IIPM News Broadcast: August 2008

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Pilot dearth...

...can be a bigger threat to Asia
It actually is a matter to ponder over, that despite a worldwide growth of airline industry to about more than $400 billion, why is there such a gulf between the need and availability of pilots?

Well, looks like all fingers point to towards the Persian Gulf which has this insatiable appetite for experienced pilots because of its compounding growth in both cargos and passengers. While Brussels Airlines loses about 10 captains a month to the Emirates, Qatar or the Etihad, China too is complaining of the same attrition. Kenya however has other glitches to handle like the cost of training a commercial pilot which almost amounts to Sh three million. India too is no stranger to the pilot drought and the training charges here too are exorbitant.

While in India, Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi charges about Rs 16 lakhs for a CPL and PPL course, in Australia, a Bachelor’s in Aviation in a reputed university like Griffith would mean doling out $12,000-$15,000 per year for a period of three years and the cost becomes steeper in more developed countries. Well, anomalies are many…but aviation calls for bridging the gulf.

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative
Read these article :-
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
IIPM makes business education truly global (Print Version)
The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
IIPM Campus

Top Articles on IIPM:-
IIPM makes business education truly global-Education-The Times of ...
The Hindu : Education Plus : Honour for IIPM
IIPM ranked No.1 B-School in India, Management News - By ...
IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
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The Hindu Business Line : IIPM placements hit a high of over 2000 jobs
Deccan Herald - IIPM ranked as top B-School in India
India eNews - IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
IIPM Delhi - Indian Institute of Planning and Management New Delhi ...
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Private Equity’s very Public problems...

Many companies have spent the last few years buying up every acquisition target and that too with a pulse
Que: Why are so many private equity (PE) deals blowing up? (Alan Engle, Great Neck, NY) Ans: The short answer is that the world has changed (read: United States sub-prime mortgage mess has erupted). A lot of top-notch companies that were once totally hell-bent on acquiring hot new properties suddenly want out of deals that are now starting to look too cold for their comfort. It’s sort of like those terrifying hours after the ill-fated Titanic ran afoul of the iceberg. All the realists present in the crowd didn’t exactly just stroll towards the lifeboats. They simply bolted.

That’s what you’re seeing now – and not just from private equity firms. Many companies, emboldened by the strong economy and its abundance of low-cost credit, have spent the last few years buying up every acquisition target and that too with a pulse. Along the way, dealmakers didn’t exactly ignore risk; they just thought they would be able to handle any form of mishegoss, or craziness, later. Well, it’s “later” now, and dealmakers are starting to bail. It’s amazing that some can. Or at least, they can try – thanks to MAC, the Material Adverse Change clause embedded in virtually every merger-and-acquisition (M&A) contract.

Indeed, in our view, what’s happening with MAC right now provides an important, if wince-inducing, management lesson about when a CEO should delegate the “details” concerning significant risk – which is basically never. Wince-inducing because it’s astonishingly easy to do otherwise. Imagine yourself at the center of a deal being forged. Your team started out the process by making the target company’s team a “generous” offer of, say, $23 a share. “Ridiculous!” was their retort. “We are not going to our board with anything less than $27.”

Then, for the next slew of days, if not weeks, you wrangle, begrudging each other a miniscule $0.50 at a time. Finally, after negotiating every last provision of the financials, the end comes into sight with a price of $25.50, right in the middle with a little sweetener thrown in for the target. And, no surprise, it is 8 p.m. on a Friday night. Finally you and the CEO of the opposite party shake hands, in equal parts exhausted and exultant, and turn to your own lawyers. “Paper this up,” you both together say, “and have it ready before the market opens on Monday.” At which point, the lawyers of both parties go into hyper-drive.

One of their jobs is to come up with a list of all the things that could go wrong between the announcement of the deal and its close, like a major strike against the target company or one of its big customers going belly up. Such an accounting of every possible “adverse change” is the more straightforward part of the contract process, and usually gets done without too much sound and fury. The hard part – the part that usually gets short shrift – is the clause in the contract that defines exactly what would make any adverse change “material,” that is, significant enough to merit killing the deal.

