Dibyendu's Blog on Change Management

Announced Programmes: 21-22

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Dibyendu Choudhury) — Sun, 6 Jun 2021 07:26:00 -0700

Training Programme Calender of Dr. Dibyendu Choudhury, FM-SEM

Programme 1

Title	Social Network and Internet Marketing: Only option to Survival for SME's (Post COVID-19 era)
Objective	Products are made and designed by the customers for the customers is the concept of modern age. This course will show case how to create Brands which touches the heart and mind of customers step by step manner with the effective use of Social Networking and Internet Marketing. SME’s are having very less budget for Marketing and promotions. Therefore, marketing can be done in less price and in effective manner if the techniques are known by us. Especially when the economy hit by the pandemic COVID-19
No. of days	3 days
Duration	14-16 June 2021
Brochure	https://tinyurl.com/socialbrochure2021
Registration & Payment	https://nimsme.org/RegistrationForm-2344
Who can attend	Commissioner / DICs of all states, Executives of Developmental, organisations, Industrial associations, Existing SME’s, Incubators, Incubatees’
Fee for non-residential	7500/- plus GST 18%

Programme 2

Title	Sustainable Tourism and Services Innovation post COVID-19 era for SME’s
Objective	The Tourism Industry is the most effected Industry due to COVIV-19. To sustain the into the business and make t profitable services enterprises needs to adopt sustainable innovative thinking and deep green and technology related interventions.
No. of days	5 days
Duration	23-27 Aug 2021
Brochure	https://tinyurl.com/sustainabletourism2021
Registration & Payment	https://nimsme.org/RegistrationForm-2345
Fee for non-residential	12500/- plus GST 18%
Who can attend	Govt. Employees, Budding Entrepreneurs, Officials of different enterprises involved in Tourism Sector

Programme 3

Title	Jugaad- The product based innovation
Objective	Emerging markets are characterized by high volatility. Economic circumstances are constantly changing. Growth rates are often in double digits, and the competitive landscape is often shifting. New laws and regulations are constantly being put into place, and policy is constantly evolving. So jugaad innovators need to experiment as they go along and be willing to try multiple options, rather than adopting one approach at the start and sticking to it thereafter. Unlike their counterparts in Silicon Valley, jugaad innovators do not attempt to work everything out in advance or rely on a business plan to determine the mid- to long-term roadmap for their new ventures. Instead, they improvise their next course of action as circumstances change, and they do so from within a framework of deep knowledge and passion. Their approach is in fact more akin to a jazz band than to an orchestra: everything is improvised, fluid, and dynamic. As such, their strategies are organic and emergent rather than predetermined. Jugaad innovators’ flexible thinking—their ability to improvise—serves them especially well when confronted with adversity.
No. of days	3 days
Duration	22-24 Nov 2021
Brochure
Registration & Payment	https://nimsme.org/RegistrationForm-2346
Fee for non-residential	7000/- plus GST 18%

Programme 4

Title	Managing Innovation and Design Thinking in SME's
Objective	Develop ability of strategic importance to any business - customer-centricity (design thinking), product innovation, and building a culture of innovation
No. of days	5 days
Duration	13 – 17 December 2021
Brochure
Registration & Payment	https://nimsme.org/RegistrationForm-2347
Fee for Residential	15000/- plus GST 18%
Fee for non-residential	12500/- plus GST 18%

Programme 5

Title	Creating Contagious Content for Viral Marketing
Objective	To create the sticky content so that the brand promotions can be done in an extremely easy way for SME’s. This technique of creating Contagious Content will make the product flow naturally viral and create “Pull” Marketing” in cost effective manner.
No. of days	3 days
Duration	24-26 January 2022
Target participants	1. Faculty of Engg Colleges 2. Existing SME’s 3. Incubators 4. Incubatees’
Brochure
Registration & Payment	https://nimsme.org/RegistrationForm-2348
Expected number of participants	20
Fee for Residential	9000/- plus GST 18%
Fee for non-residential	7000/- plus GST 18%

Programme 6

Title	Crafting Innovative Brands in SME's
Objective	Products are made and designed for the customers with the customers is the concept of modern age. However, how to create a SME brand had been always the point of interests because SME’s cannot afford to spend money behind establishing Brand at the same tune with their Large counter parts. Because the Brand establishment is long term. This course will show case how to create Brands which touches the heart and mind of customers step by step manner.
No. of days	3 days
Duration	21-23 February 2022
Target participants	1. Commissioner / DICs of all states 2. Executives of Developmental organisations 3. Industrial associations 4. Existing SME’s 5. Incubators 6. Incubatees’
Brochure
Registration & Payment	https://nimsme.org/RegistrationForm-2349
Expected number of participants	25
Fee for Residential	9000/- plus GST 18%
Fee for non-residential	7500/- plus GST 18%

Innovative Branding and Marketing Strategies

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Dibyendu Choudhury) — Wed, 29 Jul 2020 09:23:00 -0700

18-19 My Announced Programmes

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Dibyendu Choudhury) — Thu, 9 Aug 2018 03:33:00 -0700

Dr. Choudhury's Announced Programmes for 18-19

Dear Patron

Emerging markets are characterized by high volatility. Economic circumstances are constantly changing. Growth rates are often in double digits, and the competitive landscape is often shifting. New laws and regulations are constantly being put into place, and policy is constantly evolving.

To stay updated with the current challenging environment ni-msme always been successful in bringing appropriate training programmes in the form of Yearly Training Calendar (2018-19) for you and your esteemed organisation.

These training courses of ni-msme have been offered since 1962 and have graduated and refined more than 100000 participants in 42 countries including India and you are aware about our Genesis. This year training programme is a packaged with educational model for practitioners who are looking at building their career and/or improving their skills. It consists of few mandatory introductory courses on MSME Sector plus a selection of few specialized courses as given below. All short term courses are developed by our Faculty Members who are experts and have extensive domain expertise in their fields. The training delivery methodology is also formulated by educational experts which offers the flexibility for the participants to study at ni-msme campus, Hyderabad in our lovely green campus without compromising the quality of learning. Many of the participants in attended different programmes in last several decades have always found ni-msme as their second home.

I am writing to encourage you and other members of your organization to enroll and take advantage of these courses. You may find few of the courses which I have floated this year as sample below.

Programme	Date
E-Marketing Strategies for SMEs	17-21 Sept, 2018
Branding & Retailing Strategies for SMEs	21-25 Jan, 2019
Sustainable Tourism Development to promote SMEs	11-15 Feb, 2019
Internet & Social media Marketing Strategies	11-15 Mar, 2019

You may download the brochures from the link and forward to your peers or Training Managers for the advance nominations. We have also sent the Calendar to your department already.

Hope to meet with you and your colleagues again in this year here.

With Best Regards

Dr. Dibyendu Choudhury

Faculty Member- (SEM)

National Institute For Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (ni-msme)

(An Organisation of the Ministry of MSME, Govt. Of India)

Yousufguda, Hyderabad-500045

Telangana.

www.nimsme.org

+91-9700422230 (Cell)

Canara Bank Training -Batch 1

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Dibyendu Choudhury) — Sat, 25 May 2013 02:03:00 -0700

Schedule

Customised Training Programme for

Canara Bank Executives Heading SME Sulabhs

at ni-msme, Hyderabad

(27^th – 31^st May, 2013), Room No-201

Date	Session	Topic	Faculty
27.5.2013 Monday	0900 – 0930 hrs	Registration
	0930 – 1000 hrs	Inauguration
	1000 – 1100 hrs	All about MSME	PUS
	II	MSME Schemes	PUS
	III	MSME Policy & Programmes	PUS
	IV	MSME Clusters	KSPG
28.5.2013 Tuesday	I	Investment Decision Making Process	AV
	II	Long Term Investment	PUS
	III	Short Term Investment	TVR
	IV	Costing Principles and Techniques	NS
29.5.2013 Wednesday	I	Capital Structure	GS
	II	Project Appraisal - Tools and Techniques	GS
	III	Financial Accounting and IFRS	GS
	IV	Financial Analysis	PUS
30.5.2013 Thursday	I	Segmental Reporting	GS
	II	Capital Markets	Shroharikrishnan
	III	Money Markets	GS
	IV	Financial Instruments and Services	GS
31.5.2013 Friday	I	Risk Assessment and Management	SL
	II	Acquisitions and Mergers	DC
	III	Corporate Restructuring	JRG
		Valediction

Useful Links Are Given Below

Link for your Feedback

Designing Balanced Score Card: For the Executives of Singareni Collieries

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Dibyendu Choudhury) — Fri, 3 May 2013 00:28:00 -0700

One week programme on

Designing Balanced Score Card:

For the Executives of Singareni Collieries

(6th - 10th May, 2013)

Inaugural Schedule

Venue: Room No. 204

New Training Building

Time	Event	Comment
9.30 a.m.	Welcome	Dr. N. Sri Laksmi, Registrar, ni-msme





9.35 a.m.	Lighting of the Lamp
9.40 a.m.	Introduction	Participants
9.50 a.m.	About The Programme	Prof. Dibyendu Choudhury Programme Director, FM-SEM, ni-msme
10.00 a.m.	Behind the Concept and Practices	Prof. P Udaya Shanker , Director (SEM)
10.10 a.m.	Inaugural Address	Prof. M. Chandrasekhar Reddy Director General, ni-msme
10.20 a.m.	Vote of Thanks	Prof. Jaykar Rao. G, FM-SEM ni-msme
10.30 a.m.	High Tea

Useful Links Are Given Below

Link for the Balanced Scorecard Questionnaire

Week round Schedule

List of Participants

Link for your Feedback

Cellphone Survey

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Dibyendu Choudhury) — Sun, 1 Jul 2012 12:51:00 -0700

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Cell Phone Utility Survey

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Dibyendu Choudhury) — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 11:53:00 -0700

The engagement feedback through polling

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Dibyendu Choudhury) — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 10:50:00 -0800

Entrepreneurship Quiz

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Dibyendu Choudhury) — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 02:40:00 -0800

Are you smarter than a 5 Graders?

