IIM S Markathon July 2011

arketing Minds

MARKETING MAGAZINE OF IIM SHILLONG VOL 3, ISSUE 1 MARKATHON JUL 11

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Dear Readers,

Anniversary editions are tough. There is pressure all around. Pressure to hold up the legacy of the brilliant work done by the previous teams and pressure to live up to the expectations of the readers. With these things on our mind, the editorial team took up the challenge of doing something very different with this edition, something that would leave a mark. A few brainstorming sessions later, the idea of a Vartalaap special was born.

FROM THE EDITOR I am very grateful to the design team of the magazine for infusing the interviews with wonderful images and colours. They have been enormously patient with the enormous number of last minute changes and edits I’ve sent to them.

Last but not the least; I am thankful to the faculty and administration at IIM Shillong for providing support to the team at every juncture, not only for this edition but throughout the years. A large part of the magazine’s success is due to their unwavering support.

Do give us your feedback about this edition and suggestions for the magazine at [email protected].

Without further ado, Team Markathon gives you its 3rd Anniversary edition.

Sit back and enjoy this issue!

Jitesh Jitesh Pradeep Patel

Our July 2011 Cover

The challenge however, lay in the fact that we had to have not just one interview but a magazine comprising of interviews only.

I am thankful to the entire team for working hard and getting in some of the biggest names in the world of marketing. We have authors, brand consultants, academia and some of the biggest names from Indian business. I cannot help but thank Sria Majumdar for the hard work she has put in to get these eminent personalities interviewed for our magazine. Without her contribution, this edition would not be half as good as it is.

Team Markathon also expresses its heartfelt gratitude to each and every one who agreed to get interviewed for the magazine. They were really patient with our team and gave us some excellent interviews. We realise that they took time off their busy schedules and consented for being interviewed for this edition.

The Vartalaap section of our magazine has always been an extremely popular feature and this prompted us to go for an issue which only had interviews. Over the past 3 years we have had some of the best names in the field of management grace the Vartalaap section of the magazine. Vartalaap has also interviewed leading personalities from the corporate world.

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THE MARKATHON TEAM

EDITOR Jitesh Pradeep Patel

SUB EDITORS Gaurav Ralhan

Kaustubh Rawool Rahul Mantri Ritika Nagar

Sria Majumdar

CREATIVE DESIGNERS Yashwanth Reddy Mandipati

Sana Parvez Akhtar

mailto:[email protected]

CONTENTS

VARTALAAP

CORPORATE PIYUSH MATHUR MD & PRESIDENT, THE NIELSEN COMPANY, INDIA

SHASHANK SINHA PRESIDENT, INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS, GODREJ CONSUMER PRODUCTS LTD., ARVIND SINGHAL FOUNDER & CHAIRMAN, TECHNOPAK CONSULTANTS SANTOSH DESAI MD & CEO, FUTURE BRANDS INDIA LTD. WAR ZONE

EYE 2 EYE Google Plus: Facebook Killer or another Google Wave? VENKATA RAMANAN|IIFT | JAYANT RANA| IIFT

SILENT VOICE Re-launch of Lipton Ice Tea

ACADEMIA & AUTHORS

AL RIES BEST SELLING AUTHOR AND FATHER OF THE ‘POSITIONING’ ERA

MORGEN WITZEL AUTHOR OF TATA- EVOLUTION OF A CORPORATE BRAND DAVID AAKER BRAND CONSULTANT & AUTHOR TARUN KHANNA PROFESSOR AT HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL, DIRECTIVE OF HBS SOUTH ASIA INITIATIVE

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This section of the Vartalaap Special is as diverse as it can get. Our guests span a complete range of industries from Market Research, Brand Strategy, Consulting to the FMCG sector. Piyush Mathur, who is the MD of Nielsen in India, takes us through the Nielsen Company’s future plans for India including its emphasis on being seen as an Academy organisation. Santosh Desai provides us with a refreshing take on what it is to ‘understand’ a consumer and how companies often err in this process. From the FMCG sector, we talk to Shashank Sinha, President of Godrej Consumer Product’s International Business division about how GCPL has visualised its 3x3 strategy to become an Emerging Market Multinational. Arvind Singhal, Founder of Technopak Consultants which is among the leading management consulting firms in India gives us insights into how Technopak has differentiated itself from the crowd of consulting firms.

vartalaap markathon |july 2011

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vartalaap markathon |february 2010

An Interview with Piyush Mathur

MD & President, THE Nielsen COMPANY, INDIA


Piyush Mathur is President, India for Nielsen. Appointed in May 2010, Piyush is responsible for Nielsen’s business activities and provides oversight for adjacent countries within the region.

Most recently, Piyush was Managing Director, South Asia with responsibility for Nielsen’s Consumer business in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Previously, he served Nielsen across the Indian sub-continent as well as in the Middle East and North Africa in a variety of senior capacities, including head of the Customized Unit in Egypt, Country Manager in the Indian sub-continent and Research Director heading Media and Internet studies.

With diverse experience on local, regional and global levels spanning different industries, Piyush is a prolific speaker who has presented in forums throughout America, Europe, Asia and Middle East.

He has an MBA and holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering.

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Markathon: Can you tell us what prompted you towards a career in Market Research? Did you always know you were going to be in this field? Mr. Mathur: In those days, when I was doing my MBA I always disliked monotony and was a very curious guy. My interest in Market Research was because of a Project I did during my Internship period. I didn’t know much about Market Research before but once I started working on the project and getting a feel for it, I felt a certain connection. I was learning a lot and felt Market Research would offer me this learning throughout my career. For example, I have now been in this field for 17 years, moving across 4 countries, 6 cities and 11 houses and most importantly interacted with lots of diverse clients, compared to a typical career in marketing where you could be associated with a single brand for almost a decade. There is substantial internal learning as well as a lot of learning from clients and through observations.

Markathon: How have you seen the field of Market Research evolve over the years? Tell us about some of the ones you’d term as ‘game changing’.

Mr. Mathur: The way I see it, I’d divide the changes into two categories, the ones that have already happened and the ones that are in a nascent stage today but have the potential to impact the industry in a big way The most important change has obviously been the fact that the industry had to kept pace with the technology revolution. Back in the 90s, we used to ask the consumers to keep notes in their diaries about their TV viewership, but now we have TV meters for it and will soon have hybrid set top boxes to gives us the data from DTH connections. Our earlier interviews were done via pen/paper, but now there are palm pilots to key in data as well as have photographs of the people. Last year Nielsen visited 25 Lakh consumers and took photos, asked questions and made IDs for them, this wouldn’t have been possible without technology. These factors have now become hygiene in the industry and are necessary for all the players in it. Coming to the changes which are emerging, the first is Neuroscience or Neuromarketing. This deals with understanding the psyche of the consumer, not just at a conscious level but also at the sub conscious. Nielsen

acquired a company called “Neurofocus”, which makes consumers wear a baseball cap and than monitor the brain waves and the reaction to different stimuli. This really makes us go deep into their brains and understand whether they really liked the ad/packaging, will this actually make them buy the product. The information is available in real time and decisions can be made much faster too. Another area where Market research is changing is Forecasting. For long, we have been called as an industry akin to the rear view mirror. Research always talks about what the consumer bought a month ago but now it is starting to change, we are starting to look through the front glass. Imagine the value that would have been generated if one would have predicted the telecom boom in India which happened in the past decade. Over 10% of Nielsen’s business is from forecasting and we expect this to grow strongly in the coming years. Lastly, research is moving towards Listening to Consumers rather than asking them questions. Today’s consumer spends a lot of time in Social Media and there is so much information already available about a particular brand in the Social Media that it needs to be analysed and tapped in the right manner. We have a joint venture called Nielsen McKinsey Incite which is into leveraging the power of Social Media and helping Clients in rebuilding their business models.

