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Yemen can emerge as a new piracy hub in the Gulf of Aden…

None of the World Summits (G-8, G-12, G-2) are complete without parochial discussion of the perennial poverty problems of countries like Somalia, Yemen, Tajikistan. Never have world leaders thought beyond poverty and aid while discussing these nations. This year's G-8 meet was quite preoccupied with discussions related to Iran, North Korea, and global recession. But no one (literally!) even discussed the growing civil disorder and their consequences on geopolitics and the global economy that is germinating in these countries. Though all African countries are facing turmoil but it is Somalia that is affecting the international trade more than others. From a criminal network to sea-piracy, everything is quite active in this land. Around 10 hijackings by Somali pirates took place in April 2009 itself and a total of 135 in 2008 with the latest being that of cargo ship with 15 Indians and a Turkish cargo ship with 23 crew on board in July, 2009. Even a western-backed transitional government and African Union peacekeepers are not being able to keep these pirates at bay. The Gulf of Aden, a lane of strategic importance and significance to international shipping, being a transit point to 21,000 ships annually, has become a hub of piracy. This horrifying saga does not condense here itself. Yemen is fast becoming a comfortable incubator and a safe route for terrorism. The government there seems to have failed to control rural and tribal areas. This has affected the natural resource scenario too. The flow of oil has already reached a critical level. The World Bank predicts that Yemen's oil and gas revenues will nose-dive during 2009 and fall to zero by 2017, so much so that UK Royal Institute for International Affairs predicts that the country’s instability could envelope Northern Kenya and Saudi Arabia too. An official report by the Central Bank of Yemen in May, 2009 revealed a decrease in Yemen's oil revenues by 74.5 per cent during the first quarter. With Saudi Arabia, being the immediate neighbour of Yemen, growing terrorism and state collapse would come as a security threat for it too. It wouldn't be surprising if extremist groups in Yemen emerge as new maritime pirates. This will not only increase the incidence of piracy but will also affect international trade to a large extent. Yemen’s extremists are destroying oil reserves in Yemen and are also trying to infiltrate the Saudi border. On analysing the bigger picture, it seems quite evident that the ‘global powers to be’ must urgently shift their focus from just poverty elimination and aid-driven strategy to making these nations more stable. Till then, Jacksons’ song “All I wanna say is that. They don’t really care about us” will aptly flow in their air. For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article   Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009   An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative  Read these article :- Delhi/ NCR B- Schools get better IIPM fights meltdown IIPM

Ramesh Ramanathan, MD, MHRIL

4Ps B&M: How has your company fared in the last year?
RR: We were able to turnaround quickly despite the recession. As a company we focus on domestic tourism where by and large the lifestyles of people have changed. We did cut on our costs last year, but at the same time built our infrastructure in terms of sales and went for a lot of Below the line (BTL)activities. Our income grew at a CAGR of 43%.

4Ps B&M: Did you alter your strategy to counter slowdown?
RR: Our strategy to go forward has been three fold. The first being to roll out our services in tier II and Tier III cities to record a pan India presence. Secondly we attempted to be present across age and income groups and thirdly we have set up our own hospitality school so that we have our own trained manpower.

4Ps B&M: What are your future plans?
RR: We want people to relate holidays with Club Mahindra and thus our focus is to grow in India. Currently we are in the process of buying lands and building resorts. We are also looking into related services like a web based travel agency. We have also introduced the concept of Home stays, which gives foreign tourists a feel of true India.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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Behl is banking on BIG TV’s present Pay per View (PPV) bouquet to deliver. The DTH player has recently spiced up its PPV offerings with live shows, exclusive concerts, et al, while other players have stayed with mere movie content in the segment. BIG TV, in fact, was the first player in the industry to come up with a monthly subscription plan for movies in their PPV bouquet, enabling customers to view them anytime during that month as opposed to charging separately for each featured movie being offered in that month. “The response for our PPV services has been very encouraging,” agrees Behl, confident about the imminent success of their strategy. After all, as per estimates, India’s PPV segment is estimated to grow at 16% annually to log revenues of $11.3 billion by 2012. Behl is hoping for the segment to emerge as a key driver of the DTH business not only in India, but the whole of Asia. His hopes are not misplaced. Independent market research has shown that India will remain a leading PPV market in Asia with superior growth prospects in the near future.

