Monday, January 14, 2013

“Marketing was critical...”

UDAY BALDOTA, VP - INVESTOR RELATIONS, SUN PHARMA

B&E: The pharma industry was hit badly during the slowdown. Sun seemed to have escaped. What was prescribed strategically?

Uday Baldota (UB): We created sustainable revenues streams, with greater differentiation and speed to market. We also focused on cost leadership through vertical integration. There was also a focus on optimising operational costs and making acquisitions which yielded high ROI… Marketing was critical too!

B&E: But recession always hits profit margins...

UB: Surprisingly, our margins have actually gone up from 70% in 2005-06 to 80% in 2008-09. So even during recession, our margins have not been affected. This simply means that focus on costs has remained a top priority for us even in good times.

B&E: Still, there is turmoil in the sector at present, especially if we look at the ever-deteriorating condition of many major players...

UB: Not really! I don’t agree because the sales growth of the top 12 Indian pharma companies averaged above 20% in the year ended recently. Moreover, as far as Sun is concerned, there is no manpower cut on account of issues in the economy. In fact, our recruitment continues apace. Yes, there was one rare instance though at Caraco, our US subsidiary, where we had to reduce headcount, but that was only because it had problems.

B&E: $200 billion to be earned by generic players by 2014 from patent expiries. What’s your game plan in this regard?

UB: In our view, generic drugs is a significant, growing and profitable opportunity, worldwide. We are working towards getting a meaningful presence in the worldwide generic industry over the longer term...


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

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Friday, January 11, 2013

Friend or President

Obama’s concern over his remarks & speeches came true...

It was a debate of yesterday. It is still a debate of today and would remain so even for tomorrow. And most horrifyingly, racial profiling seems not to leave President Obama either. His recent comment on Prof. Herny Gates’ (no, he has no relations with Bill Gates!) – who incidentally is also a friend of the president- arrest had resurfaced the racial profiling issue and has brought enough criticism as he called the act by Sergeant James Crowley ‘stupid’. For the uninitiated, James Crowley, who is a police academy expert on racial profiling, went to Professor Henry Louis Gates’ home near Harvard University last week to investigate a report of burglary and demanded Gates show him identification. Police say Gates at first refused and accused the officer of racism. Gates was charged with disorderly conduct. The charge was later dropped and Gates has since demanded an apology from Crowley. On this, Obama literally went overboard and commented that, ‘…the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home…”. He further said that, “…there’s a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. That’s just a fact.” It seems that most of the ‘Whites’ of the US took this comment personally, especially those who are close to media.

However, a deep analysis would clarify why Obama isn’t wrong. America has a long deep-rooted history of discrimination. It is a land where women witnessed discrimination and were not allowed to vote till 1920 (they were allowed only after the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the constitution). Blacks’ struggle for their rights is no more a new and jaw-dropping story. Going by the data of the US Department of Justice, by the midyear of 2008, 4,777 black male inmates per 100,000 black males held in state and federal prisons and local jails, compared to 727 white male inmates.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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Monday, January 07, 2013

The real budget story

You will find no number crunching, no jargon and no guru speak from so called Dalal Street mavens on the Budget. sutanu guru & pramod kumar bring you the real budget story – a story of the lead up to the 2014 Lok Sabha Elections.

Days after the Congress-led UPA won that famous victory that left die hard pundits gasping for breath and excuses, some people were quietly and furiously busy in one house at Gurudwara Rakabganj Road and two houses in South Avenue in Delhi. Many of you must have read about how that non-descript residence in Rakabganj Road was actually the war room of Rahul Gandhi; most of you may not be aware that the house was ‘loaned’ by the owner of one of the biggest media houses of the country. The foundations for the Union Budget 2009-10 that was presented by Pranab Mukherjee were being laid by these mostly low profile characters who passionately believe that Rahul Gandhi must, and will, become the Prime Minister of India by 2014. Do remember: Pranab Mukherjee was yet to be ‘officially’ announced as the Finance Minister at that time.

Soon after the Cabinet was formed, it met formally to vet the address of President Pratibha Patil to the Joint session of Parliament. This meeting itself, more or less finalised the broad contours of the forthcoming budget. One key decision taken during this meeting was to abolish the controversial and widely criticized fringe benefit tax. Some of you who do recall the ‘routine’ and ‘yawn inducing’ speech of the President in the first week of June will not be surprised at all by the speech that Pranab Mukherjee finally delivered on July 6. In fact, even as the Finance Minister was busy meeting industrialists, industry lobby bodies and representatives of trade unions, farmers and many other self appointed guardians of public well being, he always found time to meet and discuss the broad agenda of the forthcoming budget with the other members of the core committee of Congress. This core committee includes Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, Pranab Mukherjee, P. Chidambaram and Ahmed Patel. In addition, informal channels with Rahul Gandhi’s team of close advisors were always open.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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Thursday, January 03, 2013

Of Kings, Queens, Mistresses & 456 million paupers

Mr. Prime Minister, congratulations! We, the 456 million paupers (living below the miserable poverty line, for information), feel delighted that 62 years after Independence, India has you as our Prime Minister, for a second term...

“Eat well Mr. Prime Minister, every morning, afternoon and night. At your age, you could perhaps choose to eat a healthy diet; with a good mix of fibres, vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates and proteins too. Hope you don’t have trouble planning a good diet. We, the 456 million poverty stricken vagrants (or should we use ‘paupers’, which surely sounds better) prefer to stick to the calorie method of eating that you very kindly introduced to us some decades back. It’s safe, simple to remember and doesn’t get into the stupidities of deciding a diet control plan. Well, someone from your ilk had once told us that to be considered paupers, we should be eating less than 2,100 calories per day if we live in urban areas; and less than 2,400 calories per day if we live in rural areas.

Brilliant, we should say. Firstly, there are days when some of us permanently homeless scallywags temporarily drift above the poverty line having had our quota of calories; at least it gives us a good feeling on those days that we’re not ‘below the poverty line’. Secondly, we’ve heard that eating less keeps one healthy, slim, away from the headaches of following a GM diet, and if research is to be believed (TIME magazine, nothing less), life expectancy of rodents and monkeys has been increased by dramatically restricting the amount of calories taken every day; the same effect can be replicated in humans too. Don’t worry dear Mr. Prime Minister, we’re well acquainted with rodents and monkeys; some of us live with them, some of us live like them, and some fortunate ones of us live only as long as them...”


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

 
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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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