Markathon: The Nielsen Company has its presence all over the world. How salient and unique are its India operations compared to the rest of the world? Mr. Mathur: Nielsen India is a significant and integral part of The Nielsen Company’s operations. We currently have over 3000 talented professionals excluding the freelancers who work with us for specific projects. We also contribute a substantial amount to the global growth of Nielsen. Nielsen India does all the operations which are done at the worldwide level including retail, consumer research, social media and analytics. Nielsen in India has two very unique initiatives in India. We have started a 1 year Market Research course at Northpoint Center of Learning in Khandala with the entire curriculum being designed by Nielsen. We also provide complete faculty support to them and give the


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students an opportunity to take up innovative projects which they wouldn’t get in a traditional MBA college. The first batch has passed out this year and most of them are joining Nielsen, which is a Win-Win for both the students and the company. We have also started an Innovation Lab in IIT Chennai with Prof. Jhunjhunwala who is leading authority in Mobile Technology. We are working on innovative ways of researching consumers and Retailers.

Markathon: Nielsen has always been ahead of its competition. If you had to outline The Nielsen Company’s strengths (India) , what would some of the core differentiators be? Mr. Mathur: The biggest strength of Nielsen is the talent it has. Nielsen has some of the best people among its ranks. In our country, there is an abundance of labour but an acute shortage of talent. Out of the 400 million strong workforce, everyone is running after the same 4 million talented ones. The biggest differentiators in any service industry are your people because they are the raw material and the finished product. Nielsen wants to develop individuals early in their career and groom them to become big leaders in their career. We want to be a learning organisation and seen as an Academy Company. Innovation for Nielsen is very important, not just in India but across its offices around the globe. Innovation in everything we do , We are not looking at just better, more efficient processes, rather we want to find simpler ways of doing it. We have a dedicated team of senior executives who work at a global and local level to evaluate and assess the processes followed within Nielsen and improve them constantly. Markathon: What growth/expansion plans does The Nielsen Company have for India? Where does the company see itself 10 years down the line? Mr. Mathur: Nielsen grows when its clients grow. We believe the industries in India have a tremendous potential to grow and therefore, we are on a high growth path. We have begun an initiative “Grow 100%,Be 100%”. We want our clients to grow and this will happen if we give it our 100%. We need to unlock our potential and give it the best shot to help our clients.

We want to be seen as a company which is Open, Simple and Innovative. Nielsen also aspires to become the No:1 employer of choice not just in the Market Research space but across all industries. Markathon: Market Research in India is not an easy task, compared to the western countries, where a lot of data is available in a systematic format already. Is this a major hindrance in your operations? How is it tackled? Mr. Mathur: I’d like to turn the argument back on its head and say, it is a big opportunity. Since there is an immense paucity of data about Indian consumers, it is the biggest opportunity for Market Research firms to prosper in India. I had recently given a speech in TED titled “Indovation” , where I talked about the same problem. Since there is scarcity of secondary data, we have to indovate and find out better, simpler ways to gather the required information. The gaps have to be filled and should be seen as an prospect for growth. Markathon: What would your advice be to young graduates looking to make a career in Market Research? What should their focus be during their period of Management education? Mr. Mathur: For any student, the most important thing is to decipher his/her passion because it is passion which drives excellence. Finding out the passion though, is a lot easier said than done. One way of going about it would be to identify what work they enjoy. If they are doing a project during the internship, they could identify the specific aspect of the project which they found to be interesting and enjoyable compared to all the other areas of the project. They could make that aspect as their career. If your passion becomes your career, then there is nothing you cannot achieve. Talking about careers in Market Research, the focus should be to “Learn about consumers”. Observation and curiosity are key drivers of this learning attitude. Everyone around you be it friend or family is a consumer. Once they develop the knack of asking questions like, why my younger brother bought only this particular gadget, why not another one. A Market Research enthusiast would question the things most other people take for granted. Find out the reason behind the decisions. Be curious.


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An Interview with Shashank Sinha

President, International Business, Godrej Consumer products ltd. (GcPL)


Shashank Sinha is President, International Business, Godrej Consumer Products Ltd. (GCPL). An MNC veteran with more than twenty years in FMCG multinationals, Shashank has wide international experience in a variety of leadership roles with Sara Lee Corporation and Reckitt Benckiser plc.

He was the President and CEO of Sara Lee South East Asia from 2005 to 2008, based in Malaysia. Prior to that, Shashank was based in Paris as the President of Sara Lee International, with global responsibility for the Kiwi brand. He has also served as the Regional Marketing Director of Sara Lee Asia Pacific, based in Singapore, and as the General Manager & CEO of Sara Lee China based in Shanghai.

Shashank has a background in engineering. He received his Master's in Management in 1987, with a PGDM from IIM Lucknow's first batch.

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Markathon: You were in the first batch to graduate from IIM Lucknow. How was the experience of being in the first batch, and what lessons did it teach you?

Mr. Shashank: Since we were starting off a new journey, for us, it was an exciting process of co-creation because it was more than just being the first batch of the students. We were part of the formative group which gave shape to the way in which the institute would evolve in the coming years. The first batch was pretty small in terms of the number of students as well as the faculty and staff and each of us felt a sense of mission and responsibility since we were the pioneering batch. This also blurred the line between the teachers and the students.

When I look back at it, I realise that those were the first serious roles of responsibility thrust upon us as the students of IIM-Lucknow. We had a chance of ‘learning by doing’ as opposed to just learning things in a classroom. All the students were involved in a large number of activities right from the PGP committee, the placement committee and the likes.

Markathon: You have been involved in managing FMCG businesses in a number of emerging markets ranging from Latin America, Africa, Asia Pacific, India and China. How is the competitive scenario in these markets different?

Mr. Shashank: There is a certain common theme running through the emerging markets. As marketeers and as business

people, we focus more on the similarities rather than the difference. This is how Multinationals operate- having a global brand, a global philosophy and focussing on the commonalities and similarities between the various countries and consumers. An extreme example would be that of Coca-Cola.

Addressing the question, the term ‘emerging markets’ is pretty broad and there are various niches and segmented markets within these emerging markets. From my experience in Latin America, Asia and Africa, there are basically 3 different kinds of markets. There are ‘Developing Markets’ which are sometimes clubbed under Emerging Markets but these are actually developing , markets like Chile, Argentina, Brazil, India, Tunisia, China – these are not emerging, these markets are already emerged and their case is well established and impact is widely acknowledged.

At the other end of the spectrum are the ‘Frontier Markets’, these are ones that are just about emerging. Markets like Angola, Morocco, and Ivory Coast in Africa. In Latin America we have markets like Bolivia, Ecquador, Peru and countries like Vietnam and Cambodia in Asia. These are markets which are not emerging markets yet but there are good positive signs that the demographics point towards a high potential. The potential will be realised depending on the Government policies, heavy investments and other political issues.

Everything else in the middle between these two extremes would fall in the class of the Emerging Markets.

The competitive scenarios in most of these countries irrespective of the business sector have two distinct facets. There are the multinational corporations like P&G, Unilever, Reckitt Benckiser and the likes. These are more or less same throughout geographies. The factor which makes the competition different in the emerging markets is the strength of the local players. Countries like India have a strong number of home-grown players like Emami, Dabur, Marico and the likes. The situation is similar in Brazil and China and hence these markets are more competitive than other countries like Vietnam and Angola where the local presence is not so significant. So in terms of the competition, the developing markets have a fierce competition whereas it is relatively less in the frontier markets.

Markathon: In terms of FMCG consumers looking for value, in which country/countries did you find the customers to be the most value conscious? On this value spectrum, how does the Indian consumer compare to the others?

