This was a story from one of my friends .... a 4 year experience with the manufacturing sector, Deputy Mgr, excellent acads and with a better than average CAT score; and a call into the Top notch B-School ..... and the question he gets in the interview
"What are the various facets of Management Studies?"
He does a good job stating Business Strategy, International Business, Policy, Administration, Zoology, Gyaan Inc., Kotler's thumb rules (which essentially covers marketing) et all....
Unfortunate for him his luck was as great as this guy (getting killed by Air-plane Poop can never be a good sign); and the prof turns out to be a HR guy, and Human technology was conspicuously absent from his list....
Well.. So what is the correct answer, if you ask me i would say "IT DEPENDS" .....
15 February 2008
12 February 2008
US Subprime Crisis - In Graphics
Well, this is something like SubPrime for DUMMIES
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7073131.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7073131.stm
10 February 2008
Marketing Research Methodology - A Sublime art
We all remember the Cute yesteryear "I Love you Rasna" advertisement
But would you have ever wondered about the massive undercurrent of research methodology involved for designing and coming up this simple commercial. Frankly, if you had asked me i would have scoffed if anyone had told me that to even come up with the orange color on the pack of Rasna was after a meticulous round of focus group discussions.
Well, was i wrong.. it was prof. Rajiv Bagayatkar Associate Director, ACNielsen ORG-Marg who introduced us into the various levels of research that happens for every product branding decisions and with the Rasna case it was proven without doubt that it was not just a stroke of luck that the decisions of the Rasna commercial proved to be a track record.
Starting from how the first commercial was conceived, in order to create a niche in the SDC (Soft Drink Concentrate Segment), to target Moms as the primary buyer and kids (age 3-5 yrs) as the primary influencers, he went on to tell us about how difficult it is to target children because of their extreme associations with color, taste and all the other senses but also lack of proper existing data on the same target segment.
The more he described the world of Marketing research methodology, the more i began to believe that all marketing research involves is to get your basics right. The more basic is the thought process of the advertisement/marketing honchos the better would be the reach across all the segments. It is really not about shattering technological innovations but more about finding how do humans react to specific signals such as the bikini-clad babes or the colgate smile grand-moms. Marketing research is hence why i would say is a sublime art of understanding human psychology.
Few of his other insights; to categorize the behaviour of the people across the borders in India
1) North : They are more external show-offs. All of the products such as T.Vs or T-Shirts which would be visible to others (neighbours,family) would always be branded; while products which would rather not see the light of others; such as washing shampoos or toothpastes would be the cheaper cousins.
2) South : They are more rational people. For ex: in case u have the Heads & Shoulders shampoo commercial, in the north if it shows only that your hair gets clean and gals flock you it shall sell, but in the south you have to show pictures of ZPTO molecules doing the actual cleaning.
3) East : They are more tradition oriented. They would stick on to any old product and are very wary of changing their preferances.
4) West : As a nature of the people, the west is a mix of all the above three characteristics.
Go ahead and explore... Marketing research might just be the field for you
But would you have ever wondered about the massive undercurrent of research methodology involved for designing and coming up this simple commercial. Frankly, if you had asked me i would have scoffed if anyone had told me that to even come up with the orange color on the pack of Rasna was after a meticulous round of focus group discussions.
Well, was i wrong.. it was prof. Rajiv Bagayatkar Associate Director, ACNielsen ORG-Marg who introduced us into the various levels of research that happens for every product branding decisions and with the Rasna case it was proven without doubt that it was not just a stroke of luck that the decisions of the Rasna commercial proved to be a track record.
Starting from how the first commercial was conceived, in order to create a niche in the SDC (Soft Drink Concentrate Segment), to target Moms as the primary buyer and kids (age 3-5 yrs) as the primary influencers, he went on to tell us about how difficult it is to target children because of their extreme associations with color, taste and all the other senses but also lack of proper existing data on the same target segment.
The more he described the world of Marketing research methodology, the more i began to believe that all marketing research involves is to get your basics right. The more basic is the thought process of the advertisement/marketing honchos the better would be the reach across all the segments. It is really not about shattering technological innovations but more about finding how do humans react to specific signals such as the bikini-clad babes or the colgate smile grand-moms. Marketing research is hence why i would say is a sublime art of understanding human psychology.
Few of his other insights; to categorize the behaviour of the people across the borders in India
1) North : They are more external show-offs. All of the products such as T.Vs or T-Shirts which would be visible to others (neighbours,family) would always be branded; while products which would rather not see the light of others; such as washing shampoos or toothpastes would be the cheaper cousins.
2) South : They are more rational people. For ex: in case u have the Heads & Shoulders shampoo commercial, in the north if it shows only that your hair gets clean and gals flock you it shall sell, but in the south you have to show pictures of ZPTO molecules doing the actual cleaning.
3) East : They are more tradition oriented. They would stick on to any old product and are very wary of changing their preferances.
