.
Session by Mr. Rishi Agarwal, Business unit head of a leading Fortune-500 financial institution
Taj mahal, one of the 7 wonders of the world, built in 1631 AD arguably one of the best pieces of symmetric architecture in the world. An amazing success story when it came to project management. Is building a Taj mahal tougher or completing an IT project a tougher job?
This was the first question put across to us by Mr. Rishi Agarwal. Few hands were up in a jiffy. Someone echoed the thing I had in my mind, “IT Projects were easier Rishi”. Rishi smiled at us and in a composed tone he asked “is that so people?” Most of us nodded our heads. A hand out was passed on to every student present for the session which read “The Standish Report “– Chaos. We were given 30 minutes to go through the report.
On reading the Report, I found the statistics to be staggering. 1995, In the United States more than US$ 250 billion were spent each year on IT application development for approximately 175000 Projects. The Standish group report shows that a staggering 33 % of the projects mentioned above will get cancelled even before they get completed, 52.7 % of the projects will cost 189 % of their original estimates. What a cost over-run ? Staggering isn’t it?
31st minute: Rishi again emphasized on the same question “Is IT project management easier people?” we were confused. This is where we started. We as a group analyzed why Project Taj mahal was successful and concluded that Project Taj had Proper processes put in place and people who worked to build the Taj were reporting to one head, Emperor Shahjahan and the fear of death if the processes were not followed meticulously made the project successful .
Our soul searching on project management with Rishi continued, he put the next question to us “Is software development, engineering or an art?” People in the class room had differences of opinion. We finally arrived at an answer that software is an art, but for that to become engineering, lot of processes has to be put in place. Managing these processes efficiently is actually project management. Rishi also emphasized that from 1995 the situation in handling projects has improved and there are comparatively lesser failures in projects and it is greatly due to proper project management.
With his vast experience, both in India and abroad, Rishi kept churning out different practical situations in project management in an astonishing fashion and emphasized the importance of proper management of projects. Three hours were over and it was a Sunday early morning class. There was never a dull moment. The class was more of a discussion forum with lot of practical inputs rather than just yet another one to many information sharing session.
“Meet you next Sunday, Fellas", Rishi left igniting a vibrant thought process amongst us. We had a great introduction about project management in IT. We enjoyed each and every moment of the session and to have a person of the caliber of Mr. Rishi Agarwal teaching us the whole course on every aspect of IT project management in the coming weeks definitely thrills us. No wonder we call it learning for the real world !
Contributed by R. Raghav Kousik , IT Varsity
.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
A maiden journey to the advertising world
.
Session by Mr. Mohan Menon, Former Executive Director, Ogilvy & Mather, Governing Council Member and Chairman – Marketing & Marketing Communications Varsity, Chennai Business School
I used to sit before the television for NDTV‘s nine ‘o’ clock news, as a religious routine, which perhaps gives me a deep sleep with the smug that I am conscious of the world around me (Some times the news stories give sleepless nights, which is another issue!!) !!!! Some months back, Just before the end of the 30-minute news, a simple news item grabbed my attention. A young school boy from Delhi mourning over his loss after his recent encounter with a thief. I was curious in knowing what could have annoyed this little kid; His pug was taken away by two unknown bikers when he was playing with the it outside his home!!!!! … I was amazed to know that lot of pug thefts has been registered since the previous month due to an increasingly huge demand for that dog!!!! …I was frozen for a moment with the fact that it’s because of the HUTCH commercial which is featuring pug!!!
“Wow!!!! How much powerful the ad must have been to create a tremendous awareness, not only for the brand being advertised, but also a craze for a not so beautiful breed of dogs!!! . How it’s been possible to hook the attention of the common man within 15 seconds and register the brand before 60 seconds … How it is possible for some one to bring the metaphor of a dog to a telecommunication network and clip that in the mind of a consumer successfully? ….
To get it from the horse’s mouth, I was waiting for our first session on Marcom, especially advertising, from one of the best creative minds of the Indian advertising industry, Mr. Mohan Menon, Former Executive Director, O&M, who is also the Chairman of Marketing & Marketing Communications Varsity at CBS
Straight away telling us that he is from a world of Out-of-the-Box thinking, he started the session with a question “What are the different teams of an ad agency that are involved in a Television commercial “, starting with our opinions and preliminary knowledge rather than a classic style ‘take-it-from-me” gyan. At once came a shouting reply “Creative team” from all the students in unison … he smiled and questioned us “Then what?..., “client servicing”, a voice from the back desk received the appreciation from him … Again one more smile from him followed by “what else?...”, there was a moment of silence, then we were introduced with Account planning and its significance in creating an ad with consummate knowledge of consumer behavior.
As the session was flowing with various aspects of advertising industry and its work, a question on “celebrity endorsement “ was raised by a student and the next immediate moment the class room become a battle ground and students got polarized into two heavy artillery units firing at each other regarding the pro’s & con’s of celebrity endorsement
Mr. Menon made himself as an unperturbed moderator during the tug of war between the students .After seeing the boundless enthusiasm from students, he intervened and explained the nuance of success and failure of celebrity endorsement, which paved us to understand, what are the phenomenal attributes that needs to be considered when choosing a brand ambassador for a product/service and what are all it’s after-effects on the brand in the market.