Materiality is hard to nail down for several reasons, but the main one is simply that the laws governing it are not particularly crisp. That makes it very difficult under any circumstances, let alone high-pressure ones, to put a fine point on the meaning of the term. Is it a 20 percent hit to earnings? Or a 15 percent decrease in revenues? Who knows? And so, the lawyers usually end up leaving the language vague enough for both sides to say, “Well, OK. It looks good enough.” Fast forward, then, to an adverse change, like the sub-prime crisis we’re in right now and you understand why so many companies are engaged in legal slugfests over what their MAC clauses technically allow.

Sallie Mae, the United States’ largest student loan provider, and the private equity firm J. C. Flowers could be in court for years, for instance, as could Cerberus, the international private investment firm, and United Rentals, the world’s largest equipment rental company. What a waste of time, energy and money for everyone involved.

In time, of course, credit will loosen and the economy will recover, and when that happens, the details of any given MAC clause will matter a lot less. But even then, there will always be contracts with room for maneuvering and mischief around their terms, if only because there will always be dealmakers who would rather hedge their bets than face the reality that sometimes, MAC happens. If the current sub-prime mess teaches us anything, however, it is that principals should stay with their deals through the bitter end, sorting out of every last detail surrounding risk. It’s grunt work, we realise, gritty, boring and plain not fun. But when the stakes are high, you have absolutely no choice. Don’t delegate the pain away.

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Read these article :-
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
IIPM makes business education truly global (Print Version)
The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
IIPM Campus

Top Articles on IIPM:-
IIPM makes business education truly global-Education-The Times of ...
The Hindu : Education Plus : Honour for IIPM
IIPM ranked No.1 B-School in India, Management News - By ...
IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
Moneycontrol >> News >> Press- News >> IIPM ranked No1 B-School in ...
IIPM ranked No. 1 B-school in India- Zee Business Survey ...
IIPM ranked No1 B-School in India :: Education, Careers ...
The Hindu Business Line : IIPM placements hit a high of over 2000 jobs
Deccan Herald - IIPM ranked as top B-School in India
India eNews - IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
IIPM Delhi - Indian Institute of Planning and Management New Delhi ...
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs

Monday, August 25, 2008

Confining peace to conferences!

Annapolis peace conference is a good beginning. Could it make any headway in the conflict?

Peace has always been a mirage in West Asia. The region

has seen as many wars as conferences for peace. Therefore, a peace meet itself would hardly kindle hopes for the war-ravaged people in the region. Yet, the November 27 peace conference that took place in Annapolis Naval Academy, Maryland, gained much attention, despite West Asia watchers’ repeated warnings to avoid high expectations. What makes Annapolis so different? First of all, it signals a change in President George Bush’s West Asia policy. Till now, the Bush Administration refused to invest its political capital in the Arab-Palestinian conflict. Ever since the electoral victory of Hamas in the Palestinian territories, Bush, along with his European allies, took a ‘Boycott Hamas’ stand. His Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice launched her shuttle diplomacy only after Palestinian Authority President Abu Mazen sacked Hamas from power & appointed a new puppet government. White House & the European capitals understood that this was the moment to isolate Hamas & to go ahead with a conciliatory Abu Mazen. Most of the Arab countries, including Syria, turned up to attend the Annapolis meet. Both the Palestinian & Israeli representatives issued a joint declaration which promised to bring peace by December 2008. “The Annapolis conference did produce one achievement: for the first time in seven years, the Israelis and the Palestinians plan to hold regular negotiations on fundamental issues that divide them,” Greg Myre, an adjunct scholar at the Middle East Institute & a former New York Times correspondent told B&E.

But for achieving long-lasting peace, both parties need to compromise. “Israelis and Palestinians need to negotiate peace directly, under the US-UN—Arab-international umbrella. What is likely, however, is that, it will be left to next US administration to complete this process. I would expect — and one can only hope — that the next US Administration will not do what the Bush Administration did and abandon the Israeli and Palestinian people,” Hady Amr, Director of the Brookings Doha Centre told B&E.