“Over the next few years, Reliance BIG TV expects PPV to contribute nearly 10% of its revenues,” says Behl. No wonder, Behl is now also planning to introduce sports and events content in its PPV bouquet. Having already bagged the rights for the commemorative concert for Michel Jackson – ‘Live In Bucharest: The Dangerous Tour’ – the company is also in talks with other Indian and international content providers to offer more such content on their platform. Behl says that they are also looking at adding more meat to their overall content strategy. BIG TV is lining up a slew of interactive features and a major revamp of its filmed entertainment content, besides bringing in whole new range of channels, which were not available to Indian TV viewers in India till now. Rumour has it that BIG TV will be offering the entire FOX bouquet to its consumers shortly.

The other strategy that Behl is deploying to beat rivals in the segment has been drawn from his experience while working with HUL’s Vim brand almost a decade ago. “Consumer Insight is the key. While with HUL, I visited my rural consumers and even washed utensils in their homes to understand customer psyche,” he says, adding that he is planning to conduct a similar exercise at BIG TV to find out what more services could the viewers want and need. Besides, the focus is also on providing the latest technology (ahead of competitors) to consumers. With this in mind, BIG TV had launched DTH services on the MPEG 4 platform (while others like Dish TV and Tata Sky are still sticking with the MPEG 2 platform).

However, some of the enthusiasm at BIG TV has not really translated into action. At the time of launch only, BIG TV had announced that it would be coming out with a DVR based set top box that would allow consumers to record and pause live TV. But it’s almost a year now (and Tata Sky and Sun Direct have already launched the technology) and there has been no news from BIG TV of the same. Quiz Behl on that and he is prompt with his reply. “We will be offering it shortly. We are looking at providing more options to customers to choose from,” he says. The plan is also to price the DVR competitively for which BIG TV guys are currently exploring all options to offer modified DVR sets at a cheaper price. The strategy may actually stand Ambani junior’s DTH ambitions in good stead - and allow him to prove his prowess in yet another consumer-centric business.

As for Behl, the uphill journey has only just begun and requires a great deal of hard work. But then, his almost child-like passion for everything has already become the stuff of legends at ADAG. Sources who work closely with him never cease to sing paeans about his involvement with everything big and small. “Unlike other CEOs who delegate more, he worked round the clock during the BIG TV launch, rolling up his sleeves with the rest of us to ensure it went smoothly,” says a team member on conditions of anonymity. Added to his deep well of marketing expertise and seeking spirit about consumer insights, this focused approach is precisely what has endeared him to Anil Ambani. This BIG man is certainly turning out to be one big asset for the ADAG camp!

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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But it will take much more than a few tough rivals, nonplussed consumers and a late-mover disadvantage to dissuade Behl from the task at hand. Surbhi Chawla meets up with Ambani jr.’s key man...

The first thing that you notice when you meet Sanjay Behl, CEO, BIG TV is his height. At 6 feet plus, and fair as fair can be, his personality dwarfs the room that we sit in. Behl’s marketing charisma however has nothing remotely dwarfish about it. But we are not the first guys to discover that. Anil Ambani discovered it (much to his advantage) almost five years ago when he plucked this marketing wizard out of Nokia and made him the branding centre point of his maiden consumer facing business – RCOM. Behl’s stature within Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) soared when RCOM surged ahead of its rivals in the mobile telephony segment, within striking distance of market leader Airtel. So when Arun Kumar Kapoor, the then CEO of ADAG’s Big TV (the DTH arm of ADAG) jumped ship, Ambani predictably zeroed in on Sanjay Behl to step in as CEO.