After his views on celebrity endorsement and just before his departure, he stunned us with a question “How many of you think you are a brand”… he continued, “We all are projecting ourselves as a brand in life many a times but unknowingly!!!! We brand ourselves with our earnest virtues like sincerity, honesty, diligence, intelligence, creativity etc ...” He left us with the message “we too are brands in this world” … yes, the onus is now on us to brand ourselves, build the positive attributes and manage it well to shine better in the business market ! The whole agency business and the concept of branding was astonishingly given to us in a capsule and that too in a matter of 3 hours… what an incredible afternoon it turned out to be. In the meanwhile, Hutch has become Vodafone and whatever happened to the brand, the pug still follows!!!! Power of creative advertising as they say ….we had a brilliant glimpse of it with the help of Mr. Menon.
Contributed by Arun Saravanakumar, Marcom Varsity
.
Session by Mr. Mohan Menon, Former Executive Director, Ogilvy & Mather, Governing Council Member and Chairman – Marketing & Marketing Communications Varsity, Chennai Business School
I used to sit before the television for NDTV‘s nine ‘o’ clock news, as a religious routine, which perhaps gives me a deep sleep with the smug that I am conscious of the world around me (Some times the news stories give sleepless nights, which is another issue!!) !!!! Some months back, Just before the end of the 30-minute news, a simple news item grabbed my attention. A young school boy from Delhi mourning over his loss after his recent encounter with a thief. I was curious in knowing what could have annoyed this little kid; His pug was taken away by two unknown bikers when he was playing with the it outside his home!!!!! … I was amazed to know that lot of pug thefts has been registered since the previous month due to an increasingly huge demand for that dog!!!! …I was frozen for a moment with the fact that it’s because of the HUTCH commercial which is featuring pug!!!
“Wow!!!! How much powerful the ad must have been to create a tremendous awareness, not only for the brand being advertised, but also a craze for a not so beautiful breed of dogs!!! . How it’s been possible to hook the attention of the common man within 15 seconds and register the brand before 60 seconds … How it is possible for some one to bring the metaphor of a dog to a telecommunication network and clip that in the mind of a consumer successfully? ….
To get it from the horse’s mouth, I was waiting for our first session on Marcom, especially advertising, from one of the best creative minds of the Indian advertising industry, Mr. Mohan Menon, Former Executive Director, O&M, who is also the Chairman of Marketing & Marketing Communications Varsity at CBS
Straight away telling us that he is from a world of Out-of-the-Box thinking, he started the session with a question “What are the different teams of an ad agency that are involved in a Television commercial “, starting with our opinions and preliminary knowledge rather than a classic style ‘take-it-from-me” gyan. At once came a shouting reply “Creative team” from all the students in unison … he smiled and questioned us “Then what?..., “client servicing”, a voice from the back desk received the appreciation from him … Again one more smile from him followed by “what else?...”, there was a moment of silence, then we were introduced with Account planning and its significance in creating an ad with consummate knowledge of consumer behavior.
As the session was flowing with various aspects of advertising industry and its work, a question on “celebrity endorsement “ was raised by a student and the next immediate moment the class room become a battle ground and students got polarized into two heavy artillery units firing at each other regarding the pro’s & con’s of celebrity endorsement
Mr. Menon made himself as an unperturbed moderator during the tug of war between the students .After seeing the boundless enthusiasm from students, he intervened and explained the nuance of success and failure of celebrity endorsement, which paved us to understand, what are the phenomenal attributes that needs to be considered when choosing a brand ambassador for a product/service and what are all it’s after-effects on the brand in the market.
After his views on celebrity endorsement and just before his departure, he stunned us with a question “How many of you think you are a brand”… he continued, “We all are projecting ourselves as a brand in life many a times but unknowingly!!!! We brand ourselves with our earnest virtues like sincerity, honesty, diligence, intelligence, creativity etc ...” He left us with the message “we too are brands in this world” … yes, the onus is now on us to brand ourselves, build the positive attributes and manage it well to shine better in the business market ! The whole agency business and the concept of branding was astonishingly given to us in a capsule and that too in a matter of 3 hours… what an incredible afternoon it turned out to be. In the meanwhile, Hutch has become Vodafone and whatever happened to the brand, the pug still follows!!!! Power of creative advertising as they say ….we had a brilliant glimpse of it with the help of Mr. Menon.
Contributed by Arun Saravanakumar, Marcom Varsity
.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Emerging Retail Paradigm
.
Snippets from the Retail Conference Organized by Southern India Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SICCI) @ Hotel Taj Coromandel, Chennai On September 5th & 6th
Indian Retail is facing the proverbial Chicken and Egg scenario where we are desperately identifying who we need, the Guru or the Pupil. This programme clearly addressed that. For us, the retail students of CBS, these two days at the TAJ on the Emerging Retail Paradigm was an eye opener to various aspects of organized Retail. SICCI has indeed done us a great help by giving a wonderful industry forum to understand the key concepts and terminologies in a matter of two days which might have otherwise taken two or three months of classroom study.
This seminar was a first of its kind to be held at Chennai and we felt really honored to be a part of this bonanza. The Session was kick started by Mr.Bhaskar Bhatt, MD, Titan Industries. He set the right mood for the day as he elucidated on the needs and wants of the customer and how organized retail could help the customer satisfy his needs. He gave us the various ingredients which constitute a so called perfect retail recipe. He being a HR head, closed his session with a note “Celebrate people!!”
