Professional Documents
Culture Documents
From the editors’ desk………
The reverberations of the resounding success of the Finance Continuum and the HR Continuum
held a month ago was still ringing in our ears, when we at Shailesh J Mehta School of
Management, IIT Bombay had the Marketing Continuum and the Operations Continuum. The
marketing Continuum saw a series of lectures and panel discussions on the theme “Evolution of
Marketing in the Indian Growth Scenario”. From Modern Retail to umbrella branding the event
had insightful discussions on the challenges and opportunities for marketing in a burgeoning
India. As summed up by the words of keynote speaker, Mr. V. Chandramouli, HR Director,
Cadbury’s India Ltd., it is all about making the Indian elephant dance.
The Operations Continuum was on the theme of “Achieving Global Excellence in Supply Chain”.
It brought together a host of industry experts in various areas, and helped students gain
valuable insights into the industrial issues of supply chain management and the efforts engaged
by the industrial giants to achieve excellence in supply chain.
We also had Diksha Lectures from the likes of Michael Sweeney, Managing Director at the UBS
Leadership Institute and Dr. Dinesh Keskar Senior Vice President, Sales, Boeing
Commercial.
Seasons come and go but some ties never wither with time. It was a sense of nostalgia and
pride for all who attended the ‘Annual Alumni Meet ‐ 2007’ of the Mumbai Chapter of
SJMSOM, IIT Bombay.
Taking a cue from the weather the temperature in the campus is also soaring and the activities
are getting frenetic with each passing day. For all that’s happened in the last month it seems
just a precursor to the big one, Avenues 2007. The preparations are on in full swing and its
leaving everyone breathless. In this Issue we give you an account of what’s gone by and a
glimpse of what’s to come. It’s been a spate of nonstop events and we are just getting started.
Editors: Nachiket Padwal Ankur Hazarika Chinmoy Das
Designers: Yudhir Agrawal Jaimin Gandhi Nachiket Karajagi
Upcoming Events……….
Annual International Business Festival
Alankãr – The Talk Series
Dr. C K Prahalad [Leading Management Thinker]
Prof. Prahalad has been a top ten management thinker in every major survey for over ten
years. Recently Prof. C. K. Prahalad earned the third spot on Suntop Media's 2005
"Thinkers 50" list, behind Harvard strategy specialist, Michael Porter, and Microsoft
founder, Bill Gates.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar [Founder, Art of Living Foundation]
His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is a world renowned spiritual leader. In 1981, he started
the Art of Living Foundation, an international nonprofit educational organization with a
presence in over 140 countries.
Mr. Sam Pitroda [Chairman, World‐Tel]
Mr. Pitroda was the founding chairman of Telecom Commission ‐ Government of India. He
has been credited with having laid the foundation for and ushered in India's technology
revolution in the 1980s as Technology Advisor to the Prime minister of India.
Mr. J M Lyngdoh [Former Chief Election Commissioner]
The former Chief Election Commissioner of India, J.M. Lyngdoh has been hailed for making
the Election Commission's (E.C.) constitutional obligation to hold free and fair elections its
major obsession. He was conferred the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2003.
AVENUES.07 also features:
Abhyutthan – The Championship Games
Navonmesh – The Entrepreneurial Challenge
Prashnavali – The Mega Quiz hosted by Giri ‘Pickbrain’ Balasubramaniam
Udgam – The Consulting Challenge
Mudra – The Finance Game
Chitra Katha – The Short Film Contest
Deewan‐E‐Khas – The Cultural Night (Performance by Grammy Award Winner Pt. Vishwa Mohan
Bhatt)
and much more… Website: www.sjmsom‐avenues.org
Marketing Continuum 2007
Marketing Continuum 2007
Shailesh J Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay
Continuums, the rolling seminar series at the Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT
Bombay, aim to cover the latest trends in management by inviting eminent speakers from
across the corporate world. From their inception in 2003, the Continuums have constantly
focused on key management issues with the aim to draw insights from the knowledge and vast
experience of the speakers. The seminars are well attended by delegates from different
organizations, our distinguished alumni, and students from various business schools.
Completing the circle for the year were the Marketing and Operations Continuums, held on
29th and 30th September, 2007 respectively.
The Marketing Continuum 2007, this time around, was centered on the theme “Evolution of
Marketing in the Indian Growth Scenario”. The inaugural address by our very own, Prof. Shishir
Jha truly set tone for the events lined up during the day.
Keynote Address by Mr. V. Chandramouli, HR & Strategy Director,
Cadburys India
Christening the India growth story as “the dancing elephant”, Mr. Chandramouli gave an
account of the transition of marketing in India over the years. As against earlier times when
marketing was limited to the FMCG and manufacturing sectors, new age marketing has
transcended across various other verticals. Increased global connectedness has made the
Indian consumer extremely demanding and marketing itself has moved beyond the middle
class. The success stories of fairly new sectors such as telecom, retail and insurance bear
testimony to the paradigm shift that has occurred. Common to all of this is the fact that in
recent times the biggest success stories are those wherein current markets are expanded or
new markets are created. Through this he emphasized the significance of category growth in
lieu of increasing market share and the need for marketing in the Indian industry to move
beyond the old schools of thought.
Mr. Chandramouli, then suggested areas wherein change is most significantly required – India,
earlier conceived as a single, large market to now being an amalgamation of different layers
requiring different marketing approaches; the emergence of the point of buying as a key
interface with the consumer; understanding the difference between a shopper and a consumer;
the need to move beyond traditional consumer touch – points into the realm of internet
marketing and physical connect; the strategic opportunities that need to be harnessed across
the supply chain with marketing itself taking ownership to add value and lastly, a changed
mindset to understand the category from a consumer’s perspective rather than the other way
around. Interspersed among these were snippets of his experiences at Cadbury’s and across the
industry as a whole.
Finally, he emphasized that success in today’s times involves seizing the
biggest opportunity which can be won most easily amongst the plethora
of opportunities available in the country. Then, signing off in his truly inimitable style, Mr.
Chandramouli left us with these inspiring words:
New India needs new talent – It’s your time now….GO CONQUER!