High on his success with RCOM, Behl was only too happy to tap into his experiences with the mobile telephony venture to make the DTH business a viable proposition for Ambani junior. Just two months into his new role and Behl is really making serious strategic inroads. “Our experience in enriching the mobile screens of over 80 million customers through popular, interactive and utility value-added-services makes us confident of creating similar excitement, never seen before on millions of TV screens in India,” he says, with barely unsuppressed enthusiasm. But, Behl’s task is both easy and difficult at the same time. Easy because the DTH industry in India is still in a nascent stage with just 13 million subscribers (while there are more than 403 mobile subscribers) and with growth pegged at 18% q-o-q, there is immense space for Behl to make a play for potential consumers. But the difficulty comes from the persistent non-acceptance for DTH by the masses. A key reason for that is that consumers have not really realised the value proposition that DTH seeks to offer and so see no need for change. Big TV’s obvious late entry into the segment, where Dish TV and Tata Sky have already taken the lead, is another disadvantage.

Recite any number of difficulties and challenges ahead, but it is tough to dampen Behl’s gung-ho attitude. In fact, Behl is confident of changing perceptions about the generic nature of this industry (with pricing being the key differentiation between players till now) by creating BIG differentiations for BIG TV’s offerings. Says Behl, “Value proposition would always be the key differentiators in a customer centric entertainment market.”

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
IIPM fights meltdown, places 2300 students By Education Mail Bureau
Delhi/ NCR B- Schools get better By Swati Sharma
Event at IIPM
Detail of all IIPM branches
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Economic development and health insurance go hand in hand; yet in the Indian context the correlation seems more skewed towards economic development. With enormous potential, glimmers of hope are emanating for the industry.

“Meant for the rich, educated or those in business… benefits hospitals more than holders” is the common (negative) perception about health insurance in India where the healthcare expense is a mere (3.6% of the GDP). What is startling is the fact that the health insurance market is still grossly under-penetrated with only 2% of the billion plus population possessing a health insurance cover. Juxtapose these with the fact that during 2008-09, the general insurance industry recorded total health insurance premium of Rs. 6,625 crore (a 30% improvement over the previous year). Moreover, for the last six years health insurance industry has been growing at a CAGR of 35% to reach the current level. That clearly indicates the huge potential that the industry has in India. For private players in the domain, health insurance is emerging as an increasingly significant line of business. V. Vaidyanathan, MD & CEO ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co Ltd, avers “health insurance contributes to 7% of the total premiums and we expect it to increase to 15%.”But then, as J. Hari Narayan, Chairman IRDA says, “the growth in numbers is also fraught with numerous challenges of ensuring accessibility, affordability and efficiency in the health insurance system, which requires sustained and focused efforts on the part of all stakeholders.”

But the question remains the same – why do people have a negative perception? It’s simply for the fact that approximately 70% of the health expenses are out of pocket. As a matter of fact out of the Rs.2 trillion health insurance spread, almost Rs.1.3 – 1.4 trillion are out-of pocket expenses. There is some inherent problems viz. definition of pre-existing disease/ critical illness, et al, which makes matter worse. 30% of health insurance claims are rejected and unbelievably 90% of these rejections are due to pre-existing diseases. If the industry has to grow, “the communication between sales force and policy holders must increase,” says Hari Narayan.

It is true that increasing awareness, rising healthcare costs, recent detariffing of the general insurance industry have been key drivers, but the real need is of products, which can capture other expenses. Standard definitions and list of critical illnesses and non-medical expenses will not only enhance customers understanding of these terms but will also help smoothen the interaction between the patients, hospitals, TPAs and insurers by minimising ambiguities.

Gyanendra Kumar Kashyap

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
IIPM fights meltdown, places 2300 students By Education Mail Bureau
Delhi/ NCR B- Schools get better By Swati Sharma
Event at IIPM
Detail of all IIPM branches
IIPM set to beat economic slowdown
IIPM Admission Detail
IIPM - Admission Procedure
IIPM, GURGAON