4) West : As a nature of the people, the west is a mix of all the above three characteristics.
Go ahead and explore... Marketing research might just be the field for you
09 February 2008
E-BOOST III - An evening of BOOT-Strapping
I had organized the third leg of our Entrepreneurship Workshops, titled E-Boost III upon the topic "Boot Strapping", as we had got an amazing repetoire of guest speakers both of 1st generation Entrepreneurs and Venture Capitalists. Refer to the guest list
Mr.R.Sriram started off the lecture series by pointing out that entrepreuners need a "CAN DO" attitude, and quoting from an example these days Indian V.Cs though have started funding it is pretty less (in the past 24 months a prominent V.C fund had invested in 14 companies after going through 800 B-plans). He shared across a few experiences mostly about how to manage a business without any capital; and later on went ahead to give us a 1-2-3 (or) step-wise plan for the same :- (a) Look for specific customers (b) Work in the industry (c) Define the exact problem.
He was followed by the prolific Vishal Gondal (India Games) who started from NOTHING TO NOTHING, which was incidentally the topic of his presentation. His presentation was pretty candid and shared across his personal experience of how to garner a V.C and how to go ahead with just your plan. He gave us examples of how to THINK BIG while walking on a tight-rope.In the end he finished with saying, "The Management Principle which really works to start your own business is -JUGAAD"(a hindi slang for boot-strapping)
Next on the menu was Mr.Manoj Gupta (VP , Nexus india Capital) his presentation was mostly peppered with the takings from the previous two speeches and a lil bit of Q&A.
Followed on was Mr.Jay Gupta (Founder, The LOOT retail chain) who talked all about his experience with starting the entreprise.
Definitely a evening of lot of takings. Couple of pics ...
Mr.R.Sriram started off the lecture series by pointing out that entrepreuners need a "CAN DO" attitude, and quoting from an example these days Indian V.Cs though have started funding it is pretty less (in the past 24 months a prominent V.C fund had invested in 14 companies after going through 800 B-plans). He shared across a few experiences mostly about how to manage a business without any capital; and later on went ahead to give us a 1-2-3 (or) step-wise plan for the same :- (a) Look for specific customers (b) Work in the industry (c) Define the exact problem.
He was followed by the prolific Vishal Gondal (India Games) who started from NOTHING TO NOTHING, which was incidentally the topic of his presentation. His presentation was pretty candid and shared across his personal experience of how to garner a V.C and how to go ahead with just your plan. He gave us examples of how to THINK BIG while walking on a tight-rope.In the end he finished with saying, "The Management Principle which really works to start your own business is -JUGAAD"(a hindi slang for boot-strapping)
Next on the menu was Mr.Manoj Gupta (VP , Nexus india Capital) his presentation was mostly peppered with the takings from the previous two speeches and a lil bit of Q&A.
Followed on was Mr.Jay Gupta (Founder, The LOOT retail chain) who talked all about his experience with starting the entreprise.
Definitely a evening of lot of takings. Couple of pics ...
E-BOOST III - Part of NEN's Entrepreneurship Week Celebrations
Profile of the Speakers:
Vishal Gondal (Founder & CEO of Indiagames)
Vishal started his first company – FACT at the age of 16.
Today he leads Indiagames's global operation with over 300 employees and offices in Mumbai, Beijing, London and Los Angeles. Indiagames under Vishal's leadership was featured amongst Red Herring (magazine) Asia's Top 100 companies in 2005.
He was part of The Nokia Advisory Council for Games.
He was featured among the top 40 Indian entrepreneurs by Business Today magazine in 2001.
E&Y Indian Entrepreneur of the year award nomination in 2004
Vishal also features among the 20 Fab Indians to watch out for in 2006 by The Week magazine. 
Manoj Gupta (VP, Nexus India Capital)
Prior to Nexus, Manoj has been involved with entrepreneurial ventures in the semiconductor/communications field for six years. Initially with Siliconwave, a Bluetooth startup (acquired by RFMD) and then with WIT, a Digital TV startup (acquired by Chrontel).
Manoj has an MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, B.Tech from Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, MS from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and PhD (Expected) from University of California, San Diego.
R. Sriram ( Co-founder, former CEO & MD Crossword Bookstores )
Establish various bookstores - starting with Landmark in Chennai, Walden in Hyderabad, and lastly Crossword. He co-founded Crossword with Ms. K. Anita in 1992 and helped build it into India's leading bookstore chain.
Sriram stepped down from Crossword in August 2006 to co-found "Next Practice Retail" to innovate and incubate new retail businesses.
He is a charter member of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) Mumbai and is an Independent Director on the board of Gini & Jony Limited.Sriram is a visiting faculty at IIM A and a guest lecturer at IIM L .
E-BOOST III
Raising funds for new ventures "Bootstrapping"
8th February, 2008
4 p.m. to 5.30 p. m
S. P. Jain Institute of Management and Research
So where shall you be….
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