By:
Kshitij Verma
(SJMSOM Batch of 2009)
Panel Discussion
A panel discussion on "The Evolution of Modern Retail: Challenges & Opportunities" was held
on the occasion. Mr. Raman Pandya, former president – Retail, Essar Ltd. was the moderator
for this event, which encompassed enriching talks by Mr. Abhijit Sanyal ‐ CE Staples Business ‐
Foods, Reliance Retail; Mr. Venkat Subramanyan ‐ Director S&D, Shell India Marketing, Mr.
Hasit Joshipura ‐ Managing Director, GlaxoSmithKline and Ms. Anita Sharan ‐ ex‐Editor, Brand
Equity, Economic Times.
The discussion started with Mr. Raman Pandya introducing the various panelists and placing the
theme of discussion before them. He then asked each of the panelists to present their side of
the story and then called for a formal group discussion on the issue. Thereafter, Mr. Abhijit
Sanyal, Chief Executive (Staple Business Foods) Reliance Retail, enlightened the students of
Shailesh J Mehta School of Management with his insightful speech on “Evaluation of Modern
Retail: Challenges and Opportunities”. Mr. Sanyal started by expressing his pleasure in talking
to young and bright minds. After that, it was an enriching time ahead for us. He started by
mentioning various key facts and figures with respect to the retail industry today. The retail
industry is a whopping 8 trillion $ business today across the globe. Sounds unbelievable, yet it is
true. Further, food retailing occupies the top position in this sector as 9 out of the top 10 largest
retailers are into the food business.
Among the countries across the globe, USA and UK have now become matured retail markets,
China is a developing market, while India is still to catch up with the biggies, but is undoubtedly
growing at a great pace. If we consider the world retail trade, 70 to 80 % belongs to modern
retail trade while in India only 3 % is modern retail. The reasons for this are many. While cities
play a major role in modern retail, it is very difficult to tap the rural market which is quite huge
in India with 627,000 villages spread across the geography. India has the
lowest retail space of 2 feet per capita, a space in which it would be
difficult even to stand.
Having said all this, things are changing fast. Urbanization is the norm today and the country is
witnessing a huge change in consumption patterns with higher consumer spending. The retail
trade amounts to a descent 13,50,000 crore business in India and is projected to be worth 20
lakh crores by 2010. Increasing educational awareness, brand awareness and effective
marketing is fueling this growth. The focus is to make consumers not just buy, but enjoy the
experience of purchasing and using a product. Apart from advertisement, companies are also
looking to capitalize on other consumer touch points. As Mr. Sanyal said, if a person is smoking
a cigarette, make him experience the freshness of Halls after he smokes and you have created a
new customer!
The focus also needs to be on the basics like quality of the product, ambience, value for money
and the range of products offered to make a memorable experience for the consumer. It will
pave the path for High Revenues, Category growth and a boost to the packaging industry.
Challenges like technology management, imported goods and cost control will always be there.
However, the Indian industry should be geared up to meet these challenges. If things go well,
there is a bright and lucrative future awaiting the retail industry in India.
During the panel discussion, Mr. Sanyal said that the objective of modern retail is not to stop
the traditional mom and pop stores. The market is huge and everyone can get a share of the pie
provided they stick to the basics and focus on innovation. Initially resistance would be there,
but then even Rajiv Gandhi’s idea of computerized banking and railway reservation was not
cherished initially and today, we cannot imagine our world without it.
On a lighter note, Mr. Sanyal shared a joke with us which goes as below:
“Once the director of Nescafe went to the Pope of a Church and offered him a donation of 100
mn $ provided they changed their prayer from ‘Give us a daily bread’ to ‘Give us a daily coffee’.
The pope become furious after hearing the idea but eventually agreed when the director raised
the offer substantially. He went to the members of the Church and announced, ‘There is a good
and a bad news. Good news is that we have got a donation of 500 mn $ and the bad news is
that we have lost the Britannia sponsorship’.
Sharing his thoughts on the occasion, Mr. Venkat Subramayam
(Managing Director, Shell gas & LPG), gave a very interesting perspective
to the entire issue. He said that today retail Industry in India is at cross roads. This is the point
of time when we need to ponder on our current situation, decide as to where we need to reach
and the means to reach there. A road map into the future can be made based on the enablers
(positive forces tending towards growth), blockers (road blocks in current situation hampering
growth) and the initiatives/ responses that needs to be taken to overcome the blockers.
He then presented a strategic analysis (PEST) of the various situations namely political, social,
economic, and technology to understand their impact on the growth of the retail sector.
c) Presence of both policies
domestic and foreign
c) Globalised Economy
players
d) Determine a clear
d) Tremendous resistance
cut road map
between enchanted
groups for any changes
brought by government
b) fragmented and b)Attraction and
sectored participants retention of talent
In specialized sectors like Fuel Retailing and Petroleum retailing, one of the main advantages is
the reach (with more than 35000 outlets) throughout the country. These have an automatic
pull for the customers who cannot keep away from them and need to be visiting them every
week for their basic oil needs. Firms can take advantage of these patterns and design
convenient stores that can be used to create niche markets. These niche markets can be used
to cater to the specific categories of the customers who visit the petroleum outlets.
Finally the success of a retail store lies in its ability to cater to the needs of the customer. The
cut and paste business models and other success formats that are popular in the western world
have to be customized to the local buyers. Some of the major challenges and opportunities lie
in the corporate’s ability in mobilizing resources which has crunch (Eg : Real Estate), exploiting
strengths, managing efficiency in value chain, avoiding wastage, disintermediation, meeting
exact needs of customer and customer reach.
“Value in pharma sector comes from innovation “quoted Mr. Hasit Joshipura MD Glaxo Smith
Kline while sharing his thoughts in the panel discussion.He talked about the development of
retail links to certain inflexion point in development of economy. On a demand side there are
implications of life style and certain unmet needs are emerging as the economy grows. There is
increasing need of varied products and need to enjoying the shopping experience through
ambience and testing. On the supply side he discussed about development of retail efficiencies
in supply chain and consolidation to drive value. He predicted that Product will go directly to
consumer and result in disintermediation. He specifically said about the pharma sector that in
distribution, concentrated efficiencies exist in system and it is a question of intermediaries
driving the growth and importance of cold chain in maintaining appropriate inventories.
