Showing posts with label IIPM-News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IIPM-News. Show all posts

Friday, April 26, 2013

Letters to the Editor

Opinion builder

I am a regular reader of Business & Economy magazine. Your choice of topics and the research that goes into them is very impressive as is the quality of writing in every issue. The editorial columns are amazing and it gives immense knowledge, which assists me in generating my opinions on current topics in the industry. I especially liked your cover story on on the joint research with Tuck Business School as it offered a detailed case study, which not many publications go into. I also look forward to reading the sector analysis articles as they tend to summarise the past, present and future of the covered sector very precisely. I must say that each and every issue of B&E offers some or other brilliant piece to read. I wish you all the best for your magazine and hope you people continue with such amazing work in future.

Sriwant Wariz,
National Marketing Manager, Fujifilm India

Great analysis

This was the first time I have read Business & Economy. Just after going through the magazine, I decided to write a small appreciation letter and regards to the team for the tremendous and faithful work that they have done. They have done true justice to the covered sectors and the stories are real insiders. The smart charts and intellect analysis of the sectors as well as the corporation were mind blowing. I would say that it has an edge over the other local magazines in the country as it more of an international and world class magazine. I would just like to suggest that you cover news and analysis of international companies in greater detail.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles
 
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Saturday, April 20, 2013

National

Lower GDP Stats
Despite desperate attempts of the government to move the numbers in the economy’s favour, GDP growth projections for the current fiscal year remains at 6.9% against last year’s figure of 8.4%. The slowdown in investments and low industrial output are the reasons for this decline. However, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee is still confident that the numbers will look up when full data for the year 2011-12 becomes available. The government has already run up fiscal deficit of 92.3% of its budget estimates in the first nine months of the current year, mainly due to less than anticipated tax collections. The central government has managed to raise Rs 5.2 trillion in revenue during the period, which is 61% of the budgeted target for the entire fiscal. The figures indicate that the government will find it difficult to meet its budgeted fiscal deficit target of 4.6% for the current fiscal. A lower than expected 1.8% growth in the index of industrial production (IIP) for the month of December 2011 has not helped matters either. Meanwhile, much to the relief of the government, the wholesale price inflation is on a 26 month low and is expected to stay at these levels at least for the next few months.

Airlines cheer
Much to the relief of airlines the group of ministers (GoM) has okayed the proposal for direct import of aviation turbine fuel (ATF), which contributes around 40% of the overall operating cost of an airline. However, the decision is yet to get the Cabinet go-ahead, which will open the way for implementation of the scheme. Airline operators have been lobbying for quite sometime for either imposing a flat 4% sales tax or to allow them to import ATF directly. The GoM’s approval of the scheme sent share prices of airlines like Jet Airways, Kingfisher and SpiceJet on an upward spiral as investors cheered the move. Allowing direct import of ATF will help airlines to save on sales tax, which varies from state to state. The absence of a uniform sales tariff has forced airlines to bear the cost of around 30% rise in their fuel expense on a y-o-y basis. Surprisingly, ATF in India is at least 60% higher than prices in West Asia or even Southeast Asia. ATF makes for 40-50% of the total cost for airlines companies. No wonder that operators like Jet and SpiceJet have been complaining that it’s the high fuel cost that has been responsible for their December quarter losses.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles
 
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Tuesday, March 12, 2013

4Ps B&M Exclusive – India’s best Market Research Companies

Objective, accurate and actionable consumer intelligence means the force is with you, for it is widely regarded as the soul of business. But market research companies have to themselves evolve and be in ship shape with respect to the environment in order to stay relevant to their clients. B&E’s sister publication 4Ps B&M undertook a survey on India’s best market research companies, which provides an exclusive insight on the top research firms that make the cut. And surprisingly so, Nielsen isn’t one of them!

For every aspect of marketing we look at, market research is viewed as the logical starting point, and also the end game. Research gives you the input on how you develop your entire market action plan, and let you know about the outcome, thereby helping you plan for the next cycle.

On that very promise, market research has to be one of the most essential investments to make for an organisation. But do companies always understand and appreciate this fact in practice? Or do they believe more in the Jack Welch diktat of being ‘straight from the gut’? While it’s far from being a black and white debate, market research has been alluded to by many industry greats in the past, and not necessarily in the pleasant sense. Henry Ford once famously said, “If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have asked for a faster horse!”