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Dibyendu Choudhury) — Wed, 6 Oct 2010 04:40:00 -0700

Are you smarter than 5th Graders? » Quiz School

Life@ASBM

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Dibyendu Choudhury) — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 22:47:00 -0700

A glimpse of some invaluable moments down the memory lane @ ASBM through my eyes....(All Mobile Uploads)

Case Study and Boardroom Discussion on Attrition and BPO

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Dibyendu Choudhury) — Mon, 2 Aug 2010 05:26:00 -0700

John received the call from his client Bob from Parsippany, NY a small telecom company at around 6.30 AM IST at Kolkata on the way back to his home from office. “John” is his pseudo name and he could able to keep the same name for a while despite of changing several jobs in the BPO sector here at Kolkata. The EM Bypass actually looks like marine drive of Mumbai during this time of the early morning. The city is still sleepy and yet to get up from the bed. The fog is still curling on the road and very difficult to understand whether that’s a fog or smoke while driving. “Good Evening, Is it a good time to talk John?” Bob asked and continued “here this week end we’re now going on Thanks Giving Holiday and it would be quiet for the business during this time till the end of the year and this is the time John, we need to work hard to revamp the ops..” he paused. In the mean time John could manage to stop and park his car beside a lake on the side of the road. John answered “You’re correct John, we’ve an aggressive recruitment plan this year and I’ve hired a seasoned HR guy to recruit fresh graduates this time and would train them with the pilot which we would be running with you and would slowly ramp up the team”. “Excellent, but I need to make sure you’ve hired the right people for me this time John. The attrition is too high with your center and I really can’t afford to waste my management’s time any more on training, it costs us time, money and energy as well and once we train them they quit”- Bob finished his talk with a great concern over the phone. John somehow managed and ended the entire conversation with a promise to have a review meeting with the management team on Wednesday, after this long week end of Thanks Giving. John has grown up in this Industry and had gone through the entire cycle of the industry, even lost his job during recession 2008. He moved back from Mumbai to Kolkata with his family to his home town to do something on his own. Could open up the BPO set-up after 6 months with only 3 people initially and now its having 50 people. The set-up is a hybrid call center set-up with VoIP as well as IPLC backbone. He started rolling and he noticed that the lights of the streets are going off and the city started getting up slowly from the curling fog. John started rewinding his thought process while driving prior reaching home. “Business Process Outsourcing”, commonly known as “BPO” here in India and still accept general graduates or school going kids, both of this genre still didn’t find BPO jobs convincing in India, but one of the most booming sectors in the Indian industry, despite of the fact that the industry got affected really bad during recession, but not as bad as the IT sector though. Since its inception, the Indian BPO industry has grown at a constant annual rate of 40-50 percent and within a couple of years, India managed to secure the position of the most preferred and low cost destination for business process outsourcing. Despite the recent concerns about the nonviability of BPO due to the increasing cost and the emerging security issues, the Indian BPO industry is expected to generate one million jobs by the year 2010. The sector has also increased its revenue manifolds to $8.5 Bobion in 07-08 and is poised for higher growths. Ironically, in spite of the tremendous growth potential of the sector, attrition rate and the manpower crisis is dampening the growth of the sector. The human resource professionals of the BPO industry are facing various challenges like the attrition rates and its implications, skill shortages, retaining the employees etc. Its Wednesday evening and John is seating with his team in his cozy office in the conference room at sector V, Saltlake City, Kolkata. Within another 10 minutes the conference call would start with Bob. John has got Roby, the General Manager of the Center, Two Accounts Manager Shyla and Ricky and the newly hired GM-HR, Nishikant. Its around 6.30 PM evening at Kolkata India, Uma the head soft skills training manager, she was also looking after the recruitment previously for John. John: Well, Ladies and Gentlemen today we’re here and we all know the agenda, very soon Bob will also join us in this discussion and this meeting is really crucial for our business growth. John’s seriousness is also getting reflected through his voice. He continued.. This account “Starcom” is our flagship account may be the business is less, but they’re running their customer support as well as sales campaign with other 10 centers including us in all over India. Our goal is to get this account consolidated with us. Bob needs to have confidence on us and we need to actually give his a realistic plan and achieve our goal. Uma: Good Morning guys, we’ve the problem of attrition like all other center in India. The Attrition Problem according to NASSCOM data, the attrition rate for voicebased BPO’s is around 55-60 percent and 15-20 percent for the non-voice based processes. The attrition rates and the retention have become the major threat and the biggest challenge in this sector. In fact, the outsourcing industry is expected to face a shortage of 2,62,000 professionals by 2012. The phone started ringing and Bob entered in the meeting through the phone and greeted to all. John introduced all the team members with Bob and briefed Bob about the discussion they were having prior to his entry. Uma started again: See, The top ten reasons for employees to leave a BPO company are: • Monotonous work (repetitive nature of work and the average number of calls) • Physical strains because of long and odd working hours. • No growth opportunity/lack of promotion. • For higher Salary. • For Higher education. • No personal life • Problems with peers and managers. • Policies and procedures. • Conducive work culture or environment • Handling abusive calls. Bob straight came to the point and said- The Indian BPO industry, which established itself as the low-cost destination for business process outsourcing in just a couple of years, is losing its position as the low-cost destination because of the rising people costs. The IT-ITeS industries are struggling with the critical issue of acquiring and sustaining manpower in the industry. The BPO industry – one of the most rapidly growing sectors in the Indian industry- is grappling with the issues of skill shortages, high attrition rates and performance management along the confidentiality and security concerns. All these issues are having a negative impact on the BPO industry. He paused and continued- I don’t mind in consolidating the entire wok here with your center, but at the same time I won’t mind going to Philippines or any other place where I would get the same service in cheaper price. John: That’s true Bob, but let us see couple of data out here and let us discuss how we can actually trouble shoot this problem. The high attrition costs increases the costs to our organization too. We need to combat the amount of disruption due to unplanned exits. The more the people leave an organization, the more it is a drain on the company’s resources like recruitment expenses, training and orientation resources and the time. The high attrition rate also affects the productivity of the organization. The attrition cost has been estimated to be as high as 76 percent of the annual salary costs for us. The voice based processes, which are facing an attrition rate of 60 percent, are incurring the attrition costs of 27 percent of the total operating costs. Nishikant: Well, I think it is important to measure turnover correctly in this case. Many organizations do it inaccurately while measuring their turnover and “churnover”. To correctly calculate the turnover, we may need to take the total staff left the call center as a percentage of the total staff compliment. So if 50 staff left the center throughout the year and the center employs 50 staff, the turnover is 100%. Another situation is the positions been replaced, so for example might say that 25 staff who were in place at the beginning of the year are still there at the end of the year so only 25 positions were filled with new agents and therefore a 50% turnover level. This is an inaccurate result however. Other incorrect practices include not counting the staffs who left during the probationary period or who do not complete their training. Yet another method of artificially reducing the turnover is not including staff that move internally (churnover). It is important to accurately calculate our turnover, if we are to determine the real cost of turnover for our organization. Bob: Hey guys, attrition/Turnover is a result of the Selection, Recruiting, Hiring, and Training and Deployment process for new staff. Knowing where you experience turnover in this process can help to identify and then address ways and means to improve the affected process. With the cost of a new hire from selection, through hiring, training and deployment running from $5,000 (US) to $10,000 (US) it is of critical importance to understand where the process is dysfunctional and can be improved. Agents in any center will move through a productivity continuum from their first day on the job. In many centers it will be six months or more before a new agent achieves the productivity of an experienced (6 month plus agent). So in short it will take 6 months for a new agent to attain the productivity of the agent they are replacing. Uma: Exactly Bob, we have seen that from our past experience, if the cost for a new agent is $2000/month, then we need to budget an addition of $1000 in month 1 to deploy additional agent labor to maintain your expected service level. In Month 2 this cost declines to 40% and the incremental additional cost to hold your SL is $800, in Month 3 productivity is at 70% so the incremental productivity top up is at $600, Month 4 is $400 and Month 5 is $200. In month 6 the new agent performs as well as an experienced agent. Bob: Umm…Ok, that means you guys suggesting to revisit the cost structure and payments? John was listening to the entire discussion and was actually scribbling down the points in his note book. He said John: Bob, its not only revisiting about the cost structure. This exercise even we could do without involving you. The point is why we’re doing that with you jointly and keeping you also involved? See today, the point from where we’ve started in India of Call Center was a cost factor that was comparative advantages. But, mainly in US the customers have forgotten that its not only costs they also need the level of services and keeping the level of service we need to take advantage of economies of scale by virtue of which some costs saved while outsourcing to India. Its not that, just by outsourcing the costs of the call center get reduced to me by 70%. The people whom we’re serving on behalf of you are actually your customers. So, you can’t afford to just compromise the level of service even while doing outsourcing. Then the major part of the business, your customers becomes no one’s baby and eventually you get affected the most. Hence we gotta be partner because at any case you can’t deny the competitive advantage India has got on technology and the scale of economies. Bob: That I understand and that’s the reason today we’re here John. John: Exactly Bob and that we really appreciate here, actually we’re trying to build a collaboration with you and revisiting the fact that, how we can offer the better services to your customers keeping in mind about attrition/ turnover in India in this segment, because our organization is no more only our organization. Its your organization too. We’re your provider and you should also know the costs of operation on the ground reality. Bob (started talking after a brief pause ..): Well. (with a pause )..I see your point John but may be at the same time you can’t ignore the cost of operation in India is also going high. May be we need to tradeoff in between the low end jobs and high end jobs. The low end jobs should get out from India, to Philippines I guess…umm…let us get into the costs part pls. John: The reality is that each organization is different and will have different costs depending upon their business and more specifically their inputs; Agent rate, benefit load, recruiting costs, the impact on the center of back filling_ the agent position- this is the agent productivity costs to schedule an agent to cover the shift of the agent who has left or is in training. There is also an impact on the quality assurance team; new staffs are, in most centers the recipients of far more monitors than veteran agents, this represents a cost too. John looked at Roby and said so let’s complete an exercise to identify the cost for our own centers looking at the 1. First identify the starting agent hourly wage in our center. 2. Now add the recruiter, supervisory, Quality Assurance, and Contact Center Manager hourly rates 3. Identify the percentage of the hourly rate that reflects the cost of benefits offered. For example if the medical, PF, and all other employee benefits is $3.33 per agent hour and you pay agents $10 per hour then this is a 33% benefit load. 4. Next put in the number of hours our HR and/or recruiting staff will work on sourcing and hiring a new hire. This cost should be based on the following numbers of interviews/hr and the numbers of interviews per hire. 5. Extrapolate the number of hours for agents to back fill the agent position, the lost productivity times the hourly costs 6. Multiply the recruiter rate by the recruiter hours and the same for the Supervisor, QA and CC Manager and lastly the Training costs (hours * agent hourly rate + trainer costs (hourly rate * hours)) - be sure to include trainer prep time, HR staff time to complete forms etc. It is important to include all costs in this calculation such as Advertising or Posting costs; Interview costs- if there multiple interviews with multiple attendees, you must account for each of the attendees time for all of the interview meetings. Let us work this out and post it to Bob by tomorrow and Uma will also help Roby for this assignment, so that we all understand where we stand. Bob: The Quality Assurance cost needs also needed to be calculated. A center that completes 4 monitors per agent per month on an average may do 16 per month on “new‟ agents will need to adjust their QA labour and customize to fit your centers practices. Guys I need to discuss these issues with my partners and the board for the approval of the extra costs. Kindly send me the working sheet John. John: To be precise Bob, its our Center’s practices…and all started laughing and Bob had gone out from the teleconferences for the day. The meeting still continues. Shyla to John: But Sir…any increase in “churn‟ (attrition, turnover, churnover) will result in additional staff in the center. This new staff will bring in perceptions from outside of the center regarding wages paid etc. In addition the staff that remains will often feel that they should be paid more money if it appears to them that they are the experienced and veteran staff. Both these events create pressure to increase wages and compensation even though quality and productivity are declining. Roby to John: The addition of new staff will dilute both the production and quality. Productivity is diluted as new staff will not be as proficient of the staff that left. Quality will decline as the new staff will make more mistakes and they learn with time. These points are true at the same time continuous training is also true. John started speaking looking at all the people present at the conference room. (Sipped the lemon tea and continued speaking) “The new recruitment has got also impact on Morale and Quality of the organization and we need to be more cautious on all these. But, lets now get into work and we also need to hold the regular staff meeting”. This instruction particularly goes towards both Roby and Uma. John (verdict): Hold a staff meeting, review the situation, ask for their input and suggestions how we can improve. Be transparent if there have been layoffs or planned redundancies share this with the staff, including the timetable. Let the agents also know that we are working to solve the problem of turnover/people churn. Show our agents that we care about them, about the company and about the products and services and customers we support. Ask for their input. If you are at the bottom, there is nowhere we can go but up. (This study is published by the Author in Connections Magazine as white paper) Your Analysis and comments are welcome for the publication in magazine: 1) Bob would stick with John and his call center or find other cheaper one in Philippines? 2) What John should do for bringing his costs down? 3) Is it possible to become partner with the clients in reality?