Mr. Radhakrishnan,CEO Reliance Retail, then gave the keynote address of the session and he emphasized on the need to focus not on FDI but EDI (Electronic Data Interchange). This would have enormous effect on the supply chain and hence contribute to adding value to the customer. He held us in a stance with his excellent and down-to-earth insights about store management. An amazing session.
The next session was on Visual Merchandising (VM), about the importance of “Looking beyond the obvious ”. Mr. Ranju Mohan , Marketing Head of Henkel delved into the finer aspects of VM and explained how the footfalls could be drastically increased . Positioning and display play the pivotal role in VM. The emphasis on VM was further stressed on by Mr. David Blair, Managing Director- South Asia, Fitch, who has done the design for numerous retail giants across the globe. He charmed the audience with his design strategies and also presented some innovative models of supermarkets of the future.
Post lunch session was delivered by Mr. Venkataramana , Sr. VP- HR from Reliance Retail about the challenges faced in the Retention of employees in the retail sector. He stated with a note on keeping employees happy , as happy employees create happy customers. A very lucid and interesting talk with lot of practical insights. Then the baton was handed over to Mr. Connie Murray , VP- Manufacturing, Coca-Cola . Once again , the limelight was on SCM ( supply chain management). With the words “ Fish , Where the Fishes Are” he had us on the hook. He shared some of the valuable strategies implemented at Coke to achieve world class excellence. His words “ Plan your work and work your plan” are still reverberating in our minds.
The day came to an end with a session by Mr.E. Bobson from TUV Rheinland. He went one step further in SCM by elaborately speaking on “The Information Security System in SCM”. Only after this did we come to know of the various standards related to SCM especially ISO28000-for Security Management Systems.
The next morning began with Ms.Preethi Reddy from Technopak giving us a glimpse of “Managing Market Research”. We learnt about one more incidence of pareto principle in play - that only 20 % of the customers gave 80% of the Sales. She went on to explain how data was effectively used to do a RFM ( recency , frequency , Monetary ) analysis. To further strengthen the views , we had Ms.Tara Prabhakar from Envirosell delving deeply about “ Developing Shopper understanding”. The visuals she played corroborated how even trivial things like a door positioning can affect the consumer’s purchase decision . It was initially hard to believe that customers made 70 percent of their purchase decisions inside the store. But, it’s a researched fact ! That indicated a huge opportunity in the retailer ’s hands to influence the consumer. There is thus an increasing need to understand the consumer before even advertising products. Her closing remark “Bring science into shopping ” gave us a new mantra to work on .
Mr.Sanjay Mishra , VP- Merchandising, Spencer’s Retail commenced the next session on “ Profitable Store Operations”. He stressed that ultimately every transaction boiled down to a measurement of LCM per sq.foot. He started off with the concepts of store operations and how immaculately it has to be planned out. The major expectations of the deliverables of any large chain were spoken of. He concentrated on the various back-end activities needed to run a store and how it is important to bring about a differentiation in service. His precise focus to details was so high that it could have helped any entrepreneur to get inspiration for opening a profitable retail chain.
Finally to complete the circle , we had Mr.Saurav Dalmia , HSBC who pointed out “The need for Electronic Banking in Retail”. With mammoth scale and enormous number of Suppliers and Vendors , it becomes highly mandatory to have an efficient way of dealing with monetary transactions in organized retail chain operations. He pronounced that Electronic Banking(EB) to be the most suitable solution for the current scenario . EB transactions can be carried online and alerts can be sent to the mail or to the mobile. He also spoke vividly on the usage of technology like SAP to provide better banking solutions.
The seminar ended with Mr.Satishkumar, MD, Henkel and also the Convenor of the summit summarizing the two day proceedings. Mr.Balasubramanian,President of SICCI gave the final address. Followed by the retail awards distribution which were given in 3 categories-
Traditional Retail - Nalli Silks (Received by Mr.Nalli Kuppusamy Chetty)
Consumer Durable Retail - Viveks (Received by Mr. Kodandarama Setty)
First generation Entrepreneur - Received by Mr.M. Subramanian, Subiksha
The icing on the cake was the valedictory address by our dearest Mr.Pradipta K Mohapatra, who had the entire audience spell bound with his captivating speech about the international and Indian trends. A very interesting feature of his talk was the comparison of the volume of organized retail trade in India and that of the city of the Bangkok, which showed the long miles to be traveled by us.
Altogether, a great experience for all of us, not only in terms of learning for the real world, but also as an opportunity to brush shoulders and personally interact with the leaders of the industry.
Contributed by Khadeeja Bilquees, Retail Varsity
Snippets from the Retail Conference Organized by Southern India Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SICCI) @ Hotel Taj Coromandel, Chennai On September 5th & 6th
Indian Retail is facing the proverbial Chicken and Egg scenario where we are desperately identifying who we need, the Guru or the Pupil. This programme clearly addressed that. For us, the retail students of CBS, these two days at the TAJ on the Emerging Retail Paradigm was an eye opener to various aspects of organized Retail. SICCI has indeed done us a great help by giving a wonderful industry forum to understand the key concepts and terminologies in a matter of two days which might have otherwise taken two or three months of classroom study.