Mr. Shashank: There is absolutely no doubt about the fact that the Indian Consumer is the most ‘value conscious’. It is not about per capita income, kind of product offering in the market and it’s not a question of affordability either. It is more about our value system, our culture and our mind-set. As


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people, Indians are extremely value conscious. We are a society that grew up during long decades of Socialism when there was not a question of plenty but rather scarcity. The economy has opened up only in the last 15-20 years, but the first 40-50 years after independence has really shaped the mind-set of the Indian Consumer and made us value conscious. It is not that we don’t spend when we think we required to spend. A pretty good example would be gold; India is the largest buyer of gold. Indians buy gold not because we are the richest country in the world or one with the highest per capita income, it is because Indians have the willingness to spend and realise value in buying gold.As we go down the spectrum , we find that the other emerging market consumers as a whole are a lot more value conscious compared to their western counterparts but not as much as the Indians. In emerging markets, the consumers need a specific reason for a product/service to command a certain premium in the market.

Markathon: In which geographies are you expecting maximum growth for Godrej Consumer in the next decade?

Mr. Shashank: Godrej Consumer as a group has laid out a vision to be an Emerging Market Multinational. For this, we have laid down the 3x3 strategy. This strategy articulates the fact that we want to be in 3 continents – Asia, Africa and South America catering to 3 product segments viz. home care, personal wash and hair care. We are in the early stage

of the journey and all our growth, both organic and inorganic is a result of this 3x3 plan. We have established a fairly strong presence in Africa via acquisitions and we have a differentiated product offering compared to our competitors.

It is difficult to pin point which of these 3 continents will be most lucrative. We have a fair presence in South America and Asia as well but it is still in the early stages of the journey and I feel by the time we have established ourselves in all the three continents , we will have an above average growth rate of 5-8%.

Markathon: Could you please throw some light on the business model followed by GCPL in foreign markets?

Mr. Shashank: GCPL basically wants to have a direct presence in all the foreign markets which are of interest to us. We want to have our own distribution channels, our own management teams and processes set in place managed by us.

For example, we have a business in South Africa and from that hub we look at neighbouring markets and establish a distributor presence there. Having said that, we never want to go out on a fully distributor based model. We want to operate as if we are a local company, a South African company in South Africa.

We inherit the distribution channel when we acquire a company. In fact, that is a major attraction- the Go to Market

capability of the company and we then use their channels.

From the employee point of a view, it is a completely local company. We have largely local employees and we respect the talent in these countries. We only have a limited number of top management personnel who are from India to oversee the operations. Our strong local brands and a good track record of growth help us acquire the best in class talents in these countries.

Markathon: GCPL has acquired a lot of international brands over the years. What do you look for when going in for a merger/acquisition of an existing FMCG brand? What efforts need to be taken to integrate the brand into the GCPL portfolio?

Mr. Shashank: What we are looking for is the thing I have already mentioned, about our 3x3 strategy. We have an M&A playbook which is defined by the strategy and vision we have articulated. GCPL wants to acquire brands which are #1 or #2 in our defined markets. We look at brands and companies which will fit into the Godrej value system and be compatible to our level of governance. There is always a checklist which we tick off before zeroing in on a company.

In terms of integration, it is a fairly straightforward process. The first step is about compliance, GCPL wants to transfer its value system and make the people feel that they have become a part of the larger multinational group which is the Godrej group. The next step is about discovering synergies,


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synergies in cost like better procurement, better manufacturing, combined purchases etc. There are also benefits of having manufacturing units in advantageous locations in terms of cost. The other synergies are the Sales synergies. Since we acquire brands and are able to take it to neighbouring countries, our portfolio suddenly becomes double because there is a cross pollination of brands. In short, the first synergy helps us improve our bottom line whereas the sales synergy improves our top line.

We stress highly on cultural integration, we want companies to become a part of the Godrej culture and embrace its values which usually doesn’t happen on day one, but is very important to us.

Markathon: Please tell us about some of the unconventional ways that GCPL has used to get in touch with the target audience.

Mr. Shashank: At the Godrej group, we have always been at the forefront in terms of communication with the consumers as a bouquet of brands. The Godrej group products span a huge range from durables to properties and so forth. The innovative thing we have done is using unconventional media to connect with the consumers. One example was the GoJiyo campaign widely promoted during the IPL. GoJiyo.com is an internet based campaign which combines various aspects of reality television, SecondLife, consumer contests and then communicates the entire range of

Godrej products in a very innovative way.

Markathon: What would be your advice to budding marketers in B Schools?

Mr. Shashank: Well, that’s an interesting question. In hindsight, advice is nothing new; it is often about the basics or something which you’ve forgotten. My advice to marketeers would be to build their careers one step at a time. A career is not a sprint, it is a rather marathon which needs to be paced accordingly. It is much better to have a Sales & Marketing experience in the early stages of one’s career. I know a lot of graduates coming out of B-Schools want to skip the sales bit or rush through it and become brand managers. The graduates should realise that there is a long time ahead to become a brand manager. My personal experience is that consistency pays off, if you are in an organisation which has the wherewithal to groom you and develop you, then it pays off to stay in that organisation for a long stint. During these long stints, there are always good times and bad times. It is about negotiating through the troughs and building up on the good times. There is a premium to loyalty and premium to staying in one organisation, particularly in FMCG companies. People who have risen to the top are ones who have stayed with the company for a long time and persisted with their contributions.


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vartalaap markathon |July 2011

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An interview with Arvind Singhal

Founder & Chairman – Technopak Consultants

Arvind Singhal is the Chairman of Technopak since 2002. He launched Technopak1991 and has been instrumental in the growth of the company from strength to strength.

Arvind is professionally active at various Textile and Clothing professional associations and industry fora. He is also a regular contributor to various publications. He is acknowledged as one of the foremost experts on the Indian and International textile and clothing sectors. Prior to Technopak, Arvind has worked with Modern Suitings, VXL India Ltd, OCM Woolen Mills, DCM Group (Shriram Pistons & Rings), and then DCM Data Products.Arvind is an MBA from University of California, Los Angeles, USA. He has done his Bachelor of Engineering (Electronics & Communication) from University of Roorkee. He has also been a regular columnist for Business Standard with the column , Marketmind which focuses on the pulse of the Indian Market.

Markathon: Tell us something about your early years, doing an MBA and then working in DCM and OCM Woollen Mills. What was your major learning then?

Mr Singhal: I graduated from University of Roorkee (as it was called then, now IIT – Roorkee) in 1979 with an Electronics & Communication degree. In the early years at Roorkee, I had realized that my interest lay in “general management” with “marketing” as the specific area to focus upon. I was fortunate to be selected as Management Trainee with the DCM Group at the time of my graduation, and joined Shriram Pistons & Rings as a Management Trainee. It was one of the best decisions I could have taken at that time and in hindsight, I look at that period as an invaluable on-the-job preparatory training before an MBA. While

at Roorkee, I was fortunate to have bagged a Rotary Foundation scholarship to study for an MBA in the USA, and I chose to join UCLA where I graduated with a customized major with focus on Marketing, Finance, and MIS.

There were several learnings in the period 1975 - 1982 covering University of Roorkee, Shriram Pistons, and UCLA (Los Angeles, USA) but among the most valuable ones included the need to dream big; to have an open, inquisitive mind; initiative; hard work; and to have an all-round, well-rounded personality.

On completion of MBA, I returned immediately to India (after a 12 week back-packing trip in the USA & Europe) and joined DCM Data Products as a sales executive for computer systems. In 1985, I joined Birla VXL (OCM Division). That was my very first exposure to general management, and in 1987, I was fortunate to be entrusted with the responsibility of becoming the head of marketing for OCM. The three and a half years in that capacity were also one of the most formative ones for me as a manager and laid the foundation of my taking the plunge as an entrepreneur. Technopak was started on 1st January 1992.

Markathon: How was the idea of founding Technopak conceived? Did you always know you were going to start a venture of your own when you were studying?

Mr Singhal: I was reasonably sure, even while at Roorkee, that someday I would own and run a business enterprise of my own. However, till almost 6 months before the start-up

of Technopak, I was not very clear as to what venture I should and could start. The decision to start a consulting services firm was largely influenced by the near lack of financial capital, and


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hence the only capital I could leverage was what is now known as “intellectual” capital.