R&D Activities within Indian Companies

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Dibyendu Choudhury) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 22:19:00 -0800

R&D Activities within Indian Companies

Innovation requires synergizing the energies of private enterprises, research institutes, think tanks, and government and private educational institutions. Currently, India not only provides a low-cost structure and massive pool of skilled human resources, but also offers cutting-edge R&D with high quality standards at competitive costs. After being recognized for its achievements in the IT and services sectors, India is rapidly evolving as an innovator of high-tech products of global stature and this is going to enhance the competitive advantage of India over coming years within emerging economies (BRIC).

R&D Investments in India

Domestic R&D investment is crucial for innovation. As innovation in India is still in its nascent stage, 80 percent of the domestic R&D is undertaken by the public sector, while the remaining is funded by private enterprises. The allocated science budget in India has increased at a CAGR of 12.3 percent between 2004 and 2008, to INR 242 billion.

Before economic liberalization, private sector companies in India did not invest significantly in R&D. A few notable exceptions were companies such as the Tata Group. Most R&D investments were largely made by central and state governments, and certain public-sector enterprises. However, the post-liberalization period witnessed a substantial increase in R&D investments by private sector companies. The corporate R&D intensity (R&D expenditure as a percentage of sales) increased from 0.07 percent in 1991 to 0.51 percent in 2004.

The growth in R&D spend has been led by foreign multinational companies, which have both established in-house centers in India and outsourced R&D activities to the country. However, there has been a substantial increase in the R&D spend of Indian private sector companies as well. Indian companies from IT, pharmaceutical and automobile sectors have started competing with foreign MNCs on a global scale and therefore seek to increase their R&D activity to keep up with the latest technology.

Leading Indian Investors in R&D

Several large-scale Indian companies across a range of sectors, such as Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd., Bharat Electronics Ltd., Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Ranbaxy Laboratories, Tata Motors and Wockhardt, have begun investing substantially in R&D. In 2006–07, the total R&D expenditure of the top 20 R&D investors in India was about INR 49.2 billion. Table depicts the top 20 Indian R&D investors.

Table 1: Top 20 Indian R&D Investors by R&D Spend (2006–07)

From Untitled Album

Private companies had a major share in the industrial in-house R&D expenditure in 2006–07. Only four companies—Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd., Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd., Bharat Electronics Ltd. and Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Ltd.—among the top 20 companies, were from the public sector. Eight among these 20 companies were from the pharmaceuticals industry. The total R&D spend of these eight companies was INR 15.78 billion.

Leading Indian Patent Applicants

Among the top 200 patent applicants worldwide (from January 2005 to December 2007), 22 are pure-bred Indian organisations. Among these 22 companies, 14 are private sector firms. Table 2 depicts the top Indian private sector companies that have published patent applications at the Indian Patent Office (IPO).

Table 2: Top Indian Private Sector Patent Applicants (January 2005–December 2007)

From Untitled Album

Among the companies listed in the table, nine are pharmaceutical companies. These companies collectively have 1,372 IPO-published patent applications. Figure 1 depicts the number of patent applications filed by different sectors in India.

Clearly, the pharmaceuticals sector has the maximum number of patent applications filed with the IPO, the US, the EP and the PCT.

From Untitled Album

Typical Areas of Research

Sectors that have witnessed significant R&D activity in recent years are as follows.

· Information and Communications Technology – Software and Hardware

· Life Sciences – Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals and Bio Informatics

· Engineering – Manufacturing, Consumer Durables, Material Sciences and Infrastructure Construction

· Automobiles

· Energy and Chemicals

· Agriculture

· Others – Space, Aviation, Defence, Nuclear Technology

The estimated R&D activity levels in these sectors are provided in Table 3.

Table 3: Estimated R&D Activity Levels in Various Sectors (2006)

From Untitled Album

Activity levels cover various parameters, such as R&D expenditure, the number of employees, patents, technical publications, and product and process development. Process development is characterized by a high level of R&D activity in all the sectors. However, product development is marked by moderate R&D activity.

References:

1. India's Emergence as a Global R&D Center – December 2007 Working Paper

2. R&D India Newsletter

3. India's Emergence as a Global R&D Center December 2007 Working Paper

7 Ways to Use Social Media to Build Stunning Business and Personal Brands

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Dibyendu Choudhury) — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 21:17:00 -0800

Check out this Presentation:

7 Ways to Use Social Media to Build Stunning Business and Personal Brands

View more documents from Jay Baer.