This seminar was a first of its kind to be held at Chennai and we felt really honored to be a part of this bonanza. The Session was kick started by Mr.Bhaskar Bhatt, MD, Titan Industries. He set the right mood for the day as he elucidated on the needs and wants of the customer and how organized retail could help the customer satisfy his needs. He gave us the various ingredients which constitute a so called perfect retail recipe. He being a HR head, closed his session with a note “Celebrate people!!”
Mr. Radhakrishnan,CEO Reliance Retail, then gave the keynote address of the session and he emphasized on the need to focus not on FDI but EDI (Electronic Data Interchange). This would have enormous effect on the supply chain and hence contribute to adding value to the customer. He held us in a stance with his excellent and down-to-earth insights about store management. An amazing session.
The next session was on Visual Merchandising (VM), about the importance of “Looking beyond the obvious ”. Mr. Ranju Mohan , Marketing Head of Henkel delved into the finer aspects of VM and explained how the footfalls could be drastically increased . Positioning and display play the pivotal role in VM. The emphasis on VM was further stressed on by Mr. David Blair, Managing Director- South Asia, Fitch, who has done the design for numerous retail giants across the globe. He charmed the audience with his design strategies and also presented some innovative models of supermarkets of the future.
Post lunch session was delivered by Mr. Venkataramana , Sr. VP- HR from Reliance Retail about the challenges faced in the Retention of employees in the retail sector. He stated with a note on keeping employees happy , as happy employees create happy customers. A very lucid and interesting talk with lot of practical insights. Then the baton was handed over to Mr. Connie Murray , VP- Manufacturing, Coca-Cola . Once again , the limelight was on SCM ( supply chain management). With the words “ Fish , Where the Fishes Are” he had us on the hook. He shared some of the valuable strategies implemented at Coke to achieve world class excellence. His words “ Plan your work and work your plan” are still reverberating in our minds.
The day came to an end with a session by Mr.E. Bobson from TUV Rheinland. He went one step further in SCM by elaborately speaking on “The Information Security System in SCM”. Only after this did we come to know of the various standards related to SCM especially ISO28000-for Security Management Systems.
The next morning began with Ms.Preethi Reddy from Technopak giving us a glimpse of “Managing Market Research”. We learnt about one more incidence of pareto principle in play - that only 20 % of the customers gave 80% of the Sales. She went on to explain how data was effectively used to do a RFM ( recency , frequency , Monetary ) analysis. To further strengthen the views , we had Ms.Tara Prabhakar from Envirosell delving deeply about “ Developing Shopper understanding”. The visuals she played corroborated how even trivial things like a door positioning can affect the consumer’s purchase decision . It was initially hard to believe that customers made 70 percent of their purchase decisions inside the store. But, it’s a researched fact ! That indicated a huge opportunity in the retailer ’s hands to influence the consumer. There is thus an increasing need to understand the consumer before even advertising products. Her closing remark “Bring science into shopping ” gave us a new mantra to work on .
Mr.Sanjay Mishra , VP- Merchandising, Spencer’s Retail commenced the next session on “ Profitable Store Operations”. He stressed that ultimately every transaction boiled down to a measurement of LCM per sq.foot. He started off with the concepts of store operations and how immaculately it has to be planned out. The major expectations of the deliverables of any large chain were spoken of. He concentrated on the various back-end activities needed to run a store and how it is important to bring about a differentiation in service. His precise focus to details was so high that it could have helped any entrepreneur to get inspiration for opening a profitable retail chain.
Finally to complete the circle , we had Mr.Saurav Dalmia , HSBC who pointed out “The need for Electronic Banking in Retail”. With mammoth scale and enormous number of Suppliers and Vendors , it becomes highly mandatory to have an efficient way of dealing with monetary transactions in organized retail chain operations. He pronounced that Electronic Banking(EB) to be the most suitable solution for the current scenario . EB transactions can be carried online and alerts can be sent to the mail or to the mobile. He also spoke vividly on the usage of technology like SAP to provide better banking solutions.
The seminar ended with Mr.Satishkumar, MD, Henkel and also the Convenor of the summit summarizing the two day proceedings. Mr.Balasubramanian,President of SICCI gave the final address. Followed by the retail awards distribution which were given in 3 categories-
Traditional Retail - Nalli Silks (Received by Mr.Nalli Kuppusamy Chetty)
Consumer Durable Retail - Viveks (Received by Mr. Kodandarama Setty)
First generation Entrepreneur - Received by Mr.M. Subramanian, Subiksha
The icing on the cake was the valedictory address by our dearest Mr.Pradipta K Mohapatra, who had the entire audience spell bound with his captivating speech about the international and Indian trends. A very interesting feature of his talk was the comparison of the volume of organized retail trade in India and that of the city of the Bangkok, which showed the long miles to be traveled by us.
Altogether, a great experience for all of us, not only in terms of learning for the real world, but also as an opportunity to brush shoulders and personally interact with the leaders of the industry.
Contributed by Khadeeja Bilquees, Retail Varsity
.
Friday, September 5, 2008
A dose of positive energy – Seven Cups at a time
Session by Dr. TT Srinath, Personal growth and organization consultant
“Look at your poor scores; you are useless”- remark of a disgruntled father!!!