However, the dream and determination was very, very clear from the day Technopak was conceptualized – that it would be one of the most successful, top-notch, and highest-quality businesses with an aspiration to be counted in the peer group that would have world’s best firms e.g. McKinsey, BCG and others.

Markathon: Technopak has been at the forefront of the Indian Consulting industry for a long time now. What do you reckon is the greatest strength that Technopak has? What is the one thing that gives Technopak the edge over others?

Mr Singhal: I had no choice but to make our firm work harder and smarter if it had to be given any chance of succeeding and be counted in the same league as the global giants. The strategy which I chose for Technopak was to become an ultra-specialist firm with an unparalleled depth and width of service offer in the verticals it would choose to operate in. Further, Technopak was also “built-for-India” despite it trying to learn whatever it could from world’s best practices. Finally, right from very early stages, Technopak’s service offer ranged from business strategy to nearly all aspects of implementation. All of these factors allowed Technopak to differentiate from its illustrious and very formidable competitors, and create a niche for itself.

There are many factors which give Technopak a fighting chance to compete strongly and compete successfully. Some of these include its ultra-sharp focus on each of its core verticals (now divisions, which include Textile / Fashion, Retail / Consumer Goods, Healthcare, Education, Food & Agriculture, and Leisure / Tourism); its very substantial and on-going investment in acquiring proprietary intelligence and market information relating to each of its sectors; very strong consumer-insight

orientation; and a very diverse talent pool compared to any other consulting firm in India.

Technopak operates across different verticals. Is there a thrust towards any particular vertical? Is Technopak looking towards other verticals as well for its growth?

Mr Singhal: Technopak’s choice of sectors to operate in is largely guided by the size of the sector and the state of its evolution (the bigger but more fragmented and unorganized it is, the more is the attractiveness of the same even though such sectors have very limited consulting potential in the initial years). Technopak is not looking to add, in the near future, any new sector beyond the 6 listed above. Instead, the focus is to add new service lines for these sectors.

There is no specific thrust towards any specific vertical other than the fact that some verticals are mature ones (Textile, Retail) and some are in the coming-of-age phase (Healthcare) while some are in the nurturing phase (Education, Food & Agriculture, and Leisure / Tourism). Hence, different quantum of energy and other resources are allocated based on specific needs of the specific vertical.

Markathon: Where do you see Technopak in the future, say 10 years from now?

Mr Singhal: It is very difficult for me to envisage the Technopak of 2020. This is largely because of two factors. Firstly, in the recent years, I am coming around to a belief that the future of Management Consulting (and management consultants), as we know it today, is quite bleak. I have some thoughts on what the future may be and accordingly, I am trying to morph Technopak into a very different kind of entity than what it is today. Secondly, I would be turning 53 this year in August, and would like to phase out of an operational role at Technopak as soon as I can make this happen. The then leadership of the firm


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would have a major role in shaping the future of Technopak.

Markathon: You’ve had a very successful column Market Mind with Business Standard for 7 years now, what keeps you ticking as a writer? If you had to tell us a couple of lines about how the pulse of the Indian consumer has changed over the last decade, what would you say?

Mr Singhal: Market Mind in fact is almost 10 years old. However, just a fortnight ago, I have decided to close the column since some kind of a fatigue has set in. I do, by the way, write frequently (though not on a set frequency) for many other publications too.

Sometime soon, I intend to start at least 2 (and possibly 3) columns in 2 different newspapers. One is likely to be a monthly piece focusing on “manager / entrepreneur” as a human being and hence the theme will be more on the individual rather than his / her profession. Other is likely to be a modified version of Market Mind but with a monthly frequency. The third is likely to be a bi-monthly, slightly longer column which would be very data-heavy but relating to the 6 core sectors of Technopak’s focus.

When I started Market Mind 10 years ago, I had never envisaged that I would like being a columnist so much. Now, writing seems to like a much-needed “fix”!

I wish I could tell in a couple of lines how the Indian consumer has changed in the last 10 years, other than saying that if the change in the last 10 years has been amazing, then the change in the next 10 will be totally spectacular!

Markathon: Any words of advice for our readers, the young graduates aspiring for a career in marketing and the world of consulting and also the budding entrepreneurs?

Mr Singhal: There are several pieces of advice I would love to give and perhaps, I would have an opportunity to visit the Indian Institute of Management Shillong campus sometime to do it in person. However, at this time, I would only like to mention that the world of management and the world of management consulting will undergo dramatic changes in the next decade. Hence, IIM – S graduates should spend some additional time and effort trying to do some crystal-gazing of their own and then decide on their career ahead. Following today’s conventional wisdom may be fraught with hazards.

To the budding entrepreneurs, the message would be to dream and continue to dream, but then start small and start pragmatic. The proverbial starting-up-in-a-garage approach still works, and is likely to work in the future!


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An Interview with Santosh Desai

MD & CEO, Future Brands India Pvt Ltd.


Santosh Desai is MD & CEO of FutureBrands India Pvt Ltd. which is a brand consultancy firm, part of the retail chain leader Future Group. Prior to this, Santosh Desai was President of McCann – Erickson India. He is an IIM Ahmedabad graduate with over 21 years of experience in advertising. He has been a key-note speaker at advertising forums in India, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Colombo, Lebanon, Bali etc. He has also addressed the boards of several Multinationals including Hershey’s, Microsoft, Unilever, Coke & Reckitt Benckiser.

He is also a thought leader in understanding the relationship between culture and brands and the consumer as a product of his or her cultural context. He is the author of ‘City City Bang Bang’, a very popular weekly column in The Times of India.

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Markathon: Tell us about one incident/moment from your college days at IIM Ahmedabad that, in retrospect, changed your career.

Mr. Santosh: There was no life changing moment for me as such when I was at IIM Ahmedabad. It was about 6 months after I had graduated from IIM A that my career took a turn. I had taken up a job at an advertising agency immediately after graduation and the agency was in a pretty bad shape and deformed.

It was a complete accident that I met a senior of mine from IIM A after catching a film. We got talking and he was working in Ulka which is now FCB Ulka and they were looking for people. I had an interview with them and that is how my career changed. I even happened to meet my wife while working at the agency.

Markathon: CEO, Author, Social Commentator, Advertising Professional, Marketing Expert- Which role has been the most challenging for you?

Mr. Santosh: The role of an Author has definitely been the most challenging for me. My book, almost 90% of it is an update of my earlier work, but even then it was very challenging since I had to look at everything from a macro sense. When dealing with articles and issues, the analysis is more on an individual level, a single incident, a single brand or a single aspect. In the case of a book, it is far more broadened and hence tougher. Writing a book also involves a lot of discipline and has a certain way of thinking

associated to it. Another difficulty was the topic itself, India has such a vast history and so many different perspectives to it -that made it tougher for me to mould it into a single book.

The role I enjoy the most is that of writing articles. Since I usually write about 2 pieces a week, it requires me to be mentally alert. Writing also gives a sense of participation in the things happening around you, since you can voice out your opinions. It helps me look at things from fresh angles all the time and leads to newer ways of understanding people and systems.

Markathon: Your book ‘Mother Pious Lady’ and your blog on Times of India ‘City City Bang Bang’ talk about the Indian culture and take a refreshing and contemporary look at Indian society. In fact, most of the multinationals come to you because they believe that no one understands the Indian consumers as well as you do. How important is it to understand the customer? How can one gain deeper insights into the minds of the customer?

Mr. Santosh: The first thing is to avoid thinking of the people as consumers or customers; being a customer is only a small part of what people are. Companies should see the people around them as friends, brothers, sisters, cynics, ideologues and so forth. For everyone, consumption is a means to an end and funnel to fulfilling their other desires like significance, meaning, emotional

attachment, satisfaction and the likes.

Marketing is as much about anthropology, evolution of cultures, psychology as it is about statistics and pricing. Marketeers often fail because they do not acknowledge the customer’s emotions and needs fully. For example, a product like a lipstick, is more than just a make-up accessory, it signifies a woman’s aspirations, identity etc.