Both Abu Mazen & Olmert look weaker in their respective domestic politics. A weak leader at home is unlikely to take strong decisions. Although the Olmert Government has promised to halt the construction of settlement houses in the West Bank, the Jewish hawks are seemingly determined to block any attempt to dismantle the settlements. Moreover, contentious issues such as border of the prospective Palestinian state, status of Jerusalem & refugees remain untouched.

Still, some would still say, something is better than nothing.

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Read these article :-
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
IIPM makes business education truly global (Print Version)
The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
IIPM Campus

Top Articles on IIPM:-
IIPM makes business education truly global-Education-The Times of ...
The Hindu : Education Plus : Honour for IIPM
IIPM ranked No.1 B-School in India, Management News - By ...
IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
Moneycontrol >> News >> Press- News >> IIPM ranked No1 B-School in ...
IIPM ranked No. 1 B-school in India- Zee Business Survey ...
IIPM ranked No1 B-School in India :: Education, Careers ...
The Hindu Business Line : IIPM placements hit a high of over 2000 jobs
Deccan Herald - IIPM ranked as top B-School in India
India eNews - IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
IIPM Delhi - Indian Institute of Planning and Management New Delhi ...
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Arms in the hands of peace-keepers

Embargoes still have relevance to bring global peace

Peace is not just a dream; it is hard work, and requires

practical efforts to come to fruition...Humanity cannot wait. Now more than ever, the ratification of a set of universal rules on arms transfers is essential,” Dr. Oscar Arias Sanchez, Nobel Peace laureate has avowed once. Like many sanctions, the UN has been striving for peace, imposing arms embargoes to avert arms supply to countries in danger, to impede unending conflicts or government forces from becoming a threat to peace. Sadly, lack of legal framework, cooperation from governments, in governing illegal arms supply, is hindering its effectiveness. The UN has realised the need of having policies or sanctions to let International law and human rights, triumph, as early as 1946. Thus embargo was a comprehensive tool in Angola, Iraq, Liberia, Libya, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Afghanistan and Ethiopia etc. to stop violence. But researches found frequent major or small breaches. Illegal arms supply exceeded $104 billion and horrifyingly, increasing by $8 billion annually globally. A study, ever done of its kind by SIPRI, has affirmed the rampant nature of arms supply and in 75% of cases, embargoes remained ineffective.

However, such embargoes remained very relevant for global peace. While governments need to criminalise crossborderarms supply, nations like the US, Russia, China have to activate scrutinising their arms companies (Lockheed Martin, BAE System) and allies, before giving up leniency and reluctance. Without them can the UN succeed?

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Friday, August 22, 2008

Just imagine the possibilities

Though it is also true that critics like Harit Shah, Telecom Analyst, Angel Broking, have been apprehensive to B&E about the fact that “the gap between Bharti and R-Com is currently increasing, with Bharti adding over 2 million users a month, while R-Com is adding only 1.5 million.” But then, one cannot ever forget that it has taken Anil simply ‘4’ years to cover up on all the sustainable advantages previous players had till date. Just imagine the possibilities that this man can achieve in another four years, especially with his undying and unwavering focus on the potential power of convergence!

And it’s not that with CDMA, R-Com has had to flounder

on the technology and innovation front. Oh yes, there were the extreme rumours that apart from simple voice calls, the CDMA technology is not fundamentally efficient enough to support value added services like net access, data transfers and similar services! Interestingly, far from all this, the CDMA technology is in fact brilliantly superior to its GSM counterpart. As the R-Com President Shukla comments, “In mobility today, technology has been a very big challenge. But to our advantage, while an ordinary GSM service has a data speed of only 9.6 kbps, CDMA in fact offers a maximum data speed of 144 kbps! So the technology difference (between CDMA and GSM) is not just in percentages, but in huge multiples.”