There were a number of beliefs that Henry Ford had that were relevant for his time, but aren’t relevant today. But there is one fact that would be hard to ignore even today. In short, though customers look for value maximisation always, it isn’t necessary that they know their value maximiser proposition themselves, despite getting smarter by the day. So can you rely on your own customer when you formulate your market research strategy? One can argue that if customer intelligence was the only criteria, a number of breakthrough innovations, like the iPod would never have come into being. In fact, Apple consistently abides by an aversion to market research to date, just like Infosys in India has an aversion to advertising. Steve Jobs once quoted to Fortune, “We do no market research. We don’t hire consultants.”


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
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Thursday, March 07, 2013

Back to Being Human!

The actress who started the size-zero craze in Bollywood, has suddenly turned into a foodie. These days Kareena can’t stop raving about food. The actress is gaining weight for an upcoming movie and is really enjoying herself. She says that she can’t live without food even for a day and admits food is more important to her than even her would-be husband! Kareena loves cooking and given the chance would want to cook for Prez Obama! Now, that’s a new side of Kareena!


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
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Friday, February 08, 2013

Mood of the Nation

An exclusive TSI-CVoter Opinion Poll on politics and governance

Methodology

The Mood of the Nation opinion poll has been carried out with a national representative sample of 8,721 randomly selected respondents. The survey was done with CVoter's specially designed Computer Assisted Telephonic Interviews (CATI) process across 180 Lok Sabha seats. The survey was conducted in April-May 2010. The data received has been weighted to India's Census profile. Margin of error is plus or minus 3%. As part of our Mood of the Nation initiative, CVoter is now keeping weekly track of the pulse of the people and what India’s rural and urban masses are thinking and feeling about local and national governance. This is being facilitated by CVoter's Weekly Omnibus wherein our researchers quiz voters for their perception about the performance of the country’s political leaders. They also keep a tab on the contemporary issues that matter to the masses. We hope that the initiative will not just help voters make their voices heard but will also hopefully serve as a weekly reminder to the nation’s political bosses about the immediate and long-term needs and ambitions of the voters who brought them to power in the first place.


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.
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Thursday, January 03, 2013

CHINA: TAXING POLICY

Restrictive tax policy will affect China’s foreign investment flows

The move definitely fills the pockets of the Chinese treasury, but it would discourage the institutional investors, who would withhold their investment plans fearing the possibility of paying higher tax. Moreover foreign investors, who are reliant on dividend payouts, would act more cautiously before dishing out their hard earned money for the Red Chip companies. This would not only have implications on the companies but would also affect the huge foreign investments which China gloats over.

“It is important for China to rebalance its pattern of growth to get more growth from services and consumption, and less from industry,” explains Dr. Louis Kuijs, Senior Economist, World Bank. A more rational tax policy combined with shift in focus from manufacturing to other industries is what China needs to continue its double digit growth. Shells are best left exported!


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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Saturday, December 08, 2012

TOYOTA & HONDA: SUCCESSION

Toyota & Honda are in trouble... And now, they have new leaders too! But really, have the batons been passed onto the right man? Will they deliver?

Moreover its product-mix includes two-wheelers, which is serving it well in emerging markets. Yes, it’s also true that the company is not immune to global environment, and that it has to delete names from its rolls and curb production for months to come; but having said that, the job ahead for Ito appears less rougher than his Toyota counterpart, and the fact that Honda still expects to close FY2009 with a profit of $860 million (an 86% drop as compared to 2008) stands allibi. And this is where we come to the ‘third-gen descendant’ Toyota President.

Research has proven it in the past – appointing a family CEO isn’t the best solution during times of trouble! To quote just two such works – the 2004 paper by Villalonga (HBS) & Raphael (Wharton) proved after an analysis of Fortune 500 firms that “when descendants of founders serve as CEOs, firm value is destroyed!” Then there was the 2005 report by Hillier (Leeds) & McColgan (Aberdeen) that revealed how family CEO successions are “almost always followed by dramatic declines in not only stock performance, but dangerously, even in operating results.” Indeed, besides the fact that Toyota has reduced its global sales target for 2009 by more than a million units, and that its losses would continue to mount, forcing it to shut plants in US and cut manpower further, it might just have made a succession planning bungle!