Being her usual charismatic self Ms. Anita Sharan, Brand Consultant and ex editor of Brand
Equity, brought in a different viewpoint into the panel discussion. She differed on various
counts with the other panelists but nevertheless won over the audience with her cogent
arguments.
She began by observing that even after 6 to 8 years of retail revolution
we are still looking for foreign models that can be implemented in India.
She found it interesting that in the case of Indian retail revolution, the consumer never asked
for this change in the retail format. He was content with the existing retail model. But it was the
corporate and the investors who have taken the initiative to bring about this change in the
Indian retail model. Since the consumer has not articulated his need for modern retail, the
onus is on the corporate to make this modern retail revolution work.
According to her, the primary questions that need to be addressed in this modern retail
scenario include
• What format is going to work?
• How do you create footfalls inside your retail outlet?
• How to convert these footfalls to purchase?
Answering the last question includes creating a reason to buy. “Firms are using entertainment
as a tool to create increased foot falls as well as to convert these footfalls into sales”, she said.
She gave the example of Kishore Biyani’s Future Group which has created a media company of
its own to boost sales inside their stores. However, Ms Anita Sharan also warned that once all
this innovative initiatives become a pattern, customers stop responding to them. She says that
if one adds the travelling cost associated with going to a retail outlet it sometimes makes sense
to rather go to the neighborhood store.
With regard to the government’s plans to allow 100 % FDI in retail, Anita Sharan believes it to
be a very good thing for the retail business. “But what about the other players in the retail
industry?”, she asked.
In contrast to the popularly held belief, Anita Sharan believes that the neighborhood mom and
pop store will survive the onslaught of modern retail. She believes that they are very resilient.
She added that they have a developed a business model over many centuries and the strength
of this business model will not let them become extinct. She said that the real losers in this
revolution are going to be the middlemen who act as an intermediary between the
companies/farmers and the mom and pop stores (kiranas). Reacting to Mr. Abhijit Sanyal’s,
Chief Executive (Staple Business Foods) Reliance Retail, statement regarding wastages in the
supply chain being cut down by modern retail, she agreed that it must be true, but we need to
understand at what cost is this happening? She illustrated this with the example of Reliance
retail. Although Reliance retail may actually create more than 10,000 jobs in retail, she pointed
out that these jobs will be for the educated people while the ones getting displaced by modern
retail are the uneducated.
However she agreed that the big corporate can definitely make a big impact on the Indian retail
scene. Eventually the consumers will shift to the new retail model. But the corporate must
move beyond setting up new models and look at other issues like Corporate Social
Reacting to a statement by Mr. Raman Pandya that Walmart is likely to fail if it comes into
India, she begged to differ. She was convinced that Walmart is unlikely to fail because it has
Bharti, and moreover if Walmart were to enter India it would do so only after appropriate
research. She also believed that they will quickly adapt to the learning curve.
Giving his insights on the issue Mr. Raman Pandya touched a variety of topics inherent to the
Indian scenario. Starting right from the trade in the Harappa Civilization to the modern retail
sector, he said that the success of modern retail lays in Indianising it. To drive home his point he
quoted the Macdonald’s home delivery initiative. He said that though foreign product could be
brought in the retailers in India has to think differently, see environmental and cultural aspects
and factor them in while strategizing. In addition to these they need to marry their strengths to
technology – efficient SCM to squeeze out wastages. According to him to look at the consumer
is the key to success. He stressed the importance of the Malls in the present retail scenario and
said that handling them would be crucial. Finally he said that, no, matter what ever is being said
or done, Walmart would be a big failure if they don’t Indianise.
By:
Abhishek Mohta
Bharatula Krishna Kishore
Anupam Shrotary
Anoop Kulkarni
Chinmoy Das
(SJMSOM Batch of 2009)
Talk on “Umbrella Branding” – Mr. KBS Anand, VP Sales and Marketing,
Asian Paints
He gave an insight into the brand strategy on how
brands are different from a product. He mentioned
that the essential difference between a “product” and
a “brand” is that apart from meeting a physical need,
it also provides an emotional need to the customer. The value delivered by a brand is always
greater than the value delivered by the product. This value translates into a stronger emotional
link with the consumer which leads to better consumer loyalty, ability to command a premium
over any other product and it provides a strong barrier preventing customer from switching. He
gave the cases of various brands like P&G, Sony, Nike etc. All these brands convey an intrinsic
meaning that could be attributed to that particular brand. He also gave details about a
company brand, master brand and sub brands. He said that the “Consumer Brand Behavior” is a
function of the “Involvement Levels” of the consumer and the “Frequency of Purchase” done by
the consumer.
He stated that “Business Strategy” is effectively based on choice of portfolios and the cost of a
brand building is dependent on how well a company reexamines the portfolio, the associated
costs, media fragmentation etc. He informed that (Share of Voice ‐ SoV) is an important
parameter which gives the share of the market of various players. He added that SoV of Paints
stand at 1% and the share of Asian Paints is at 0.5%. He added that three important
components of maintaining a high SoV are that of the business strategy, consumer behaviour
and the cost of brand building.
Elaborating further on Umbrella Branding Mr. Anand explained that “paints” belong to low
consumer involvement and they are nearly a consumer durable category as the frequency of
interaction between the brand and the consumer is pretty low and the financial/emotional risk
associated with the brand is pretty high. So, it is better to switch towards a umbrella branding
in such cases. In Umbrella Branding (UB), the numbers of interactions increase significantly if
the brand is portrayed along with the company’s name. It increases the emotional bond
between the consumer and that of the company. It provides better visibility. This strategy is
based on underlying the core competence with UB providing the roof. As an example, he cited
the cases of Sony and Honda where people associate the product with
the company with the company acting as the brand. He pointed out that
UB cannot cover the entire line of products manufactured by the company. Besides, for FMCG
companies which have different line of products the UB strategy may not work whereas
companies working in the durable segment could concentrate on UB.
