Oh look how the mighty have fallen

With the Bhawari Devi scandal in Rajasthan brimming over, sexual peccadilloes of Indian politicians are tumbling out of their closets

Hoary milestones

2009: Rajmohan Unnithan, 57, a senior Congress party leader and a movie star, arrested for trafficking.
2008: Manmohan Samal, minister for revenue and disaster management, Orissa, resigns when his involvement in a sex scandal becomes public.
2006: Kashmir Sex Scandal – High profile politicians and officials in Jammu and Kashmir accused of being involved in a sex scam. Some 14 persons were implicated but there is still no resolution.
2005: Sanjay Joshi, RSS leader and BJP general secretary, is caught in a sting operation, while in the act. He resigns soon afterwards.
2003: Harak Singh Rawat, a former revenue minister in Uttarakhand belonging to Congress, faces a CBI rape case and quits.
1998: JB Patnaik, chief minister of Orissa, accused of being involved in sex scandals in affidavits filed by two former senior government officials.
1997: P. K. Kunjalikutty, senior Muslim League leader from Kerala accused of running a whorehouse from an ice cream parlour, named the “ice-cream parlour scandal”.
1994: Jalgaon rape case: Influential politicians, businessmen and officials are accused of running a long-running forced-sex racket in Maharashtra involving 300-500 young women.

John Barrymore was once famously quoted describing sex as “the thing that takes up the least amount of time and causes the most amount of trouble.’’ In Indian society, where sexual misdemeanours of politicians, or of anyone else, are rarely discussed, some cases are beginning to tumble out of the closet.

They are not happening like Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s sexual peccadilloes, which have just cost him his job, nor in the manner of prowess in the bed that was attributed to a string of American presidents, from John F. Kennedy to Bill Clinton.

Yet in its own quiet little ways, India is making a mark. In Rajasthan, sex has claimed its latest victims in cabinet ministers Mahipal Maderna and Ramlal Jat.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles. 

IIPM Best B School India
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM's Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting

What Humbug About Retail & Other Reforms

one can only marvel at why the UPA Cabinet so suddenly cleared the proposal in the first place. Delhi is a city teeming with cynics, and this time you have to bow down to their warped wisdom. According to them, the UPA gambit to let the dogs out over FDI in retail is a spectacular success. For almost two weeks, rather than cornering the government over corruption scams and the Lokpal Bill, the BJP and the Left have been exposed as parties who can do nothing else but oppose ( That does give an entirely new twist to the term Opposition!). Just imagine, even our television anchors were not frothing at the mouth over yet another pearl from Anna Hazare about making hunger strikes a serial! To that extent, I salute the UPA for having the smarts to outsmart the opposition this time; it was long overdue anyway with the UPA scoring self goal after self goal over the last year or so. This move clearly indicates that the Chanakyas in the Congress may have been down and out, but they are bouncing back! More power to them.

But forget for a moment about statecraft and the art of manipulating expectations. The two weeks of debate over FDI in retail has revealed yet another facet of public debate in India: the ability of pundits to pontificate with astonishing levels of economic and policy illiteracy. I do not have the space to enumerate it all in this column. So please allow me to pick up a few random points here and there and enlighten you over the sheer stupidity of our so called pundits

One of the major arguments in favour of FDI in retail goes as follows: If giants like Wal Mart and Tesco barge into India, there will be a revolution in storage, logistics and distribution. With their deep pockets and access to technology, these giants will invest in things like cold storages that could transform the lives and livelihoods of millions of farmers. How? Well, more than 70% of the fruits and vegetables grown by Indian farmers is currently wasted because of lack of adequate cold storage facilities. Ergo, that will change since cold storages will ensure almost nothing is left to rot or go waste. Ergo, the incomes of farmers who grow fruits and vegetables will dramatically improve.