Times will get tougher for all in the industry as even Christian Breitsprecher, Analyst, Sal Oppenheim opines, “The scenario for the industry will only worsen in 2009 & I don’t see the industry making a comeback before end-2009.” The coming weeks will surely test the experience of both leaders and while you still wouldn’t want to complain about the powerless Honda engine or about your broken-down Toyota, do plan to pray; these men would surely need it. 


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

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.



 
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Thursday, December 06, 2012

Colour me pink...

As the government relents, steel players must get their house in order

“Don’t put the steel industry between two prongs, where one prong is regulated by the suppliers of raw materials and the other end is held by the regulated prices. This way the steel industry will crash…” said Moosa Raza, President, Indian Steel Alliance (ISA), when B&E interviewed him in March 2008. Though ISA has since dissolved, but Raza’s words are finding resonance today, as all major steel players of the country have, one after the other, posted losses for the third quarter ending December 2008. Will 2009 see the Indian steel sector resurface or drown?

While net profit of Tata Steel and SAIL dipped by 56.36% and 56.4% respectively; JSW Steel recorded a net loss of Rs.1.27 billion as opposed to Rs.3.55 billion during the same period last year. “The losses were mainly due to rise in raw material costs, slackening demand in the home market and foreign exchange fluctuations,” points out a Mumbai-based steel and metal analyst.

The problems with the sector date back to 2007, when India’s iron was being guzzled by China whereas the latter was not allowing its coking coal and coke to be exported to India. This lead to high prices of coking coal and coke (key ingredients in steel manufacturing), which forced steel players to increase selling prices of their products. That’s when the Government of India intervened, unfairly, if you take the steel players’ perspective, and withdrew tax benefits entitled to the steel sector in March 2008. The Government also banned exports and scrapped the Duty Entitlement Pass Book (DEPB) Scheme, which allowed steel players duty-free imports of raw materials equivalent to the value of exports. A drop in demand of steel in the domestic market by sectors such as automotive, construction, et al further worsened the situation. And this is reflective in the current balance sheets of the Indian steel players. If those owning captive mines like Tata and SAIL are facing reversals, imagine the plight of the others.


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

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

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Tuesday, December 04, 2012

Why Ms.Tymoshenko’s no Jap!

Ukraine wins its gas war with Russia; and a lady masterminds it all

She fights like a Japanese, she shouts like a Japanese, she walks like a Japanese, even has a name resounding of the rising sun, but Ms. Yulia Tymoshenko, the Prime Minister of Ukraine, for all her film actress drop dead looks, knows when to call a spade a spade and Putin a jack of the behind! Taking sole credit for forcing Putin to beat a bumbling retreat in resolving the Russia-Ukraine gas crisis on January 19, 2009, Yulia showed how a mix of long term planning, strategic manoeuvres and slapstick humour is enough to put a brash bunch of slipshod ill-dressed truants [read, the Putin platoon] in their place for a long time to come.

The background first. Recently, Russia again stopped its gas supply to Europe, accusing Ukraine of illegally leaking gas out of its continental gas pipeline, which is the primary transit for gas supplies to a major part of Europe [25% of Europe’s and 80% of Ukraine’s gas supplies are from Russia], ergo forcing European countries to immediately get involved. Amusingly, the reason Putin played his master move was not at all economic, but political.

Since Ukraine’s Orange Revolution four years back – when Viktor Yushchenko, the revolution leader, led mass civic protests to become the President – Russia has stopped its gas supply four times to Ukraine to force bickering between its pro-western leaders so that the infighting leads finally to a pro-Russian bench coming to power. Truly, Yushchenko’s approval ratings have fallen dramatically from 60% to around 5%; and his open fights against Prime Minister Yulia have never been worse. But Putin hadn’t bargained for the scorned Yulia. Not only did she force Yushchenko to display a united front with her during this crisis, but she also ensured there was no gas shortage in Ukraine! How? Some observers claim she masterminded the gas leakage from Russian supplies to build up massive Ukrainian gas reserves.