In the case of Asian Paints he mentioned that earlier most consumers never recognized the
name of the company, but always knew about the brand. Previously Asian paints had a number
of sub brands and the cost of advertising for each brand was pretty high which resulted in the
reduction of profits. So, the company decided to go with a communication portfolio having a
reduced number of brands and this helped the company to concentrate on a few brands and
helped it in consolidating the brand. By reducing the number of brands, he said that the overall
synergy and shop presence of the brand has increased tremendously. He mentioned that the
response from the customers for the new strategy was highly positive and the move to UB by
reducing the number of brands has yielded positive gains
He summed up the whole talk by saying that “Umbrella branding” is increasingly seen as the
only way to launch new products. The appeal of Umbrella Branding is such that even FMCG
companies have begun to follow similar strategy. He said that Umbrella Branding Strategy
should be followed if the product line is similar and if the product line is different then the
individual offering should be concentrated on.
By:
K Sridharan
(SJMSOM Batch of 2009)
Workshop on “Pricing Strategies” – Mr. Satish Belani, Director
(Operations), AC‐Nielsen India
Mr. Satish Belani – Director (Operations), AC‐Nielsen
India conducted a highly educative and enriching
workshop on "Pricing Strategies". He said that
pricing strategies requires a thorough
understanding of the regular pricing dynamics
influencing the consumer decision making and the
process to do so includes so many surveys and
questionnaires. Citing the questions manufacturers
and retailers need to address, he gave the following
examples:
• Who are the regular pricing makers?
• What are the relevant regular prices elasticities?
• How do these vary by distribution channel and geography?
• What are the risks associated with a specific proposed regular price move?
• What is the optimal price position/strategy?
Giving an insight into the strategies adopted by ACNielsen he said that ACNielsen has
developed a consultancy service to cater to the pricing strategy needs as mentioned above.
ACNielsen’s regular pricing models use weekly scanning data to fully understand the
movements in regular price. He said that pricing strategies are different in different distribution
channels:
• Super markets
• Hyper markets
• Convenience stores
• Patrol stations
Different product groups also need different strategies. Measured elasticities confirm that
consumers are fewer prices sensitive when it is impulsive purchase. When they have enough
time they are very price sensitive. This difference helps price promotional strategies.
In supermarkets, available time and wide product range increases consumers’ price sensitivity.
Shopper's promotional activities have higher responsiveness than in other channels due to
longer duration of the consumer’s stay in the market.
In Patrol stations, product availability is more important than price point.
Lack of range will also reduce price consciousness.
He informed that research concludes that there are three ways to increase profits: Sell more,
cut costs, raise price. First two require lot of effort while third one is easy.
Mr. Belani said that the fundamentals of value revolve around the benefits the customer
receives from a product or service and the price they will pay for it. The question is how much
more the customer will pay for added value/feature over the above present price. Price market
research can help in identifying these prices.
To verify pricing assumption answer the price features trade‐offs. If the price is increased will
sales volume decline and if it does will it be more or less proportional to rise in price? Testing
the price of acceptability of product in comparison to competition is main principle of pricing
research. Basic law of demand is the relationship between the price and the quantity. Rules
differ according to commodity or manufactured.
Mr. Belani then went on to elaborate on the different pricing strategies. There are various types
of researches one can do by going to customers
If one is looking for price elasticity then once can do Gabor Granger. It is a technique developed
by two economists in 1960. Customers are asked what maximum and minimum price they are
ready to pay. From the results we can get the optimum price.
He also talked about the Price Sensitivity Meter developed by Westendrop. It asks different set
of questions than the one mentioned above. The questions posed are:
At which price do you consider the product will be:
• Cheap?
• Expensive?
• Very cheap, so that you doubt its quality?
• Very expensive, so that you will not consider the product?
Based on the answers to the above questions, pricing is decided.
Thereafter Mr. Belani went on to talk elaborately on Conjoint Analysis, Choice Based Conjoint,
Brand Price Trade‐Off and Brand Price Choice Modeling and gave an exhaustive insight into
the different pricing strategies that can be implemented in order to identify the optimum
prices. Overall, the session was a huge learning experience for all of us.
By: Sriram Vangara
(SJMSOM Batch of 2009)
Operations Continuum 2007
Operations Continuum 2007
Shailesh J Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay
Carrying the Continuum series further after the huge success of the Marketing Continuum was
the Operations Continuum, 2007 set against the backdrop of "Achieving Global Excellence in
Supply Chain".
Prof. S. V. D. N. Rao of the School of Management set things rolling with his inaugural speech
highlighting the role of the supply chain in overall company performance.
Keynote Address ‐ Mr. V. Srikrishnan, Executive Director, Air India
In his keynote address Mr. V. Srikrishnan talked
at length about the aviation industry in general
and Air India in particular. Mr. V. Srikrishnan
started his address by talking about the
herculean task of organizing the Haj pilgrimage
that Air India undertakes. He said that it
involved the leasing of aircrafts for about 11000
people. Through it he brought out the
complexities and constraints that many
industries in India have to operate in today’s
global scenario. He said that though aviation is
exploding in India, Air India was serving 42 destinations with 18 aircrafts only. As Air India's
destinations are very long the maintenance of their aircrafts was a major issue. They started
addressing the issue, 5 years back. There was positive reaction for suggestion of expanding into
new markets which was tough because of lack of resources i.e. aircrafts. So they went ahead
with leasing which has its own share of problems. Giving an insight into the working of the
aviation industry he said that one rule in the industry is that whatever be the cost, in case of
any doubt or concerns regarding the plane, the aircraft has to be grounded and cannot fly until
all the checks are completed. He said that a leased idle aircraft would cost $35000 per day.
Taking into consideration all the costs involved in maintaining the aircrafts Air India decided for
newer aircrafts. So the number of aircrafts was increased from 18 to 58.
Mr. Srikrishnan then went on to elaborate the strategy adopted by Air India. He talked about
the two brand theory in this context and mentioned about Air India‐Express. It only deals with
low cost international carrier. There are only two shares of the company which are held by the
President of India and hence making any change in the organization was lot tougher. The
merger of Air India and Indian Airlines happened on 1st April 2007 and the notification came
out on 28th August. They faced the challenge of integration, synergies and benefits. Synergies‐
both the companies had different aircrafts. So, now they were handling Air Bus and Boeing
fleets. With the size of the fleet that they had, they were among the global top 10. They
acquired 48 aircrafts from Air Bus and 65 from Boeing. Because of different configurations and
customizations it was all the more difficult.
Talking about standardization issues he said that aircrafts have military standards, like NS i.e.
Naval Standard, which makes it very tough for the procurement and maintenance of spares. BY
2010 they would have 172 fleets and will be among the top 5 airlines in the world. Then he
talked about their plans to go global and about the basic foundation work that was being done
to bring in 7 more airlines under one banner. This alliance, he said, would give them lots of
synergy. Moreover he also mentioned that they were looking for a new
hub in Europe to serve EU and Trans‐Atlantic. He then talked about the
cargo activities of Air India.
In his address Mr. Srikrishnan very lucidly brought out the existing challenges and opportunities
being faced by the aviation industry. He went on to impress upon the need for efficient Supply
Chain Management practices and IT in the aviation industry. In this industry, he said, one
should have atleast six aircrafts of same type and effectively 0.5 million parts are purchased and
replaced every year. There are various maintenance related issues that needs to be handled.
Added to this the price pattern of every part is variable. Talking about IT he said that it is tough
to anticipate IT. They need information which requires feed. So for Supply
Chain to be successful, Information System has to be good. In this context he mentioned that
Boeing has an excellent IS. A company manufacturing ball bearings may not be able to ship all
of them at one go and hence we need to keep a track of the shipping. He said that facility to
intercept and change the routing is not possible in the existing systems and these issues needs
to be worked upon. He said that the general notion in aviation industry is that engineers
shouldn't use brains; they should use only the copy book rules. If just a small nut is removed,
the whole product has to be replaced and the product can only be supplied by a certified agent.
And hence procedures and rule books are mandatory. So we need a SCM which can trigger an
event in case of any replacement need.
Finally Mr. Srikrishnan asked the IT industry to cater to the needs of SCM in the airlines
industry. He felt that presently they don’t have the domain expertise to meet the demand in
the industry. According to him application of knowledge in areas where it meets industry needs
is more important than just degrees. So he took the opportunity to issue a clarion call to
everybody present to increase their aspirations and meet the industry needs.
By:
Sriram Vangara
(SJMSOM Batch of 2009)
Address by Mr. K.R. Siddharth, Operations Head, Hindustan Unilever
He cited that the corporate purpose is to delight consumer by high quality service and reward
investor by creating value. He further elaborated that various functions ‐ Commercial, Supply
Chain, R&D, Marketing and Sales, play an important part in achieving these objectives. He made
us aware about various aspects of General trade and Modern trade. General trade constitutes
about 90 % of total trade, growing at 8‐10% and Modern trade constitutes 10 %, growing at 50
%.
He further enumerated various trade servicing strategies citing differences between traditional
and modern trade. In traditional model services were done as direct service or indirect
wholesale led service whereas in modern trade it is focused, relationship and technology based.
He quoted “Packaging is the brand ambassador among clutter of products on shop outlets
today“.
He discussed about various challenges that supply chain faces today. They are legal frameworks
(State and Central), Infrastructure, language and geographies. He told about the status of
infrastructure in India among which creaking are roads, warehouses, transport infrastructure
and airports etc. due to which 3‐4 months of inventory valuing 7500 crores is always in the
pipeline. Head above water for the economy is in National Highways, Private ports and VAT
whereas world class facilities are in Telecom, Internet and on IT there is question mark due to
unease and complexity in facilities they are providing to the customers.
He cautioned that various implications were evolving fast on the demand side and there was
continued complexity in the drive towards high customer service and evaluation of modern
trade. Indicating the positive points on the supply side he mentioned about the Golden
Quadrilateral project, Value added tax and elimination of Central sales tax.
He endowed us with a unique mantra of Agile, Lean, Fresh and
Availability in Supply Change Management. Agile means velocity to store
and deliver. Lean signifies reduction of cost encompassing all elements including tax costs.
Fresh implies providing sustainable supply chain with responsible network of suppliers,
customers, academia and NGOs. Availability means customer should always be serviced as per
need.
In the end he discussed about the unlimited opportunities that still needed to be tapped like
integrating the IT systems, various players to collaborate for efficiencies in supply chain,
strengthening the warehousing infrastructure and integrating the distribution strategy.
By:
Anupam Shrotary
(SJMSOM Batch of 2009)
He started with a quote said by the founder, Mr. John Deere “I will not put my name on a
product that does not have in it the best that is in me”. These words clearly state the
importance of quality at John Deere. With business in around 160 countries, 47,400 employees
and annual revenues of 22 Billion USD, John Deere is one of the leading companies dealing with
Agricultural Equipment. John Deere has presence in India in the city of Pune. Mr. Banerjee
mentioned that they chose India as a manufacturing centre owing to various reasons such as
cheap labor, low cost, reliability, strategic location and ease of R & D, agriculture based
economy and a large domestic market. As an insight he said that with close to 60 billion bulls
being used for farming in India, the scope for agricultural equipments is huge.
Mr. Banerjee said that John Deere has a global positioning technology which it uses to tap the
agricultural sector. Besides that it has high focus on Quality, the three Ps (People, Product
Knowledge and Process), Innovation and Operational Excellence through implementation of six
sigma. These are truly the core of Supply Chain Management at John Deere.
Mr. Banerjee also talked about the value chain principles like strong relationship with suppliers,
superior performance, global sourcing, integrity and value addition which is a key to the success
of John Deere. Fundamental drivers like automated supply chain and timely flow of accurate
information have helped a great deal. After all, if the Mumbai Dabbawallas can do it without
any supply chain tools, why can’t organizations do the same? From supplier of parts the
objective should be to become suppliers of value. Mr. Banerjee also talked about the “Rating
System” being used for grading the suppliers based on parameters like Quality, Delivery,
Technical Support and Cost Management System. This has helped them in sourcing from the
best supplier at critical times.