This tremendous bandwidth advantage has been exploited right from the star, as R-Com perhaps was the first to bring the concept of advanced valued added services (VAS) to the consumer, even at a time when competitors were only toying with the idea. When we spent an afternoon with Mahesh Prasad, Head, Content Application and Solution, R-Com, he shared with us, “When we launched in 2003, we were the first to provide complete multimedia experience on the handset – people could watch videos, send picture MMS, e-mails, could enjoy excel access, music, play games and even undertake the transactions that they would have normally done on an internet platform.” That was then. But with the increased focus on such services and even competitors excelling in the VAS area, what’s the scenario at R-Com now? Mahesh divulges, “Today, we have the mobile TV experience where you can watch news as it is happening, play games, and all in a video format. In fact, even undertake some of the most complex transactions in the financial space, such as M-banking, M-commerce, credit card payments, direct debits to your bank account, transactions which require utmost security in the network that is accepted by the financial community.”

Look at how well such an orientation has helped R-Com. When the company started its services in 2003, its presence was just in 300 towns. Today, the expanse has grown to a super 13,000 towns and 500,000 villages. Angel Broking analyst Harit Shah grudgingly accepts, “R-Com’s network is undoubtedly amongst the vastest in the country...” Add to this the fact that Anil Ambani has now officially quoted that R-Com would this year have “the largest roll out in the world in possibly the shortest period of time,” as they now plan to reach a soul stopping figure of 23,000 towns with an overall coverage that touches almost 90% of India’s population. If that is not visionary, pray what is! But it is not just the distribution that R-Com is betting on. R-Com is the undisputed leader of the ‘handset bundling’ strategy that has driven down the entry level point for mobile connectivity to a new low of Rs.777!

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Motors

But what Maruti lacks is a good diesel portfolio in the compact segment. Both Tata and Hyundai have raced ahead in this category; despite not having an inhouse technology, Hyundai has somehow accessed it. Tata Motors hopes to only have a diesel variant of the Rs.1 lakh car. But the Japanese giant can make a comeback in this category. Says R. C. Bhargava, Director & designate Chairman, Maruti Suzuki, “Since we have our own manufacturing plant now, we may consider including more diesels in our portfolio.”

branding woes: The problem with Maruti is that it has got closely associated with small cars; it’s the way Hero Honda is known for low-priced, lower engine capacity bikes. In addition, Maruti’s models are not perceived as ‘novel’, and it doesn’t have a great presence in the higher segments. Sums up auto expert Tutu Dhawan, “Maruti is basking in the glory of the 800 and other successful models, it has become stagnant and customers are fed up with repetitions. Today, the customer wants change and it is high time that the company expands its range.”

For example, the Hyundai’s i10, and other models, have been branded as one that were introduced ‘first in India’ and ‘later in the world’. Tata Motors is positioning its Rs.1 lakh car as one that’s ‘for Indians’ and produced ‘by Indians’. Maruti too needs to be more India-centric to retain brand loyalty. But this is not going to be too difficult. The recent comment by Osamu Suzuki, Suzuki’s chairman, that his company will develop a new compact model in India, may be the first step in the right direction.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Howzat, Mr. John Howard?

Labour Party ousts Conservatives & usher in new era for Australia
By throwing out their conservative Prime Minister,

John Howard, in the recently held elections, the Australians may have tipped their country away from the blinkered, trepidation and avarice that he had encouraged many Australians at least think & hope so. Kevin Rudd’s Labour Party swept to victory in Federal election, providing a humiliating rout to Howard, who in an added mortification, is poised to lose the legislative seat he has held for 33 years.

The consequences of his defeat will be felt more abroad than in Australia. Rudd is expected to pull out Australian troops from Iraq. In fact, the result robs President Bush of one of his most unfaltering allies. Moreover, Rudd is likely to be present at next month’s Bali summit on climate change, & ratify the Kyoto Protocol, leaving the US isolated. Talking to B&E, Australian political analyst from Institute for Public Affairs, Melbourne, Louise Staley said: “Howard’s main loyalties lay with the West, whereas Kevin Rudd is more apt to take a reduced blinkered move towards foreign policy. A looming source of friction between the US & Australia will be over Australia’s uranium policy. The Bush Administration has been pushing the US Congress to allow the transfer of nuclear technology and fuel to India, which Kevin opposes vehemently.” Interestingly, Kevin Rudd, who was once a diplomat in Beijing, speaks fluent Mandarin, has time & again expressed a positive view about China. In fact, China is one of its major export partners - something which Bush hates.

