INFORMATION

New facebook page "The Rising Indian"

2015-08-11T21:34:00.001+05:30

We have created a new facebook page named " The Rising Indian" to create more logical sense to our nation
JOIN THIS PAGE
https://www.facebook.com/therisingindian

Government Makes Heavy Cuts in IIM Fees

2010-12-06T17:34:00.002+05:30

In a move that many feel is directed towards gaining popularity for the forthcoming assembly elections, the Centre has announced the reduction of IIM fees to Rs 30, 000 a year instead of the existing Rs 1.5 lakh
In addition, the total number of seats in the IIMs will be doubled from the existing 900 to 1800. Earlier the U.R.Rao committee had suggested pegging the fees down at Rs 6000 per year, which translates to 30 per cent of the country’s per capita income.
According to ministry sources, this decision was taken to ”ensure that technical education does not remain unaffordable to capable but poor students.”
However, according to opinions amongst the faculty and students at the IIMs, reducing the fee will mean lesser funds for research, guest faculty, better professors and improved tools.
The new fee structure was worked out at a meeting between HRD Minister Mr Murli Manohar Joshi and the directors of the six IIMs on 31 January 2004.
This reduction in fees comes on the heels of the finance ministry cutting the allocation for the IIMs for 2004-05 to Rs 45 crore from Rs 74.73 crores in 2003-04.

IIM-A hikes fees for MBA programme

2010-12-06T17:33:00.002+05:30

Ahmedabad, March 29 (IANS) The premier Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) Saturday hiked the fees of its two-year post-graduate course in business management from Rs.450,000 to Rs.1.15 million from the next academic session this year. The board meeting held under the guidance of Vijaypat Singhania, chairman IIM-A, decided to hike the fee for the programme for the batch joining June 2008.

The institute, however, reiterated its commitment to help needy and deserving students.
“No deserving student should be deprived of an opportunity to study at the IIM-A on account of lack of financial resources,” a statement issued here said.

The board also decided to triple the annual family income limit for a student to be eligible for financial support from Rs.200,000 to Rs.600,000.

“Graded need-based financial aid will be available to eligible students who qualify for financial support,” the release said.

MBA Fee Structure

2010-12-06T17:32:00.002+05:30

The fee structure of different colleges regarding the MBA course varies partially on the larger picture. The cost of the two year post graduate program also varies depending on the quality and reputation of the institute. The cost in pursuing an MBA in India ranges from as low as 2 lakhs rupees to somewhere around 13 lakhs rupees. As a matter of fact, India is the home of over 16,000 B-schools that have their own independent fee structure. Thus, the variety in fees is quite understandably large.
In India, the B-schools can be categorized as class A, class B and class C.
The class A institutes are the best institutes offering courses in MBA in India. One of the primary examples of such an institute will be the Indian Institute of Management (IIM). IIM has 7 branches in the entire country which admit into their institutes only the best of all students. As a result, the fee structure is also on the higher side. In order to pursue MBA from IIM, students have to shell out some 12 lakh bucks. However, it is heard that the IIMs are going to raise their fees once more and now the students may have to spend around 15 lakhs to study in these prestigious institutes.
The class B institutes are always considered to be the second best option by students who doubt their chance of landing up in the IIMs. Examples of class B institutes in India are probably the XLRI, IIPM and many more. The students have to spend some 3-5lakhs rupees in these institutes, which may vary from institute to institute.
The class C institutes are the last and the least favored choice of students in India. These institutes charge around 1.5 lakhs rupees for the two years of study in MBA.
Apart from Indian institutes, the reputed institutes abroad charge somewhere around 25 to 30 lakhs as a standard measure for the course of MBA.

MTV Splitsvilla 4 boys showed off muscles over the sand-dunes of Dubai.

2010-12-06T17:29:00.002+05:30

Splitsvilla 4 underway with latest episode on Wednesday night on MTV. The Splitsvilla boys were looking presume as they showed off their muscles over the pensive sand-dunes of Dubai throughout a task to be performed by the 13 girls tying to misery them.

Boys of Splitsvilla 4 are wearing nothing although towels in the very opening episode of the show. Whereas it may have perhaps been inspired by Ranbir Kapoor’s towel dance in Saawariya, it was extremely 3 times as hot.
This year as per the conception of the show, every guy will head a group of 4 girls. The boys will compete with each other and the victor will be made king of the week.

The victor of the week is authorized to choose one girl, who will be evicted from the show.

MTV Splitsvilla 4 Contestants & Participants

2010-12-06T17:26:00.000+05:30

MTV Splitsvilla 4 Contestants & Participants

13 Hot & Sexy Girls

AND 3 HOT BOYS

Joanna Magee : Blast From The Past

2010-12-06T17:17:00.000+05:30

Facebook Redesigns ProfilePages

2010-12-06T17:12:00.000+05:30

Facebook has been busy lately acquiring promising start-ups, poaching Google exployees, launching Facebook Places and otherwise tweaking and redesigning elements of its bread and butter social networking platform. After the initial build up, the official blog has announced new and redesigned profile pages for Facebook. The redesign will be automatically applied Facebook wide in the coming weeks, but if you're the impatient kind and want to be an early adopter, follow these steps to unlock the new Facebook profile:

Browse over to this page.
Hit the green button at the top right.
Revel in the latest redesign of your profile page.

Revisions to the profile page include a summary listing of personal information right below the user name at the top of the page. It carries information on user's employment, hometown, college details, relationship status, languages spoken and birth date. This will be followed by a filmstrip of recently tagged photos placed directly below. Overall, a greater emphasis on photos is apparent with the new design.

According to the blog, you can now "highlight the friends who are important to you, such as your family, best friends or teammates". These featured friends will be displayed at the left hand side and come with the ability to incorporate new friend groups or existing friends lists. Interests and activities carry increased focus on the profile pages.

Another major diversion is a lack of a ready text field to enter new status updates. The new design incorporates different content sensitive buttons to post status updates, photos, links and videos to your profile. I find that this speeds up the process as earlier one would have to wait for the icons to show up after clicking on the text field.

Finally, the new profile adds new ways to share interests and activities. The official blog elaborates, "You can list the projects you worked on at your job, classes you took in school, your favourite musicians and sports teams, and more." It also adds a Philosophy section where one can also share their life philosophy by incorporating preferences on religions, political affiliations, in addition to your role models. Interests and experiences are now represented with images in keeping with the visual centric theme of the new profile.

Check out Facebooks official video marking the release:

Do you like the refreshed profile page? Leave us a comment and let us know.

Top Online MBA Programs

2010-11-23T17:13:00.003+05:30

Following are some of the world's leading universities that offer online and distance MBA programs to students worldwide. These online MBA courses can be studied via virtual classrooms, seminars, self study, or Face-to-face learning.