It is therefore paramount for the companies to redefine the term “customer” in a much broader sense and widen the scope. This will definitely help them understand the customers better and cater their offerings accordingly.

Markathon: Do you have any other books in store? Any ideas you are working on?

Mr. Santosh: There are several thoughts which I have in the pipeline but I haven’t really decided on which one I am going to start working on first. I have an idea about seeing India through its cinema and how cinema has shaped the culture and aspirations of the Indian masses over the generations. I also want to look at the idea of ‘Change’ in itself in the Indian context. I can zero in on one of these ideas and hopefully start working on it soon

Markathon: Tell us something about Future brands and the idea behind such a firm. What makes it different?

Mr. Santosh: The idea for Future brands came from the Future


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Group CEO Mr Kishore Biyani. He had a pretty good thought about the need for a branding company which understands India. He had a clear vision of what the company should be doing.

Most of the brands we see in India are multinational brands, which have been created elsewhere. Branding in India is more of a maintenance activity rather than that of creation. Futurebrands wants to be instrumental in the creation of full-fledged Indian brands and not just private labels development.

Future brands also does a lot of consulting work for clients like Pepsi, Godrej, Madura Garments, and Britannia etc. There is a lot of effort put in behind the consulting work we do. Recently we carried out a 54 town study on the smaller towns in India deciphering the market needs, consumer perceptions and other factors.

The combination of being an application oriented organisation and also a consulting company makes us very unique with possibly no other parallel in the world.

Markathon: For every successful brand, there are an umpteen number of failures. Do you see a common cause for most brand failures in the Indian context?

Mr. Santosh: Finding out a single cause for failure is obviously difficult since the reasons vary across different failures. Yet, there is a common theme which is prominent among most of the failures. The companies are not trying hard enough to be relevant

in a meaningful way. Companies are operating at a very shallow level and their mental model is flawed. Strategies, plans are made because either somebody else followed a similar strategy; someone in the top management told them to do so or maybe because of some other internal reasons in the organisation.

This mental model is working only off the surface and is akin to ‘shooting in the dark’. Consumer understanding needs to be much deeper; it is not an exact science. Most companies depend on predictive research to make their branding strategies. Predictive research is a very difficult concept to apply successfully in a real world scenario especially in a market as diverse and varied as India is. This gap needs to be looked at and addressed accordingly before launching a brand.

Markathon: You had once mentioned that B school students need to go beyond B School education. Keeping this statement in mind, how can B school students learn beyond cases and books? What is your advice for graduates in B-schools looking to make a career in sales and marketing?

Mr. Santosh: I am a big critic of the kind of B-School education which is going on in institutes today. The orientation provided in the classroom learning is pretty narrow in nature and doesn’t necessarily make the student ready for the industry.

The institutes do a pretty good job when it comes to talking about

concepts, frameworks and analytical issues. These frameworks are often applicable to ideal scenarios whereas reality is far more complex, intertwined and messy in nature. The B-schools’ abilities to cater to these needs are very poor.

The Operations view of Management has to change. Management is generally treated like an illegitimate child of all disciplines and is not given due recognition. Management should be more open to drawing from social sciences since most actual businesses are run on the basis of social and psychological issues. Even the way in which Organisational Behaviour is taught in B-Schools leaves a lot to be desired.

There are two basic divisions of people; the first is those who ‘manage’. Managing is all about resource allocation and has a pretty narrow view. The others are what can be termed as ‘creators’. The world needs these kind of people; individuals need to take on roles of creation. Creation in terms of being entrepreneurial, creating systems, processes and shaping organisations. Understanding human psychology and having an anthropological viewpoint is extremely essential for the people who want to take on the role of ‘creators’.


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war zone | eye 2 eye markathon | june 2011

Google Plus : Facebook killer or another Google Wave?

It might be a part of their marketing strategy to create artificial demand. So this +1 feature of Google is a Facebook killer or just another Wavebuzz? Well, perusing through the features it appears it has cleverly incorporated all the salient futures of the most popular social networking sites. +1 for Like, Share for RT, Geotagging for Foursquare and more importantly –Stupid Apps and +Privacy Settings. With clean GUI, well structured, neatly planned G+ is definitely not a half-baked cake from the Amphitheatre Parkway like the previous issues of Knol, Video player, Page creator and other several few. It’s indeed inarguable that people are getting annoyed with recent Facebook developments like Q&A, identity theft, unverified third party apps, auto face recognition and myriad ville, mafia games updates on the timeline. Not long ago Facebook came with project Titan, a so called Gmail killer. The world dumped it straightaway. After all we know where Facebook emerged from. Hot or not? It’s not. With the given context, +1 is a stupendous discovery which the future decade circle is going to hang out with. Not only a one stop, one place solution and a All-social killer but this also increases the search relevancy. Interestingly as I write this, Mark Zuckerburg is the most circled person on G+ with more than 44K+ people. Larry page is with +30K and Sergy Brin with +23K people. That says some story. Will Mark be able to come of this circle? And a close friend of mine just pinging “ G+ is definitely not a Facebook killer”. I am yet to reply back. Ironically just few days back I happened to read my 5 year old UG college slambook at home. His message read, “We can always be friends, as there is Orkut”.

These are interesting times we live in when an Internet giant has been forced to rethink and reinvent its business strategies, more than once, because of a perceived threat from a Harvard dropout. Nevertheless, Google’s every attempt at social media so far has been a no show, be it Orkut, Wave or Buzz, due mainly to concerns regarding privacy and data security. Facebook, on the other hand, has done a wonderful job of making people think of it as synonymous to social media. An entire 360o effort, Facebook touches the social lives of people at almost all points-of-contact to the extent that checking their FB account is the day’s first activity for an increasingly number of people. And Google Plus doesn’t really give any compelling reason to switch to it from Facebook. Apart from the Circles concept, the Huddle, etc. there really isn’t much to Plus that catches the eye, and that capability too isn’t something that Facebook would take long to incorporate in some way or the other to the innumerable features in its repertoire.

Even though the early adopters took to it with maddening swiftness, there are lessons to be learnt from other similar failures of FriendFeed, Quora, and Google’s own Buzz! Far from being a Facebook killer, Plus appears as Google’s another desperate attempt at social media, even as its own privacy policy is confusing and it leaves much more to be desired on the features front.

Topic for the next issue’s Eye to Eye: “Government has opened up 51% FDI in multi brand

organised retail how will this move affect the existing players in the Indian Market?”

Your opinion (view/counterview) is invited. Word limit is 250-300. Last date of sending entries is 10th August 2011. Include your picture (JPEG format) with the entry.

Venkata Ramanan

IIFT

On June 28th my RSS feeds were chirping Google+. People were asking, requesting, begging and becoming restless for one. Reviews were blogged left and right, there were new user sign ups and very heavy traffic. Google had to stop circulating the invites by disabling it.

Internet forums are abuzz with astonishment on the revelation by Social Statistics that the most popular person on Google Plus is actually Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook! And that comes at a time when Plus has carefully kept the access to only a select few for trial purposes.

Alar

m b

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“Google Plus appears as Google’s another desperate attempt at social m

edia s”

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Jayant Rana IIFT, Kolkata

war zone | eye 2 eye markathon | july 2011

war zone | silent voice markathon | march 2011

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NEXT THEME FOR SILENT VOICE: “ Centennial celebration of NIVEA ”

LAST DATE OF SENDING THE PRINT AD: 10th August, 2011 EMAIL ID: [email protected]

Send your entry in JPEG format named as SilentVoice_<Your Name>_<Institute>only.

Silent Voice LAST MONTH’S RESULTS

Theme: “Re-launch of Lipton Ice Tea”

WINNER: Siva Charan Muraharirao | NITIE Congratulations!!!Siva Charan receives a cash prize of Rs 500!