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Damming the declining dollar!

The plummeting dollar indices fresh chasms in OPEC
With the oil prices on the cusp of touching

the century mark, the global oil politics is in full swing. The political wrestling was in full display at the recently concluded OPEC summit, where on one hand, Venezuela & Iran desired some action over the dwindling fate of dollar by pricing oil in a basket of currencies. And the time tested US ally, Saudi Arabia, aptly preventing the dollar from appearing on the agenda.

At the end of the two-day summit, the final communique of OPEC concluded: “We affirm our commitment . . . to continue providing adequate, timely & sufficient oil to the world market.” The declaration helped in further fall of the dollar, which the Iranian President had described as a “worthless piece of paper.” The Iranian leader was ably assisted by the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who in his inimitable style condemned the flawed US foreign & military policies as the main driver of high oil prices, he added, “If the US followed through on military threats against Iran, oil could double to US$200 a barrel.” The US profligacy certainly is one of the factors driving the oil prices high & the dollar to decline. Although, the dollar issue was ducked at the summit, but it has been agreed upon that the respective finance ministers, will meet to discuss dollar impact on their economies, prior to the scheduled meet of the OPEC oil ministers in Abu Dhabi on 5th December.

Reasonably-priced oil must continue to flow through the global commercial veins uninterrupted. As King Abdullah, the Saudi leader avers, “Oil is an energy that is about construction & development and should not be turned into a tool of dispute and whimsy.”

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Monday, August 18, 2008

THE ROVING EYE

Say ‘Open Sesame’, and the door will open

Mention the word security and you instantly visualise the private security guards at large multinationals or VVIPs with their cavalcades of armed commandos, but then, what about security for the common man? Amusing right? Or perhaps tragic, since security in Indian perception revolves around expensive equipment, high-end technology & sophisticated operating techniques. But no more. With reduced size and increase in ease of operation, technologies are slowly penetrating the safe confines of one’s living room as well.

Technology has brought in new & more effective versions of home surveillance systems that is like a 24x7 watchdog. A home surveillance system eradicates blind spots to guard defenseless places on your property. Home surveillance products include the use of internet, CCTV, video, burglar alarm, door security, gas/smoke detectors & fire fighting solutions.

While talking to B&E Rajesh Khurana, Country Manager Seagate, comments, “With increase use in surveillance, there will be a demand of high capacity storage device along with more secure drives.” Seagate Technology along with Avigilon, will deliver a breakthrough in high definition surveillance systems to protect people and property. Seagate will launch Barracuda ES Series hard drives with capacities ranging from 250GB to 1TB, with performance benefits of the SATA interface. With the Barracuda ES hard drive, a single 16-mega pixel Avigilon camera can replace 50 conventional surveillance cameras.

The year 2008 will not only experience more secure lifestyle but few break-through products in home surveillance scenario. The coming few months will see more of biometrics door locks, finger print recognition locks, use of pass code/swipe cards on main doors, burglar alarms & automatic emergency calling systems. For a change, security, which is as dear to the common man, will be available much more easily.

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Thursday, August 14, 2008

THEY LOVE THEIR PCS

He wants all children in schools. Can he do it?

Imagine 14 Class II students in a

schoolroom without a teacher. One would expect shrieks and screams, fights and struggles, or more like a fish market. But the scene in a government primary school in Madabal, Magadi taluka, Karnataka, was totally different. Divided into four groups, these kids were quietly engrossed in front of their respective computers. One of the groups was identifying animals, the second solving a mathematical problem, the third was listening to a lesson with headphones on, and the fourth was engaged in a discussion on elephants.