Mr. Banerjee concluded by mentioning that they wish to leverage in India
under four dimensions: Market Ownership, Talent Pool, Manufacturing
Hub and Sourcing. All in all, Mr. Banerjee’s talk gave all of us a deep insight into the various
intricacies of Supply chain and the best practices in this domain.
By:
Abhishek Mohta
(SJMSOM Batch of 2009)
Address by Mr. Satish Moorjani, VP Operations, Mahindra & Mahindra
He then went on to underscore the importance of making the processes in an industry more
efficient and effective in order to deal with the existing challenges being posed by the ever
changing economic scenario. In this context he went on to elaborate various initiatives
undertaken in M&M in order to face the challenges and grab the opportunities present in
today’s marketplace. He talked at length about the 3PL Procurement process where he touched
about the role played by the vendor clusters, the hubs – consolidation and de‐consolidation in
the hubs and the MIS schedules and reports.
Mr. Moorjani also provided a thorough insight into the Supplier Kanban System that was
implemented in M&M. He highlighted the various positive fallouts of the implementation of the
Supplier Kanban System, the most prominent among them being the drastic reduction in the
stock balance that was observed after implementing the Supplier Kanban System.
Towards the end of his session Mr. Moorjani discussed a case pertaining to the tractor business
of M&M. It was an interesting case where the M&M identifies a loss in the market share in the
tractor business. Upon investigating it comes to know about the new expectations of the
customers and in order to meet those expectations it comes out with a superior designed
product. Through this product it hoped to face the stiff competition being provided by new and
established players that has entered into the tractor business. But the launch of the new
product presented its own share of problems by resulting in an increase of transportation costs
due to its peculiar design. The ways and means that was adopted to tackle this particular
problem initially emphasized how innovation plays a crucial role in adapting to the changing
market demands and gave us an entirely new insight in terms of problem solving.
All in all, the entire session was a tremendous learning experience for all
of us and everyone present gained valuable insights into the functioning
of present day industry from the interaction which we had with Mr. Moorjani.
By:
Chinmoy Das
(SJMSOM Batch of 2009)
Diksha Sessions
Diksha is the name given to the series of talks conducted by eminent speakers from the
corporate world. These talks are organized as part of the continuous endeavour by the school
to bring forth various issues and to attempt to find answers to them.
Dr. Dinesh Keskar ‐ Senior Vice President, Sales, Boeing Commercial.
Dr. Dinesh Keskar got his bachelor's degree in mechanical
engineering in India in 1975. He got his master's and doctorate
degrees in aerospace engineering from the University of
Cincinnati in 1976 and 1978, respectively. After that, in 1987,
he got an MBA from City University in Seattle. He has also
worked as a research associate in the Flight Dynamics and
Control Division at NASA's Langley Research Center before
joining Boeing.
Mr. Keskar began his address with the poignant point, that
every time Boeing goes in for a new aircraft design it is a make
or break for the company. Elaborating on the complexities of the trade he said that, a single
seat takes 18 months to be certified. It needs to survive a 10G crash and temperatures up to
1000 C. In the end the seat weighs a ton and costs around 200000 USD to produce. Comparing
the strategies of Airbus and Boeing Mr. Keskar mentioned that while Airbus believed in Large
Aircrafts, Boeing has bet on smaller aircrafts and point to point travel. Boeing felt that unless
a 500 seat airplane was filled to capacity it could never recover its seat
mile cost. He also added that travelers would prefer point to point travel rather than waiting all
night at major metros. This would be even more pertinent given the development of small
towns and cities, whose airstrips could never support a 500 seat airplane.
On the topic of 787 Dreamliner, the latest airplane developed by Boeing and touted as the most
environment friendly airplane, Mr. Keskar said that the Dreamliner has an all composite body
and is less polluting then some of the trains in Europe. Boeing has already sold over 700 planes
while one is yet to take off and if you wished to buy a 787 Dreamliner today, you would need to
wait till 2015.
On the subject of the Indian aviation sector Mr. Keskar said that while it’s growing at a rate of
48% compared to the global average of 4.8% the high growth rate was mainly due to its small
base. He lamented over the fact that the Indian aviation sector lost an aggregate of 500 million
dollars last year. He then quipped”stupidity can go on only for so long”. The chief reason for the
loss according to him was the fact that the airlines brought in capacity too early and there was
too much competition. He hoped that the airlines have learnt their lessons and the recent spate
of mergers would help the industry to mature.
Looking at future trends in aviation he said that, inspite of the fate of the
concord Hypersonic travel was something to aspire too. Pollution and
carbon footprints are a major concern for the industry and they are looking at innovative ways
to tackle it. While entry into the airline manufacturing business is really tough he opined that
Russian and China both have plans to enter it soon and the aircraft manufacturing industry
could soon see some new competition.
By:
Nachiket Padwal
(SJMSOM Batch of 2009)
and frees the market for competition. He cited the case of Australian
banks after opening up of their economy; these banks matured so fast
that the foreign banks trying to make a foray into their economy had to retreat with losses.
Mike gave a cursory into the streams that UBS has in India, namely, KPO services, and
operations. UBS currently has around 1300 employees at its service centre and plans to expand
greatly in the time to come. Talking of prospective employees, he said that the traits they look
for are drive, ownership, curiosity, ethical orientation and the analytical prowess.
By:
Ankur Hazarika
(SJMSOM Batch of 2009)
Annual Alumni Meet 2007@Mumbai
Chapter
Education is not only the driving force for a leader to move ahead in life but also the motivation
to take an occasional pause and reflect back, connect with one’s alma mater and share the
richness of one’s journey. The ‘Annual Alumni Meet‐ 2007’ of the Mumbai Chapter of SJMSOM,
IIT Bombay proved to be that pause.
It was indeed heartening to see so many alumni, especially from the initial batches, come and
drive the discussion in the ‘Alumni Discussion Forum’ which is a platform for the current
batches, faculty and alumni from the last eleven batches to discuss the concerns around
management education at SOM. A significant point raised was the need of the alumni to touch
base with the current curriculum of management at SOM, so as to revise the basics and to
update themselves of the shifting paradigms in their respective domains. This high‐energy
discussion moderated by Prof. Shishir K Jha, VP, SOM Association, concluded on a really positive
note with the group recognizing the strides made by SOM in the fields of IT, operations, finance
and marketing. This nostalgic visit back to campus made the alumni feel at home and brought
excitement into the interaction.
Moving ahead to the second venue ,Saffron Spice at Hiranandani Complex where an informal
gathering was planned, proved to be the right place for individual batch‐wise introductions, a
tour of the campus and student‐life in the form of an extremely moving film directed by SOM
’09, an update on the recent achievements of SOM in terms of the diverse profiles offered and
the placements touching the stratosphere, new courses like aviation management and the
scope of Avenues‐2007, the annual international festival of SOM. The event was concluded with
a scintillating song performed by the SOM ’09 band “In’SOM’niacs” which inspired the batch of
’07 to sing the all time favourite “SOM Bhajan”. Amidst the cheerful mood, the crowd
proceeded for interaction over dinner. It was indeed enlightenment for the current batches as
sthey got to hear about long‐term career planning, flow of Indian economy and work‐life
balance from those who had been there and done that. One senior
alumnus from consulting domain was talking about ‘atma‐gyaan’.
Another one, the COO from the power sector, was stressing the need for a SWOT analysis of
self to decide the specialization instead of market‐forces. An entrepreneur was emphasizing the
domain knowledge aspect and mental strength to keep going. One could really feel the broad
horizons of perspective.
All‐in‐all, the evening resulted in sharing of reminiscent times, new networks built, rich
experience shared and a lot of appreciation conveyed by the alumni to SOM ’08 for such an
exemplary event management. The all‐pervasive feeling of the occasion is extracted in this one
quote‐ ‘Education is what survives, after you’ve forgotten what you memorised.’
By:
Avinav Goel
(SJMSOM Batch of 2009)
Stalwarts
Rising Rupee – How valid are the concerns?
From the time, when the then Indian government had to pledge country’s gold to stave off the
forex crisis, to today when the country has more than $200 billion of forex reserves and the
banker’s bank is struggling to keep pace with the appreciating rupee and thereby salvage the
condition of the exporters, the Indian economy has indeed come a long way. The market is
flush with forex inflows: net investments by FIIs were $10.16 billion during January‐June 2007.
Similarly, FDI inflows touched $19.53 billion in 2006‐07, a 153% increase over last year. The
turnaround has been made possible due to several reasons. The first and the foremost, being
the liberalization of the economy after 1991 and its subsequent continuance till date. The
quality of goods being exported increased and the Indian exporters started gaining ground in
the international market. The remittances from the NRIs have been increasing continuously
year on year attracted by better interest rates and investment opportunities. But the most
important driver is the internal consumption.
But there is a catch to the situation as well. This increase in the reserves has led to appreciation
of the rupee. It in turn created a condition for the exports to be uncompetitive. The IT and BPO
companies, whose major share come from the exports are bleeding and their profits are taking
a nosedive. The rupee which traded at around Rs.47‐48 a dollar, now is around Rs.40 a dollar.
Though IT and BPO companies are creating raucous, according to the CII it is the leather and
textile industry which will be hit the most. The current GDP deficit of India is 2% of GDP where
as its fiscal deficit is 5% of GDP. Add to this, the public sector as well as the subsidies acting as a
drain, the requirement of funds for India will be unending. With the pressure from the industry
to intervene, as well as the goals of achieving current account convertibility, the RBI is now
facing a tough question. But the question to be asked over here is that do Indian exporters
need to rely only on weaker rupee to sustain their competitiveness? The other solution to the
problem can be found by raising the Total Factor Production (TFP) and output per employee.
Comparing with European countries, say for e.g. Germany. The country is still doing very well in
the exports of auto and software technologies, inspite of the EURO appreciating tremendously
against the dollar. India should capitalize on its strength: Its abundant labour force which can
help in keeping the prices low. We should also try and rule out the trivial comparisons about
how
China has allowed its currency to remain at an undervalued price in order to have a competitive
edge. The Output per employee in China has risen by 8.5% since 1993. For India the
corresponding figure is 4.6%. Same is the case for Total Factor Productivity (TFP) which
increased by 4% for china and by 2.3% for India.
Let us now understand as to what are the options available with RBI and how can it go about it.
A rather strong intent was shown by finance minister P Chidambaram in the annual budget to
effectively use the reserves. The finance minister had proposed to use 5%
of the reserves in the infrastructure development projects. This would
lead to faster execution of the projects, stalled on the basis of unavailability of the funds. The
other viable option could be the intervention of the RBI to stabilize the nominal exchange rate.
The rate could be stabilized, which in turn would increase the liquidity in the market. The
liquidity will increase the interest rates and thereby the inflation. Hence the problem will be
just a never ending one. Hence, The Reserve Bank of India has opted for the easier way out by
allowing more money to leave the Indian shores. But this freedom will not mean increasing
demand for dollars as yet with domestic growth bettering the global average and the lack of
global expertise, not many will opt to invest abroad either especially when the returns on
Indian stocks are far better than in most countries. Secondly, it has also responded by divesting
itself of domestic securities. One of the other options available with the government is to
provide sops. It might seem to be a wonderful option at this stage. But would it really improve
the competitiveness of the Indian firms. This will just make unprofitable firms profitable. This is
one very important fact which needs to be taken into account.
What are the steps that the companies can take? First and foremost, it is for the companies to
understand that the fruits of globalization cannot be reaped without its inevitable side effects.
Hence the more obvious looking option for the Indian companies is to decrease their reliance
on US markets. The most accessible method is to hedge the currency exposure in the foreign
market. The European markets are emerging stronger and stronger each passing day. Also the
rupee has been depreciating against the EURO and pound Sterling. It will now be imperative for
the IT companies to go overboard and take up high end assignments across all the sectors. The
exporters though have a lot of options with them. The time is a fantastic one for the exporters
to go about an acquisition abroad. The resource utilization will be better.
All in all, it seems to be a fantastic time for the Indian growth story, where the rupee is
appreciating, as it does for other countries when the economy is strong. It is the consumer who
is being benefited after all due to lower prices and a stronger currency. RBI should definitely
restrain itself from intervening too much and let the market forces come into play as often as
possible.
By:
Jaimin Gandhi
(SJMSOM Batch of 2009)
Global Financial Imbroglio
The popular belief is, what goes up must come down. If that is to be believed, then where is our
global economy heading? After a few years of great run up in the valuation, across all the asset
classes, the decelerating forces have raised its heads. Since, the start of this year, pundit’s
predication of slowdown in US economy started sounding logical. They always have doubted
where the US economy is heading with such a huge increase in budget deficit. The excessive
consumerism backed by heavy borrowings by US citizen had its nemesis in the form of “Sub
prime mortgage crisis”.
Technology, liberalization, globalization, lead to easy global fund flow and gave rise to “Carry
Trade”. In February 2007, when Bank of Japan raised interest rate from 0 to 0.5%, the jitters
were felt across the global financial market. The precedence of “South East Asian crisis” came
back fresh into the mind of people.
The history of last decade in financial market has been cyclic in nature. The booming economy
of South East Asian tigers got punctured by Asian financial crisis. The two major factors causing
the crisis were US economy recovered from recession and the raise in the Fed rate. The next
came in the Information Technology boom followed by a gold rush in dotcom. Cashing on the
euphoria dotcom companies started entering primary market. Investors forgetting the basic
principles of investing invested in companies without any business model and soon faced the
hard reality. The dotcom bubble began to burst and final nail in the coffin came as a form of
9/11 and what followed was a period of recession.
The period of 2002 to 2005 under the guidance of Allan Greenspan saw subsequent cut in the
interest rate from high of 6% to as low as 2%. The pumping of money by Fed into the economy
lead to stock prices to rally followed by other assets. Most importantly, it lead to a boom in
housing market. Ultimately the boom busted in the form of Sub prime crisis. Subprime
mortgage originations grew from $173 billion in 2001 to a record level of $665 billion in 2005,
which represented an increase of nearly 300%. The repercussion lead to consumer spending
going down, the credit crunch, the slump in housing market and jitters in stock market. The
economy got so threatened that the Federal Reserve set aside its worries about inflation and on
September 18 cut short‐term interest rates by half a percentage point for the first time in four
years, hoping a shot of stimulus would head off a recession. Commodities had the biggest
monthly gain in 32 years, led by wheat, crude oil and gold, as the dollar's slump enhanced the
appeal of energy, grains and precious metals as a hedge against inflation.
Are we heading towards softening of interest rates? That the coming time
only will tell. But, whatever be it, Fed must be cautious in reigniting
inflation and spawning new bubbles. Japanese economy too is showing signs of recovery. If that
sustains then we will see hardening of interest rate by Bank of Japan which will lead to
unwinding of carry trade and lot of global trembling.
India also had its dream run up in the global boom. The commodities, real estate and stocks
have sky rocketed. Though the really is backed by fundamentals of India growing at fastest, but
are we enough shock proof to global imbroglios. After a dream run up, Japanese economy
cooled down, so was South East Asian countries. Now, the onus is on Indian Govt. and RBI to
keenly monitor the global development and formulate maximum risk management strategy for
any global recessionary eventualities.
By:
Pushan Sikdar
(SJMSOM Batch of 2009)
Chimera
Humanistic Managers
Why aren’t emotions considered important for managers?? We keep complaining about our
bosses that they can't understand the problems of their sub‐ordinates. Boss is always wrong
and we feel that we would have done this and that if we were to be in that position. But will we
ever be able to do things properly when we are in that position. Forget about being in that
position, even would‐be managers i.e. students pursuing MBA, can they behave the way which
is humane.
Though being inhumane is a strong adjective to be used for the so called petty things like
hurting someone, playing with some one's emotions, I'd still consider that inhumane. I would
not want to compare it with the inhuman conditions prevailing in Iraq, Afghanistan, and
Ethiopia which cannot be expressed in words.
As a matter of fact, I am speaking about a very simple act of ‘hurting emotions’.
In my perspective, the importance of understanding the other person is something that every
B‐school should implement. Agreed, numbers matter in corporate world, but what’s wrong in
achieving the numbers without hurting someone? I don’t want to conclude anything from this
article.
Just a concern as a “would be” manager.
By:
Sriram Vangara
(SJMSOM Batch of 2009)
Excerpts from the blog of Sriram Vangara: http://vangarasriram.blogspot.com/
By:
Abid Husain
(SJMSOM Batch of 2008)
Biz Quiz
Q1. What did Churchill describe in 1940 as “an enemy within gates doing more harm than
good”?
Q2. To which company did the shipment of tea destroyed by the American colonists during
the Boston Tea Party in 1773 belong?
Q3. In 1991 this company became the first privately owned company (at that point of time)
in the US to offer stock options which it named Bean Stock. Name the company?
Q4. Which word often used in the business parlance comes from Italian for `broken bench'?
Q5. A group of twenty‐four traders gathered under a buttonwood tree to negotiate some
conditions, the result of which was the Buttonwood Agreement, a simple, two sentence
contracts. What was this all about?
Q6. This term was coined in 1938 by nine‐year‐old Milton Sirotta, nephew of American
mathematician Edward Kasner who announced the concept in his book. A company
takes its name from that particular word. Which company?
Q7. With which brand would you associate LOTUS and MOUNTAIN logos?
Q8. Research in Motion (RIM) is a Canadian company headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario. It
was founded by Mike Lazaridis, who currently serves as its co‐CEO along with Jim
Balsillie. What is their most famous product?
Q9. Pioma Industries is best known for which brand?
Q10. It was first founded by the California clothing company Pacific Mills to showcase its
Catalina swimwear brand. Later, it became a part of Kayser‐Roth and then Gulf and
Western Industries. In 1996 the ownership was taken over by Donald Trump. What are
we talking about?
By:
S. Prashanth
(SJMSOM Batch of 2009)
ANSWERS
1. BBC
2. East India Company
3. Starbucks
4. Bankrupt
5. Formation of NYSE
6. Google form googol
7. Adidas
8. Blackberry Communication Device
9. Rasna
10. The Miss Universe pageant