“I don’t like my manager’s attitude, its hell to work with him “ - disparaging charge of an annoying employee,
“I met with only failures, I will never have a good future” - words of a unfortunate businessman,
“I failed to crack my medical entrance, I am not good at any thing in life” - frustrated emotions of a young student,
“I am dying out of work pressure” – common idiom of IT workers
“Life is boring and monotonous “- fuss of almost every BPO employee!!!! …
All these statements have become cliché in our day to day life!!!! Words filled with boredom, hatred, pessimism, cynicism ….. Come on give me a break!!!! Why our complacent life turned too complex today … Where we lost the smile that we have carried with us to this earth, where can we unearth our buried happiness ... where are those DNA‘s or cell’s present in the body that induce negative cues in us !!!!! How can I become as happy as when I was a child!!!!
All these questions that hit hard in my mind got due answers during last week’s guest session on “Seven qualities of self-management”
As we were all waiting for the guest speaker of the day, a gentleman adorned with serene face and green kurtha appeared before us!!!! .. Enthusiastic speaker introduced himself as T.T Srinath, a sensitivity trainer and a business man. All the eyes in the hall lit up and eyebrows went up when he revealed his other facet as a theatre artist with Madras players and his cameo in the movie “Guru”. Yes, the same Dean Shastri of Madras Players’ stage version of five Point Someone.
Thousands of thoughts running across 75 minds stopped for a moment and converged towards the profound words of the speaker when he started his session by affirming that we are co-creator of every single event that we come across in life and we are equally responsible for hatred as much as we are responsible for happiness that we experience in life!!! Sounded whimsical,,, ,,but true “ That businessman would have proceeded with wrong strategy without knowing the pulse of customers unknowingly “,,, even beyond that he desperately shuns himself from the world of opportunities by relying on his past failure ,,
We were all moved when he shared his personal set backs and how he came out of debacle … and inculcated the most important factor which many of us forget consciously or unconsciously “self – appreciation”, at some point in life we failed to look at ourselves proudly and started searching for something else which we don’t have rather than discovering our unique talent. Yup!!! I got the answer for young student, he may be bad in his medical test, it’s just one thing, there are N-1 things in life which he may be good at, and he failed to discover and appreciate his other talents!!!!!
Third quality of self-management that he mentioned was “unconditional acceptance”, we are too dogmatic to accept the fact!!! When we are ready to accept every one with out any condition, we can get rid of some unwanted worries in life…yes the disgruntled father doesn’t want to accept his son with poor grades … and did not want to explore his son’s other potentials.
As we were assimilating Mr. Srinath’s profound ideas in his mesmerizing speech, he also made it lively and enthralled every one with witty anecdotes. We did not notice that we have crossed the time limit … though the speaker was not able cover all the seven important qualities within the time, he summed up with the most important fact that every one should understand in life …“happiness is within us and not an external stimuli “and left us with the message “Be sensitive to others, keep in good cheer and appreciate yourself. You will find the life vibrant and fulfilling”
Divine words. Panacea for all our worries. Thanks a lot sir!!!!!
Contributed by Arun Saravanakumar, Marcom Varsity
Publicity VS Advertising !
Session by Mr.Nytik Joshi, Senior Manager- Marketing(TTHL), Hexaware Technologies
In this digital era of burgeoning media, clutter and noise, there are numerous vehicles through which one can take the product message to the customers. But, when there are serious limitations in such a scenario, Mr. Nytik particularly took up Al Ries’ law of publicity and the law of advertising during a typical Sunday marathon session at CBS.
The Law of Publicity
“Brands are born with publicity and not with advertisement”
The Law of Advertising
“Once born, a brand needs Advertising”
Advertising is something where you involve sizeable monetary investment in order to promote your product or message. Whereas, Publicity is a commercial exercise in which, strictly speaking, there is no money transaction made. Publicity is something free of cost to promote or take your product to the end users. Also, Publicity is an endorsement through a third party which is far more credible than an exercise that blows the own trumpet.
“Unlike advertising which you can decide when you want to put up an Ad
PR takes time to built up and gain momentum”
Not just one or two, we literally ran through the cases of a plethora of brands that include Botox, Volkswagen, Vespa, Red Bull, Harry Potter, Jet Blue, Linux, Starbucks, Google, Palm and The Body Shop
Mr.Joshi buttressed the point that PR is like an Aeroplane take-off, which involves comparatively low risk and high return, whereas, Advertising is like a rocket’s take-off, which involves high risk and high return. It is always better to use the combination of both PR and advertising. Brands should be given birth in the lap of PR and after a certain stage it should play through Ads. A remarkable case was that of Microsoft XBOX. Microsoft created a huge interest through their buzz even before the launch and they didn’t spend a single penny on advertising before the launch and the newspapers had an article on Nov 1, 2001, which was a part of the publicity exercise.
Few more recent brands which has immensely exploited the publicity route are Cisco, Dell, Oracle, Microsoft, Palm, SAP, Sun Microsystems, Ebay, Google andYahoo
He also took us through the reality about the two sides of a PR coin:
Positive power of the positive PR
Negative power of the negative PR
The important aspects discussed during the session were,
Advertising is self serving, what you say about you has little or no credibility. People trust media, the third party effect.
What makes news? Being 1st in a new category makes news. Not being better than your competitors.
Why PR is important? Being 1st in market is worth nothing. Being 1st in mind is worth everything.
Finally the session was wrapped up with some incredible ideas on new age marketing:
· PR is more powerful than Advertising
· Advertising dollars cannot compensate for the lack of favourable PR
· If you can’t be 1st in a category, create a new category for you
· Most Advertising agencies focus on the wrong concept
· If Advertisement is so powerful why don’t Ad agencies advertise?
· There is a consumer reaction against Ads
· PR should take a lead role in Brand Building
· Many established brands don’t spend more money on brand
PR should focus on the new and different, that’s how brands are built.
Advertisement should focus on the old and familiar, that’s how brands are maintained.
When Chennai was having its first ever marathon, we had this engaging marketing marathon at Chennai Business School. Quite an interesting and charming session for continuous 3 hours, full of interesting examples & cases, we even forgot to have a break in between. Thanks a lot Mr. Nytik.
Contributed by Uma Shankar Pandian, Marketing Varsity
Monday, September 1, 2008
A feel of retail !
Special session by Mr.P.K.MOHAPATRA, President & CEO, Technology Business Sector, RPG & Chairman- Retail Varsity & Governing Council Member, CBS
“A feel of Retail” were the words mentioned on the first slide of his presentation, but, the students got much more than a feel of it. For those who believed that there was nothing much to discuss about the Retail world, this session was a pleasant surprise. It was an eye opener for the marketing and the marcom varsity students as well, as they gained useful inputs which would play a crucial part in helping them understand the business world better. The quantum of knowledge that was delivered was fundamental in nature but crucial as it laid a foundation about the retail world in our minds.
He started off by giving us a comprehensive definition of the word Retail and its meaning; “Organized retailing presupposes an ability to influence, or more importantly manage a set of supply chains to be able to deliver value to the customer in a commercially sustainable & viable way”. He stressed more on the ability to influence, delivery of value and the commercial viability, which, as he explained, formulated the crux of any Retail establishment. We were simultaneously subjected to an array of general knowledge questions which covered not only the Indian market but the international scenario as well. We were introduced to the “who’s who” of the retail world, in the process.
Some of the interesting information were:
“10 million retail stores in India alone, making it the largest booming retail hub in the world”
“7/11 being the Largest convenience store in the world”
“Ginza district – Costliest shopping district in Japan” etc.
He then, took us through a journey about big guns of the international Retail market like M&S, NEXT, TESCO, HARRODS etc. and provided a brief overview about the culture, volume of sale and turnover of each of these business giants. The students received every piece of information with awe and utmost interest. The right amount of fuel was required to be injected to illuminate our minds towards the world of Retail and Mr. Mohapatra did just that, with incredible ease. By the time he finished, he had already captured the imagination of all and had ignited many minds with passion for the retail industry.
He then shifted our focus towards the 3 main attributes of a Retail establishment viz. right price, right quality and right time. He explained that with these three elements in place the success of a retail outlet was inevitable, but even if one of them is compromised with it would have a huge impact not only on the business but on the whole supply chain, thus making it very crucial for the very existence of the establishment.
He then introduced us to the various formats in the Retail world, classifying them on the basis of product categories and size. Mr. Mohapatra followed a systematic approach to explain the magnitude of the various businesses like standalone stores, boutiques, general stores, grocery stores, departmental stores, convenience stores, supermarkets category killers, warehouse clubs and hyper markets. Such was the clarity in the information delivered that the students almost immediately related it to the various shops and markets they had either visited or heard about and clarified which segment it belonged to.
He then highlighted that in-depth understanding of the customer’s needs was one of the main pre requisites and some times a tough challenge faced by retail outlets, because at the end of the day it’s the customers who determine the success of the outlet. Efforts need to be taken, unfailingly, to determine the type or strata of customers the outlet will be dealing with, their mindsets, their preferences, their expectations and last but not the least their opinions of feedbacks, which in turn will determine if the outlet will be enjoying customer loyalty in the future.
After emphasizing the importance of customers he explained the virtue cycle which was a shot in the arm for the students. He explained that the virtue cycle was a very important concept as it was based on the very fundamentals of retailing and each of its aspects depended on the proper execution or deliverance of its predecessor. The merchant provides for value for goods with additional service and by offering various other benefits to the customer which in turn leads to customer satisfaction. He concluded by saying that when customer satisfaction is attained it automatically leads to an increase in the volume of sales and an increase in sales means a subsequent increase in margin which in turn leads to more profit and thus forcing the merchant to continue providing value for goods to sustain the growth and look for a probable expansion in business in the future. Numerous interesting cases that were discussed include Brioni suits, Tie-Rack & BodyShop.
Mr.Mohapatra answered our questions in the simplest of ways and made sure none of the numerous questions that we fired at him went unanswered. He showed us only the tip of the ice berg which was by itself taking a long time for us to digest the facts and figures but we were really grateful to Mr. Mohapatra for at the end of the lecture each one of us developed this insatiable thirst for more knowledge which wouldn’t have been possible if not for his inspiring lecture..
From the moment he walked in and till the moment he wrapped up the lecture, we were captivated by his persona, the volume of information and the style of presentation. We were thrilled to know that he was scheduled to take many more sessions on retail in the future. We are looking forward for that day when Mr. Mohapatra hypnotizes us yet again with his insights from the world of retail.