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

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

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Saturday, December 01, 2012

HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTIONS: FAILURE

Really, that’s what powerful nations have taught us... Kill the innocent!

Forget about noble intentions, cases of a million people slaughtered in Rwanda or another 200,000 butchered in East Timor speak volumes about how much America under George Bush loved peace.

And what was the West doing then? What was the UN busy with? Remember the manner in which thousands of innocent people in West Timor were slughtered by the Indonesian army? Well, Washington provided arms for the same; after all Indonesia was Washington’s ally! What happened to Afghanistan? The whole country smashed to smithereens, and all because Americans needed an excuse to dispose off their old bomb shells! Were even the two and three year- olds guilty?! In short, humanitarian intervention can’t overpower geo-political interests of powerful nations; well, it hasn’t till now atleast!


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.



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Friday, November 30, 2012

ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS: INSIDE CONFLICTS

For the upcoming assembly elections, parties face a tough time

That’s why BJP has already announced Prof. Vijay Kumar Malhotra as their candidate for CM. On the third side, BSP supremo, Mayawati has made Brahm Singh Bidhuri as the new state president and has entrusted the responsibilty of make election strategies on the shoulders of Nasimuddin Siddiqui.

Every leader wants more and more of his people to get tickets. And for the same all parties are facing trouble. They have to face opposition as well as unhappy people within the party. It makes them weak and that’s what is happening now. If candidates are selected on the basis of ability and performance, many names would get cut. A dilemma each party faces.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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Wednesday, November 28, 2012

‘C’alumnious ‘S’currilous ‘R’apscallions

Are Corporate Social Responsibility acts really the way corporates portray it? Not really! A. SANDEEP, EDITOR, B&E does a reality check...

Oh yes, even I didn’t understand these words when I read them the first time? That’s the problem with many CEOs. They don’t understand many such words that start with C.S.R, or at least feign incredibly well not to. The protagonist of my editorial is clearly ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’... It was during the late 1990s that this concept of CSR started attaining prevalence within communities, spawning sporadic regulators who kept cribbing about the lusty profits being earned by the so-called “selfish” corporations, and advocating a dire need for society to “reign in” these “money making monsters.” Sadly, CSR is just a clever term that has been used by many CEOs and governments to mask their own under-performance, and worse, to ludicrously waste shareholders’ wealth – for the truth is that CSR should never be undertaken by firms sincere about their commitment to society! In a comprehensively researched paper sponsored by Oracle in 2005, the statement by David Gerald, founder of Securities Investors’ Association (globally one of the top agencies set up in fact to protect corporate governance), dramatically revealed the frittering away of precious shareholders’ wealth by international corporations, “(Company) boards should be given no mandate to give to charities.

If they want to do that... then they should put it to a shareholder vote.” Year 2005 reports by Fortune (of more than a hundred Fortune 1000 companies) and Economist Intelligence Unit (of more than 200 companies’ executives and investors, including in India) killingly revealed the pathetic double speak by global CEOs. While Fortune showed how 91% of surveyed CEOs regurgitated the ostensible statement that “CSR management creates shareholder value,” the Economist report correctly proved how, in reality, only a laughable 2% of investors globally said they’ll invest in companies undertaking CSR. The report also showed how one of the top two reasons for CEOs to undertake ‘corporate responsibility’ was, hold your breath, corporate scandals. Hilariously, “society” as a factor for undertaking CSR did not even find a mention in this list. Oh yes, NGOs did find a thoroughly insignificant mention in the list of who all are considered a firm’s “most important stakeholder”; they were ranked second from bottom (with the coveted last rank going to ‘none of the above’).


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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Friday, November 23, 2012

Stoned over sex

Gay pride surfaces on the streets of India and around the world...

“We are humans and are born like everyone else, but have feelings contrary to what is acceptable to the society. I am a guy and I love a guy, which means that people hate me and consider me to be different and weaker than others,” says Mayank, a front runner at the gay parade held in Delhi. On 29th June, 2008, Delhi, Kolkata and Bangalore played hosts to India’s first gay pride parades that drew a huge number of people. Holding placards with slogans like, ‘As good as you’, ‘Hindu-Muslim, Sikh-Isai, hetro-homo bhai bhai,’ the gathering marched peacefully through the streets, and was successful in making the Indian gays, bisexuals and transgenders surface and express their individuality.

