Horowitz said in an interview in his spacious office on Sand Hill Road Menlo Park (California), the epicenter of tech investing. “The hard part is how you feel. Rap helps me connect emotionally.”

How to deal, for instance, with the stress of the 11th-hour, late-night auditing mishap that almost stymied the $1.6 billion sale of Opsware? Listen to the Kanye West song “Stronger”: “Now that that don’t kill me/Can only make me stronger/I need you to hurry up now/’Cause I can’t wait much longer/I know I got to be right now/’Cause I can’t get much wronger.”

Read more...

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

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

Trademarks take on new importance in internet era

The value of simple, easily understood brand names has escalated in the internet era because consumers are more likely to find such products while doing searches on the web

As a serial snack-food entrepreneur, Warren Wilson is no stranger to the challenges of running a business. In the early days of his first enterprise, selling funnel cakes at fairs, there was the time when, tired of losing money on inclement days, he bought weather insurance – and proceeded to lose even more money than he had when it rained. In the 1990s, he and his wife and business partner, Sara, once had to mortgage their house and sell off investments to make their company’s payroll.

But it still came as a bit of a shock when the Wilsons made what they thought was a routine move to register the trademark of their hot product – a flat pretzel snack called Pretzel Crisps – and it was contested by none other than Frito-Lay, the behemoth of the snack food market owned by PepsiCo.

“This is so different from anything else we’ve faced because we’re not fighting a product in the supermarket, we’re not fighting against an institution like a bank, we’re not dealing with an act of nature,” said Wilson. “This fight is about a big company that wants to dominate the snack food category by crushing a little company like ours rather than by competing with us.” Frito-Lay, whose Rold Gold pretzel products and Stacy’s Pita Chips compete with Pretzel Crisps, declined to discuss the case, citing the pending dispute with the Wilsons’ company, Princeton Vanguard.

But in its filings with the US Patent & Trademark Office, Frito-Lay contends that Pretzel Crisps cannot be registered as a trademark because it is a generic term. “Like ‘milk chocolate bar,’ the combination of ‘pretzel’ and ‘crisp’ gains no meaning as a phrase over and above the generic meaning of its constituent terms,” the company wrote in a 2010 motion. The dispute is still pending with the trademark office’s trial board.

Trademarks, which are names or symbols associated with a specific company or product, can be tremendously valuable to companies building a brand. Think of Kimberly-Clark’s Kleenex facial tissues or Nike’s swoosh logo. Brand experts and trademark lawyers say the value of simple, easily understood brand names has escalated in the Internet era because consumers are more likely to find such products while doing searches on the Web. “You’d rather have a name like Moviefone than one like Fandango because that’s what someone is going to plug into a search engine, but without a doubt, you are going to be challenged,” said Allen P. Adamson, MD of Landor Associates, a brand design firm.

With so much at stake, companies are much more likely to fight over trademark rights. For example, Apple, Microsoft and Amazon are embroiled in a dispute over the term “app store,” for software applications, which Apple moved to trademark in 2008. For small companies, the cost of fighting a trademark battle can go beyond dollars and cents. “The big companies will do this to rough up their competitors,” said Barton Beebe, a Professor at the New York University Law School who specialises in intellectual property law. “If they can’t win in the marketplace, they try to soften them up with legal fees and distract them. Even if they lose the case, it’s a Pyrrhic victory because the small company has wasted so many resources.”

Read more....

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

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

Monday, January 7, 2013

DILEMMA: THE CONCEPT OF SEPARATE STATE

Politicians must discourage unnecessary demands for separate states

The political equation has forced Congress to support them in an otherwise BJP ruled state. The Indian National Congress is also backing the ‘Telengana Rashtra Samiti,’ while their President K. Chandrashekhara Rao (who is also a Central Minister) is determined to take on the cause to the State as well as the Central government. However, the most intense of the lot is the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s clamour for Gorkhaland. Bimal Gurung, leader of the party, has resorted to civil disobedience to fulfil his goal to create the state by 2010.

Holistically speaking, this trend was actually started by BJP, when it was in power. Now the floodgates seem to have opened. The ruling governments of the states and the centre should not shamelessly play vote bank politics on this issue. Rather, they should nip this growing menace in the bud.

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

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

Friday, January 4, 2013

The new kid on the block all over again…

Shifting again? Your child could be deeply disturbed at being the new kid on the block all over again…

Transfers are inevitable in a defence job and while most children like Eraavi, whose father was with the Indian Navy, “enjoyed moving to new and exciting places and making new friends” and found it “easy to cope with studies in different schools”, for some it was stressful to adapt to a new environment every couple of years. Sunny, 20, whose dad has recently retired from the Indian Army, shared his thoughts, “I remember the fear and nervousness that I went through each time we moved to a new place. I take time opening up to people. The thought of meeting strangers and befriending them made me nervous. Also, adjusting with the school, studies, teachers etc. had begun to burn me out and had slowly started to depress me.” Sunny’s mother further added, “We could detect Sunny’s fear every time we started to pack up for a new place. He would become grumpy and would withdraw into a shell. Gradually, Sunny started being vocal about his feelings, and so Sunny and I settled down permanently in Delhi, while my husband moved around.” And with a hint of concern and a broad smile, she said, “After all, children come first!”

This, perhaps, is what parents forget or unconsciously ignore in their race for bigger pay-cheques. But does that imply that parents’ career must take a backseat and be compromised? Of course not! If going for a better job requires a change of place and if it goes against your child’s wishes, then instead of brushing their problems aside, one needs to talk and counsel them and help them understand and make them see the brighter side of moving to a new place. Re-adjustment is no child’s task, and if this task induces stress and depression in your child, then dear dads and moms, it’s time to decide what should come first.

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

and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.