Can you be more deluded and idiotic than that? I remember an ambitious policy announced back in 1992 ( yes, 1992) to encourage the setting up of cold storages in rural areas. Almost 20 years down the road, nothing has come out of that policy initiative and more than 70% of fruits and vegetables continue to rot. The reason for that is as blindingly simple as sunlight: there are virtually no roads that can connect the farm to these proposed cold storages and more importantly, there is not enough power generated to keep the cold storages operational. Forget rural India, vast swathes of even Delhi and Mumbai go for hours at a stretch without electricity. There are millions of households who complain that even food stored in their refrigerators rots because power cuts are so prolonged that the batteries in inverters run out. So how do you envisage a giant network of cold storages across rural landscapes in India when there is simply no electricity? Or do you think that Wal Mart will also set up a 1,000 MW captive power plant to satisfy the delusions of FDI in retail enthusiasts in India? Without power sector reforms, these tall claims will remain humbug.

Look at this from another perspective and you will instantly realize the extent of economic illiteracy and ignorance that pervades public debate on this issue, like most other contentious issues. Suppose there is a miracle and vast cold storages spring up all over India so that wastage of fruits and vegetables is minimized. Suppose that then only 15% of vegetables and fruits go waste instead of more than 70%. What then? Any student of basic economics will know that this will lead to a massive increase in the supply of fruits and vegetables in India. That student of basic economics will also know that a massive increase in supply-without a corresponding increase in demand-will lead to a massive fall in prices. That is basic economics. What then happens to the lives and livelihoods of farmers who grow vegetables and fruits? FDI enthusiasts say that the Indian farmer-with the help of retail giants-will find other markets for his produce. But do you know that the Indian law prohibits a farmer in India from taking his produce across state boundaries and selling them wherever he thinks he will get a better price? How about anyone having the temerity to suggest to policy makers that first allow the Indian farmer the freedom to sell within India?

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles. 

IIPM Best B School India
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM's Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting

 

How Obama’s i-beating Romney

With leading contenders hooking on to the Internet as a major platform for campaigning, the medium seems to be as decisive as it was in 2008. Purely on that aspect, Obama remains miles ahead

Back in the 1960s, John F. Kennedy used television as a medium for the first time in the history of US campaigning, which revolutionized the entire election campaign. Nowadays, people live in/on the Internet, especially on social media like Facebook and Twitter. Obama was quick to realise it and used the Internet extensively to his advantage in 2008. So much so, that he was given the tag of ‘Internet President’. In the words of Arianna Huffington, the editor-in-chief of Huffington Post, “Were it not for the Internet, Barack Obama would not have been the nominee.”

Elections are back again and this time, the battle for the White House is being fought tooth and nail on the Internet, with all the candidates giving a special focus to online campaigning. Despite the open acceptance of the power of the web, Obama still seems to be doing much more to garner support than any other candidate. Currently, Obama not only has a staff of close to 300 in the digital communication team; but also has close to 12.5 million followers on Twitter and over 25 million subscribers on Facebook. Comparatively, Mitt Romney has a meager 10 members in his digital communication team and also pales in comparison to Obama with just 0.3 million followers on Twitter and 1.4 million subscribers on Facebook. Even the number of tweets by @BarackObama is more than thrice that of the number of tweets by @MittRomney – 2,843 and 830 tweets respectively. Even their daily averages have a wide gap. More importantly is the method of engagement. While Romney’s tweets are simply plain spiel, Obama has connected calls for action with interesting rewards. In one example, the tweeters submitting the most pro-healthcare reform tweets got a chance to spend time with Obama.

Even on YouTube, Obama’s campaign team is utilising the medium to the core and more importantly, as a platform to advertise elongated promotional campaigns. As per Edelman toolkit, during the 2008 elections, 2,000 YouTube videos were watched 80 million times; adding up to around 14.5 million hours. This clearly shows that Romney cannot ignore YouTube if he wants to maximize his outreach. But then, Obama’s campaign team has explored sites most would not even think of – AsianAve.com, MiGente.com, BlackPlanet.com – to name a few. They did not even leave alone music streaming services like Spotify. Obama’s 2012 campaign playlist consisting of 28 tracks is already available on Spotify. Additionally, in the last one year, he has joined sites like Google+, Instagram and Tumblr. A couple of weeks back, he even came for a live interaction with voters across the country on Google+’s Hangout. According to the White House, almost 230,000 people submitted close to 133,180 questions and 1.6 million people rated the questions.

Read more..............

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles. 