Entreprenuership Quiz for the End Term

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Dibyendu Choudhury) — Fri, 1 Jan 2010 05:30:00 -0800

Entreprenuership Quiz for the End Term » Quiz Maker

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Dibyendu Choudhury) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 03:12:00 -0800

IN SEARCH OF A FINE BALANCE

Fair Foods Ltd is a popular retailer of foods, with prominent outlets in large malls in all the six major metros. It was promoted three years ago by Mukesh Dikshit, and has clearly established itself as the country’s market leader with almost 6,000 customers visiting its outlets on any given day. Fair Foods has a strong supply chain in place, and an ERP system which daily tracks what food items have been sold in each outlet, and calculates the items and quantities, which need to be stocked the next day. The sophisticated system combined with the management’s experience over the last three years enables Fair Foods to forecast demand with some degree of accuracy. The management team is young and computer savvy, and continuously looks for ways to automate operations in order to cut down on manual mistakes. Because of the push by credit card companies, many Fair Foods customers have begun to pay for their purchases by credit cards. Fair Foods’ CIO, Arvind Desai, wants to use this trend to refine the forecasting process and also use data mining techniques to increase wallet spend. Not so long ago he studied in London and experienced first hand the loyalty programs and CRM initiatives used by large chains such as Waitrose and Sainsbury. Arvind is convinced that both Fair Foods’ topline and bottomline would benefit tremendously from using these tried and tested management tools. He also sees the CRM initiative as a means to block competition. Mukesh however is not sure whether Fair Foods should plunge into a CRM program. He understands that a CRM initiative cannot be half hearted, and is worried about the large changes which would probably have to be made to the company’s back-end processes, as well as the costs involved. To clear the air, Mukesh calls the entire management team to a brain storming session. Arvind begins the session by outlining the benefits as he sees them. “Companies must innovate to add more value and ensure greater customer satisfaction,” says Arvind, “and the cornerstone of good CRM is enhanced value offerings to the customer. Companies that break away from the beaten track, that go beyond the typical plain vanilla offerings, become great successes. ICICI Bank was not the most favoured retail bank till a few years back. Today it boasts of more than 10 million customer accounts thanks to its enhanced value offerings. We are in foods, and hence can easily develop a range of enhanced value offerings just as in banking ICICI has developed the ATMs, phone banking, internet banking, 8 AM – 8 PM banking etc. Other banks are trying to emulate them but they’ll always play catch-up. Now none of ICICI’s offerings are really new – they are just new in India. In the west these are established offerings. Similarly, the offerings I am suggesting are also tried and tested. Even FMCG companies like Amul are using the Internet to practice CRM. By visiting Amul’s cyberstore- www.amul.com- customers can choose and order products and even specify the time and date when they would like it to be delivered to their home apart from enjoying the privilege of choosing from the entire range of the products. ” While Arvind is clear that CRM is the way forward, the team quickly splits into two camps, one for CRM and the other hostile to the idea. Marketing, headed by Kumar Sonu, and HRD head Shirin Batlivala tilt towards Arvind, but CFO Srinivas Pandu and operations head, Pranab Chowdhury are sceptical. “Of course we are interested in enhancing customer satisfaction,” agrees Srinivas smoothly, “but I am sure you must be aware of the fact that IBM has recently conducted a global survey of CRM projects, which discovered that only 15% of current CRM projects are fully successful. This fact is corroborated by other failure statistics in the ERP/MIS areas.” Arvind refused to be goaded. Keeping his expression amiable, he responds with, “Yes, I read the report thoroughly, and it also points out that the success rate can be improved to as high as 80% through proper business process methodology and prioritization. As Fair Foods IT head, I have to say that software technology can take us only so far in any CRM initiative. We can be an even larger and even more profitable company if we are committed to CRM through the points I have just outlined. Allow me to elaborate further.”

“You mentioned IBM. IBM turned itself around by becoming a one-stop shop for its customers, and selling complete business solutions, and not just its own hardware. We have seen how Airtel by tying up with Blackberry and adding email communication to its telephony services is fulfilling more customer needs. ICICI’s basket of offerings cover the whole gamut of needs that customers may have – banking, home loans, car loans, credit cards etc. Now because we are a food retailer, with thousands of SKUs, we can easily develop enhanced value offerings. The difference between today and three years ago is the quality of our data. Three years ago, we had a computerized system, which tracked every item we sold. Today, because more and more customers are paying by credit card and not cash, we can easily track them down and contact them. For example, we compete with the local kirana who can deliver more or less between 8 am and 8 pm. If we mine our data carefully, we can work out every customer’s weekly requirement pattern, and also make home deliveries.”

“Home deliveries! But if they don’t come into our outlets, how can we entice them to spend more?” asked Pranab heatedly. “India is not an evolved market. It has taken us years to introduce customers to variety, to break down the disinclination to try something new. We have spent so much effort in making our stores friendly for both servants that shop on behalf of rich housewives as well as the middle class male doing the big weekly shopping, and everyone in between. How will they know that something new is on offer if they don’t come into the shops?”

“We get considerable revenue from in-store advertising because media planners know that over 6,000 customers visit our outlets every day. If the footfall crashes, this revenue will disappear,” added Srinivas. “Moreover, we don’t really know whether databases truly work. Most databases are just a collection of names and contact addresses. I know of cases where credit card subscribers are inundated with subscription offers of sundry magazines most of which are of no interest to them. Mass mailing to all members of the database is the name of the game.” “I agree that there is blatant abuse and misuse going on around us and that this gives a bad name to database marketing besides being an appalling waste of a database. Needless to mention, the success rate of this effort is very low and demoralizing for the marketer,” chipped in Kumar who has been silent until now. “Therefore, one needs to refine and append the data in a database to ensure that critical intelligence is garnered from the database and put to good use. And as Arvind mentioned, we ourselves will be generating our database.” “I recently met the marketing head of Johnson & Johnson who uses a database of pregnant women to send them offers for the purchase of baby care products, and it makes perfect sense,” continued Kumar. “Likewise, a publisher of Hindu mythology related multimedia software gave away free Hanuman Chalisa CDs to create a database of people interested in Hindu mythology. Later, he sent them offers for purchase of a digital rendition of Bhagavad Gita. In this way, databases should be refined to generate significant leads. Looked at from another angle, it fits in with a basic tenet of CRM of choosing the right customers (and therefore being able to serve their needs better). I am confident that we can do this.” “Can we personalize the offers?” asked Shirin. “Surely the next logical step after landing a customer is to understand the individual customer? Each customer has a unique set of needs and demands.” “A mass marketer fails to distinguish the individual customer’s needs but in our case we can certainly mass customize,” answered Arvind. “Let me give you two very different examples. A bookshop treats all customers alike but firstandsecond.com treats each customer as a distinct individual. Say two visitors to the firstandsecond site are interested in books on marketing, the sophisticated site differentiates between them by quickly finding out that one is interested in Brand Management (and shows her books on brand management) while the other’s interest lies in CRM, and pulls those out for him. A traditional bookshop can have just shelves dedicated to management books (or at best Marketing Management).” “Further” added Kumar,”In a recent article in Business Express I read how even traditional companies are finding ways to personalization. To take on international majors like Revlon and Maybelline, Lakme started using CRM. It set up a dozens of beauty salons across the country where it has Lakme beauty advisors who interact directly with customers and advise them. This helps the company get first hand knowledge of customer preferences. As a result sales at the outlets are growing by 42%. This is way above the 10%-25% enjoyed by the 60,000 outlets that sell Lakme products sans advisors. “Everything sounds nice when it is on paper”, said Pandu. “All companies plan to deliver high value to customers but most of them fail when it comes to walking the talk. The factor that separates the good and bad companies is the value delivery process. Take the case of the popular cell phone company Reliance. It lured customers, by promising them the best services at the lowest possible rates. But in a recent survey conducted by IDC (quoted in www.cellphoneusers.co.za), 24 out of 100 Reliance subscribers had complaints with regard to billing. Despite the zany advertisements and high decibel promotions to entice customers, the value delivery process let the customers down. If Reliance, which has both infrastructure and financial support, failed in its CRM initiative, how will a small company like ours succeed?”

Mukesh who was patiently listening to the arguments, remembered something he had learned during an executive development program last year. The professor, an authority on CRM had suggested collaborating with suitable partners was sometimes a viable and better alternative than delivering shoddy services. Mukesh remembered successful partnerships that had worked in India such as rediff.com using Business Standard for the business news section of its portal. Should they follow the partnership route?

The professor also emphasized that the real challenge was to sustain value delivery and build a long lasting relationship with customers. He had raised the example of Fevicol, which reaches out to over 100,000 carpenters through its newsletter that also helps in carpenters bettering their craft.

Breaking off his reverie, Mukesh paid attention to Shirin’s arguments. “With customer attrition rates hitting the roof, the primary challenge for us is to ensure customer retention. It costs about ten times more to acquire a new customer than to serve an existing one. And the key to customer retention is to understand the individual customer’s behaviour and predict her needs and demands. With a proactive effort, we will be able to make the customer immune to competition’s offers at least most of them. “

The meeting was coming to an end. But CFO Pranab was not impressed. “A lot of CRM initiatives end up being glitzy and jazzy but make little impact to customer convenience”, he declared. Arvind felt frustrated listening to Pranab’s views. He thought he had a strong case for Fair Foods to implement CRM. Even though failures of CRM are much talked about, a number of success stories testify to the potential that CRM holds. With his team members not reaching a consensus, the onus was now on Mukesh to take a decision.