The school is covered by Azim Premji’s Foundation’s (APF) programme to universalise primary education through three initiatives – learning guarantee programme to enhance quality, child-friendly schools to woo dropouts, and computer-aided learning (CAL). Almost 3.5 million students have benefited till now, and over 10,000 schools have been covered under CAL, with Madabal primary school being one of them. “Before this, I never saw a computer. Now, I learn my lessons through it,” says Class VII student, S. Rakesh, who studies at Toranagal Railway Station Higher Primary School, 300 kms from India’s Silicon Valley. “I want to be a software engineer. I like my computer more than my teacher,” Rakesh confidently whispers.

“One of the most important objectives of education is to create a sympathetic, responsible, human, just and equity-conscious member of society,” says Dileep Ranjekar, Chairman of Azim Premji Foundation. And Premji had once said that he wants “every child of India in school and learning joyfully.” He added that “this is our chance to shape a future which will inevitably compel the world to recognise this as the ‘Indian century’.” Maybe, such corporate initiatives will refute the conclusion reached by UNESCO in its 2002 report, Education for All, that India’s plans to universalise elementary education ‘lack credible evidence’.

Beginning with the states of Karnataka & Andhra Pradesh, the Foundation has taken its digital curriculum to other corners of the country. After the Telugu language, the curriculum has widened its spectrum to 11 additional languages, including Hindi, English, Tamil, Kannada, & Oriya. Under CAL, a mobile vehicle moves in and around Bangalore. The Foundation has distributed interactive CDs in different languages and trained thousands of local teachers. The aim is to enhance the quality of primary education, and innovate the technologies to enhance it.

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Technology will merge sci-fi with magic

Technology will merge sci-fi with magic. And we will all become mud-bloods.

After all, technology has always been – and will be – a double-edged sword. To borrow from Harry Potter again, it can turn out to be a special sword that helps the saviour Potter to kill evil Nagini, or may be, vice versa. So, will all developments remain esoteric and in the realm of expectations of the nerds and sci-fi optimists. Not really, as technology will lead to revolutionary developments in medical research that will change how we lead our lives in the near future. The ability to capture critical and crucial medical data due to ongoing wireless innovations will allow the movement of healthcare facilities away from the locations of clinics and hospitals, and nearer to the patients.

Soon, and it’s already happening in a location near you, health checks will be carried out virtually by doctor stationed thousands of kilometres away. Doctors will transmit medical images and data instantly without elaborate equipment to medical institutions, and allow specialists to assist them in diagnosis and treatment. Like virtual social networks, you will be a part of complex medical systems that will guide your health. Taking medical technology to another level may be blood-cell-sized devices, called nanobots, which will be put inside your bloodstreams. Explains Kurzweil, “The University of Rochester and MIT have succeeded in identifying and destroying cancer cells using blood-cell-size devices. In 10-15 years, we’ll overcome all the major diseases that kill 95% of us.” If Kurzweil’s estimates are even partially true, we are walking into a healthy future by exploiting the benefits of technology.

Coming back to middle-class consumers, iPhone has spawned new research into the ever-morphing world of convergence. In the next few years, your device (a mobile or something else) may operate most, even all, your daily-use products. It will act as a common remote for TV, music system, AC, car security system, and house burglar alarm. While firms like Logitech are working on it, real convergence is still some time away. So, in the near future, when Spock meets Potter, they will interact through voice recognition software, use a single device to operate all their machines and gadgets, have working robots who can think and behave intelligently, meet at a far-away planet while remaining on Mars and Earth, respectively, and live several virtual lives in Second Life, Third Life and Fourth Life. And at that stage of technology evolution, Potter’s owl, Hedwig, will well and truly become redundant.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

the maximum returns were delivered by the Gold

When analysed category wise, the maximum returns were delivered by the Gold ETFs, a huge 41.56% return per annum. S&P CNX Nifty (12.63%), Sensex (12.46%), Equity FMCG (11.72%), Equity banking (11.49%) and BSE Small Cap (10.73%) were others who managed to delivered handsome returns. But, sectoral fund categories (Technology and Auto) have delivered negative returns to the tune of 15.38% and 14.88% respectively.

