Three subjects I love in my MBA program.

As you all know, I am pursuing my PGDM (part time executive) program at IFMR, Chennai. Love the college and the profs there.

Of the many subjects I learn during this 3 year course, I enjoy 3 in particular. Here is what they are and why:

Organizational Behavior:

One of my favourites. It’s a subject which teaches you how to run the people aspect of any business successfully. It’s about how EQ & iQ can help you work with your team members in complete sync. This course also teaches on traits to be a successful leader, a good team member, or how to recruit the right person for a job, and what kind of HR practises we need to put in place to foster a good culture. OB (as it is usually referred to..) is also about strategies you can put in place to make a company a great place to work .

I learnt the dynamics of group behaviour and , conflicts and negotiations and various other theories on managing teams and on how to become a good manager.

Learning it part-time helps me connect what I learn in class to what is happening in my organization.

Course Materials include case studies and text book : Organizational Behavior by  Robbins, Judge and Sanghi

Economics:

I majored in this subject during my UG . Again, love the subject . There are days when I wish that i had become a pure economist and a researcher than becomea marketing guy. I get to understand the Indian and world economy from Macro and why people but and do what they do from Micro Economics. Through practical examples and theory from Greorgy Mankiew books , I love reading reading up on economics .

Marketing :

The bastard son of Sales.  I am a complete marketing guy. And I love Brand Marketing specialization because I am all about communications and relationships. I have always known that one day I would become  brand marketing and communications guy. I just honed in on digital marketing and e commerce at later stage of my career .

I am not a great fan of advertising but love the idea of building brands through publica relations, BTL, word of mouth and digital .

An open letter to HBR team

To,

India Today Group and the HBR team

Extremely sad and shocked at the increase of the price of HBR from Rs.500 to Rs.750! Not sure why this suddenly increase in price. Is it cos of the new design or because it is a double issue or it is New Year?

What is the point in making the new design more accessible to reading when you are making the magazine less accessible for people to buy?

As long as the price was at Rs.500 I used to eagerly wait for the magazine to come out. Cos Rs.500 for me was an opportunity cost in financial planning. Rs.500 was a sacrifice I made for a movie outing with my finance. I used to think – even if I missed a movie with her, that’s fine! I get to read HBR management stuff. She understood.

Now, I can’t give her that reason. I can’t tell her that I sacrificed my time with her for a book which cost Rs.750.

What about the rest of us? What about new managers climbing the corporate ladder who may not have big salary but have big dreams and want to learn management ideas and thoughts from icons of HBR but cant because of the increase in price. Others may get access to HBR cos their HR would be good enough to buy it for them in office. Student’s studying MBA may get access to it from the coll library.

My HBR copy Jan 2010

jan2010 and Dec 2009

Entrepreneur Dec 2009

So what happens to the rest of us? Are we to be denied the pleasure of reading HBR?

The Entrepreneur (India edition) is Rs.100. that makes sense. That makes big sense to buy. And the content is good. Not as classy as HBR but good nonetheless.

So here is my big question: Why on earth did you guys raise the price back to Rs. 750?

If you are charging HBR print edition so much, why not give free online access to your articles and archives?

You know what is even more sad? Me not buying HBR won’t make any difference to you. It won’t cause a dent in your brand, sales or the policy you follow.

But hopefully there ought to be more ppl like me out there who will read this blog, nod their head and voice out their concerns as well… That may probably be a wake up call for you guys to rethink your pricing strategy in India.

A Dejetced Big Fan!

Sri Vikas

The Dream team at 7 Race Course Road

If i could use one word to describe the results of this election : Beautiful !

It is so heart warming to see India giving a big thumbs to stability and reforms .

Now that Congress is all set to form the govt here is my take on what key cabinet positions should be like :

Prime Minister : Dr Manmohan Singh

Principal Economic Adviser to the PM :  Montek Singh Alluwallia

Finance Minister : C. Rangarajan

Commerce Minister : Mr. Kamal Nath

Home Minister : P. Chindambaram

External Affairs Minister : Shashi Taroor

HRD :  Sam Pitroda ( Surprise !.. Surprise !)