Solution

Customer Loyalty: 1. Memberships/ credit/ debit cards

2. having substitutes as options

3. Sticking to quality

With the latest CRM solutions, food service operators can:

•	Develop comprehensive guest profiles from reservation information and demonstrate that the operation is in touch with their needs.
•	Drive guest-centric data down to the transaction level, allowing employees using CRM technology to deliver greater value to the guest.

•	Generate an accurate profile of the spending patterns of guests, allowing the operation to create guest-centric marketing for increased loyalty and spending.

In the pre-Retail Boom days, consumers used to depend on the grocery shops in the neighborhood. Moreover they were more dependent on the shop owner, who were quiet familiar with the needs of his customers. So the customers used to rely mainly on his suggestions regarding new better products launched in the market. This association with the grocer used to bind the customers for years to come.

So in those days these grocers used to follow the same principles that retailers required to be successful: Loyalty, Good Quality and Right Price. But they used to manage this with their own intelligence. With the increase in market volume it has become impossible to a person or a group of persons to keep track of their customers while increased competition and market saturation has led to poaching of competitors’ customers. So came CRM which is nothing but an attempt to regain the customer intimacy. Goal of any CRM is to create and maintain customer loyalty which is less costly to serve and hence more profitable in the long run. Because it may be seen that 30 % of loyal customer may account for 80% of the sales.

Moreover, it helps in increasing operational and marketing efficiency by customizing database marketing, using different techniques like Data Cleansing and consolidation. It also helps in customizing pricing strategy and building offers for individual customers thus increasing interaction and loyalty.

As through CRM customer profiling can be done, so their behavior pattern can be studied in order to give value added service.

The use of such technology also increases the bar of competition, thus shielding the company from competition as customer loyalty thus gained requires a lot of effort from competitors to steal. And this helps the economy for the company better as it is always cheaper to retain than to win a new customer.

So CRM should be used in Fair Foods Ltd. for increasing the revenue per square feet of the stores. But also some more measures should be taken like introducing membership cards and customers should be encouraged to use them through different offers (e.g. discounts or lucky draws) or points given for their use and special prices for bulk purchase. It is through CRM the company should forecast the customers future requirement and plan to increase the product offerings in the stores accordingly.

CRM in place such a retail company can think of better technology like implementation of RFID based solutions in future for further operational efficiency.

Enterprenuership Development

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Dibyendu Choudhury) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 03:06:00 -0800

Enterprenuership Development » Quiz Question Maker

CRM for PGRM Students of ASBM

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Dibyendu Choudhury) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 01:01:00 -0800

CRM for PGRM Students of ASBM » Quiz Make

Case Studies Link Shared with Students

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Dibyendu Choudhury) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 03:12:00 -0700

This page is intended for those who want to explore beyond their bookish knowledge and having intentions to learn more about the external world. These articles are assorted for my own interests too and shared over here for the visitors. This page would be continuously updated and you may find new articles in regular intervals. This page is Labels as “Case Studies & Articles” in the right-hand pen.

(Click in the link, which download the document automatically for you).

A Student Feedback Survey

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Dibyendu Choudhury) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 23:02:00 -0700

Advertising is Dead.

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Dibyendu Choudhury) — Sat, 8 Aug 2009 04:09:00 -0700

“Advertising is dead”…Sergio Zymann, Ex Vice president of Coca-Cola told this recently. Tell me honestly, how many advertisements you’ve watched carefully today and how many have caught your attention seriously so that it would influence your buying decisions?

Seriously, I’m not kidding, but I know in 90% cases the answer from you would be nothing, may be even at the time of recalling your memory, you would be amazed that, it’s a complete blank, nothing comes out in your mind. Now tell me, while buying anything starting from the weekly shopping to your daily grocery in some kind of retail format, is it possible for you to remember all those ads and buy stuffs matching your perceptions? At any case, while in transit or at home till we go to the bed, we’re all rushing through that time frame, everyday, though we’re getting bombarded with thousands of advertisements while starting our day by Radio, TV, Newspaper, Magazines, websites, SMS from everywhere. Hardly, I could remember an ad caught my mind and had changed my buying decision so far except may be few here and there, and those few I’ve appreciated mostly for their art form or the aesthetic values. That doesn’t mean the advertisement was great and it had accomplished its goal.

Today, common people are daily undergoing through most-probably billions of ad exposures and within those billions of exposures, hardly few get attracted by the people and create a spot in person’s mind. A person is exposed for an ad for just couple of seconds and within that frame a company needs to achieve its advertising goal and for that, company is spending billions from its marketing budget. Sometimes I feel recession is good, so that organizations rethink and reorganize themselves to survive in that tight market. Customers, who buy, will buy at any case irrespective of the good or bad quality of advertisements made by the companies. Advertising may be described as the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough as milking the cow. What happens when, there is recession like now? The first thing companies would cut the costs in every aspects of marketing, curtail advertisement costs, then lay off people and squeeze down operations and costs. Which we’re seeing now, name a company which had not seen such blood bath during this span. The bigger the organization, the bigger the cost cutting agenda. Amongst them, most of the cost cutting efforts have happened from the marketing department all over the world. That means, marketing is always been treated as the step child by the organizations, because mostly the organizations are run by the Financial people, and they always had seen marketing budget as the percentage costs of the total revenues earned. Recession means the revenue would be less, directly it would be impacting the revenue, hence curtail all the marketing costs. This fallacy had been severely criticized by Prof. Nirmalya Kumar of London School of Business or even Phillip Kotler.

In the real business world, marketing department always been treated as the step child, and as if, it’s the sole responsibilities of the marketing department only to earn revenues on behalf of the company; rest others would be only counting and spending them, and at the bad times when no one is buying or mostly deferring their buying plans, start squeezing the budget from the marketing department first. Human being is always been fascinated to pass the buck, marketing department is been treated so far so rough, that we may have to scrap the entire word “marketing” what we knew and learnt so far. May be this is the call to re-invent new marketing concepts to accommodate changes for the changes happening in the market, especially at the hard times like now. “Advertising” which is the small part of the entire Marketing concepts, I’ve chosen as our point of discussion.

Reverse is again true, recession is the good time when companies should do intelligent marketing, offer better deals to the loyal customers, offer more value of money to their customers and concentrate more on customer retention. Because, this is the time good for business development, making a long lasting friendlier brand value in people’s mind, which would pay off more in the better time.

A complete natural and spontaneous dance for an advertisement is still in my mind. The advertisement was of “Dairy milk”, but it’s not for that product, rather for that dance and may be for that beautiful and natural model.

In one of my article I’ve discussed about the change in consumer behavior in India and the allied brand awareness changes happening all round. There you may also find few of the advertisements clippings, how Multinational companies changed their ad to suit Indian consumers. Let us now discuss what’s the ad goals and objectives. As per Phillip Kotller, Guru of Marketing Management Ad objective is 5M’s.

1) Mission

2) Message

3) Media Vehicle

4) Money

5) Measurement

An ad has got a message and its needed to be conveyed very clearly to the consumers, that’s the mission of an ad. Also an ad could be the brand ambassador of an organization. Coke is an established brand of “Coa-Cola”, and they can’t continue for ever “The Real Thing”, “Coke is It” or “I’d like to teach the world to sing”. Generally its been calculated that 30% of the entire money spent for an ad, gets returned as revenue from the newer customers due to an ad and most probably rest is coming other loyal customers through the selling process. I don’t believe that this theory is true particularly at this stage of brand maturity of Coke, it can really add extra 30% of revenues from the new consumer acquisition. Mostly those ads are used for the newer product introduction or recycling of the older products in newer formats, kind of old wine in the new bottles. After doing market study coke introduced a new product with less sweet in taste as good as Pepsi, because they’ve found Coke is sweeter than Pepsi, and offcourse there was a latent demand for such taste, otherwise the Pepsi bottles wouldn’t have sold. Amazingly they’ve found loyal customers reacted by the taste change and their percentage sales fall rapidly. Immediately, Coke recognized the problem and after doing root cause analysis, Coke had to reinstate the older taste to the market with the name of “Coke-Classic”.

So sometimes, an ad can also kill a product, “Pepsi One” is the case of such. Below is the ad of “Pepsi One’, this ad killed this product line. Pepsi ONE is a cola-flavored soft drink made by Pepsi, with only one Calorie per 12 oz.-can. It was introduced in the fall of 1998 as an alternative to Diet Pepsi, with Pepsi's commericals stressing its superior flavor.

Pepsi ONE was largely a failure, and while it still is on the market in many areas, it is not advertised.

Because, may be the brand rivalry in-between Coke and Pepsi was very evident through this ad, but the message was never clear, so the mission remained un-accomplished. Hence, a detailed measurement process of an ad has to be there. Someone told that, its really hard something that can’t be measured. Ad agencies would always force and claim any positive changes goes for their credit and the ad commercials they’ve produced. After an ad, if you may find the company’s sales revenue is getting down, the ad agency would immediately justifies that the product sales at any case would have to be fallen due to the market condition or product life cycle etc, but their ad made the rate of fall little slower. So, any CEO, prior taking an Ad budget into consideration has to make sure to measure the ad effects to the market and link it directly with the pay per view mode, the way Internet advertising has evolved. May be the change of Media Vehicle decision also could be made for the particular ad on this expenditure and return issue. Particularly when, there’s recession a critical decision about spending money has to be made rightly. Ryanair the cheapest airline of Europe became very successful and the case study is given in the link, also you may see their ad below, while most of the airlines of the world are making loss currently.

Measurement of ad traffics from the Billboards to the SMS would be very hard, but imagine the way Google thought about the advertisement in the web. There, a traffic converted from an ad is measured, footfall due to an ad is tracked, source of the traffic is also tracked and for which Google charge money, keeping the ad idle and publishing to different sites Google don’t charge money. So, it works only on pay per view model, this concept would most probably change the conventional Ad World sooner or later. People spending now big money for the ad commercials will soon become history, most of the companies would get into below the line (BTL) activities in the ad world and only get paid for their performances.

Sometimes it happens that the zingle is so good, the entire ad message is been diluted, people remember the zingle than the video. Or even I've watched a Bike ad few days back (forgotten the company name), which is roaring at the speed of 120KMPH in a hilly terrain, before we put such stuff infront of the consumers, we need to ask few questions to ouselves. Think how much irrelevant such ads are, how many roads are there in India, where a person can ride a bike with 120KMPH and require such product?

I personally believe if companies spend more time, money and energy and bring innovation on products designing and focus more on catering customer expectations and satisfactions, a company won’t have to spend much money for the advertisements. Because, word of mouth and satisfied clients would act as their advertisements and would bring the viral effect. In the today’s world products and categories are more than people’s need, so marketer adopts the strategies to push the products through advertisements. The reverse would be always true, pull strategy by virtue of the product capability and service capability, consumers would be automatically attracted even without costly ad campaigns and buy the products with huge satisfaction.

So the conventional advertisement what we see now are already dead, the backlashes are going on. The new age of changed advertisement concept is getting cooked under this economic slowdown and would be evolving with its new shape very soon.

May be we need to ask certain questions next time prior writing a check to the advertiser for some ad commercial for our own organizations.

Whether we've liked the ad creativity/ the content?
What is the main message to be conveyed?
What do you think a consumer have to remember?
How likely the particular ad would influence to buy the product?
How the ad would influence your psyche to make you inclined for the product?
What works well and what not?
How does the Ad would feel like?

Inspired By: “Marketing A-Z- Phillip Kotler

No two countries that both had McDonald's had fought a war against each other since they each got its McDonald's.

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Dibyendu Choudhury) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 01:17:00 -0700

In Thomas L. Friedman’s 1999 book The ‘Lexus and the Olive Tree’ the following observation was presented: “No two countries that both had McDonald’s had fought a war against each other since each got its McDonald’s”. As if it’s the secret sauce. It lessens testosterone levels. After a Big Mac, large fry and a Diet Coke. Nobody wants to fight it seems, they just want to go to sleep.

While that statement was somewhat tongue-in-cheek, his point was that due to globalization, countries that have made strong economic ties with one another have too much to lose to ever go to war with one another. The global expansion of McDonald’s restaurants is a relatively recent phenomenon in the Indian perspective when we put this into the context of the history of warfare, and, with a few notable exceptions. India also proceeded into relatively a stable market after the economic slowdown and considering as one of the most prospective and emerging market which the entire world is eyeing on. I was going through an article where some of the people fearing that, by 2012 China might spread the threat of war against India. If this theory is true, then guys you can well understand that, we’ve no fear of war sooner or later, because both Indians and Chinese have became now brothers and sisters by the virtue of having Big Mc Mama’s and enjoying BigMac as the milk of Mc Donald’s big fraternity family.

The 2008 South Ossetia war between Russia and Georgia is a counter example to the theory though, both countries having McDonalds at that time (started in 1990 and 1999, respectively). Other conflicts that provide possible counterexamples, depending upon what one considers “a war”, including the 1989 United States invasion of Panama, the 1999 NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and the recent Kargil War along with ongoing skirmishes between factions of India and Pakistan over the Kashmir region. Russia and Georgia, for example have McDonald’s. It seems that hostilities break out, skirmishes are conducted, and more, but only on a somewhat limited scale, without the formal declaration of war.

India and Pakistan both have McDonald’s. So do Greece and Turkey. Israel and several middle eastern countries that don’t get along have McDonald’s. China, Taiwan, Korea, and other Asian countries have McDonald’s. Several Central and South American countries have McDonald’s. The appearance of McDonald’s does not end an existing state of war: the states of Lebanon and Israel have been under a state of war since 1973, with South Lebanon occupied until May 2000 and a significant flare-up in 2006, which did not hinder the establishment of McDonald’s franchises in Israel and Lebanon in 1993 and 1998, respectively. The two countries engaged in a brief state of warfare in the summer of 2006.

Still, are McDonald’s investments a sign that countries are headed for freedom and peace? What do you think about Friedman’s views on globalization?

I personally feel that, McDonalds usually only exist in the areas with liberalized economies, which usually only exist in nations with liberalized governments and off course with liberalized society. States with liberalized governments usually do not go to war with each other because of United Nations and different Trade treaty to become the franchisees of the global supply chain. McDonald’s is a kind of sign that countries are becoming more interested in economic liberalization. Everyone understands that if people income level is good and happy, they won’t rebel. Sometimes this economic change is also associated with democracy and political freedom, but not always (see China). I think that if there is a relationship, it goes the other way around—first stability in a country, then McDonald’s. The same thing happened also in India.

As an indicator of relative stability, McDonald’s could be weakly correlated. As you point out, India, Pakistan, Israel, Palestine and others are counter examples. I think that perhaps we should increase our economic ties more. This has historically been a way of protecting oneself against bankruptcy. US owe China lots of money at this point of time, so they can’t afford to let United States go bankrupt. As we’ve seen recently, in the US, the government can’t afford to let certain monopolistic firms go under. Other way round, India is gaining confidence infront of the United States being emerging market with stable Government and skilled population. So, the entire supply chain of global economy is knitted well and firmly stable.

It’s not quite the same when we loan them money through the World Bank, and the IMF, but it does build ties, and it makes it more difficult for them to engage in wars. Plus US loans overseas go primarily to US companies who are building large infrastructure projects. Those ties are somewhat tenuous, but they are something. I’m sure McDonald’s follows soon after all those deals.

Mostly, though, I think that McDonald’s is a kind of stamp of approval rendered because a nation has attained a certain level of stability. Introduction of McDonald’s could indicate a willingness to adopt a more culturally homogeneous approach, which could be more encouraging of peace between previously differing nations too.

“When goods do not cross borders, soldiers will.”“ Frederic Bastiat.

US RECESSION AND ITS IMPACT ON AMERICAN CUSTOMERS

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Dibyendu Choudhury) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 22:26:00 -0700

Due to economic uncertainty, US customers have changed their mind in the purchase of expensive items. In fact this has been seen in the behaviour of the American customers in the purchase of products. Actually the American customers have decided to shift their purchase from now to the future in the case of expensive items. This becomes a concern for all the people who are related their purchase. Not to forget, American customers are considered as the backbone of the American economy. These are the customers whose spending decisions make up 70% of the economic activity. These customers’ moods are continuously assessed by the pollsters. Mainly their purchase decisions are deferred with reference to the house, cars, electronics, clothes and other expensive items.

2. US RECESSION

A recession is a decline in a country’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth for two or more consecutive quarters of a year. A recession is also preceded by several quarters of slowing down. US economy is on the brink of or already in recession. During the first quarter of 2008, US economy managed to grow by 0.1% and is also likely to decline by 0.5% in the second quarter of 2008. The second quarter growth result is likely to come by 31st July 2008. It has also been seen that there was no growth in the last month of the 1st quarter. Not surprisingly, consumers are distinctly less confident now than they were just one quarter ago.

3. REASONS OF US RECESSION

Thus what could be the reasons for the slower economic growth in the US? As US has not declared that they are in recession, it can be written as slower economic growth. First reason could be the Bush administration which gave the economy before 2004 and 2006 elections, through a combination of large tax cuts and large increases in military outlays. Second could be the record budgetary and current account deficits have severely neutralized the fed’s monetary policy view as interest rates cannot be reduced substantially for fear of collapse of the US dollar. Third, all this is taking place at the same time that the construction industry is in confusion and housing prices are declining.

4. CONSEQUENCES OF US RECESSION

When the economy slows down, business activities decline and less money change hands. Businesses often find themselves in a more difficult environment. They spend less in the businesses and try to curtail their investment in the different expenditures such as reduction of the sales force size. According to reports, in March 2008, the US economy lost 80000 jobs. This is the biggest drop in five years. The economic analysts have also opined that the rising oil prices, the prolonged housing slump and continuous job losses in the first quarter of 2008 are the main reasons behind recession. “I think the key concern for a consumer in a recession is the worry that they‘ll lose their job, said Joel Naroff, Chief Economists at Commerce Bancorp. If it’s an extended recession, there will be fewer and smaller pay raises and bonuses, so they will be bringing in less income.” The rise in the global economy has prompted many us based companies to close factories and outsource the work to other countries. Some economists see debt and the current credit crises, as a significant threat to consumers in a recession.

5. INDUSTRY SALES AND INDICATORS

The monthly retail sales in the US increased by an average of 0.1% in the second quarter of 2007, 0.5 % in the third quarter and 0.13% in the fourth quarter over the corresponding period of the previous year. However in the first quarter of 2008 consumer spending declined by 0.03% per month. US Durable Goods Orders over the past year exhibit a similar pattern. These are items that have a normal useful life of more than one year.

Another indicator is Personal consumption expenditures (PCE), over the past year, the monthly average has been positive every quarter: Q2 2007-+0.2%; Q3 +0.43%; Q4 0.53%; Q1 2007-08 - +0.3% and April 2008 +0.2%. Retail Sales in the US over the same period added an average 0.1% in the second quarter of 2007, 0.5% in the third and 0.13% in the fourth. Only in the first quarter of 2008 did consumer spending reduced by 0.03% per month. In April Retail Sales fell by 0.2%.

The consumer confidence survey released by the conference board showed the consumer confidence index slumping to 64.5 on a 100 point scale in March, the lowest since 2003.JD Power & Associates predicts that total automobile sales in the US during 2008 will be 14.95million vehicles, which would be the lowest since 1995.

6. FACTORS INFLUENCING AMERICAN CUSTOMERS

The main factors which influenced American customers are as follows:

• Focus of purchase changes. With tighter budgets, customers concentrate purchasing on essential products and services. They tend to acquire fewer impulse items, and tried to shift their purchases. For marketers, this can have an impact on products they choose to highlight and how they're positioned.

• Product tradeoffs. Due to reduction in disposable income, consumers may make different product tradeoffs. Depending on the type of items involved, these options may vary. It may mean using things longer, being satisfied with what they have rather than buying new, or trading down to less expensive substitutes. It's important to consider how these behaviors impact customers' view of buying merchandise.

• Lead time increases on the purchase decision. Before going for a purchase Customers are likely to think more and try to get more information about their purchase, acquisition, assessing need, utility, alternate products, and price.

7. PROBABLE STRATEGIES OF THE COMPANIES DURING RECESSION

Companies should bear eight factors in mind when making their marketing plans for 2008 and 2009:

1. Focus of research on the customer. Instead of cutting the market research budget, they need to know more than ever how consumers are redefining value and responding to the recession. Price elasticity curves are changing. Consumers take more time searching for durable goods and negotiate harder at the point of sale. They are more willing to postpone purchases, trade down, or buy less. “Must-have features of yesterday are today’s can-live-withouts”. Trusted brands are especially valued and they can still launch new products successfully but interest in new brands and new categories fades. Conspicuous consumption becomes less prevalent.

2. Focus on family values. When economic hard times arrive, people tend to withdraw themselves. Firms should look for comfortable hearth-and-home family scenes in advertising to replace images of extreme sports, adventure and rugged individualism. Greeting card sales, telephone use and discretionary spending on home furnishings and home entertainment will hold up well, as uncertainty prompts most to stay at home but also stay connected with family and friends.

3. Controlling the expenditure on marketing. This is not the time to cut advertising. It is well documented that brands that increase advertising during a recession, when competitors are cutting back, can improve market share and return on investment at lower cost than during good economic times. Uncertain consumers need the reassurance of known brands--and more consumers at home watching television can deliver higher than expected audiences at lower cost-per-thousand impressions. If companies have to cut marketing spending, they must try to maintain the frequency of advertisements by reducing from 30-to-15 second advertisements, substituting radio for television advertising, or increasing the use of direct marketing, which gives more immediate sales impact.

4. Reviewing the product-mix strategies. Marketers must reforecast demand for each item in their product lines as consumers’ trade down to models that stress good value, such as cars with fewer options. During this time, people prefer multi-purpose goods over specialized products and weaker items in product lines should be pruned. In grocery-products categories, good-quality own-brands gain at the expense of national brands. Industrial customers prefer to see products and services unbundled and priced separately. New products, especially those that address the new consumer reality and thereby put pressure on competitors, should still be introduced but advertising should stress superior price performance, not corporate image.

5. Extending the help to distributors. In uncertain times, no one wants to tie up working capital in excess of inventories. Marketers can follow some policies such as early-buy allowances, extended financing and generous return policies to motivate distributors to stock your full product line. This is particularly true with unproven new products. Care should be taken while expanding distribution to lower-priced channels; doing so can jeopardize existing relationships and the brand image. However, this may be the time to drop weaker distributors.

6. Reviewing the pricing strategies. Customers will be shopping around for the best deals. It may not necessarily mean to cut list prices but may need to offer more temporary price promotions, reduce thresholds for quantity discounts, extend credit to long-standing customers and price smaller pack sizes more aggressively. In tough times, price cuts attract more consumer support than promotions such as sweepstakes and mail-in offers.

7. Focus on the market share. Knowing cost structure can ensure that any cuts or consolidation initiatives will save the most money with minimum customer impact. Companies such as Wal-Mart and Southwest Airlines, with strong positions and the most productive cost structures in their industries, can expect to gain market share. Other companies with healthy balance sheets can do so by acquiring weak competitors.

8. Emphasizing the core values. Although most companies are making employees redundant, chief executives can strengthen the loyalty of those who remain by assuring employees that the company has survived difficult times before, maintaining quality rather than cutting corners and servicing existing customers rather than trying to be all things to all people. CEOs must spend more time with customers and employees.

Economic recession can elevate the importance of the finance director’s balance sheet over the marketing manager’s income statement. Managing working capital may tend to dominate managing customer relationships. CEOs must counter this. Successful companies do not abandon their marketing strategies in a recession; they adapt them.

By: Dr. SUNIL KUMAR PRADHAN ASBM,BHUBANESWAR.

References: 1. Marketing mastermind,May,2008, 2. Portfolio organizer, June, 2008. 3. http://seekingalpha.com/article/79725-recession-isn-t-here-until-the-consumer-says-so 4. http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3628564 5. www.TheCodeForGlobalEthics.com

Six steps far from your desired Job.-Personal Branding II

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Dibyendu Choudhury) — Sat, 16 May 2009 04:12:00 -0700

Six degrees of Separation- The art and the science in finding a job in this troubled market. Personal Branding-II

Imagine a kind of situation when you don’t have to apply for a job, but you’re landing up with all the good offers and employers are obliged if you join them. This is not the tale of Alice in Wonderland honey, this might be a possibility, because a person who’s highly visible by the head hunters in the Internet and networked with the right people at the right time might be needed at the right place, and you never know who might need you badly to join their company and might be pressing you hard to join them with a bigger and fatter pay checks with better benefits.

I always used to get amazed by a friend of mine who used to act as a scavenger. Hey, don’t get astonished by that term in the Internet world. How many of you generally go through those chain mails and forward to the people in your address book daily? Many of us, we forward to our friends and colleagues daily and then delete it without even seeing the matter well. Many like me delete it in the first shot to break the chain. We’re aware of some people in the net known as chain e-mail collectors known as scavengers and these mails are one of their weapons to collect the e-mail id’s of yours and mine. My friend collects those chain mails and makes database of e-mails for e-mail marketing once he does the right segmentation of those data. Right now we’re aware that, these e-mails are saleable and target marketing yields very good result inexpensive way. This is a part of Below the Line (BTL) activities while we talk about promotions.

Naturally the question comes now what, how and where this Six Degree of separation theory has got relevance with our topic of discussion. They say the world is small and round, Six degrees of Separation (also referred to as the "Human Web") refers to the idea that, if a person is one step away from each person they know and two steps away from each person who is known by one of the people they know, then everyone is at most six steps away from any other person on this planet named Earth. It was popularized by a written by John Guare.

Several studies, such as Milgram's small world experiment, have been conducted to empirically measure this connectedness. While the exact number of links between people differs depending on the population measured and the types of links used, it is generally found to be relatively small. Hence, the phrase "six degrees of separation" is often used as a synonym for the idea of the "small world" phenomenon.

So, there's this job that you really want. But, to get it, you'd have to find a way to get yourself in a direct dialogue with the hiring manager—the one person who can decide that you are precisely the right person for the job.

Initially, though, the outlook is grim because you don't know anyone—either in IT or the cafeteria—who works there. But, in all likelihood, if you know someone to your target company, you're a lot closer to that job and know that hiring manager than you think. You might be just six degrees away from making contact, according to recent research. I know you would now ask me, am I kidding? At this moment most of the job sites are repeating their jobs, in different consulting companies name, hiring been frozen last seven to eight months back in most of companies. What’s the point in getting connected with the hiring managers now? Can they hire now? Because, I may be needing a job right now.

Well, they say that, even a farmer has to wait for the entire season to get his crop back home safely. Not in the western world, now even in India, jobs are happening and happening at a very slower pace at this gloomy period. This is the right time for marketing, as I told you in my last article about personal branding. This is all about Social Networking. This exercise is also a part of personal marketing strategies, once the personal brand is slowly established in the market. Imagine a situation if you start doing it now, your visibility would be higher when this market moves upwards.

The other way round, most of the recruiters now try to get people for their client’s requirements from the social networking sites e.g. LinkedIn, SiliconIndia, Facebook etc because these are having more selective and quality people, far better than the job sites. Many talented people who’re stable with their current employers are naturally out from the job market. So, their visibility is much lesser through the job sites. Now, suppose a person’s skills and acumen just exactly matched with the client’s requirements, who might be not looking for a change at this moment, who knows he might change his mind by seeing the offer of your client. In the recruitment Industry nowadays its more of head hunting than finding suitable people for the requirements. They know their target companies and its more of aggressive poaching than anything else. It’s a competitive and small world.

What this means for today's job hunters is that getting in touch with the right person may only be a matter of tapping the friendship and professional wells dug throughout their career years. Instead of just the regularly hyped advice to network with peers and friends, the focus needs to be much more direct. Here's the basic three-step approach:

First, identify your dream job and two or three runners-up.
Identify the job title and be specific. For example, "Senior Technology Manager for Internal System Networking at Company C".You might have to research the specific title given for certain tasks at your dream companies.
Then start hitting your connections, both professional and personal, with all the specific information—from the company, location, title, and department, and ask them questions, such as:

"Do you know someone who works for a company that has an ongoing relationship with my target company?"
"Do you know anyone who used to work for my target company?"
"Do you know someone who works in the same general industry as my target company?"

Make it clear to all the contacts that you're trying to find out who hires senior technology managers at company C. If you can find the target person's name—the actual hiring manager—make sure you ask everyone if they can connect you to that hiring manager as well. If you can't find out the hiring manager's name, use some senior names at the company, such as the CEO or the CIO. Include your names in your request for insight from your peers and friends. Include every personal and professional tidbit you can scour in research—the hiring manager's alma mater, the CIO's hometown, the recruiter's personal interests etc. Nowadays to reduce the employee hiring costs, most of the companies are going for internal employee referrals schemes for any open position. The effort will be well worth it because sometimes it's just one piece of data that can open the door to an interview.

Personal Branding- I

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Dibyendu Choudhury) — Thu, 7 May 2009 07:03:00 -0700

Personal Branding- a product named you and me….. It’s a new brand world. That cross-trainer you’re wearing — one look at the distinctive swoosh on the side tells everyone who’s got you randed. That coffee travel mug you’re carrying — ah, you’re a Starbucks woman! Your Tshirt with the distinctive Champion “C” on the sleeve, the blue jeans with the prominent Levi’s rivets, the watch with the hey-this-certifies-I-made-it icon on the face, your fountain pen with the maker’s symbol crafted into the end ... You’re branded, branded, branded, branded. The consumer behavior is changing and these products and branding is also changing to cope up the sarrounding changes. Big companies understand the importance of brands. Today, in the Age of the Individual, you have to be your own brand. Here’s what it takes to be the CEO of Me Inc. While I was drafting this article for publishing, I recalled a friend of mine, who just hear songs in the car very loudly or may be the other one who is always a busy man and keeps us waiting to talk with him while he takes other’s calls in cell phone and starts speaking and get involved in that conversation forgetting about our presence (In India talking/ taking calls of others in front of you/me are still widely culturally accepted and a kind of icon of a busy man no matter how much you feel ignored internally). Hence, we create an image of ours in others mind knowingly or unknowingly. If I ask my son which phone he wants, he'll promptly suggest me to get a Samsung for him because Amir Khan is the brand ambassador for Samsung phones in India, and he's a profound fan of his Ghajini movie made by Aamir. So brand and brand ambassador is very much important for a product to market and we're the product as well as our own brand ambassador for my Inc.com. It’s time for me — and you — to take a lesson from the big brands, a lesson that’s true for anyone who’s interested in what it takes to stand out and prosper in the new world of work. Regardless of age, regardless of position, regardless of the business we happen to be in, all of us need to understand the importance of branding. We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in the business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You. It’s that simple — and that hard. And that inescapable. The real action is at the other end: the main chance is becoming a free agent in an economy of free agents, looking to have the best season you can imagine in your field, looking to do your best work and chalk up a remarkable track record, and looking to establish your own micro equivalent of the Nike swoosh. Because if you do, you’ll not only reach out toward every opportunity within arm’s ( or laptop’s ) length, you’ll not only make a noteworthy contribution to your team’s success —you’ll also put yourself in a great bargaining position for next season’s free-agency market. The good news — I'm back for my readers in a great way and it is largely good news — is that everyone has got a chance to stand out. Everyone has a chance to learn, improve, and build up their skills. Everyone has a chance to be a brand worthy of remark. Who understands this fundamental principle? The big companies do. They’ve come a long way in a short time: it was just more than a decade ago, April 2, 1993 to be precise, when Philip Morris cut the price of Marlboro cigarettes by 40 cents a pack. That was on a Friday. On Monday, the stock market value of packaged goods companies fell by $25 billion. Everybody agreed: brands were doomed. Today brands are everything, and all kinds of products and services — from accounting firms to sneaker makers to restaurants — are figuring out how to transcend the narrow boundaries of their categories and become a brand surrounded by a Tommy Hilfiger-like buzz. Who else understands it? Every single Web site sponsor. In fact, the Web makes the case for branding more directly than any packaged good or consumer product ever could. Here’s what the Web says: Anyone can have a Web site. And today, because anyone can ... anyone does! And that’s how we’re here. So how do you know which sites are worth visiting, which sites to bookmark, which sites are worth going to more than once? The answer: branding. The sites you go back to are the sites you trust. They’re the sites where the brand name tells you that the visit will be worth your time — again and again. The brand is a promise of the value you’ll receive. The same holds true for that other killer app of the Net — email. When everybody has email and anybody can send you email, how do you decide whose messages you’re going to read and respond to first — and whose you’re going to send to the trash unread? The answer: personal branding. The name of the email sender is every bit as important a brand — is a brand — as the name of the Web site you visit. It’s a promise of the value you’ll receive for the time you spend reading the message. Nobody understands branding better than professional services firms. Look at Accenture for a model of the new rules of branding at the company and personal level and how they’ve branded themselves with Tiger Woods. Almost every professional services firm works with the same business model. They have almost no hard assets — my guess is that most probably go so far as to rent or lease every tangible item they possibly can to keep from having to own anything. They have lots of soft assets — more conventionally known as people, preferably smart, motivated, talented people. And they have huge revenues — and astounding profits. They also have a very clear culture of work and life. You’re hired, you report to work, you join a team — and you immediately start figuring out how to deliver value your customers. Along the way, you learn stuff, develop your skills, hone your abilities, move from project to projects. And if you’re really smart, you figure out how to distinguish yourself from all the other very smart people walking around with $1,500 suits, high-powered laptops, and well-polished resumes. Along the way, if you’re really smart, you figure out what it takes to create a distinctive role for yourself — you create a message and a strategy to promote the brand called You. What makes You different? Start right now: as of this moment you’re going to think of yourself differently! You’re not an “employee” of General Motors, you’re not a “staffer” at General Mills, you’re not a “worker” at General Electric or a “human resource” at General Dynamics ( ooops, it’s gone! ). Forget the Generals! You don’t “belong to” any company for life, and your chief affiliation isn’t to any particular “function.” You’re not defined by your job titles and you’re not confined by your very job description or role you’re playing with your current company. Starting today you are a brand. Think that, you’re every bit as much a brand as Nike, Coke, Pepsi, or the Body Shop. To start thinking like your own favorite brand manager, ask yourself the same question the brand managers at Nike, Coke, Pepsi, or the Body Shop ask themselves: What is it that my product or service does that makes it different and give you competitive advantage over others? Give yourself the traditional 15-words-or-less contest challenge. Take the time to write down your answer. And then take the time to read it. Several times. If your answer wouldn’t light up the eyes of a prospective client or command a vote of confidence from a satisfied past clients, or — worst of all — if it doesn’t grab you, then you’ve got a big problem. It’s time to give some serious thought and even more serious effort to imagining and developing yourself as a brand. Start by identifying the qualities or characteristics that make you distinctive from your competitors — or your colleagues. We'll discuss more in the next one about this.

Dibyendu's Blog on Change Management

Announced Programmes: 21-22

Innovative Branding and Marketing Strategies

18-19 My Announced Programmes

Canara Bank Training -Batch 1

Designing Balanced Score Card: For the Executives of Singareni Collieries

Cellphone Survey

Cell Phone Utility Survey

The engagement feedback through polling

Entrepreneurship Quiz

Are you smarter than a 5 Graders?

Life@ASBM

Case Study and Boardroom Discussion on Attrition and BPO

R&D Activities within Indian Companies

R&D Investments in India

Leading Indian Patent Applicants

Typical Areas of Research

7 Ways to Use Social Media to Build Stunning Business and Personal Brands

Entreprenuership Quiz for the End Term

Enterprenuership Development

CRM for PGRM Students of ASBM

Case Studies Link Shared with Students

A Student Feedback Survey

Advertising is Dead.

No two countries that both had McDonald's had fought a war against each other since they each got its McDonald's.

Further Reading:

US RECESSION AND ITS IMPACT ON AMERICAN CUSTOMERS

Six steps far from your desired Job.-Personal Branding II

Personal Branding- I