A careful analysis of the performance of the

existing 34 fund houses reveals that there are schemes, which have offered returns higher than stock markets despite the market mayhem. Interestingly, most of the outperformers are actually equity-based funds. And analysts are hopeful about other equity-based funds will also bounce back soon. Sharing his views with 4Ps B&M, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, CEO, Reliance Money avers, “Barring past two quarters, the returns from the diversified equity MF have been over 40% CAGR over past five years… we should understand equity per se is associated with risk; but we believe this is a temporary correction more to do with global factors than over our own economy and in the medium to long term we believe equities will definitely give better returns as compared to other assets classes.” His words justify the basic investment rule: if you want handsome returns, invest with a long term perspective.

Despite present market volatility, Assets Under Management (AUM) of the MF industry surged by 55% to Rs.5.05 trillion as on March 31, 2008 from Rs.3.26 trillion a year ago. In addition, more than 600 new schemes were launched during last year and as many as six brokerage houses are awaiting regulatory approval for commencing operations.

For Complete I I P M Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Monday, August 11, 2008

Sony Computer Entertainment

The current domestic leader in this format is Sony

Computer Entertainment (SCE). Today, Sony is known worldwide for its Playstation gaming console. “The core strength we have is our range of products which cater to every segment of the target group of consumers,” avers Bose, an opinion which seems true at least at this point in time, because Microsoft’s only answer to Sony’s consoles at the moment is its Xbox 360 (which competes with Sony’s PS3). However, its other ‘now’ low-priced products like the PSP and PS2 have no competition from Microsoft. Talking about competition, Bose clarifies with a smile, “Claiming the market share at this point will be doing injustice to my competitors, because we are too big for them...Roughly we hold around 70% of the Indian console gaming market!” Surely, there is no doubt who the market leader is! To make matters worse for the also-rans, Sony is also releasing another one of its Indianised version of videogames (‘Hanuman’ after ‘Buzz!’ and ‘Filmstar’), as it rightly believes that pinning hopes on Indianised (as well as culture-oriented) contents will create enough differentiating truths!

However, there is also a challenge in the name of Nintendo ‘Wii’, which will soon be officially launched in the country. So, will Nintendo’s act of giving Sony’s PS-series a run for its money be replicated in India too? Not really, as Bose optimistically comments, “Entrance of Nintendo will not pose a threat to us. Rather, it will help the domestic gaming industry to grow much faster than before as the industry has enormous potential.” Industry experts are however flicking som eyelids at the Wii entry as Nintendo is very capable of launching similar technology (as Sony’s) at half the price! That would really be a ‘KO’! However, with the gaming console market forecated to touch a glorious $125 million by 2010 (from $45 million in 2008), Sony’s may well remain optimistic. There is another spoilsport though – piracy! Sony agrees to the fact that ‘grey’ market rackets are eating into their profits share in the country. “Grey market is selling products at almost 40% cheaper than us!” avers Bose explaining the clear disadvantage.

‘Experiential marketing’ is what the strategy of game-makers should be, as a senior Sony official confesses, “The focus and distribution is what we will concentrate upon for future growth.” Sony also stands one step ahead of the competition as it has about 200 exclusive stores by the name of Sony World, something which surely attracts envious eyes. Talking about domestic turnover, Bose adds, “The gaming division plans to touch Rs.100-125 crores this year.” The retail revolution in the country is also helping the gaming industry’s growth. With teeth-rattling growth of 1000% in terms of software and 600% in terms of consoles, Sony is definitely on a roll to capture the global game development industry which is forecasted to touch an enormous $43 billion by 2010! So there’s an overall growth lying in wait as a Sony spokesperson avers, “The industry is not only about console and software selling, a huge potential lies in game development in the country as well. It is now time for developers, animators and gaming companies to join hands for game development...” Clearly, the brilliance of the domestic gaming industry is sending shockwaves across global players. The game has begun; and by the way, Sony’s key strength is ‘Search & Destroy’.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative