Thursday, August 18, 2005

Bollywood Logic


Recently the CII hosted the Young Indians Summit, on the theme 'Transforming India: Making it Happen'. The two day session was filled with presentations by eminent speakers from all spheres of life. Rahul Bose, the leading actor was invited to speak on Leadership. Like a typical celebrity, he rushed in late just before the session drew to a close. He apologised profusely and rushed to the podium since it was his turn to speak.

“I really don’t know what my fellow panellists have spoken about leadership till now, so you can forgive me if I am repetitive. But since I have been many such seminars, I do know what they would have spoken about. Clarity of vision, mission, passion, focus on your goal, interpersonal skills, team-building, etc. However I would say, it all boils down to one word, respect. You need to stand for something and people will respect you for that. If you have a great self-respect, the world will notice you and respect you.” Wow! Bollywood fiction taught a lesson to business logic!


Educated Corrupt
In an another session on Educating India's Future', Dr.Sandeep Pandey, founder of Asha Foundation was speaking about ill-effects of our present education system.

He said, "Our education system doesn’t ensure a professional career for the youth, 90% of the workforce in the unorganised sector didn’t bother to study. The notion of corruption is the product of the educated class. We all know that an uneducated person trusts people more and the educated person distrusts people." Now, Dr. Pandey, you are beating Laloo in the game of uttering naive statements!

Remote Innovation
Yet another thought provoking nugget from the Young Indians Summit. While speaking on the topic, 'Innovation - contributing for a better life', eminent IT guru, Dr.S.Sadagopan said, "Innovation need not come from moony ideas, an inspiration to change little things can bring in phenomenal change. For instance, people say that for IT industry, proper infrastructure and great talent has to be made available, but I have seen innovation happen with much support in remote corners of Karnataka. There is this Robosoft Technologies located in Udupi which is now become one of the finest software developers for Mac systems." Now, Bangaloreans, stop cribbing and start working!

Life’s Bumpy Ride
Prof. Anil Gupta of IIM-A has been searching throughout India for innovations at the grassroots level. He presented some of his findings in the session on Innovation at the Young Indians Summit.

“While we educated professionals have been taught how to think logically, we tend to lose our ability to think out of the box. But illiterate villagers keep their minds open allowing creative thoughts to flow in. one such person is Kanak Das in Assam, who always wondered how to make his cycle run faster on bumpy rough roads. He has developed a spring mechanism for reducing the discomforting effect of bumps/potholes to bicycle riders by using the force generated on a bumpy road for transmission purposes.” So if life is a bumpy ride, you need to spring back!

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Is this really low cost?

Low cost PC for the Indian rural markets… the ultimate elixir still being searched by everyone in the consumer electronics business. Every now and then we find one company popping out to say they have the cheapest one, this time it is HCL. Earlier there have been some noteworthy attempts like Wipro’s Janata PC, iNabling Technology’s iStation or bangalore’s own Simputer. Brilliant concepts which haven’t yet worked commercially.

Meanwhile i had recently met a Kolkata based PC manufacturer, Xenitis Group which had launched its ‘Aapna PC’, a low cost PC at Rs.9,990, raising eyebrows in the industry. Apart from the extremely low prices, they are also offering a range of PCs and laptops in funky designs and shocking colours in the price range of Rs.25,000-50,000. The basic model comes packed with a 128 MB RAM, 30GB HDD, 15 inch colour monitor, keyboard, mouse and Linux operating system.

Everything seems to be perfect, but then at this unbelievable price, how is the company going to make any profits? David Nair, CEO, Xenitis says, “We have a tie-up with Unitek, a chinese manufacturer who would supply 70% of our components. Later as volumes grow, we are setting up a 2,00,000 sq. ft first state-of-the-art manufacturing unit in West Bengal, to produce 20,000 units per month. The low cost PC is actually for entry level buyers and when they see other models, they would surely go for it.”

But then the low cost PC’s street price is actually Rs.12,240 including taxes. Doesn’t that take the shine of the price advantage… David clarifies, “No, anyone who buys a product knows that the local sales tax is extra. If your state is adding 12.5% tax on our own product, what can we do…” But then 12.5% tax adds up only Rs.1250, what about the rest of additional charges… “That’s the installation charges!” So finally after all the drama, we get a Chinese PC in funky colours with hidden costs. Let’s wait and watch how the market reacts to this low cost PC.

Sunday, August 14, 2005


Paparazzi swarming around Ratan Tata and Prahalad at the Indione Hotel launch Posted by Picasa

Business from the Bottom of the Pyramid


Recently The Taj Hotels group ventured into low-cost no frills hospitality segment by launching Indione Hotel in Bangalore. This so called 'Smart Basics' hotel would be India's first ‘no attitude' hotel where you will find facilities like TV, net connectivity, drinks in the fridge, phone, ATM, gym, etc. Actually speaking it has all the frills found in a star hotel, but no room service. I would say “thankfully, there is one place where the waiters don’t snoop around us!”

This “Bottom of the Pyramid” concept hotel with a tariff of under Rs 1,000 would be affordable to even a ordinary sales executive. Management guru C.K. Prahalad, who created the concept for the Tatas, said the 'Smart Basics' hotel would create a separate category of high tech, high-touch hotel concept which took two years for concept-to-road fruition.

To make this happen, they had to understand the needs of the customer, work backwards to design a product according to need, develop processes to enable with this requirement and ultimately make money by replicating this success. My boss asked, “Does the Tatas need Prahalad’s guidance to get this elementary business principle!?!”

Meanwhile check out the way our media paparazzi swarmed these dignitaries on the dais… They very well know that a static smiling pic of Prahalad and Ratan Tata will not be used by their news editors. Obviously it would be a picture where they are addressing the audience. But then why do our scribes act so cheaply despite the requests of the organisers…