IIPM Best B School
IndiaManagement Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM's Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting

POWER BRANDS 2010-11 UNVEILED

Planman Marcom unveiled Power Brands 2010-11, a research driven brand book of India’s most powerful brands on February 4, 2011 at Hotel Intercontinental Eros, Nehru Place, New Delhi. The biggest brand book of India featuring the most powerful brands across the categories is a first of its kind initiative that will act as a strategic tool in reinforcing the supremacy, legacy and credibility of brands, thereby bridging the gap between perception of consumers and the brand. The first book in two different avatars, Power Brands offers its readers a never before experienced interpretation about the brands on the most exhilarating writing and an extra-ordinary style of design and production complimenting the theme of the book, Evolution to Revolution.

The grand evening opened with a classic performance by Australia’s leading strings sensation ‘MASKE’ followed by a Power speech from Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri and famous Ad Guru Alyque Padamsee. The highlight of the evening was the unveiling of the much-awaited book, Power Brands 2010-2011, which was followed by felicitations for all Power Brands of India in their respective categories. The mega launch was attended by the who’s who of the corporate world making it a complete powerful evening.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

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

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM Best B School India
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM's Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
IIPM in sync with the best of the business world.......
IIPM Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri on Internet Hooliganism
Arindam Chaudhuri: We need Hazare's leadership
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri - A Man For The Society....
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM RANKED NO.1 in MAIL TODAY B-SCHOOL RANKINGS
Planman Technologies

Managing The Retail Return Nightmare

Product life cycles have been crashing, while product variety has been increasing, making markets harder to predict

Most retailers consider product returns to be a costly but natural consequence of doing business. Consumers will inevitably return unwanted or faulty products. However, over the past few years the levels of retail returns have been increasing dramatically. Research undertaken at Cranfield indicates that the value of retail returns in the United Kingdom is currently running at £6 billion annually, while some estimates in the United States put the value at around $100 billion. With costs spiralling, retailers and manufacturers need to take an integrated and holistic approach to managing the problem.

The reasons for this dramatic growth can be explained by a number of factors. Liberal return policies have often been associated with high returns and although some companies have tried to be more restrictive, for many, it is central to their value proposition and hard to change. Marks & Spencer (a British retailer headquartered in the City of Westminster, London), for example, used to offer a 90 day return policy, but conceded that they needed to reduce it.

They still offer a very generous 35 days. The most significant factor has been the increasing number of channels to market, notably, online sales. Originally, retailers plied their trade through their stores. Customers could see the product before they bought and staff were on hand to provide product information. Internet retailing does not allow this and so customers will often ‘try before they buy’ by ordering a number of items to be delivered. Once the right product has been selected they will return the surplus – often at no cost to themselves. The result means that online retailers can expect return levels as high as 30%.

However, liberal return policies and the changing channels to market do not tell the whole story. In fact, much of the retur

ns problem is the result of poor planning and decision making in the supply chain. To understand the problem we need to look at the revolution that has been taking place in our supply chains. Much of what is sold on the high street today has been outsourced and off-shored to contract manufacturers in low cost economies. This has extended the lead time for supply. In addition, product life cycles have been crashing, while product variety has been increasing, making markets harder to predict. Traditional theory will tell you that in order to provide high service levels in unpredictable markets, over longer lead-times, you need to hold a lot of safety stock. But then, the problem with holding lots of stock with a short shelf life is the risk of obsolescence. The cost of obsolete stock not only includes the costs of reverse logistics, but also the loss in asset value.

Effective management of retail returns certainly calls for a holistic approach, which extends well beyond supply chain operations, and normally requires integration of financial, product design, marketing, commercial and purchasing functions. It may also need to look outside the business at suppliers and customers. In our experience, very few companies know the full cost of reverse logistics.

Therefore, the first thing to establish is the size of the prize and develop a clear business case for change. It is not uncommon to find more staff dedicated to reverse logistics operations than forward logistics, when you take into account staff in call centres, customer service and repair centres.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

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

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM Best B School India
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM's Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
IIPM in sync with the best of the business world.......
IIPM Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri on Internet Hooliganism
Arindam Chaudhuri: We need Hazare's leadership
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri - A Man For The Society....
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM RANKED NO.1 in MAIL TODAY B-SCHOOL RANKINGS
Planman Technologies