Thunderbird School of Global Management (USA)
US News # 1 (International Management)
Financial Times #1 (Intl Business)
WS Journal #1 (Intl Business)
U.S. recruiters #1 (Academic Excellence in International Business)

University of Florida (USA)
Economist #1 (Distance Learning)
Wall Street #6
US News # 34 (Best MBA programs)

Pennsylvania State Uni. (USA)
US News # 40
Financial Times #58

Babson College
US News # 1 (Entrepreneurship) (1994-2008)
Financial Times # 1 (Entrepreneurship) (2007, 2006)
Princeton Review #1 (Entrepreneurship) (2008)
Business Week (Top 20 for Post-MBA Salary Gain) (2008)
Wall Street Journal #2 (Entrepreneurship) (2007, 2006, 2004, 2003)

Univ. of Warwick (UK)
Economist # 3 (Distance Learning)
Financial Times #29 for MBA and 14th for EMBA

Univ. of Manchester (UK)
Financial Times #22 in the world, 4th in the UK, 10th in Europe
Which MBA? - 5th in the UK, 8th in Europe and 30th in the world
MBA Career Guide - 2nd in the UK, 7th in Europe and 15th in the world

IE B-School (Madrid)
Economist # 2 (Distance Learning)
Forbes # 4
Financial Times #8

Duke University (USA)
Business Week #9
US News # 14
Financial Times #28

World Top Universities in Finance

2010-11-23T17:13:00.000+05:30

The econphd.net rankings are among the most substantial in scope (covering 63 journals over roughly ten years, 1993-2003).
Following is the 2004 ranking of World Top 50 Universities in Subdiscipline Financial Economics:

1 University of Chicago USA
2 Harvard University USA
3 University of Pennsylvania USA
4 New York University (NYU) USA
5 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) USA
6 Northwestern Univ USA
7 Stanford Univ USA
8 U of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) USA
9 Columbia Uni USA
10 Princeton Uni USA
11 Ohio State Uni USA
12 London School of Economics (LSE) UK
13 Duke Uni USA
14 Université Toulouse I (Sciences Sociales) France
15 U of Rochester USA
16 U of Southern California USA
17 U of Texas at Austin USA
18 U of California at San Diego USA
19 U of California at Berkeley USA
20 Yale U USA
21 U Illinois - Urbana-Champaign USA
22 U Michigan - Ann Arbor USA
23 U Notre Dame USA
24 Boston College USA
25 London Business School UK
26 INSEAD France
27 Purdue U USA
28 Cornell U USA
29 U Maryland - College Park USA
30 U Florida USA
31 U British Columbia Canada
32 Carnegie Mellon U USA
33 Indiana U USA
34 U North Carolina - Chapel Hill USA
35 California Institute of Technology (Caltech) USA
36 U Iowa USA
37 U Minnesota USA
38 Emory U USA
39 Arizona State U USA
40 U Washington USA
41 Penn State U USA
42 Tilburg U Netherlands
43 U Wisconsin - Madison USA
44 Chinese U Hong Kong China
45 U Toronto Canada
46 Rutgers U USA
47 U California - Davis USA
48 Michigan State U USA
49 Boston U USA
50 HEC Montreal Canada

Source: econphd•net

Top MBA Universities

2010-11-23T17:12:00.000+05:30

Following are some of the Top MBA universities in USA, UK and Australia, consistently ranked among the top universities for MBA programs by a number of international league tables:

Nottingham University Business School
- It is one of the largest business schools in Europe.
- Placed as one of the world top 100 MBA universities by the FT and EIU (2009).
- The School's teaching was rated ‘excellent’ by the Higher Education Funding Council for England.
- 70% of the School’s research was rated as either ‘internationally excellent’ or ‘world-leading,’ ranking it 6th in the UK (RAE 2008).
- 1st in the UK and 23rd globally in the Aspen Institute’s Top 100 Beyond Grey Pinstripes ranking of the world’s most innovative MBA programmes that lead the way in integrating social, environmental, and ethical issues into management education and research.
- Winner of the 2008-2009 Times Higher Education ‘Entrepreneurial University of the Year’ award.

University of Edinburgh Business School
- Placed among the world's best 100 MBA universities, rated 92nd internationally in FT Global MBA Rankings 2009.
- The Part-time MBA features in the FT ranking of Global Executive MBA programmes, placed 66th in the world in 2008.
- All of the Edinburgh MBA programmes have been accredited by AMBA which is the recognised accrediting body in the UK. The Business School also holds accreditation by EQUIS.

Warwick Business School
- The Business School is one of the largest in Europe and ranks in the top 1% worldwide.
- Top 5 nationally and No. 22 internationally for its full time MBA (EIU 2009).
- Top 40 in the world (FT Global MBA Rankings 2009).
- The school has been rated as 'Excellent' for teaching quality by The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education.
- WBS has been voted one of the top b2b brands in the UK for quality, reliability, and distinction.

Imperial College Business School
- The Business School is consistently ranked in the top 10 worldwide for entrepreneurship.
- 37th among the top MBA universities in the world (FT 2009).
- Top 10 in Europe and 22nd in the world in the EIU ranking of full time MBA programs 2009.
- Top 15 in Europe in the Whitefield Consulting Worldwide MBA ranking 2007.
- Imperial is ranked 3rd in Europe and 5th in the world (THE/QS 2009).

Australian School of Business (Australia)
- No. 1 in the country and among the top 40 MBA universities in the world (FT 2009 Rankings).
- No. 1 in the country for the MBA (Executive) Program (FT 2007).
- No. 1 for excellence in teaching and learning (DEST Learning and Teaching Performance Fund 2009).
- Accredited by a number of professional bodies include: CPA Australia, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia (ICAA), the National Institute of Accountants (NIA), the Institute of Actuaries of Australia, the Institute of Actuaries (London), the Australian Human Resources Institute (AHRI), the Australian Computer Society (ACS), the Australian Market and Social Research Society (AMSRS) and the Australian Marketing Institute (AMI).

Kelley School of Business (USA)
- Consistently ranked among the best business schools by major publications such as Business Week, U.S. News & World Report, and the Wall Street Journal.
- 42nd among the World's Top 100 MBA universities by Economist Intelligence Unit, 2008.
- Business Week gave Kelley an A+ for undergraduate job placement in 2007 and 2008.
- It was the first top 20 business school to offer online degrees to highly qualified professionals.
- The Princeton Review ranked it No. 1 for “Best Classroom Experience” in 2007.
- Ranked 7th in the nation on faculty scholarship by The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Experience New York. Buy Bestech property in Gurgaon.

2010-11-23T17:10:00.000+05:30

I had purchased a flat from a builder in Gurgaon by the name of Bestech India in their Park View Residency complex. Today, I wrote a letter to their managing director which is given below. It is self explanatory.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Managing Director
Bestech India Pvt. Ltd.
Bestech House
124, Sector 44
Gurgaon, 122002

Subject: FLAT no. T1-701 – Park View Residency

Dear Sir:

1. They say that in New York one can get cheated, lied to, mugged and insulted all in one day. Well, I didn’t have to go to New York. I experienced it just buying a Bestech property.

2. Every time we wanted to visit your site for inspection, we were always treated poorly. One of your guys had the audacity to say that he cannot give a firm appointment and if he is there he will meet us otherwise bad luck. He expected me to come all the way from Delhi without a firm committment from his end.

3. I have been made to pay for excess super area without any measurement proof and 15 months earlier than what your contract provides.

3. I have been charged interest when it shouldn’t have been charged.

4. I have been told that “drainage facility outside the project is not in your control.” Since I cannot afford to buy a boat and also since all my family members cannot swim, I have realized that I do not fit into the upscale profile of Bestech property owner.

5. Taking the above into consideration, I have decided to sell the property even at a loss but your Mr. Jeevan would not let me do it without more of less insulting me. I wanted to know if I could sell the property now or that I can only sell the property after the registry. I was told that I should contact Mr. Jeevan. When I called Mr. Jeevan. he took my property number and suggested that I call back after 15 minutes as he has to look at the file. I suggested that he call me after he has had a look at the file but he preffered that I call him. Obviously, he is a very busy man and cannot call back a customer. I somehow forgot about how the process works. So I agreed to call him back.