Railway Minister : Laloo Prasad Yadav ( Yes, despite the fact that he partially dumped Congress. For the greater common good )

Communications & Telecom Minister : Dayanidhi Maran

Defense Minister : Mani Shankar Aiyar

Panchayath Raj Minister :  Rahul Gandhi

Aviation Minister : Praful Patel

Science and Technology Minister : Kapil Sibal

Rural Development Minister : Sachin Pilot

Micro and Small medium Industry Minister :  Jaipal Reddy

Tourism Minister : Jyothiradithya Scindia

Power Minister : Pranab Mukerjee

Agriculture Minister : Suresh kalmadi

Petroleum Minister : Murali Deora

Law and Justice Minister : Bhradwaj

This is a list of young and experienced group of ministers which i believe can be part of the Cabinet Ministry for the next government .

aaah! clarity finally.. In my journey

You know .. I just figured how i am gonna drive business in my company. Havent even informed Ryan yet. You know .. Ryan , Business Head for BODYFUELZ – my boss.. So he had asked me this question the other day – Vikas , how are you gonna drive business in this company ?

Been mashing up my thoughts for a quiet a while now . Actually a month . Close to a month …

Well , when i did figure out I kinda had this englightment inside me . Like this – “Boom! thats It ! This is what i want to do . this is what i should be doing. this what i am good at . Or i could be good at but not yet there.”

So ahem .. here is what  I would be doing with my future . At least the discipline I gonna dedicate my career.

I will put it in points just in case i read this blog couple of months from now when i need direction.

– Economics + Digital Media : I am trained economist. Rather : trained to understand economics. So no matter what others think ,  I tell ya folks,  Economics is so KOOOOl! Seriously it is .. It makes you compare and understand and figure out how a consumer spends or how he/she is likely to spend, with the money earned. It is fasicnating. It is human drama and it is has all the ingredients to make it a pot-boiler.

Now if I marry economics to digital media , you have a Blue Market Career. Fancy words, fancy titles .. you know the drill!

–  Social Media Communitions : You have heard of social media marketing but this is new. Social Media Communications is the package of social media technologies , corp comm and public relations. I haven tried it yet but something tells me ( it is the guts i say , MIND IT!) that this concept is gonna rock.

–  E Business : Get the word right . It is not e- commerce. It is E- Business. Watch this space to know more on what is the difference between the two.

– Connected Marketing : Word of Mouth, Viral  and Network hubs. String them together and you have a great campaign. Figure out a way to convert that to sales. Man, you will rock the boat!  You know,  I actually wanna rock my life, my relationships and my company once in a while .. Shake out the toxins and bring in fresh air. It will do good.

– Word of Mouth : This is repetative. But I love this concept so much  that it needs to be revisted in my list.  If i can crowd source, buzz market, social network, tech process, thought lead, create hubs and start a wom plague then connect with a sale. I get done more with less.

heads up : Digital Branding is here to stay . What it lacks is a  Jermiah kind of a guy who will walk the talk and talk the walk. I mean , who is will  talk about it ( become a thought leader… ) and walk the talk ( …and show how it is done) . I am gonna be that guy or die trying . I am no technologist . I dont code. I observe  ( i am a buddhist by practise you see..) and i will be the “watcher” and then make my move from behind the scenes .

What will happen in future with these ideas ? Dont know.  Dont care.. but this is me now ..

The Fear of Deflation in Indian Economy

Today’s Economic Times has the screaming article Indian Economy staring at deflation. Is it good news ? in its front page.  Too late .. I have already predicted and reported on this .

On Feb27th of 2009 I had posted a blog  Inflation down to 3.36%. Nothing to be happy about. This blog was posted when 3.36% inflation figures were released by the government.