Taranjeet Singh Puri| NMIMS

HONORARY MENTION

war zone | silent voice markathon | july 2011

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Markathon has always brought the readers the best interviews from the world of academia around the globe. This time, we have gone step ahead. We have reached out and interviewed some of the biggest authors in the world of Marketing apart from academia. From Al Ries, who along with Jack Trout came out with the concept of “Positioning” to the versatile David Aaker who dons the roles of a Marketing Professor, an author and is also the Vice Chairman at Prophet – a brand consultancy firm. We also have Morgen Witzel, who is the author of the hugely popular book Tata – The Evolution of a Corporate Brand. In this edition, Tarun Khanna who is the Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor at Harvard Business School and the director of HBS South Asia Initiative talks about emerging markets and management education in India vis-a-vis Western countries.

Between them, our 4 guests in this section of the issue have authored over 30 books and written over 200 articles pertaining to the field of Marketing. We are proud to bring y ou all these interviews in one single edition.


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An Interview with Al RIES BEST SELLING Author & FATHER OF POSITIONING eRA


Al Ries is also the co-founder and chairman of the Atlanta-based consulting firm Ries & Ries with his partner and daughter, Laura Ries. Along with Jack Trout, Ries coined the term "positioning", as related to the field of marketing, and authored Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind, an industry standard on the subject.

Ries graduated from DePauw University in 1950 with a degree in liberal arts and accepted a position with the advertising department of General Electric before founding his own advertising agency in New York City, Ries Cappiello Colwell, in 1963. The agency later changed to a marketing strategy firm, Trout & Ries. Ries was selected as one of the most influential people in the field of public relations in the 20th century by PR Week magazine in 1999. Ries has also written a number of books on Marketing and Branding that have made the BusinessWeek best seller list on a number of occasions.

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Markathon: You’ve had an illustrious career spanning from Liberal arts, to advertising, to marketing strategy and now a Consulting firm. How has been your journey through all these diverse assignments? Mr. Ries: It's like a journey through an enormous country. Every stop has taught me something new and different. I don't think I could have ever worked at a traditional job for a traditional company. Doing the same thing over and over again would have become extremely monotonous.

Markathon: You came with the “Postioning” era in 1972 and Marketing has never been the same, How do you see the companies’ in today’s fierce competitive environment taking the concept of “Positioning” forward? Will it be tweaked? Mr. Ries: Positioning has become famous, but many of our positioning principles are still violated every day of the week. Therefore we have a big job to do to convince companies that there is a different approach to what they are doing. Take the "line-extension trap," which was one of our basic positioning principles. As we wrote in our first article on the subject, “Just because a company is well-known in one field, doesn’t mean it can transfer that recognition to another. In other words, your brand can be on top of one ladder and nowhere on another. And the further apart the products are conceptually, the greater the difficulty of making the jump.” That was 39 years ago. Regretfully, line extension is still the preferred marketing strategy for many companies.

Markathon: You’ve written many Bestselling books, which one of them is the closest to your heart and why so? Mr. Ries: You always favor your last book. My last book was "War in the Boardroom," written with my daughter and partner Laura. Some people are

left brainers and some people are right brainers. I'm convinced that top management of most companies today are left brainers: verbal, logical and analytic. On the other hand, most marketing people are right brainers: visual, intuitive and holistic. The two sides are destined to clash. (And in my career, I've witnessed hundreds of those clashes.) Actually, we believe that companies need both types of people to be truly successful. But both sides need to understand each other. That's the objective of the book.

Markathon: You’ve had consulting experiences with some of the biggest brands in the world; can you share with us one of these assignments which you’d call the ‘most challenging’ one or a memorable one? Mr. Ries: We can't talk about any recent assignments

for confidentiality reasons. But a constant theme of many of our assignments was to keep

the company's core brand focused and expand the company's product line by introducing new brands. And naturally, company management wanted to expand its existing brand. That's what we call the line extension trap. We

argued with IBM about the need for a new brand for its line of personal

computers. Instead, IBM line-extended its brand. After 23 years and a reported $15 billion in losses, IBM sold its personal-

computer operations to Lenovo. We fought with Xerox about the

need to launch a desktop laser

printer line to compete with Hewlett-Packard. Xerox had invented the laser printer (the first one was driven by a mainframe computer) but didn't think the market was ready for a desktop


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version. They waited too long and got shut out of the market. The Xerox situation illustrates a common problem of many companies. Management tends to try to predict the future and make decisions on what is likely to happen. Xerox management was convinced that the desktop laser printer had no future, so decided not to waste money getting into the market. Our position is that companies should invest in potential new categories and treat their investments as "insurance." If a company gets in early and the category does take off, then the company will be in a good position. Xerox used to be a much bigger and more profitable company than Hewlett-Packard. But they lost the desktop laser printer market to Hewlett-Packard. Today, Hewlett-Packard is six times the size of Xerox. Sometimes one key decision can mean the difference between enormous success and mediocrity.

Markathon: You’ve emphasised the need to build Brands by Publicity and not Advertising in your books. What would you term as the essential differentiating factor between Publicity and Advertising? Mr. Ries: Credibility: Advertising is not nearly as believable as publicity. But we're not opposed to advertising. After a while, a company runs out of PR potential. No publication today, for example would run a story about a wonderful new drink called Coca-Cola. The only stories they run about Coke are negative. That's why after a certain amount of time has passed, a company needs to shift its marketing programs to advertising.

Our philosophy: PR first, advertising second.

Markathon: Can you share with us a couple of trends which you think will impact the world of Marketing in a big way in the coming decade? Mr. Ries: Marketing can be roughly divided into strategy and tactics. Strategy is more important, but it's almost impossible to predict a trend in strategy. Tactics are easier to see. There' s no question that marketing is moving into the digital era, an era that has spawned

social media and many other digital techniques. There's bound to be many, many developments in the digital era that will affect how marketing is practiced. Keep in mind, however, that tactics are not a substitute for a good strategy. Without a good strategy, a company cannot win, even though it might have good tactics.

Markathon: Would you like to give any advice to our readers who are looking to make a career in the field

of marketing and brand management? Mr. Ries: Read especially the newspapers and magazines that cover global businesses. In America, that would include publications like The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Fortune and many others. If you want a long-lasting

career in marketing, you need to know what is working and what is not. Take Apple, for

example. Apple has become the most-valuable high-tech company in the world.

What is Apple's strategy? Create a new category you can be first in and then

dominate that category by launching new brands, the iPod, the first high-capacity MP3 player, the iPhone, the first touchscreen smartphone, the iPad, the first tablet computer. Apple is not a brand name. Apple is a company name. Nobody says "I bought an Apple." They say "I

bought an iPod." Or "I bought an iPhone." Or "I bought an iPad." This is

just the opposite of the line-extension strategy of Apple's competitors. Now do you suppose that would change the minds of the millions of people who believe that line extension is the best strategy for a company? Of course, not. They don't read; they don't think. They just cling to an idea that might make sense, but doesn't work. Always check your theories against what is working and what is not working. And the only way to do that is to constantly read the business media.

Markathon: One last question, what keeps Al Ries ticking? And are there any other books you are currently working on? Mr. Ries: My daughter and I keep finding new ideas to think about and to write about. Laura is working on a new book that I believe will be exceptionally well received. What it is about we want to keep secret for the moment.


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An Interview with MORGEN WITZEL

Author of Tata – Evolution of a Corporate Brand

vartalaap markathon |june 2011

Over the past 20 years Morgen Witzel has established a international reputation for innovative thinking and clear incisive writing about a range of management issues in books, newspaper columns, journal articles and online forae. His work has been translated into many different languages including Chinese, German, Greek, Japanese, Korean, Polish and Spanish.

Morgen’s work encompasses writing, teaching, research and editorial work with a particular interest in the history of management and management thinking. His most recent book, Tata: the Evolution of a Corporate Brand is a full length study of the origins and development of India’s most famous brand, and indeed one of the world’s most valuable brands. This book combines historical analysis with an in-depth look at the brand’s reputation in the eyes of its stakeholders and has been on the Indian bestseller list since its launch in August 2010. Already in the lists of the best business books in India, this book will be available worldwide from 27 April 2011.