Commemorating the Stonewall riots of 1969, which occurred in New York and kick-started the modern gay rights movement, homosexuals around the world came out on the roads holding high their rainbow-coloured flags. Like every year, parades were held in several countries and like India, Bulgaria and Czech Republic too held these parades for the first time ever. Though unlike India, those who assembled at Sofia and Brno were given a rather hostile reception. In Bulgaria; stones and gas-bombs were thrown at people attending the parade, while in Brno, right-wing extremists attacked the people with tear gas even before the march began! “I feel sorry to hear of such incidents where people do not respect people and cannot give heed to others’ feelings. I feel sorry for people who cannot accept us. At times we feel that we do not wish to be a part of this heartless society,” reacts Sachin, who had also participated at the parade.

“Hum honge kamyab ek din...” was the song on the lips of the people at the parade, and it showed the high spirits and firm belief of the activists that they would get their rights. All they want is that they should be recognised as a part of the society and people should not hurt their sentiments by mocking at them.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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Wednesday, November 07, 2012

Who will witness s(elections)?

World may not witness a major transformation in 2008

Election has always been crucial for the future of any nation. Though 2008 is a crucial year because there is election in most of world powers or dominating countries but estimations show that there will hardly be any major change in their leadership. Ramifications of elections in major countries may remain skeptic and theatrics.

Inspite of much hue and cry, election in the US will be worth watching closely. The US election seems to be more of a race between many bright leaders than two political parties. And in rest of the countries, it will be selection, rather than election. Russia, Zimbabwe, Cuba are also going to have presidential elections in 2008. Putin might replace himself with a new face but leadership will remain with him. Castro is thinking of retirement but he or his legacy will remain to dictate Cuba’s destiny.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
 
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
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Tuesday, November 06, 2012

Political parties got re-elected

Globally, there’s no concrete evidence on whether political parties got re-elected (or elected) on the back of governance issues; at the moment, it’s an open debate, says A. Sandeep

y this mentality, Europe stands divided. Alina Mungio-Pippidi, celebrated political analyst at Scoala Nationala de Stiinte Politice si Administrative, Bucharest, says, “It is pretty difficult to club Europe in one league. While in Western Europe, people do give more importance to issues such as economic policy, the same cannot be said of Eastern Europe; issues in the latter region are more related to race and ethnicity that play a role in election results.”

Truly so, while countries like Finland – ranked by The World Bank amongst the global top three on various governance factors – might stand pristinely tall, countries like Poland are ready to take the hit. In 2005, the fundamentalist grandiloquent Kaczynski twin brothers in Poland came to power; one became President and the other Prime Minister. Though the supposed election promise was fighting ‘crime and corruption’, they actually came to power on nationalistic rhetoric like protecting Poland from the beast that is EU, and visible church driven hyperbole like opposing gay marriage, abortion, and promoting family values in an obsessively Catholic country. But interestingly, the same Polish people threw out the party from power in late 2007 because of minimal change on development front. But at the same time, in countries like Netherlands and Denmark, as Alina confirms, “Issues other than good governance – immigration and xenophobia – are increasingly gaining grounds, with recent election results being scary.” Noelia Rodrigues, Governance Expert, John F Kennedy School of Government, added her take on the situation in the West and especially in the US, “In the West, development has been the most important election plank. We have voted here on issues such as medical policy, insurance policy, and labour policy. A party that has neglected these has been bound to suffer defeat.”


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
 
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
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Monday, November 05, 2012

The sugar daddy

In love with dad’s power & sugar

Sharad Pawar, the biggie from Baramati has been an integral part of the both the state as well the central political landscape. Forty years in politics has helped the Maratha leader to accumulate vast amount of political capital; friends & foes and needless to mention the enormous finance capital – acquired both from the sugar as well cricket fields. If Bal Thackeray is the self-proclaimed protector of Hindu religion, Pawar is not behind, in patronising cricket – India’s most popular religion. He heads BCCI – the richest & the most powerful cricket body in the world. Pawar is grooming his only daughter, Supriya Sule, as his successor. She is currently Member of Parliament in Rajya Sabha and is probably in the field, merely as a trustee of Pawar’s political legacy.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
 
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
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