Is it good news ? Of course not. Why should it be ? Think about it. Deflation arises when less money is chasing more products. So the question now comes – Is it that we Indians have no money to buy ?

On the contrary,Indians have the money to invest. How else would you explain record number of new mobile connections sold ? How else will you explain Mercedes selling more cars in India than in most of the so called “‘mature”, “developed”  markets ? How else can you explain the IPL commercial values involved? How else can you explain DTH connections sold in drones in the last 6 months?

So you see , we can safely say that we Indians have the money to spend. What prevents us from spending a lot ( unlike last year) is the fear factor.

France , America, Britian has millions of job loses reported . France had 3 million out on streets protesting against wage cutes and unemployment. How many such rallies have we seen in India? I will let you answer that question.

First, let us accept the accept that the Indian economy clocked 9% G.D.P last year and it was fueled by entrepreneurship . But, unlike our counterparts ,Indians are largely insulated by the bad economic troubles. But true to our risk averse mind set we are saving our money and too scared to invest or buy in indulgence. Therefore , demand is low.

There are 2 ways at looking at it. Positive and Negative. Taking the current discussion under consideration, we are forced to look at the negative reasons. And negative reasons are very scary indeed.

What can be done ?  Two things – Awarness and Proactive solutions by the government and private companies and banks.

Self Awareness from the people is hard to come by. The government representatives should come out and talk directly to the people instead of just giving out talks in press conference . TV news channels can give a good coverage by inviting top brass to address people directly.

Address the Nation : When was the last the time we actually sat in front of the TV and listened to Presidential speech on the eve of Independence day ? Be honest about it .. But , this is the right time for Ministry of Finance, Planning Commission, RBI head to directly to the people. We should also have business icons and thought leaders like Naryana Mooorthy, Sam Pitroda, Sunil Mittal, Sachin Tendulkar, Dhoni, and writers , celebrities talk directly to the people. The idea is to instil confidence and security to the people.

Go Vernacular : Talking in high jargon filled English is not gonna do the trick. The biggest curse of India is that we have not been able to permeate the growth of the economy to the villages. Few people realise that villages, tier 2 and 3 cities hold the key to super power status of India. They may not be English educated but they have spending power. And like Unilever’s CEO Mr Paul said in a interview , ” We will have to drive people’s habits” . Very True!

But talk to people in their language.

Start spending but in a controlled way . Educate, Empower and set example and spread the word. Be a thought leader yourself. Ask your friends to spend but not in excess. Try to include Indian products in your grocery. This will fuel domestic economy and also in the long term make us a potential market and make it more investor friendly .

Simple things are can go a long way. You dont have to be a Chief Economist to drive change.

Just a thought : We should stop IMF and S&P500 and other agency give investor ratings during recession. Otherwise people are gonna reach such stats and go into a shell and reduce spending and brakes the FDI’s.

Inflation down to 3.36% : Nothing to be happy about.

In month of August – September 2008 our Inflation stood at 12 % .  The whole media industry went hay wire crying that India is a gonner. That Indian economy is dead and that the government did everything wrong with its monetary policies. Little did they realise that increase inflation was simply cos of the global problems affecting India. The primary reason being that crude oil was almost hitting $ 150 per barrel. 

Now, we have an inflation dip . In the today’s Economic Times article Inflation dips to 14 month low , there is a line which says – and i quote – 

With inflation ceasing to be a major concern, aggressive rate cuts are expected from the Reserve Bank to stimulate the economy.

 

This got me thinking… Are we safe in the inflation front? 

Now, let us visit the fundamental of economics  in a simple way 

Inflation is lots of money chasing very limited goods available in the market. Happens when the shop keepers and distributors and dealers increase the cost of the goods . This an offset of very vibrant, positive and booming economy. Inflation is good to a certain extent but when it crosses a benchmark percentage then it is a problem because it will inevitable affect the common man. 