When I called him after 15-20 minutes he didn’t answer the phone. I tried him a number of times and then ultimately he picks up the phone and says that he will call back. I told him that he made me waste my time calling him a number of times. He then calls me after 15-20 minutes and asks me to give him the property number which if you remember I had already given him. This is just amazing. Mr. Jeevan didn’t think that my time was important. This was realy insulting.

Well, I think I forgot to tell you that I am a customer of yours. Not that it should make any difference considering the reputation that builders have. After seeing your plush office, I thought maybe things have changed but my above experience suggests otherwise.

Now I have made a mistake buying one of your property. I apologize. I promise you that I will not make the same mistake again but I need your help to disassociate myself from you so that I do not trouble you again. I am just interested in selling the property and all I need to know from you is whether I can sell the property today by giving you the service charge or do I have to wait till the registry has been done in our name. I know that this is such a small matter and that Mr. Jeevan should have been able to resolve this matter quickly but unfortunately he is a very busy man. I didn’t know who else to approach but you. I hope you will forgive me for the mistake I have made and help me.

I forgot that builders do not require customers. I again sincerely apologize for becoming your customer.

Taking my experience with Bestech into account, I suggest that you refrain from buying any property from them unless you want to experience New York without going there.

More details about my experience later.

Corporate Social Responsibility – Where should it start?

2010-11-23T17:09:00.001+05:30

I have been hearing a lot about Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), that is, a company’s responsibility towards the society. In simple terms it means that a company must manage its role in society as a producer, employer, customer and citizen. I think most of the discussion on the subject centers around a corporations involvement in supporting social causes. Every corporation adopts some social causes and thinks that this is the best way of implementing CSR.

What prompted me to write about this topic was an article I read about ICICI Bank, the largest private Indian bank. It was reported that ICICI was going to establish a ICICI Foundation and fund it with 1% of its profits. Even one of its very senior executive was going to head this foundation. But let us try to reconcile what ICICI does in actual practice. Various cases have been reported where ICICI Bank has been involved in causing pain and suffering to its customers who had taken loan from it because of its illegal practice of hiring goons to recover money. If I am not mistaken, one of thier customers even committed suicide because of the threats of recovery agents hired by ICICI.

Now I find the above very illogical. First, ICICI Bank wants to make more money and adopts aggressive selling tactics to palm off loans. When they can’t pay the monthly instalments, ICICI sends recovery goons to collect the dues. The illegal methods adopted by these recovery agency results in pain and suffering to its customers. On the other side, ICICI decides that it needs to donate money for social causes. Now as a producer, doesn’t the bank have a responsibility towards its customers?

Lets also consider what Airtel does. It bills its customers for services not ordered by the customer and then donates the money for social causes through its foundation. This is how they exercise their responsibility as a producer.

Lets look at how comapnies are discharging their responsibility as an employer. Today, companies are putting so much pressure on their employees that practically everybody I know of is working late. Employees of companies that have 5 day working week are also working of Saturdays. This is creating health problems for employees. Why are companies putting so much pressure on their employees? Simple, they want to make more money. So first they create health problems and then they donate money to build hospitals through their foundations. I read an email of a senior Infosys executive telling employees that they should not work late. My suggestion to this gentlemen is that he should make sure that the offices are closed on time so that nobody can work late and the problem will be solved. He should know that the employees have no choice but to work late because of work pressures. Will he close office at 5pm. Will he walk his talk. I doubt it. Reasons are obvious.

What about the Times of India Group? It runs a rich foundation to support social causes. But how does it make money? It passes off “bias-paid-for-news” as “unbiased news” thereby deceiving all its readers. It sells news through its subsidiary MediaNet. Recently, there have been a number of articles about TOI buying stakes in various small companies and then using its publications to promote these companies without disclosing its vested interest. It is almost a certainty that some people may invest in these companies based on articles printed in Times Group Publication and end up losing money as well as their mential well-being.

Why do they want to do such a thing? Of course, to make more and more money (as if they don’t have enough already)and then donate money through their foundation, maybe to build mental hospitals for those who turn mental when they lose money in the stock market.

It is obvious that the business world has misunderstood what CSR means and where it should start. I think if every business takes care of its immediate stakeholders like customers, employees and vendors, I doubt if they would need to need to establish foundations.

I will explain the above with my example. I run a small company. First, as a producer I try very hard to keep my customers happy. I do not bill them for anything that they have not asked for. I make sure that they get “value for money” and sometimes even more. As a customer, I pay my vendors on time. I do not put unnecessary pressure on my vendors. If they mistake, I even work with them to resolve the same in a fair manner. What about as an employer? As far as my employees are concerned, I truly believe that charity begins at home. I have never refused anybody leave. We do not work very late to make more money but we do work late sometimes to complete customer’s work. I also take care of my employees in times of difficulty without their even asking for it.

So if everybody takes care of its immediate direct stakeholders like employees, customers and vendors, I think the need for CSR will almost disappear. This could have a domino’s effect. Every employee, customer and vendor has a family. In addition, some of your customers and practically every vendors would have employees, vendors and customers and the chain reaction could emcompass the whole society. Also, I am sure you will agree that this is better way to implement CSR than causing pain to your employees, customers and vendors so as to make more money and then donating a part of this money for social causes.

Another Honda City customer with clutch problems

2010-11-23T17:08:00.001+05:30

Yesterday, I received a call from Mr. Rajiv Gupta who also had a problem with Honda City clutch. His clutch failed at 31,000 kms. He was told by Honda that its because of normal wear and tear. Honda can’t seem to get its story right because they had told me that my cltch faled because I was “riding the clutch.” Now rajeev had the same reasoning as I had for his unhappiness, that is, when one buys Honda, one is assuming that one is buying quality and one does not expect the clutch and flywheel to fail at 30,000 kms.

Now he wanted to talk to senior Honda executives. I think Rajeev really believes that Honda customer care brand “HondaOne2One” is the philosphy at Honda. He doesn’t know that senior executives at Honda Car only know how to take customer’s money. They don’t like talking to irate customers.

Anyway, I decided to again pursue Honda to at least resolve Rajiv’s problem even though they have not resolved mine. So, as before, I am sending customer dissatisfaction cards to Honda executives hoping that better sense will prevail and they will hopefully realize that “Customer is truly the King.”

(a) Mr. Takedagawa, President, Honda Siel Cars India Ltd.
I am sending him “Don’t turn me into a Customer Iceberg” customer complaint card with the following handwritten message _ “It seems that you do have a problem with your clutch system. Dr. Rajiv Gupta (9891349999) also had his clutch system fail at 31,000 km. He was told it was because of normal wear and tear. I was told that I was riding the clutch. If you want to find others with clutch problems, just type “clutch problems honda city.” You are turning a lot of your customers into customer icebergs who will in due course cause damage to your business.”

(b) Mr. P Chakravarty, General Manager – Service, Honda Siel Cars India Ltd.
I am sending him “Losing me will make achieving your sales and profit targets difficult” Customer Math customer complaint card with the following handwritten message – “You may want to call Dr. Rajiv Gupta (9891349999). He has a clutch problem too. Also, its a sad day that your dissatisfied customers are calling me to find out how to make you guys start thinking about the customer. Also, type “clutch problems honda city” on Google and see what you get.