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M Markathon: You are known for your interest in the history of management and management thinking. From an undergraduate degree in history to a management thinker- what intrigued you about the field of management and how did you bridge the gap?

Mr. Morgen: When I first got involved in management, I naturally started looking at histories of management. I was surprised to find that most only go back a hundred or a hundred and fifty years, when management as an academic concept was first invented. Yet large businesses had been around for thousands of years before. That posed the question in my mind: how did the managers of these pre-modern businesses run their enterprises? What did managers do before ‘management’ was invented? And if you look at individual disciplines the problem grows even stronger. Business strategy, for example, was first recognised as a discipline in 1961. That means that I am older than business strategy! So what did the big multinational and international businesses of the nineteenth century, or seventeenth century, or fifteenth century, do when it came to making strategy? That has been one of the subjects of my inquiry ever since.

Markathon: In your own words “History’ and ‘management’ are not words that you often find together.” How important and relevant is it to understand the past in the world of management where dynamism and chaos are omnipresent?

Mr. Morgen: Put it this way. You cannot truly know an organisation unless you understand its culture. And you cannot truly know its culture until you understand its history. What an organisation has done in the past, how it has evolved, the decisions and choices its leaders have made, all condition the organisation. You are quite right to say that dynamics and chaos are omnipresent. But in fact, one of the lessons of the past is this: they always have been. Look at the pace of technological change in the late nineteenth century, across every field of engineering and science, when breakthrough innovations were occurring every year. Look at the geopolitical chaos in which businesses operated in earlier centuries; they faced levels of risk we would regard as intolerable today. If we look at how our business ancestors dealt with these and other problems, we can learn a lot of valuable lessons about how to solve our own problems today.

Markathon: Having studied both Indian and Chinese markets, what do you feel are the key differences in the business environments that marketers should take note of?

Mr. Morgen: Fascinating question. The differing roles that governments play is a key one. I see China as a state-controlled economy which is heavily influenced by the free market, while India is a free-market economy which is heavily influenced by government. In both cases, make sure you understand what role the regulators play and

when and how they are likely to intervene. But you know, I think there are also a lot of similarities. Both countries have large aspirational middle classes and burgeoning youth markets, for example. And there is another important point too: it is really hard to generalise about markets in countries of a billion-plus people. There are big differences in markets between north and south India, east and west, and that is true in China too. I would argue that marketers need to take a regional as well as a national focus when working in these countries.

Markathon: What, according to you, are the essential characteristics of a successful manager and how can one work to imbibe them?

Mr. Morgen: The first essential quality is fairness. Treat others as you would expect them to treat you. Do this, and nine times out of ten you will be respected for it. The second is courage. You will be called upon at times to make decisions that involve risks: to your company, to yourself and your career. Have the courage to accept the risks and make the right decision. Third, be yourself. Don’t put on an act for employees, customers, anyone. In a world full of dynamism and chaos, truth and honesty are valuable qualities – and very probably, a source of competitive advantage.

Markathon: We would love to learn about your experiences while writing ‘Tata- The Evolution of a Corporate Brand’. Is there


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anything that stood out during your research?

Mr. Morgen: The thing that still stands out in my mind is the sheer persistent emphasis on values. I had worked with ‘values-driven’ organisations before but never one where values played such an important part in everyday management. It made me see how a strong value system can really add power to organisation, and value to its brand. I was also seriously impressed by the quality and commitment of the people I met, at all levels of the group. Unlike most managers in most businesses I meet, these people really believe in something. And that commitment too is directly responsible for the power of the brand.

Markathon: With the date for the announcement of the successor of the Tata Group being set as early May, the group is in news yet again. What are the leadership skills of Ratan Tata that have set the group apart, and that the successor must have?

Mr. Morgen: To my mind, the most important legacy that Ratan Tata leaves behind is the Tata corporate brand. He led the process of creating that brand, which in turn has played big role in pulling the group together and focusing it. For his successor, managing that brand and continuing the process of turning it into an international brand is going to be the big challenge. In terms of leadership skills, well that just means the basics of good leadership: uniting people,

inspiring them, giving them direction and then giving them the freedom to create and to achieve their goals.

Markathon: According to you, what are the 3 most important things that help build a corporate brand and make it stronger than individual product brands?

Mr. Morgen: To me, it is the same three principles that I identified as embedded in the Tata brand: trust, reliability and commitment. The last can take many forms: commitment to the service of the community, as in the case of Tata, or just commitment to customers and a desire to keep delivering them the best possible value, as in the case of a brand like Apple. Basically it comes down to making a promise and keeping. There is a book which has just come out, Beyond the Familiar, by Patrick Barwise and Sean Meehan, which I encourage all brand managers to read. It makes the point that the brands that make promises and keep them, day after day, year after year, are the ones that succeed in the long run.

Markathon: A word of advice to all the budding managers who are on the brink of entering the business world.

Mr. Morgen: Much as I said before. Be fair to others, be true to yourself, and have courage. And above all: enjoy it. In all of history there has probably never been a better time to be in business than today. There are huge challenges out there. But you know what? There are also huge opportunities. Spot them, seize them, run with them, and you will be rewarded not just with money but with a wonderfully fulfilled career.


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An Interview with David Aaker

Brand Consultant and author


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Markathon: Tell us a little about your college years in MIT Sloan School of Management and then at Stanford. How were they influential in shaping your career?

Mr. David: A complete story is in my biography ‘From Fargo the World of Brands’. At MIT I was in the Sloan School where I was exposed to the quantitative side of marketing. At Stanford I studied statistics and marketing and began my career as a quantitative model builder.

Markathon: You have been called the “Father of Branding”. When did you first get interested in Brands? How did you realise that branding and strategy was the career for you?

Mr. David: After doing research and writing books in strategy I came to the conclusion that firms are too focused on short-term financials and needed to instead build assets. Given my background in advertising and marketing research in addition to strategy, I decided to focus on brand assets. My goal for the last two decades has been to advance the knowledge and practice of branding with a strategic perspective.

Markathon: What would you say is the single biggest and oft repeated mistake most companies make with respect to Brands/Branding?

Mr. David: A perception that branding is tactical, something that can be delegated to an advertising manager or logo creator. The challenge is to get people to recognize that a brand and a brand portfolio is the enabler of a business strategy.

Markathon: Your latest book is, ‘Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant”. What is the essence of the book and who do you think should read this book?

Mr. David: The book ‘Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant’ discusses two ways to compete. The first, to win the brand preference competition with “my brand is better than your brand” marketing in an established category or subcategory. Incremental innovation is a basis for competing and resources are expended on communicating more effectively with cleverer advertising, more impactful promotions, more visible sponsorships, and involving social media programs but such efforts rarely break out of the clutter. The problem is that incremental innovation and investments in marketing rarely change the market share structure because customers are just not inclined or motivated to change brand loyalties in established markets.

The second, to win the brand relevance competition by creating new categories or subcategories for which competitors are irrelevant, is a route to growth and profitability. This route to competitive success is about developing offerings that contain ‘must haves’ that define new categories or subcategories. Winning under the brand relevance model, now very different, is based on being selected because competitors were not relevant rather than not preferred, a qualitatively different reason. The result can be a market in which there is no competition at all for an extended time or one in which the competition is reduced or weakened- the ticket to ongoing financial success. The brand relevance strategy involves transformational or

David Allen Aaker (born 1938) is a consultant and author on the field of marketing, particularly in the area of brand strategy. He is currently the Vice Chairman of Prophet, a global brand and marketing consultancy firm, Professor Emeritus at the Haas School of Business of the University of California, Berkeley and an advisor to Dentsu, a major Japanese advertising agency. He has been called the 'father of branding' and blogs on ‘Aaker on Brands’.

He received his B.S. in Management from the MIT Sloan School of Management and subsequently attended Stanford University where he received his M.A. in Statistics and Ph.D in Business Administration.