A deflation is when the reverse happens. When the cost of the goods nosedives to unexpected lows. A clear sign of the economy slowing down and leading to a recession. 

Now that we have checked the economic theories , let get out with the analysis. 

 

When the Economic Times claims that there is nothing to worry about, I will have to disagree on their claims. 

Why ? 

Fear Factor 

Let me explain…

People like you and me are worried about tomorrow. We have a fear that we may not have a job tomorrow when we go to office. So we are saving the money which we earn so that even if we lose job tomorrow  we have enough money to sustain for couple of months till we find a new job. Last year we had dozens of HR people chasing us offering jobs everyday .Today it is the opposite. Even IIM- C Day Zero placements results are dismal by its high standards.

What we dont realize is that when we dont spend money to buy goods , there is no liquidity in the market. When there is no money circulating in the market , the goods remain unsold and hence productions slow down and comes to a grinding halt. This in turn on a macro scale slows down the entire economy. 

This is not a good thing to happen. Because this 3.36% on dip in inflation takes a much worrying scenario of –  Will we go into a deflation? Which is an even more serious issue. 

Had this 3.36% of dip inflation come down in a gradual way , then we may not be so alarmed. Because inflation numbers are always fluctuating in a good economy. It shows movement. It shows dynamism. It is kinetic energy of the economy in play. 

But this is not usual circumstances because of global economic crisis

 India cannot go into a recession. Our economic fundamentals are not build that way. But we can go into a stagnation. NO growth and No Fall . The economy will stagnate . People will keep buying the basic commodities for they day to day living. But they will buy it in lesser quantities at not so regular intervals. 

So you will have your mom will buy 2 apples less than when she usually buys. Your wife will buy spinach once a week. Fish and meat on occasions. Wont renew your gym, magazine subscriptions. Cut back on all spending, basically. So you have buying at a slower pace. Neither here nor there. 

The US economy is no where near on a comeback trail. 40% of US treassuries is with China and Japan and even they are having a major economy problem. So , the fear of job loss, the fear of unstability is going to be there for a long time. 

Hence dont be surprised when inflation further dips to 2 % and 1 % . But I hope at least then news media like Economic Times and Business Line wont take things lightly. 

What is the cure?

3.36% is something to be worried about.

Therefore banks should take cue from the govt stimulus policies and start lending more to consumers. For that to happen RBI should crack the whip with more stern actions on the banks which don’t take advantage of the stimulus packages and other monetary policies regulated recently. ICICI bank did a good job on fixing the 10% interest rate on lending last week. More such steps should be taken by  other banks as well.

Citizens should start spending more and try to buy more of  Indian products. This will in turn increase domestic demand and breath life in to Indian industries and reduce dependency on exports. Will help in the fiscal scenario as well! 

And the government can also take measures to increase the consumer confidence by releasing ads in print , tv and radio . A kind of awareness program.

Hope this post helps in sorting out issues on the inflation worries.

Drop in your comment if you agree of disagree on this.

Fiscal Policy : Are we planning to go into a recession?

I want you guys  to read the article Wrong Doctor, wrong treatment from the editorial of the Business Line and give it a serious thought. 

But i must caution that if you are not a keen follower of economic policies happening in India and across the world then you will not be able to grasp the real concept behind what the author is trying to convey in the article. Written in clear and simple words the author of the article is wondering if tthe Govt going dangerously wrong in itr fiscal and monetary policy. 

I personally think there is a element of  merit in the arguments put forth in the article. 

Are we trying to spend the money which we dont have ? Is it not similar to what happened in America in between 1993 and 2007 , the effect of which is now seen as the economic recession now. So, are we getting the wrong economics right in the wrong propotions? 

Are we spending more than what we should be spending ? Are we taking the fiscal problem in a lighter sense ? 

I dont care what economist you believe in . I personally go for Keynesian . Always have. But you may be a Friedman fan for all I care.