Isn’t it surprising that Mr. Chakravarty has not bothered to call me. After all, it is his responsibility that Honda car customers are satisfied. If talking to dissatisfied customers is a waste of time for him then I don’t know what his primary responsibility is. You know the Japanese say that if any person or any activity is not adding value to the customer, you should eliminate that person and stop that activity. It is possible that the junior engineer who is handling this issue is thinking of the trees rather than the forest. When you find a customer is making so much effort as I have made, if I was in Mr. Chakravarty’s position, I would have not called but visited the customer and resolved the complaint. He should start thinking of a complaint as a blessing in disguise. Mr. Chakravarty should know that he cannot do his job properly till customers complaint.

I would also suggest that the primary responsibility of the president / CEO of the company is to ensure that its customers are satisfied. Everything else comes later. Now I can understand that Honda guys do not want to visit me because I am a problem customer and maybe I am trying to cheat Honda. But what about Dr. Gupta. At least, Honda executives should resolve his complaint and if necessary meet him. Just denying there is a problem will not make the probl;em go away.

Now taking my past experience into consideration, Honda executives are going to ignore thinking “what kind of customers we get.” I hope they realize that whatever kind of customers we may be, we are paying the food on their table.

Bajaj Auto’s branding strategy. What does management theory say?

2010-11-23T17:07:00.003+05:30

Yesterday, in my post I had suggested that analyzing the new branding strategy adopted by Rajiv Bajaj of Bajaj Auto would be a great learning experience. I had suggested that we will analyze it from two perspectives. First, I will discuss it from the point of view of what management theory says.

Positioning refers to how the brand is perceived in the mind of the customer. In other words, what does the customer think of the brand. Perception of the brand can be created in the mind of the customer or the customer develops it on its own taking his experience with the brand into consideration. Positioning is what you do to the mind of the customer and not what you do to the product in the factory.

In simple terms, a brand should mean one and only one thing to the customer. In other words, a brand can have just one positioning. The positioning that each brand occupies in the mind of the customer has to be one, preferably unique. So, what Rajiv Bajaj is trying to do is exactly right because today the Bajaj brand means too many things to too many people. Even in the Rahul Bajaj Group, it means too many things to too many people, that is, finance, insurance, auto rickshaw, high-end and low-end bikes. As such, Rajiv is correct when he says that the Bajaj brand has been diluted and stretched beyond what is logical.

The other part of the branding and positioning theory that needs to be discussed is the issue of brand extension or the use of an umbrella brand. Brand extensions by and large do not work. It has financial and some marketing logic on its side but not the logic of the mind of the customer. Remember, it is the mind of the customers where all the marketing battles are lost and won and not in the retail stores. The financial logic behind adopting brand extension strategy (trade acceptance, consumer acceptance, lower advertising costs, corporate image) is so overwhelming that it is very difficult to counter it.
Because of the overwhelming financial logic in favor of brand extensions, a large number of companies adopt the strategy. Colgate has adopted brand extension as a strategy. They have Colgate toothpaste, Colgate toothbrushes, Colgate Dant Manjan, Colgate powder and more. But if you visit a Kirana shop and say, “Please give me a Colgate,” the shopkeeper will either hand you Colgate toothpaste or ask you what do you want (toothpaste, toothbrush or talcum powder). Colgate was positioned as a toothpaste and that is the positioning that the customers remember in their mind.

I recently noticed that the only TV commercial that ones sees on the TV is of Colgate toothpaste and not for the brand extension products. This clearly suggests that either the brand extension products of Colgate are not very successful or they are so popular that they do not need any advertising. I will let you decide which is the case. However, I am sure that Colgate toothpaste is the highest selling and the most profitable product under the Colgate brand. The reason-Colgate is positioned in the mind of the customer as a toothpaste.

In the mind of the customer, Colgate is perceived as a toothpaste and not as a toothbrush or talcum powder. So when the customer thinks of talcum powder, Colgate is not part of the evoked set. We all know that when a brand is not part of the evoked set, the probability that the customer will buy or ask for the brand at the retail outlet is zero.

On the other hand, lets look at some of the most successful companies like Procter & Gamble (P&G) and Hindustan Unilever that follow single-brand-single-positioning strategy (SBSP). In the case of these companies, one brand means just one thing. Each brand occupies a unique niche in the mind of the customer. For example, Tide brand makes clothes “white.” Cheer brand makes them “whiter than white” and Bold brand makes them “bright.” All these three detergent brands are very successful brands of P&G.

Also, even when market conditions change, no effort is made by these companies to change the positioning of the existing brand. Rather, these companies introduce a new brand. These companies believe, and rightly so, that it is easy and cost effective to introduce a new brand than to change the established positioning of an existing brand. This is absolutely true and this is what is suggested by the concept of positioning. In fact, these companies would kill an old brand rather than try to change its positioning. Let’s discuss the example of Ivory soap. Ivory was a soap and is still a soap for over 100 years. When laundry detergents were introduced, obviously there was pressure to extend the brand and come out with Ivory detergent. But this would have meant changing the positioning of Ivory in the prospect’s mind which is not only a very difficult task but also carries with it the risk of diluting the original positioning of the original brand. So the company introduced a new product under the Tide brand. Now the new concept and the new product had its own new brand name with its own positioning. It had its own identity. Tide became an enormous success. Ivory is still growing even though it over 100 years old.

There are many like Rahul Bajaj who have misunderstood the concept of branding and positioning. For instance, Godrej was trying to change the positioning of its Cinthol soap brand for the third time. Cinthol brand was introduced in 1952 as the first deodorant soap. It was initially positioned as a “soap for men.” Later it was repositioned as a “family soap.” Now Godrej wants to position it as a “soap for the youth” with the help of a costly campaign starring Hrithik Roshan. In 1980, Cinthol was a leading brand with double digit market share and its market share today is a measily 2.5% of the Rs. 6000 crore soap market. Let me assure you that Cinthol is going nowhere. This third effort to reposition the brand will end up confusing the customers even more. Men will think it is for the family. Family will think it is for the youth. Youth will say that they will not use the soap as their family is also using it. The positioning of Cinthol has been messed up so badly that there is no hope for it. Do you think that customers are so stupid that they will keep on changing what they think about the product based on what the company keeps telling them? Godrej should have followed SBSP strategy. They should have let Cinthol remain with its original positioning of “soap for men.” Later they could have introduced a “soap for the family” under a new brand. Now they could have used Hrithik Roshan to introduce a new “soap for the youth” with a new brand name.

There is another mistaken belief that the brand gets its strength from the company name or the umbrella brand. This is not true. In fact, company gets it strength from its brand(s). We all know that big and famous companies like Coca Cola, Pepsi, GM, Tatas and Ford have introduced products that have failed miserably.

The essence of branding and positioning is to distinguish the product from other products. You don’t want another product to have your product’s name as it will create confusion. If you don’t want other products of other companies to not have similar brand name as your brand name then logically your own other products should also not have the same name. It doesn’t matter who owns the other products. As such, a number of products having the same brand name whether owned by the same company or another company is illogical.

It is because of the above logic that brand extensions or umbrella brands do not work. Brand extensions give one brand too many meaning which from the customer’s point of view is confusing. A brand is like a rubber band. It will stretch but break if stretched beyond a certain point. The Bajaj brand has been overstretched. It is time to change course and that is what it seems Rajiv Bajaj is doing.

Brand extensions may work when the competition level is low and the number of products are few. When the competition level is low one can still get away with brand extension. But in a highly competitive environment like the motorcycle market, it would be a disaster. Also, the number of products is increasing in the motorcycle market. The pace of introduction of new models has been increasing because of fast changing technology and increased competition. A separate branding and positioning is a must for every new product introduction for the purpose of communication with the customer otherwise some good products will disappear in the crowded market place.

Brand extension names are also forgettable because they do not have an independent positioning of their own in the mind of the customer. In fact, they dilute the positioning of the original brand.

Companies like P&G and HLL have got it right. They have correctly understood the theoretical basis behind the concepts of branding and positioning. Taking the above into consideration, it seems that Rajiv Bajaj is absolutely on the right track.

What is positioning? Lets understand from an accountant.

2010-11-23T17:07:00.000+05:30

Sunce we have been talking about positioning and branding with respect to Bajaj Auto’s new branding strategy, I thought an example to explain the concept of positioning would help.

I have a small but highly successful executive firm, Executive Search, as my client. This firm is highly focused, that is, it deals with recruitment of senior level positions only in the pharmaceutical industry. One day I was generally chatting with its owner Subhash Arora and the subject of expansion came up. He was thinking of starting recruitment in the chemical industry but was unsure of how he should go about doing it. He said that the easiest way would be to do it under the present firm but he felt that such a step will dilute the image and the positioning of his present firm. He said that today when pharmaceutical firms think of recruitment, they contact him. The name of his firm, Executive Search, is strongly associated with recruitment in the pharmaceutical industry. Adding another industry would confuse his clients.

When I asked him why, he said that today he is known as a specialist recruiter in the pharmaceutical industry. He added that the pharmaceutical companies even pay him a premium as they perceive him as a specialist in the pharmaceutical industry. He charges more than the generalist big recruitment firms. He said that if he starts recruitment services for the chemical industry, his clients would start comparing him with other general recruitment firms and he would lose his competitive edge. He further said that if he has to enter the chemical industry, he has to start a new firm. Lastly, he told me that in order to maintain and enhance his image as a specialist pharmaceutical industry recruiter, he has even refused assignments in other industries which were offered to him by his contacts.

I was just amazed when I heard his logic. His understanding of the concept of branding and positioning was perfect even though he didn’t use the buzzwords. What was more amazing is that Subhash is a chartered accountant as well as worked in a pharmaceutical company as an accountant before he became an entrepreneur. I had mentioned to him that whenever I write about branding and positioning, I will definitely use his example to explain what branding and positioning is really about.

He was one guy I met who understood the basic principle behind branding and positioning, that is, you have to give up something to gain something. In this case, he has given up all other industries to gain a firm foothold in the pharmaceutical industry.

Tharoor-Lalit-Sunanda-IPL Drama

2010-11-23T17:06:00.003+05:30

Making management concepts easy
Google
Custom Search

Home
About Us
Avinash Narula
Subscribe
Complaint Box
Best Seller

Tharoor-Lalit-Sunanda-IPL Drama
Posted by Avinash Narula
August 27, 2010

I am totally amazed at the attitude of Congess party. It has stated that the “Shashi-Sunanda-IPL” fiasco is a personal matter of the minister and that it has nothing to do with the Congress party. With an attitude like this how can corruption be ever eliminated in this country?

According to me, it is the responsibility of not only the Congress party but also the Government to investigate and clarify any situation where there is even a hint of some wrong doing on the part of a minister. When it is revealed that a minister, who was known to have some interest in the selection of IPL team for Kochi (which by itself is not a crime), has love interest with a lady who has been gifted 18% ownership of the Kochi team, I think it is prima facie evidence of some wrong doing. The minister as well as the government has an obligation as well as a duty to clarify the matter.

I don’t know about you but I have not heard of any businessman gifting such a huge amount (approx Rs. 250 crores) to a third party without any consideration. Also, I think that Sunanda Pushkar is liable to pay income tax also. If the gift has been made to a non-relative, then if I am not mistaken the amount received by the receiver of the gift is to be treated as income. If one could do this, nobody would be paying income tax and everybody would be gifting the amounts to each other. I think Sunanda Pushkar is liable to pay approx. Rs. 60-70 crores as taxes.

Apart from this, Shashi Tharoor has the responsibility to make a clear statement of his interest in the Kochi IPL team and Sunanda Pushkar as far as it relates to the IPL ownership. I have no interest in his personal relationship with Sunanda but it does become a matter of our interest once he decides to mix politics, business and love interest.

I am also surprised that Shashi Tharoor is blaming Lalit Modi for his indiscretion instead of clarifying how his love interest was gifted 18% stake in a Rs. 1500 crore IPL team. Lalit Modi may have violated a confidentiality clause but if you ask me he did no wrong. I think he was under an obligation as well as a duty to reveal a corrupt action of a politician. If it turns out that Shashi Tharoor was actually gifted this stake for helping the Rendezvous consortium to acquire the Kochi team, then don’t you think that Lalit Modi had a duty to reveal the matter to the general public. I think he did as this would be a clear case of corruption by a Minister.

So, Shashiji, my suggestion is that please make everything clear. Hiding the facts will only lead to more speculation and PR disaster. If you want to avoid a PR disaster, the best policy they say is to reveal everything. Remember, we have too many channels and too many newspapers but few stories. So, do yourself a favour and tell the truth.

Should Bajaj be dropped? Implementation issues

2010-11-23T17:06:00.000+05:30

In my previous post, I had discussed the new branding strategy of Rajiv Bajaj from the point of view of management theory. Well, management theory suggests that Rajiv Bajaj is on the right track. Now let us discuss some of the implementation issues that Rajiv Bajaj will have to grapple with to make his new branding strategy a success. In addition, we will also try to comment on some of the issued and concerns raised by others while debating on this issue.

How will the dealer network be branded?

One of the major implementation issue that Rajiv Bajaj will face is in terms of how he will implement the strategy at the dealers end. There are a number of issues that will need to be addressed as far as the dealer network is concerned.

First, what will be the branding of the dealers? Will the dealers continue to be called Bajaj dealers? If yes, then the new branding strategy of Bajaj will be diluted as from the customer’s perspective there would be no change in terms of branding. For the new branding strategy of Bajaj to work, the customer has to perceive the new branding strategy in his mind and it does not matter what Bajaj Auto is thinking internally. Continuing with the current status of the dealership network will be counter productive. It will also be expensive and confusing. The dealer will have 4 different representatives, one for each brand, visiting them with each asking the dealer to take certain actions to promote their brand. Some of these actions may not be in sync with the strategies of the other brands. Also, each brand representative may ask the dealer to allocate more resource ti his brand or allocate more space in the showroom. This would not only be confusing to the dealer but would turnout to be expensive for both the dealer and Bajaj Auto. What more. It could end up creating conflict between the company executives of different brands as well as the dealers.

In case, Bajaj is thinking of developing separate dealerships for each brand, then there are multiple issues to be addressed. How will Bajaj Auto decide which dealer will handle which particular brand? Will the division of brands bring about discontent among the dealers? Will their morale come down? Also, what about the viability of dealers? When dealers start dealing with one brand instead of 4, their viability will be definitely adversely affected. What about small towns where a standalone dealership for one brand will probably not be viable.

My experience in the tractor industry suggests that by appointing separate dealerships, the overall sales of the company will increase in the medium term but in the short term some dealerships will suffer because of viability issues. I believe that in the long term, the profitability of the dealerships will also improve as they will be focused on selling one brand. For instance, they will carry less models and spare parts in stock. As the number of models/brands they sell reduce, they will also become more effective in selling. It is the short term that I would worry about more.

This issue has been faced by many companies before. A large number of Escorts dealers were selling tractors (Escorts & Ford tractors) as well as Rajdoot motorcycles. Rajdoot motorcycles division felt that dealers who were selling both tractors and motorcycles didn’t put enough effort in selling Rajdoot motorcycles. As such, the Rajdoot motocycles division wanted to establish separate dealerships. Later I think the issue of separating Escorts and Ford tractor dealerships was also raised.

When the customer wants to buy Discover, will he walk into a Discover showroom or a Bajaj showroom? This is an important question that Rajiv Bajaj has to answer. If you ask me, my answer would be that he should walk into a Discover showroom.

What will be the positioning of each brand?

One of the most important issue which has not been clarified by Bajaj Auto is that what will each brand stand for. What will be the positioning of each brand? Will it be based on the horsepower, quality, target market, pricing, brand personality or some other factor? When new models are introduced, what will be the basis on which Bajaj Auto will decide which brand it will carry. The success of Rajiv Bajaj’s strategy will depend upon how distinctly he positions each brand otherwise the probability of cannibalization of sales will increase and each brand could end up competing with each other.

Will investment on branding increase?

Some people argue that instead on one brand, now Bajaj will have to promote 5 brands which will result in a tremendous increase in branding expense. I believe that initially there might be a slight increase but over the long term it will not be an issue. Even today, Bajaj is spending money to promote all its brands. If it introduces a new model, it spends money on promoting that particular model. Such promotional expense will be incurred whether it continues with its present strategy or shifts to the new strategy.

In fact, I believe that the branding expense may actually come down because each brand will now have a distinct focused positioning. Today, not only is the Bajaj brand diffused as it is spread over a broad range of products but also that every motorcycle under the brand also has a different positioning. Logically, it would seem that one may have to spend more on promotion when the brand is diffused in order to clarify the positioning of the brand under the diffused umbrella brand. On the other hand, less expenditure on brand promotion is required when the brand has a focused positioning.

Will Bajaj be competing with itself?

This is an interesting question. If the positioning of the different brands is distinct, cannibalization of sales will not be an issue. In fact, distinct positioning without the umbrella brand will most probably lead to increase in sales. Why? Simple. Each brand will be focused on enhancing its own position in the marketplace and competing with other brands in its market segment to increase its market share. Also, the customer will not be confused when he visits a particular brand dealership. The products that he sees in the showroom will clearly identify with the stated or perceived positioning.

Will dropping Bajaj brand have an adverse impact?

One of the major objections that some people have is that the new strategy will lose the benefits of the name recognition and reputation of parent brand Bajaj. Some have even cited the example of HLL which today is letting customers know, even though in a subtle manner, that the product being advertised is an Unilever product.

Others have argued that practically all the auto companies in the world are using the parent brand strategy so why not Bajaj? For instance, when you buy a Corolla, Camry or an Innova, you are buying a Toyota as much as you are buying the individual brands.

My response to this argument is as follows:

(a) As stated by Rajiv Bajaj, the Bajaj brand is very diffused. It covers everything from heaters, hair oil, insurance, finance and home appliances. So, one does not know if there is any significant advantage that is being lost.

(b) None of the global auto brands are so diverse in nature and practically none of them (as far as I know) is associated with consumer goods. If any global auto brand is associated with any other products or services, they are basically technical and engineering in nature and as such their association with these products and services is not that well known as in the case of Bajaj.

(c) In a way, Rajiv Bajaj is also trying to create 4 different umbrella brands with distinct and focused positioning under which he will sell different models. In this case, the umbrella brands will not be as diffused as the Bajaj brand is but rather each will have a unique distinctive positioning.

(d) Bajaj has also not been able to discard its association with scooters.

Should Rajiv Bajaj adopt a stepwise approach

Some have suggested that Rajiv Bajaj should adopt a stepwise approach while implementing the new branding strategy. Taking the problem of separating the dealer network into consideration, this suggestion does have some merit. The strategy could be implemented stepwise as follows:

(a) Bajaj Auto should first launch a separate brand for high end bikes like KTM. Maybe, they should even have a separate company just like what Toyota did when it launched Lexus. Even the dealerships could be separate.

(b) In the larger cities like 4 metros they can appoint separate dealers for each of the brands. Slowly and steadily they can implement the same in other cities also.

(c) Another option is to separate out the largest selling brand. The higher volumes of this brand will make the new dealer network viable. However, there could be resistance from existing dealers because they would lose big chunk of their revenues.

(d) Yet another option is that you separate out the lowest selling brand. Dealers may accept this easily. Also, separating the low selling brand will give it the focus it needs to generate higher volumes.

(e) Internally, Bajaj can organize as they have planned. They can organize themselves on the basis of the proposed strategy.

Recently, Al Ries, the guy who gave us the concept of positioning was in India and he indirectly endorsed Rajiv Bajaj’s strategy. According to Al Ries, Reliance and Tata brands have a long term problem since they are not focused. According to him, the key to success of brands is focus, focus and focus. Just like Reliance and Tata, even Bajaj brand is not focused.

It is obvious that the new brand strategy of Bajaj makes sense but there are serious issues that need to be addressed on the marketing side. We all know that branding and positioning is not established in the factory but in the mind of the customer.

I don’t think businesses should be involved in CSR

2010-11-23T17:05:00.002+05:30

Those of you who have read my earlier post on CSR will remember that I had discussed as to where should CSR start. I had quite a different view on what CSR is all about. If you remember, I had stated that if every company rakes care of its immediate stakeholders like employees, customers, vendors then the need for CSR will almost disappear. This could have a Domino’s effect. Every employee, customer and vendor has a family. In addition, some of our customers and practically every vendor would have employees, vendors and customers. The chain reaction could encompass the whole society.

I recently came across an interesting article in Financial Times, New Delhi dated September 12, 2010 on CSR. Some thoughts expressed in the article were interesting and do need discussion and clarification.

According to Mudit Kapoor, assistant professor, economics and public policy, ISB stated that companies are artificial entities and such cannot have any social responsibility. He further stated that while individuals can involve themselves in CSR activities with their own funds, a manager in an organization cannot do so as he is using funds of others. He added that businesses were already performing their social responsibility by providing goods and services that the society needs. What more. Businesses are also providing gainful employment to their employees.

I agree with the above argument. A business is established to make profit by providing goods and services to its customers in the most efficient way. If it does this without infringing on the rights of any of its stakeholders then it has fulfilled its responsibility, irrespective of what name we give to it. It does not have the responsibility to feed the poor or open a school. If this is anyone’s responsibility, it is the responsibility of the government. To fulfill this responsibility, the government can collect various types of taxes from individuals and businesses.

If, as an individual wants to do social work or get involved in philanthropy, he is most welcome to do so. Its his time and money and he can use the same in any way he wants to.

Even if a particular business is making too much profit, it still does not have the responsibility to feed the poor or open schools. The competition will take care of businesses making too much profit. How? Simple. When others see that manufacturing of automobiles is very profitable, they will also get into the automobile business which will ultimately increase competition and bring down the profits as well as the prices for the consumer. Let them make money so long they are not infringing upon the rights of others.

Actually, we would like to argue that the CSR activities of businesses are harmful to the society. Businesses will be able to best serve the society if they concentrated on enhancing their core competence so as to provide cost effectively high quality products and services to fulfill the needs of the society. When you add a non core activity in the business, it will make the business inefficient and add unnecessary cost to the product or service. Ultimately, the society will suffer as it will have to buy the company’s products and services at a higher cost.

If you ask me, society does not need any charity from business organizations. The best way businesses can fulfill their obligation is to do what they are supposed to do, that is, make money by providing high quality goods and services at competitive prices that the society needs without infringing on the rights of others. However, the problem is that businesses remember to make profit but forget that they are not supposed to infringe upon the rights of others. It is here that the problem comes up. When businesses infringed upon the rights of customers, consumer laws came in. When businesses wanted to make money by polluting the environment, environmental laws were established. When businesses infringed upon the rights of employees, unions were established and labor laws enacted.

For instance, if Coca Cola India was not infringing upon the rights of others by depleting groundwater resources, dumping toxic and hazardous waste material near its bottling plants or discharging waste water into agricultural lands of farmers, it would not have to worry about making CSR an integral part of its corporate agenda. If today, Coca Cola is involved in activities such as rainwater harvesting and restoring groundwater resources, one cannot say that it is involved in CSR activities. It is not doing charitable work. It is not doing any favor to the society. It is just trying to fix what it has done wrong in the past. If right from the beginning Coca Cola would not have engaged in depleting groundwater resources and infringed on other people’s rights, it would not have to be involved in restoring ground water resources. Coca Cola’s current involvement is not actually a CSR activity but their duty.

What is surprising is that in spite of the various laws, businesses still engage in unethical practices just to make more money and later start feeding the poor and opening schools just because they feel guilty. This is what we feel is not logical. This is why we had proposed earlier that logically if businesses just took care of their stakeholders, there would be no need for CSR itself.

9 Emerging Professional Networking sites in India, Part 3

2010-11-23T17:04:00.002+05:30

Wapr.com – its is perhaps the most recent entrant in business & professional networking portals in India. Its a bit different portal in its niche, providing some really nice features for both companies and professionals as their different user-base and targeting them differently.

iProBook – This is one professional networking portal yet to be released though i found its underground URL from google here as iProbook in Labs. The portal has clean and user friendly UI and plenty of good interactive features and all about creating and managing your business/ professional networks. What impressed me is its clean UI and use of ajax scripts at perfect places.

TooStep is yet another professional community portal, however it gives an impression of some portfolio management tool or so, reason being fragmented UI and its content element. The portal is more about building community of professional and exchange, discuss, debate about topics, ideas etc.

Harvard Business School Receives $50 Million Gift from the Tata Trusts and Companies

2010-11-23T17:03:00.000+05:30

BOSTON—Harvard Business School has received a gift of $50 million from Tata Companies, the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and the Tata Education and Development Trust, philanthropic entities of India's Tata Group. A conglomerate founded in 1868, the Tata Group owns 28 publicly listed enterprises across seven business sectors that have a combined market capitalization of $80 billion.
(LtoR) Ratan Tata (AMP 71 1975), Dean Nitin Nohria, President Drew Faust Photo: Susan Young

The gift, the largest from an international donor in the School's 102-year history, will fund a new academic and residential building on the HBS campus in Boston for participants in the School's broad portfolio of Executive Education programs. The School hopes to break ground for the building, which will be named Tata Hall, next spring.

Ratan Tata, the Chairman of Tata Sons Ltd. since 1991, attended the School's Advanced Management Program—one of three comprehensive leadership programs offered by HBS Executive Education—in 1975. He received the School's highest honor, the Alumni Achievement Award, in 1995.

"The Harvard Business School is the preeminent place to be exposed to the world's best thinking on management and leadership, and we are pleased that this gift will support the School's educational mission to mold the next generation of global business leaders," said Mr Tata.

President Drew Gilpin Faust added: "Ratan Tata knows firsthand the transformative educational opportunities offered through Harvard Business School's Executive Education programs. Thanks to this generous gift, HBS will be able to expand its already robust offerings in Executive Education, deepening ties with leaders across the country and around the globe."

Harvard Business School Dean Nitin Nohria expressed deep appreciation for the Tata Group's extraordinary generosity. "This is an historic gift from a renowned organization revered for its significant economic, civic, and philanthropic impact. The Tata Group is widely respected for integrity and innovation, not just in India—where it produced both the first indigenous car and the $2,000 Tata Nano automobile—but in a variety of business lines across several continents, from cars to hotels and from tea to information technology," said Nohria.

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who joined Mr. Tata and Dean Nohria for the announcement on the HBS campus, said Mr. Tata's generosity would have a global impact. "Mr. Tata's gift will create jobs right here in Boston, and the executives who study at HBS will go out into the world as ambassadors of our truly world-class city."

In 1945, Harvard Business School launched the Advanced Management Program, the world's first Executive Education program. Today, more than 9,000 business leaders from around the world enroll in Executive Education programs at HBS as well as in off-campus locations each year, participating in a wide range of comprehensive, focused, and custom programs. Currently, more than 50 percent of participants hail from outside the United States and enroll in more than 75 open enrollment Executive Education programs and more than 60 custom programs.

Ratan Tata was named one of the 30 most respected CEOs in the world by Barron's magazine in 2007, the same year the Tata Group was awarded the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy. In 2008 he was named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People. He has received numerous honorary degrees as well as one of the government of India's highest civilian awards, the Padma Vibhushan.

Tata earned a BS degree in architecture from Cornell University in 1962. He worked briefly with the firm of Jones and Emmons in Los Angeles before returning to India in late 1962 to join the Tata Group. After serving in various companies, he was appointed director-in-charge of The National Radio and Electronics Company in 1971. In 1981 he was named chairman of Tata Industries, and in 1991 he was named chairman of Tata Sons, the promoter company of the Tata Group. During his tenure, the group's revenues have grown nearly twelve-fold.

About Tata Group:

The Tata Group operates in seven business sectors: communications and information technology, engineering, materials, services, energy, consumer products, and chemicals. They are, by and large, based in India and have significant international operations. The total revenue of Tata companies, taken together, was $67.4 billion (around Rs 319,534 crore) in 2009-10, with 57 per cent of this coming from business outside India. Tata companies employ around 395,000 people worldwide. The Tata name has been respected in India for 140 years for its adherence to strong values and business ethics. Every Tata company or enterprise operates independently. Each of these companies has its own board of directors and shareholders, to whom it is answerable. There are 28 publicly listed Tata enterprises, and they have a combined market capitalization of some $80 billionand a shareholder base of 3.5 million. The major Tata companies are Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Tata Power, Tata Chemicals, Tata Global Beverages, Indian Hotels, Titan Industries, and Tata Communications.

Ratan Tata's corporate biography: http://www.tata.com/aboutus/articles/inside.aspx?artid=uBZjT+/ooH8=

About Harvard Business School:
Founded in 1908 as part of Harvard University, Harvard Business School is located on a 40-acre campus in Boston. Its faculty of more than 200 offers full-time programs leading to the MBA and doctoral degrees, as well as more than 75 open enrollment Executive Education programs and more than 60 custom programs. For more than a century, HBS faculty have drawn on their research, their experience in working with organizations worldwide, and their passion for teaching to educate leaders who have shaped the practice of business and entrepreneurship around the globe.