Contributed by Suhas, Marketing Varsity
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Young Indians @ IIM-A !!!
It was 5 mins past 10 in the night, I was stepping into the Mecca of management education in India, Indian Institute of Management , Ahmedabad..The night was pleasant, with breeze blowing around the place, and people busy with their own daily chores. No one bothered to give us a look, except for the security who enquired our reason to be present there. He led us to the reception lobby where we got the keys to our respective dorms .
Hang on, for a moment, if you thought I was narrating a scene out of some novel being written by an IIM alumnus , describing his life out there, then you are wrong. Whatever I mentioned above were my first few glimpses of IIM A from close quarters, when I got an opportunity to take part in the Young Indians World Leaders Summit that was held in the past week in the campus of IIM Ahmedabad.Ok, let me explain what the last statement meant...
The Confederation of Indian Industry(CII) has its wing called Young Indians(YI), which conducts events related to youth in different parts of the country. Since Chennai Business School , is a part of YI, I got the opportunity to take part in this event. I had to go through a preliminary round of selection, which involved submitting an essay on why I should be a part of this Summit .The summit involved selected people from across the country, from various educational institutions, to represent the Young Leaders community , to take stance and discuss world issues currently hampering the state of affairs in various countries. The objective of this event was to help bring all these world issues on to a forum like this and discuss their pros and cons , in order to arrive at possible solutions .Some of these issues that plagued the progress of various countries in the world ranged from Crisis in Iraq to Israel Palestine peace problems, and Oil depletion to violation of human rights .
This objective was implemented using United Nations as the moderator. What it means is that the 4 days of summit over there was a simulation of the proceedings in United Nations , where representatives from different countries of the world , come forward to discuss major issues that are hampering the functioning of the world in peace and sanity. Hence students who were selected from different parts of the country, were made representatives of a particular country , which was a member of the United Nations. These representatives played the roles of Counsuls and Ambassadors of their country in the summit. Each of these representatives /Delegates from these countries were allotted places in one of the departments of UN, namely General Assembly, Security Council and Economic & Social Council.
The summit functioned , trying to replicate the proceedings in United Nations, in a very interesting manner as every representative had to take stances on the issues being discussed pertaining to the foreign policies of their countries. This was quite a learning experience as it made me understand the foreign policies of various countries of the world and realize how politics plays a major role when it comes to taking decisions on a global platform. I was the counsul of Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, ..a country which is surrounded by Albania, Greece and Bosnia. This opportunity of representing a relatively lesser known country on a platform like this , helped me understand the role played by such countries on the global issues. It also helped me realize the fact from close proximity that the world is still governed by the super powers and they call the shots when it comes to issues pertaining to the development of the world. The other countries have limited powers , and their roles are restricted to debating and taking a stance when it comes to consensus on these issues. The big 5 or the P 5(5 Permanent members of Security Council) as they call in the United Nations , decide on whether resolutions are to be passed or they don’t deserve a place in the forum .
The summit also served as a melting pot for people from different parts of the country to meet and exchange ideas and points of views on such issues. This gave me a broad outlook an how difficult it is to discuss an issue of this magnitude, let alone resolving it.
I salute the leaders of this world for the efforts taken by them on one hand but I would request the same leaders on the other hand to keep aside individual country’s interests and work together on a global platform like this to help the growth of each other and thereby make this world a better place to live in for the generations to come.
Contributed by: Pradeep, Batch 2, Marcom varsity
Hang on, for a moment, if you thought I was narrating a scene out of some novel being written by an IIM alumnus , describing his life out there, then you are wrong. Whatever I mentioned above were my first few glimpses of IIM A from close quarters, when I got an opportunity to take part in the Young Indians World Leaders Summit that was held in the past week in the campus of IIM Ahmedabad.Ok, let me explain what the last statement meant...
The Confederation of Indian Industry(CII) has its wing called Young Indians(YI), which conducts events related to youth in different parts of the country. Since Chennai Business School , is a part of YI, I got the opportunity to take part in this event. I had to go through a preliminary round of selection, which involved submitting an essay on why I should be a part of this Summit .The summit involved selected people from across the country, from various educational institutions, to represent the Young Leaders community , to take stance and discuss world issues currently hampering the state of affairs in various countries. The objective of this event was to help bring all these world issues on to a forum like this and discuss their pros and cons , in order to arrive at possible solutions .Some of these issues that plagued the progress of various countries in the world ranged from Crisis in Iraq to Israel Palestine peace problems, and Oil depletion to violation of human rights .
This objective was implemented using United Nations as the moderator. What it means is that the 4 days of summit over there was a simulation of the proceedings in United Nations , where representatives from different countries of the world , come forward to discuss major issues that are hampering the functioning of the world in peace and sanity. Hence students who were selected from different parts of the country, were made representatives of a particular country , which was a member of the United Nations. These representatives played the roles of Counsuls and Ambassadors of their country in the summit. Each of these representatives /Delegates from these countries were allotted places in one of the departments of UN, namely General Assembly, Security Council and Economic & Social Council.
