“Kiranas only cater to food retail”

B&E: With the Indian retail space developing rapidly, what are some of the changes you expect to see going forward?
AB: In the coming years, staff in retail will be better trained, customer service will improve, retail formats will become larger and there will be more choices of retailers in several underserviced categories such as home improvement and value fashion.

B&E: Foreign direct investment in the fast-growing retail sector is being viewed from a positive as well as negative perspective with respect to job creation. What are your views on the same?
AB: If FDI in multibrand retail is restricted to only cities with a one million plus population, around 4.6 million new jobs will be created. If this is extended across India, around 11 million jobs will be created. Inflation will also come down because of better efficiencies, lesser wastage and higher competition just like telecom.

B&E: Why should India open up the sector to FDI? Why not set up retail infrastructure from the country’s own resources?
AB: Indian retailers don’t have the resources. Telecom developed much faster after FDI was allowed and this helped bring down telephone call charges by 99% in 16 years based on purchasing power of the rupee. The same scenario was repeated in the automobiles sector. For decades, we were forced to buy horrible cars like the Ambassador and the Premier Padmini. With FDI being allowed, the Indian consumer today has a choice of more than 80 types of cars from 17 brands, and also at a wide range of price points.

B&E: There is a fear that India would be swamped by multinationals that would kill local entrepreneurs, especially the small shops. Do you believe that FDI can affect kirana stores across India in this manner?
AB: Kiranas only cater to food retail, which is just 30.3% of the total retail market in urban India. Modern retail can capture a maximum of 7.5% of the total food retail market in urban India, based on several factors. Thus, modern retail can displace a maximum of 20,000-odd kirana stores. On the other hand, modern food retail will help create new local entrepreneurs for providing various services to modern retailers – such as logistics, warehousing, delivery, security, housekeeping, parking management, staff uniform supply and laundry, POS materials, et al.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles. 

IIPM Best B School India
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
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The ‘Lower’ house!

Acts of violence and protest, disregard of proceedings and lack of interest in participation have become shameful characteristics of our Members of Parliament. In that light, our Constitution needs to reconsider the immunity being given to our MPs and tighten the laws

The Parliament, in any democracy, is the very essence of the latent principles and policies of a nation. It not only represents the stature of its political system but is also a condensed reflection of the society at large. Contrarily, in India, the Parliament is witnessing several acts of pandemonium and violence and unfortunately, they have become more of a norm than an exception. Despite the inception of an Ethics Committee to study Parliamentary proceedings in 1997, which later came up with its list of suggestions detailing the ‘Rules of Procedure’ required to be incorporated in the proceedings, our Parliament and certain state legislatures keeps setting new standards in hours spent walking out and opposing anything that moves. Of course, part of it is what is accepted as essential for democracy to function – the opposition walking out to show their disagreement being one of them. But clearly, many other parts (populating the well of the house to ensure no work gets done, shouting, jostling, even violently attacking others members – as has happened in certain state legislatures) are clearly beyond even accepted standards of unparliamentary behaviour. What then should be the code of conduct that Parliamentarians in India should be forced to follow?

Many matured democracies have laid down and instituted clear and basic codes of conduct for their parliamentarians.

Many democracies across the globe have tagged the usage of derogatory words including liar, dumbo, coward, hypocrite, traitor, et al during house proceedings as offensive, and their usage was banned during the proceedings. Since then, many countries have laid down strict rules against usage of such and similar terminologies. Countries like Canada, US and UK consider usage of such words as evidence of contempt against the houses of government and have provisions for imposing fines and punishment (or both) on the accused. Any inappropriate behaviour or misconduct can invite legislative penalty under censure. To be precise, in the US, the term censure is defined thus, “A motion must not use language that reflects on a member’s conduct or character, or is discourteous, unnecessarily harsh, or not allowed in debate.” Specifically, article I, section 5 of the US Constitution states that every senator “shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members” and may “punish its Members for disorderly behaviour.” In Australia, under the contempt of Parliament rule (unparliamentary language), a fine of up to $5,000 and six months imprisonment can be imposed on individuals crossing the line. On the same lines, Hong Kong and UK consider contempt of the Legislative Council as a criminal offence. They may expel and can even prosecute the defaulters.

So what’s the formal code of conduct that exists for Indian Parliamentarians? Interestingly, India has no formal code of conduct regarding the behaviour of its MPs. A number of attempts have been made, committees have been constituted and recommendations gathered for installing a proper code of conduct; but no concrete steps in terms of converting these recommendations into legislations could be taken, primarily because of opposition from the MPs themselves.

Apart from using offensive language, another blot on the face of the Indian Parliament is the average attendance of MPs in the Lok Sabha. In the 2009 winter session, the average attendance of the MPs was 66%; with only 15 MPs securing full attendance and only 45 MPs having an attendance of more than 95%! There has been no apparent urgency among MPs to attend, as there is neither any stipulated minimum requirement of attendance in the Indian Parliament, nor does there exist any penalty for prolonged absenteeism. But then, even the United States has no such minimum specified attendance criteria for members of the house. Then again, in spite of having no minimum attendance criteria, the absenteeism ratio in US is much lower than India; pegged at 13% on an average, while in the 111th Congress, the figure was a mere 4%. Canada is better on these accounts. In Canada, there is a minimum requirement that MPs cannot miss more than 21 days in a session. In case they do, they have to shell out a daily fine of $120 for the misses. Recently, the Russian Parliament passed a law and imposed fines and penalties to punish absent lawmakers. In Germany, it is mandatory for members of the Bundestag to participate in their sessions. In Israel, a member of the Knesset is not allowed to miss a session without any valid reason while in Ghana, a member of parliament is asked to vacate his seat if found absent without permission.

Talking about the number of bills passed in the parliament, the picture there is quite obscure as well, though it doesn’t sound as surprising looking at the state of affairs discussed so far. There were, in total, 24 bills on the roster to be introduced in the last winter session of the Lok Sabha, out of which 17 were passed. But those were passed in the mere nine hours for which duration the session was possible. That was because of repeated disruption of both the houses by the opposition parties and the boisterous protests against the 2G spectrum scam. Other major disruptions in our Parliamentary history have included a 13 day protest by BJP in 1996 (when former telecom minister Sukh Ram’s residence was raided by CBI); disruption in the aftermath of the Ketan Parekh scam in 2001 and disruption with respect to the Bofors kickback case, which paralysed our Parliament for one and a half days. The estimated cost of running the Parliament per minute is Rs.40,000; which means that for every single day that the Parliament got stalled, the country lost a whopping amount of Rs.20 million directly. And one hasn’t even talked about the opportunity costs arising from the other bills not getting discussed.

Losses get multiplied exponentially if such costs are considered, as the introduction, debate and passing of bills could have improved the administration of our land. According to PRS Legislative Research, the incumbent government tried to introduce as many as 200 bills in the last seven sessions, but was able to get only 57 passed. In the last seven sessions, a humongous 35% of the business hours were lost due to disruptions. Lastly, the travesty is not complete without this startling fact that 17% of the bills were passed with less than five minutes of debate. Contrast this with the length of sessions that take place in developed countries, which are typically not less than 140-150 days per year.

Read more..........

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles. 

IIPM Best B School
IndiaManagement Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM's Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting

Amul stands for quality and fair price

Amul stands for quality and fair price

Association is probably a mild word to describe my connection with Amul. Because for the past four and a half decades, I have admired the people who had set up this federation and the ones who have been running it since then. Amul is not just a brand but a cooperative movement that involved farmers who had a major role to play in the freedom movement of our country. These starved farmers had the mettle to literally throw milk on the ground instead of paying taxes to the British Government.

The charisma of the leadership of Mr Kurien, his sense of idealism and deep commitment has made Amul a unique brand not just in India but across the globe. Amul has brought income in the households of farmers and you can witness the betterment of their lifestyle with your own eyes. The other thing that keeps you motivated to work for this brand is its unwavering quality as all its products come with high quality standards. As for the pricing strategy, you will observe that the products are all fairly priced, not cheap or competitive, but fair. They have been clear right from the foundation that they are here to serve two sections, farmers and consumers.

The driving factor on the creative front is their ability to give us a free hand in doing what they feel is our expertise. Apart from the 4Ps of marketing, they strongly believe in another ‘P’ which stands for ‘Professionalism’, so once they have appointed someone to handle their creative duties, they put in all their trust in that person.

Probably that’s the reason we have been able to churn out topical ads that have carved their own niche in the hearts of the masses. But if you ask me which of these brilliant billboard messages is special to me, it would be the one we did eons ago when Indian Airlines was on a strike for almost two months. The Amul girl mascot was dressed as an air hostess and the message was, ‘Indian Airlines serves Amul butter if and when it flies’. We were asked to withdraw the ad but Mr Kurien completely refused to do so. And later, the Airlines also gave up the idea of threatening them to cancel the butter supply.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM Best B School India
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM's Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
IIPM Proves Its Mettle Once Again.....
IIPM Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri on Internet Hooliganism
Arindam Chaudhuri: We need Hazare's leadership
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri - A Man For The Society....
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM RANKED NO.1 in MAIL TODAY B-SCHOOL RANKINGS
Planman Technologies

2011 ADVERTISING FORECAST

AS ECONOMIES STARTED RECOVERING FROM THE RECENT BUBBLE BUST,IT WAS EXPECTED THAT THE ADVERTISING INDUSTRY WOULD WITNESS A MODEST GROWTH IN THE COMING YEARS. BUT THE RISING FEAR OF DOUBLE -DIP RECESSION HAS FORCED SEVERAL ADVERTISERS TO TRIM BUDGET INCREMENTS PLANNED FOR 2011. FROM A LONGER TERM PERSPECTIVE, TOTAL MEDIA ADVERTISING FORECAST FOR THE YEAR 2016 ARE ESTIMATED TO CROSS $558.4 BILLION, FOR WHICH THE INTERNET WILL BE THE MAIN DRIVING FORCE.

Touching New Heights

In the post-recession era, developing markets continue to expand much faster than developed markets in terms of ad spends. Growth in the total media advertising industry is estimated at an average annual rate of 7% from 2011-2016. But Western Europe market analysts are of the opinion that the continuing debt crisis in the peripheral Eurozone has damaged advertisers’ confidence in the region’s long-term growth prospects. While political turmoil in MENA caused the ad market to go down by 14.2% this year, the market is expected to return to growth in 2012.

Still the most popular

Although marketers continued to pour more dollars into TV campaigns as compared to other media, the intensity was found missing as six out of the top 10 advertisers spent lesser than last year. The top 10 TV advertisers spent a total sum of $5.16 billion in H1, down by 1.7% yoy. The industry is expected to escalate at an average rate of 7.5% to around $243 billion by 2016. US, Japan, China, Italy and Brazil are the five largest markets today. It is noteworthy that TV, which is expected to captures 41% of global advertising in 2011, will actually increase its share to 44% by 2016.

Internet, what else?

Online advertising spends have gained a lot of traction over the past few years. This space is expected to grow by 10.6% each year through 2016 after rising by 12.5% in 2011. The medium is also expected to account for $70.9 billion in global advertising in 2011 and touch $117.5 billion by 2016. Its share of the global pie should increase from 17% in 2011 to 21% in 2016. However, the largest online advertising markets will remain the same with the United States leading the herd, followed by Japan & Germany. China will ultimately dominate with its rising growth rates in the coming years.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM Best B School India
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM's Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
IIPM Proves Its Mettle Once Again.....
IIPM Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri on Internet Hooliganism
Arindam Chaudhuri: We need Hazare's leadership
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri - A Man For The Society....
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM RANKED NO.1 in MAIL TODAY B-SCHOOL RANKINGS
Planman Technologies

“My focus is to drive ROI from my investments”

Staying up-to-date with the happenings in the industry and one’s professional knowledge is key to a good marketing career, says Gupta.

Most marketers say it has been a year of mixed fortunes so far. What has been your experience in this regard? Any new strategy you adopted this year?
The year has been good for us so far, though the effects of the slowdown have lately become apparent. But we are hoping that the exuberance of the festive season will help push sales. So far, the results from the Onam sales in Kerala have been very promising, and we are expecting good sales during the Diwali period. On the strategy front, we are getting more and more active in the digital and social media space. As more and more youth are frequenting these channels, we want to tap them. An added advantage of the digital platform is that you can measure the number of visitors to your sites.

High raw material and other input prices are squeezing the margins of marketers while tight competition forestalls the possibility of raising prices. What challenges do you see in such an environment?
The biggest challenge for me as a marketer is “how to drive ROI from my marketing investments”. This is my core focus, which I am asking all my team members to work on.

What is your leadership style? What do you think works best for you?
My style is situational. I am quite hands-on when it comes to new initiatives like making our presence felt in social media, stepping up online marketing initiatives, etc. I love and enjoy being active on this platform, and use it to keep bouncing ideas to my team and discuss the broad contours of our marketing strategy. Otherwise, I am more hands-off with the team, I trust their work, and just keep a bird’s eye view on the situation, rather than trying to micro-manage things.

How does the marketer inside you function differently ‘at work’ and ‘away from work’? Is it easy to switch gears between the different environments?
I don’t carry work home. It’s quite easy for me to switch off from work at home. I like spending time with my family, especially my two kids whose company I enjoy the most. Sometimes, I have to work on Saturdays as well, but that comes with the territory. In the office I get along very well with my peers and juniors. I like cracking jokes and having a good time with them. It’s critical to have a good work-life balance as a good family life propels you to give your best on the job front. So, I think one should never ignore one’s personal life at the altar of professional career.

What do you think was the major turning point in your career? What lessons did you learn from it?
It was while I was working with Gillette and was posted in the Middle East. I was on the strategy side of the business. Around 2003, I made a shift to the front-end side or the marketing side of the business. It was a real learning curve, and I got to apply the marketing strategies and insights, and it gave a great boost to both my confidence and career.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM Best B School India
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM's Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
IIPM Proves Its Mettle Once Again.....
IIPM Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri on Internet Hooliganism
Arindam Chaudhuri: We need Hazare's leadership
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri - A Man For The Society....
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM RANKED NO.1 in MAIL TODAY B-SCHOOL RANKINGS
Planman Technologies