But today’s economic situation is so differenent in its scale and scope that I am willing to let go of Keynesian theories and embrace which will work and sound logic from an development prespective. 

I implore you guys to read the article . 

Please drop in your queries, doubts, ideas, thoughts so we can have a sensible discussion this and take it forward.

Also read my post on Is India still in recession to understand what is happeining to our economy.

IPL disgust – Capitalist Morons – why i will never watch IPL matches

I feel revolted when i see cricket  players being “auctioned” and bought for IPL matches.

How is it that the people who are involved in bidding and buying players have the heart to dish out crores of money to buy players when common people across the country…nay world ( because even foreign players are involved) are loosing jobs or tightening their wallet due to economic slow down ?

In December we witnessed one of the most dastardly terrorist attack the world has ever seen. Hundreds died, still you have hundreds  in hospitals recovering from their injuries , some are still in trauma caused due to the tragedy .

And yet, here we have a group of extremely wealthy corporate assholes paying huge chunks of money to play 20 overs cricket match.  Basically you are just blowing away crores of money in matter of hours.

What i don’t understand is how can Vijay Mallya pay Rs. 7cr on one side for just one English player when  his KingFisher airline is making huge losses and owe the government 100cr on airline fuel charges?

Get this straight ! That 100 crore is not any body’s but our money . Suffice to say he owes people like you and me and the rest of India  Rs100 cr and plus. It our  money –  what we pay to the country in the form tax, guys!

But he is not at fault . The fault is completely ours. We are not proactive. And that includes me as well!

If I was proactive I would have asked him , ” dude!  who the fuck gave you the right to buy another “human being” , when you don’t have the decency to pay back what you owe the government ?  or at least invest that money in improving the efficiency of your company so that you don’t have cut jobs tomorrow ”

I so wanted to ask Mrs Ambani , ” Just because you eat, sleep, drink, swim money , how is that you have the heart to be so bloody ostentatious during such difficult times ?  You live in Mumbai, don’t you ?  what have you done for the injured or the family of the martyrs of the terrorist attack ? ”

To Ms Preity Zinta –  ” That’s right! you have become too old to act as a heroine. Accept that fact. You don’t have producers lined up outside your door to sign up movies. Tough luck! but that is how it is . Use money wisely .. Just because your bf is coming from a wealth family , doesn’t mean that you…. you get the drift , don’t you ? ”

To Ms Shetty –  ” You suck ! how long are you gonna flaunt you Big Boss win ? How long are you gonna live under the assumption that people in India really give a hoot about you ? ”

In the olden days wealthy merchants used to buy slaves and prostitutes from the market . Slaves for hard labour and prostitutes for the obvious reasons. Irrespective of the economic situation around them , they continued to eat, sleep, become fat and have a gal time with women.

How different is that from what is happening today at the IPL auctions ?

Here are my questions to you ?

Why are you watching these matches , just to increase TRP ratings and waste your time only to re fill the pockets of these morons ? Why not use that time to go out and play a match with your friends ? That way you excerise your body!

I am not saying that you should stop watching cricket , but hey ! there are other sports in the country too. There are other players looking out for support from you as well .

There are other players in the arena from other sports who are not asking for money but for appreciation. Who are not seeking brand ambassador tags but money for training and infrastructure.

Simple case in point – corporates chased Sania Mirza not only for her win in Wimbledon but she is considered “hot” and “sexy” . Vijinder Kaur looks like a “model” hence he get brand endorsements .

What about other players who won medals for our nation during the Olympics . Sure you said , ” I am proud of you guys”. After that ? Everybody forgets !

We should be ashamed of ourselves, no?

It is ironic that a boxer whos sport is of destructive nature endoring a insurance product ?

So, ask yourself this question – ” how skin deep and money minded am i ?”