The summit functioned , trying to replicate the proceedings in United Nations, in a very interesting manner as every representative had to take stances on the issues being discussed pertaining to the foreign policies of their countries. This was quite a learning experience as it made me understand the foreign policies of various countries of the world and realize how politics plays a major role when it comes to taking decisions on a global platform. I was the counsul of Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, ..a country which is surrounded by Albania, Greece and Bosnia. This opportunity of representing a relatively lesser known country on a platform like this , helped me understand the role played by such countries on the global issues. It also helped me realize the fact from close proximity that the world is still governed by the super powers and they call the shots when it comes to issues pertaining to the development of the world. The other countries have limited powers , and their roles are restricted to debating and taking a stance when it comes to consensus on these issues. The big 5 or the P 5(5 Permanent members of Security Council) as they call in the United Nations , decide on whether resolutions are to be passed or they don’t deserve a place in the forum .
The summit also served as a melting pot for people from different parts of the country to meet and exchange ideas and points of views on such issues. This gave me a broad outlook an how difficult it is to discuss an issue of this magnitude, let alone resolving it.
I salute the leaders of this world for the efforts taken by them on one hand but I would request the same leaders on the other hand to keep aside individual country’s interests and work together on a global platform like this to help the growth of each other and thereby make this world a better place to live in for the generations to come.
Contributed by: Pradeep, Batch 2, Marcom varsity
Event’ful Life!!!
The Oscars have always eluded India, the reasons may have been many, let’s not get into that..My point was in terms of the charm associated with such an award function, though the statuette has missed the warmth of many an Indian palms, the award ceremony itself has inspired a lot of us back home. This gave birth to the famous Filmfare awards, and there were many following suite after that. We have always been awe struck by the grandeur and the scale at which these functions are executed .I have always wondered as to how many minds would have worked in tandem to execute such mammoth events .This was answered to a great extent by Mr.Bharath Shankar of IMI Eventz, who shared his experiences of being a part of such events, leading them from the front and finally executing them successfully.
Event management as a topic of discussion has always excited me, for the sole reason that it is not as easy as it looks or sounds. The amount of hardwork that goes into it is tremendous. Right from the planning stage to getting the resources assimilated to perform the event the way it has been designed is no meagre task. It requires immense patience on one’s part while dealing with the resources here.
People are the most important resources in such cases , and hence it becomes even more imperative to maintain a cool head, be assertive and yet concerned. The healthy mix of these attributes in one can take you to great heights in life too, as one would have learnt to handle pressure and come out unperturbed. Mr. Bharath was an epitome of these qualities as it was quite evident from the fact that after having things gone awry during the event for the launch of a vernacular movie, he still managed to pull the strings before the last minute.
Apart from movie launches , he also gave us examples of other activities that he was involved in , right from product promotions to new product launches. Every event had one common string running through it, that was the immense importance given to detailing while planning for the event. This level of getting into the details, helps us understand and analyse the matters from different perspectives, ward off any forecasted mishap and thereby enables smooth functioning of the event.
One such example was the promotional rally of Hero Honda Hulk , a new variant launched by the Hero Honda group. Mr Bharath and his team analysed the nitty gritties of the entire rally. Each one in the team was assigned a particular role and responsibility which they had to consistently maintain till the end of the event. There were preparations in place , in case of any untoward incident also to ensure the smooth functioning of the rally. A pre rally test run was also performed to remove the last minute glitches. These measures enhanced their confidence during the real rally and they could pull off the entire event without any hiccups.
Events are an integral part of our life.Learning the art of managing events is not rocket science , but the science that goes into the brains which handle them successfully is something to be written home about.This one is dedicated to all those eventful minds.:)
Event management as a topic of discussion has always excited me, for the sole reason that it is not as easy as it looks or sounds. The amount of hardwork that goes into it is tremendous. Right from the planning stage to getting the resources assimilated to perform the event the way it has been designed is no meagre task. It requires immense patience on one’s part while dealing with the resources here.
People are the most important resources in such cases , and hence it becomes even more imperative to maintain a cool head, be assertive and yet concerned. The healthy mix of these attributes in one can take you to great heights in life too, as one would have learnt to handle pressure and come out unperturbed. Mr. Bharath was an epitome of these qualities as it was quite evident from the fact that after having things gone awry during the event for the launch of a vernacular movie, he still managed to pull the strings before the last minute.
Apart from movie launches , he also gave us examples of other activities that he was involved in , right from product promotions to new product launches. Every event had one common string running through it, that was the immense importance given to detailing while planning for the event. This level of getting into the details, helps us understand and analyse the matters from different perspectives, ward off any forecasted mishap and thereby enables smooth functioning of the event.
One such example was the promotional rally of Hero Honda Hulk , a new variant launched by the Hero Honda group. Mr Bharath and his team analysed the nitty gritties of the entire rally. Each one in the team was assigned a particular role and responsibility which they had to consistently maintain till the end of the event. There were preparations in place , in case of any untoward incident also to ensure the smooth functioning of the rally. A pre rally test run was also performed to remove the last minute glitches. These measures enhanced their confidence during the real rally and they could pull off the entire event without any hiccups.
Events are an integral part of our life.Learning the art of managing events is not rocket science , but the science that goes into the brains which handle them successfully is something to be written home about.This one is dedicated to all those eventful minds.:)
Posted by
Pradeep, Batch 2, Marcom Varsity
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