Vijay Mallya – King of Unaffordable Goodtimes

2010-11-23T17:01:00.000+05:30

Within a week of Jet and Kingfisher airline illegal alliance and firing drama, Jet and Kingfisher airlines get government’s help in geting better credit terms for purchase of fuel, more time to pay for their current outstanding with respect to fuel outstanding and also in the ATF prices which will now be revised every fortnight. Now let us look at what is wrong with this picture.
One, if the airlines do not pass on the benefit to the customers then the benefit arising from these concessions will basically go to the airlines. This means that the government is basically contributing to the airline’s profit or helping them reduce its losses. It is taking money from the government owned oil companies and giving it to private airlines, When Vijay Mallya nad Naresh Goyal were asking for all kinds of concessions, I thought the idea was to lower overall prices of air travel so that the number of passengers will go up thus enabling them to increase their load factor. However, this does not seem to be true. How long can the government support airlines in the current economic situation? What about other companies that land up into trouble? I don’t think there would be any end to this.
Now let us put some numbers on the benefit that Jet and Kingfisher airlines will get from these concessions. Kingfisher owes around Rs. 1000 crores for fuel purchases. 30 days additional credits will save him nearly Rs. 8 crores a month or Rs. 96 crores a year. The “King of Good Times” knows how to have a good time on other people’s money.
The above also seems illogical when one considers the following:
(a) ARF prices have come down by 21% in the last two months.
(b) Go Air and Spicejet have announced fare cut. They have removed the Rs. 150 surcharge imposed on each ticket. Air India never imposed it. Jet and Kingfisher still charge this surcharge. SpiceJet has announced 15% cut in fares and is also offering Rs. 99 fare all across its network. SpiceJet and Go Air are also offering better terms in terms of cancellation charges etc. It is surprising that Jet and Kingfisher are asking for all kinds of government help while non of the other airlines are managing their business without making much noise about it.
(c) Mallya’s United Spirits made a profit of Rs. 90 crores in the second quarter. I am sure he can finance his airline without government’s help.
(d) It seems most of the airlines were paying on time. The three major culprits are Jet, Kingfisher and Air India/Indian are the major defaulters. The incentives that the 3 defaulting airlines are receiving is unfair to those airlines who have paid on time. Needless to say, now these airlines are also asking for incentives from the oil companies.
(e) The price of oil is dropping.
(f) Air Arabia has started a new flight – Hyd-Sharjah and AirAsia will fly to Trichy for the first time in India. It seems that most airlines in India are managing their business. The only private airlines crying wolf is Jet and Kingfisher. The reason for these two getting into trouble were their over ambitious and expensive plans to buy other airlines.
Now Kingfisher and Jet have used their influence and high drama to get concessions from the government. They have been given unfair advantage because of their influence and connections. However, both these airlines also owe huge amounts to the Airport Authority of India (AAI). Kingfisher owes Rs. 255 crores and Jet Rs. 36.63 crores. Does Mr. Praful Patel intends to assist his freinds in this matter also.
As I have advocated before, taxes on ATF should be rationalized so that the cost of air travel comes down thus increasing the number of passengers and the load factor for airlines.
I believe that the left’s charge is correct, at least in this case. It has helped Jet and Kingfisher in an unfair manner. People who have managed their business effectively with financial prudence have been punished while those managing their business with much pomp and show with total disregard to the size of their pocket have been rewarded. I hope the media will hence forth not call Vijay Mallya as KING of GOODTIMES.
Hey this gives me an idea. How about coming up with a suitable alternative title for Vijay Mallya to replace “King of Goodtimes.” How about “King of UNAFFORDABLE GOODTIMES.”

IIM MBA Personal Interview - Practice Questions

2010-11-23T16:58:00.000+05:30

Prepare structured answers for the following potential questions.

Why should we admit you into our MBA program?

What are your strongest abilities?

What skills would you be bringing to the classroom?(relevant if you have job experience)

What are you looking for in this program?

Tell me something about yourself?

What are your greatest strengths/weaknesses?

Where do you want to be in 5 years?

Why do you want to study in this institute?

What does "success" mean to you?

What does "failure" mean to you?

Are IIM MBA’s too expensive?

2010-11-23T16:56:00.000+05:30

think so. I think this is also true of Harvard MBAs. I always used to wander about the intelligence of people representing companies which offered Rs. 1 crore or more per annum to IIM MBAs. I do not think anyone is worth that kind of money unless and until the person can show proof of what he has achieved in the real world.
You will all agree with me that pure bookish intelligence is not what makes a person successful in business. First, management is not science. In science, water always boils at 100 degrees C after allowing for atmospheric pressure (I hope I have remember correctly what I learnt in high school) but in management what worked today in one case may not work tomorrow in another case. Now if you are intelligent and topped your school in science you will remember that water boils at 100 degree C and you will be correct. However, this is not true of management.
Achieving success in the business world is also about having the ability to implement your strategy. Just having good grades does not guarantee that you have the ability to implement.
Lastly, I would like to suggest that achieving success in the real business world needs risk taking ability which cannot be guaranteed just with grades.
I would like to give you two examples from my experience. In 1980, I worked for a tractor company. I was a regional manager. I didn’t have an MBA. I was just a ordinary B.Com graduate. We had another regional manager who was a IIT / IIM (A). To make a long story short, I was asked by the management to find dealers in this guy’s territory as he was unable to locate them. While in the US, I had the unfortunate experience working under a Harvard MBA. I left the job just because of him. In fact, he also lost his job after I left.
Just to support my above thought, you can find a huge number of examples of company and product failures. I am quite sure that IIT/IIM graduates were responsible for their share of failures.
Now a IIT / IIM qualification does increase the probability of success but is it worth Rs. 1 crores ($225,000), I certainly don’t think so. Just to let you know that I am an MBA (Champaign, Illinois), a hotel management graduate (Hilton College, Houston) and also a CPA but I don’t think that even with the above qualifications, as a fresher I should be getting Rs. 1 crore a year unless I can back it up with achievements or examples of my ability to implement and take risks.
I am not saying that you don’t pay them more, but not Rs. 1 crore/annum. I think these high salaries were also responsible for companies going bankrupt. Most of the high salaries were paid by investment bankers and financial companies and they are the ones which are in big trouble today.
I think I have picked a controversial subject today but as you know, I always try to tell you the way it is. No beating around the bush.

GMATCH MBA Virtual Fair with Top Schools

2010-11-23T16:54:00.002+05:30

GMATCH MBA Virtual Fair 2010
Developed and managed by GMAC, this is a unique opportunity for the full-time applicants. Here, you can interact with the admissions team at many top schools, chat with current students and alumni and ask your questions – sitting at your home.
Dates: November 22 and 23
How: You will register for the event and get access to rich graphical interface featuring virtual booths and a multimedia auditorium stocked with material about each participating school’s programs and general details pertaining to MBA. Participants will be able to use webcams to enable face-to-face interaction.
Some Schools: London Business School, INSEAD, the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, the UCLA Anderson School of Management, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and Nanyang Business School.
Sign up: For registration, please visit http://www.g-match.com/default.html