And  another culprit is the media. Ndtv is so jobless that they dedicated a show just to bring in the bidders to talk /discuss about why they paid so much money and blah … blah .. Nonsense . What is there to discuss ? They came with money, they falunted their wealth , bid like it is done in a market and went home with a bunch of slaves. And yeah, they appeared on TV ..  The same goes for other tv channels  as well .

I have decided never to watch 20/20 matches. I feel used by the capitalist assholes . I am too intelligent, too smart and have too much diginty to fall for this bloody money making game.

Sure , money is important. Not advocating to stop wacthing cricket matches or stop cheering the cricket team .But there is a limit to everything !

I suggest you guys do the same ! It is only a suggestion , though

Understand one simple thing – end of the day everything is about how many ads were aired, the TRP raitings and money generated. It is not about the game !

Why

How to write a good Resume

Here is an good blog post  which gives you thoughts,tips and ideas on how to write a good Resume.

I am sure lots of people in India and Abroad and running pillar to post to secure a good and stable job and to get a good job you need to get a good,crisp resume which is top-notch so the you will land up with a plum interview . And the rest is in your hands to convert the interview to job on hand.

So use the ideas given here, click and follow the links available in the article to check out some good templates on writing effective resumes.

Good Luck on your job hunting !

Save money using Webinar for lead generation and sales

When I was working for mobile-worx, a mobile advertising company , we had to connect with lots of prospective clients and customers. Our office is based out of Chennai and we had our clients coming in from other cities of India and Abroad. As a start up company we dint have enough resources to travel all the way to these cities to talk to our clients , talk about our product and give a demo.  To cut costs in traveling we instead chose to use online meeting tools .

Here is what we used to do :

First we identified our client – either an advertiser or content developer.

We then made our first cold call , connected with the head of sales or marketing and gave a brief intro about our product.

I then followed it up with a mail , a document ( let me remind you guys that when you send a document about your product to prospective clients always use pdf) about our product and a tentative time to fix the next call meeting.

Once we fixed the call meeting we informed our client that while we wont be able to come to their city personally we can give a demo of our product online itself. It was simple. We log-in to our account, generate a url and pass on the url to our client with his log-in details. Once the client log’s into his account he can easily watch the demo sitting in his office through his computer screen while we used to run through our product online. There was no cost involved for us except for the broadband connection and a monthly/yearly amount we used to pay for the services.

While giving demo , we used Skype to talk to him, simultaneously explaining every step involved in using our product.

It would be like remote accessing the images from my computer screen in yours.

I personally thought it was a fantastic way to communicate with clients. It helped us reducing lots of time and tons of money which would have otherwise been spent on traveling, hotel stay, commuting, food and other miscellaneous expenses which would be obviously paid by the company. It also gave us more time to focus on improving our product and connect with more clients and customers.

This is not to say that one should not to go out to meet clients personally. Meeting clients in their office is still the best way to connect and build relationships in business. Meeting them in person creates personal rapport with them which an online meeting can never compensate. But there are times when one can use Online meetings tools such as these and still make a great impact with clients and customers.

All i am trying to do here is to show you how you can use Web technology to connect with clients and use it for lead generation. A  tool like this is extremely useful for start up companies and SME ‘s . For an SME owner , he may have his client in Netherlands or Alaska . It is not possible for him to go all the way there to meet a “prospective” client and seal a deal. There is  no guarantee that the deal will come through in the first place. For him Web conference technology will come in very handy.

Go To Meeting , product of Nasdaq listed Citrix Systems Inc is a great online Web confercing tool. You can conduct online meetings using  Goto Meeting and Webinars using GoTo Webinar. You must visit their website to know more about their products and what they can do for you and your sales team.

They have now released a White paper on how companies can use Webinars to

• Generate Leads
• Increase Awareness
• Build Loyalty , and more.

You can gain access to their White Paper here : 9 Management Practices for Exceptional Webinars

I think this is a great way to use a social media tool t to promote a brand and service – White papers, podcasts, webinar’s etc ..

Also read about Web Conferencing in Wikipedia to know more.