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substantial innovation and an organizational ability to sense changes in the marketplace and its customers, an ability to commit to a new concept and bring it to market. It also requires a willingness to take risks by going outside the comfort zone represented by the existing target market, value proposition, and business model. I think that brand relevance explains market dynamics because new categories and subcategories are what drive market dynamics. Any manager facing a dynamic market will benefit from this book.

Markathon: What causes brands to lose relevancy?

Mr. David: One way to lose relevance is when brands remain strong but customers start buying another category or subcategory. If customers are in the market for a hybrid sedan, it does not matter how loved your minivan brand is. Your brand is not relevant, it will not be considered. The challenge is to recognize the emergence of new subcategories and find a way to either be relevant to or defeat the new subcategory.

Markathon: Which has been your favourite book among the 15 bestsellers, and why?

Mr. David:

‘Building Strong Brands’ had the most impact with some 150,000 books sold around the world. There are many firms that use the model to manage their brands. I wish more of them had bought ‘Brand Leadership’in which the model was expanded and elaborated. The portfolio book was the only one to really address the portfolio question. I think the relevance book probably has the most original single idea.

Markathon: You have juggled the roles of an author, a consultant and a B-School Professor. Which role is the one you enjoy the most or has been the most satisfying for you personally?

Mr. David: In all capacities I like the idea of providing rigorous thinking and research to the major practical issues facing business executives.


‘Managing Brand Equity’ was very influential because it defined brand equity and explained

why a brand had value.

Markathon: What is your advice for graduates in B-schools looking to make a career in branding and brand strategies?

Mr. David: I think people should follow their passion whatever it is. I would learn as much as possible about brands from different perspectives and then try to get an entry level job where you are exposed to great brand efforts.

Markathon: What is in store next for the readers? Are you working on another book anytime soon?

Mr. David: My next book might be ‘Aaker on Brands’ where I identify 25 key brand concepts.

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AN INTERVIEW WITH TARUN KHANNA

Professor at HBS, Director of Hbs South Asia Initiative

Tarun Khanna is the Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor at the Harvard Business School, where he has studied and worked with multinational and indigenous companies and investors in emerging markets worldwide. He was named Harvard University's Director of the South Asia Initiative in the fall of 2010. He joined the HBS faculty in 1993, after obtaining an engineering degree from Princeton University (1988) and a Ph.D. from Harvard (1993), and an interim stint on Wall Street. During this time, he has served as the head of several courses on strategy, corporate governance, and international business targeted to MBA students and senior executives at Harvard. He currently teaches in Harvard's executive education programs and is Faculty Chair for HBS activities in India

Markathon: You’ve done your Engineering from Princeton University, and also had a stint on the Wall Street. How and when did you decide to take up teaching as a career?

Mr.Khanna: There was no grand plan, i was stimulated by the research and teaching environment at Harvard and simply stayed on. It remains a wonderful place where ideas mix and match from around the world, and its real fun and a privilege to participate in this.

Markathon: Can you share with our readers an incident/moment which you’d

call a defining moment for you and your career?

Mr.Khanna: When i started studying in India, in 1994 or so, most people thought it was strange to switch from mainstream technology-led business school topics (I was working on fairly conventional analytic models in strategy, in the wake of what the world was learning from the Japanese then) to studying a poor country! No one was interested in India at all, or in emerging markets. China hadn’t quite grabbed the world’s attention as much as it does now. I do recall persisting despite much

opposition just because it made me happy to do so.

On another note, not so much a moment, but the gradual realization over the past decade that there are, as one of my now retired professors in the Harvard Economics department used to say, plenty of $20 bills lying on the sidewalk. That is, if you keep your eyes open, there are so many ways by which each of us can make a meaningful difference in lives of those less fortunate. And the recognition that this isn’t so different from the Sanskrit sloka ‘karmanyev


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dikharaste ..’ that is just get on with it!

Markathon: You’ve written a very successful book, Billions of Entrepreneurs: How China and India Are Reshaping Their Futures--and Yours. How was this book conceived? Do you see similar Entrepreneurial trends in other parts of Asia as well, apart from India and China?

Mr.Khanna: Well, philosophically, i think young folks are endowed with similar intent and ambition and desires. It’s just that the supporting institutional infrastruture – what my colleague Krishna Palepu and I call institutional voids in our work – allows the concrete and tangible expression of these ideas differently in different places .It is just that China and India, in each of their own ways, as billions of entrepreneurs,, have done a decent job of allowing some of these ideas to come to fruition. Others can, and are working on it of course.

Markathon: Tell us something about the Harvard South Asia Initiative. What are the long term goals and the significant milestones it has achieved?

Mr.Khanna: I took it over about six months ago from my colleague the eminent historian

professor Sugata Bose. We have tapped into an enormous reservoir of enthusiasm at Harvard for work in South Asia, across the disciplines and professions, and also exuberance in South Asia for connecting to an institution of learning. I feel that we can go from strength to strength and lay a solid foundation over the next little while. We now have on-the-ground presence in South Asia, a growing organization in Cambridge, concrete manifestation in numerous seminar series on site, in-region activities sponsored frequently in India and Pakistan, a huge uptick in student interest in South Asia, and so on. So we’re all very excited about this. And the Harvard administration, the President and Provost, are solidly behind this effort.

Markathon: India is now becoming a booming business hub and the demand for managers at the executive level has certainly increased. Has there been a huge spurt in the management programs HBS conducts in India? How are the programs being tailored for India?

Mr.Khanna: At HBS, we run our India research centre from Mumbai. Anjali Raina heads up a superb team. We also have a complementary team supporting Executive Education

in India. Last year we ran three one-week-long programs in Mumbai. Next year, we hope to run five or six such programs. There is a lot of interest. But we are not seeking to be a ‘mass market entity.’ Rather we seek intellectual exchange and catalytic effect. We would like to help, support and learn from India’s change agents.

Markathon: Could you share with us some of your thoughts on the major differences that you see in Management Education in India and Overseas? Is there a huge gulf? Is it narrowing down?

Mr.Khanna: India has a long tradition of Management Education, which distinguishes it from other emerging markets, including china. India also has a unique opportunity to leverage its unique contextual circumstances to support the generation of managerial insights for managers and entrepreneurs, that also will be relevant for other so-called ‘south’ countries and indeed for the entire world.

Markathon: Any advice for our readers? Especially the ones who want to start their own companies.

Mr.Khanna: Go for it. Its hugely important and great fun


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advertisement markathon | july 2011

Markathon has come a long way since it started in 2009 as the first Monthly Marketing Magazine from a B-School in India. 2 years later, we are still going strong.

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Some of the eminent personalities who have featured in the past editions of the Markathon are:

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● ● ●

Markathon is now planning to have a Print Edition every month in addition to the magazine being available as a soft copy.

We are currently looking for Sponsors for the Monthly Editions of the magazine which will be circulated in both Print and E-Zine format among more than 30 Top B-Schools in the country and also among the leading Corporates in India ( 50 plus companies)

Sponsorships are open for the Cover Page, Inside Cover, Back Cover and full page advertisements inside the magazine. The sponsorship amount received will be used to cover the printing costs of the magazine. We welcome your company to partner with Markathon and contribute to the magazine’s success. Sponsorship charges are as follows: Cover Page: Rs. 15,000 Inside Cover: Rs. 10,000 Back Cover: Rs. 15,000 Full Page Advertisements inside: Rs. 10,000 Looking forward to partner with you Team Markathon can be reached on [email protected] Team Markathon IIM Shillong

Prof. Sunil Gupta, Head of Marketing Department, Harvard Business School

Mr. Jagmohan S Raju, Marketing Department Chairperson, Wharton, University of Pennsylvania

Mr. Dipak. C Jain, Dean Emeritus Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

Mr. Nirmalya Kumar, Professor of Marketing, London Business School

Mr. Peter Kronschnabl, President BMW India

Dr Dinesh A Keskar, President, Boeing India

Mr. G Ramprasad, CEO, Tata Teleservices (Chennai Circle)


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IIM S Markathon July 2011