STAR VIJAY’s DIWALI BLITZKREIG

This entry may be a delayed one but its meaningful even if its hitting the creation of Tim Berners Lee late.The week of diwali ( the festival of lights celebrated in India) will be remembered by me for various good reasons.

I was fascinated by the way Star Vijay satellite channel rewriting the concept of festival programs. The tradition had been having special programs lined up on the day of festival with business organisations being the title sponsors of those programs. But the drawback in this model had been the effective audience will be spread across different channels and hence there is not much value addition the reason being only a certain fraction of viewers watching the program at any given point of time. As different people have different taste and given the choice of choosing the channel and program they want to watch they would easily migrate to other channels and hence at the end of the day only a fraction of viewers watch any program. But this year Vijay tv came up with a host of programs lined up for the entire week of diwali thus capturing the plum of viewers attention during the prime time. What they did?

They had done good homework long time back and it was evident in the line up of programs and the timing of those programs. Their promotion strategy for their programs was thru’ two mediums mainly. Through their own channel and thru’ posters (which is unconventional wherein one media is publicising its programs throu’ other media (thats the world of Out Of Home )) in the city of chennai.

The program Kamal @ 50 was running for more than a month and the final climax took place on 28th of September. But Star Vijay screened this program on the week of diwali. Thus opening the week of diwali with huge blockbuster.They had promoted the program heavily and this was evident when the rival Sun TV network doing a last move to dampen it by advancing its daily primetime movie in K Tv from 8 p.m to 7 p.m with a super star movie. This move might not have yieded much gain as Super Star Rajinikanth himself was present in the program Kamal @ 50 and he was the center of attraction. With two giants in the Tamil filmdom rubbing shoulders in the dais its a rare opprotunity to miss.

The title sponsor for this event happening to be HUL’s Rin detergent. HUL suffering from poor sales and having increased its advertising spend had chosen a good program to associate with. Star Vijay telecasted this program for more than 8 hrs on Oct 12th and 13th. Thus this program would have tilted the audience attention in favor of Star Vijay. The other programs on the week of diwali also were special like Super singer contestants and judges coming with their families and on 15th it was the Oscar winning Slumdog Millionaire in Tamil would have made the viewers keep coming again and again.

It was a clean sweep by Star Vijay and no other channel would have been prepared to face this blitzkrieg…..

Star vijay is emerging to be a contender in the fort of Sun Network. With innovative program content, Good thought out strategy, programs to woo different audiences, understanding the viewer’s pulse and appropriate timeslots for the programs its going to be Star Vijay atleast as of now till the competition wakes up. At the end of it its going to be a treat for Viewers and advertisers….

 

Kwiz – 3

Keepkwizing strikes back with the next edition of biz-kwiz. Here is the challenge… only those who have grey cells in their blood can survive.

1.Which Indian becomes one among the few privileged to be the barbie model ? ( A sitter)

2. This Indian is gonna replace David Beckham as the brand ambassador for Moto Mini?

3.“Internet bus” and India – Who?

4.Connect – Friedo Pinto and Future Group

5.Connect – P Rajendran,NIIT with shaadi.com and hungama.com

 

Mail ur responses to quizerkk@in.com

Serving the Bottom of Pyramid – Meet the Listening, Caring, Financial Partner

Introducing the Kenya’s Grameen Bank – Equity Bank. Equity bank was started as a building society from where it grew to a Micro finance institution before becoming a full time commercial bank which is now listed in Nairobi Stock Exchange. For the fact geeks,

•   Equity bank serves 50% of Kenyan market
•   It has more than 3 million customers
•   Opens 4000 new accounts every day
•   With all this Equity is the largest bank by customer base in Kenya

Awed by the numerical facts…… hold on till you finish. Coz….. the business model will surprise you more.

Equity was started in the year 1984, that is 8 yrs. after Prof. Mohammed Yunus started to experiment with his idea of Microcredit in Bangladesh under the name of Grameen bank. Equity gave a run for the money to the multinational banking giants like Barclays, StanChart. The man behind this is James Mwangi the CEO & MD of Equity bank who is responsible for this feat. Equity’s rags to riches story had attracted international attention. Teams from Stanford and Harvard universities have travelled to Nairobi to study its business model, while Mwangi has advised the U.N. and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on banking in the low-income sector. Last year he even shared an international microfinance award from the Berlin-based Global Economic Network with Muhammad Yunus, the Bangladeshi “banker to the poor” who won the Nobel peace prize in 2006.

 

        Dr. James Mwangi, CEO & MD

So what’s the business model of Equity?

After surviving the slowdown in banking market in Kenya, Equity decided to target the unserved (lower end) market or what Prof.Prahalad calls the “bottom of pyramid” market. The managers of Equity found that though these people wanted to save and borrow but were not considered by the financial system as worth serving them. But Equity found that though as individuals the customers were not worth pursuing, but as a block they represented a huge and potentially very profitable market. Equity used armoured trucks as mobile branches in the rural areas. Traditional banks required payslips and utility bills as proof of address before opening an account with high minimum balances and monthly fees. Equity only asked for an ID card. Also a typical savings account required only $150 as minimum balance. Equity used what they call the “social collateral” to back up the loans given to individual customers who worked mostly in informal sector. The loans can be for less than $8 which are repayable in few months.

So what’s social collateral?

This can include accountholders grouping together to guarantee an individual’s debt. Women can offer up their matrimonial beds as security; the theory being that no wife is going to want to tell her husband that their bed is gone. Mwangi says, “For us it’s psychological security. Nobody wants to be excommunicated and lose their inheritance to the Kingdom”. With a default rate of 15% on average prevailing in the industry, Equity with its unconventional credit risk strategy has a default of less than 3 per cent on 600,000 outstanding loans.

This effort deserves a standing ovation!!!

As any unconventional practice attracts critics, Equity is also criticised. But Mwangi is unrelented by the critics. He is now eyeing the foreign markets. Already Equity has entered in Uganda, and has plans to enter Rwanda and Sudan.

As the name of bank goes ….. Equity is trying to bring in Equity among the public by spreading its arms, so that nobody is left out of financial system in Kenya.

Indian banks need to bring in more than 35% of population under banking net…… the unfinished task. When can people of India have equity in accessing banking services?

 

Best Business Comedies of 2008

The so called serious business guys (read C-Suite Executives) also stage some remarkable laughable moves in hours of crisis. These moves even make a commoner laugh and remind us that moments of crisis are not an exception for stupidity. Here we are going to see some of the selected dumbest moments from the world of business happened in 2008. The “Big Three of Detroit “will start the show

How about a beggar with a golden bowl?
This is what exactly the “Big Three of the Detroit” did when they went to Washington D.C. to beg Congress for a multi-billion dollar bailout in their corporate jets. So what was the response? The US Congress sent the auto chiefs empty handed. I do agree that corporate jets are often the cost effective way for the heads of far flung corporations to get around. But at least they could have shared a ride!!!

The Response from the “Big Three”
Since Corporate Jets are not welcomed by the policy makers the Chief Executives decided to take an alternative way of travel. Since there is no sub way that goes that farther and Bike ride will kill them for a 10 hour ride, they resorted to take the road in cars of their own make. They wanted to promote the use hybrid vehicles with the public, but they are either fuel sippers or at the end of life models like Chrysler’s Aspen Hybrid, which Chrysler CEO drove.

For Kwizers: Who are the “Big Three of Detroit”? One is given here

A Mobile application for just $999.99
With the release of Apple iPhone not only Apple reaped profits but also their non-Apple software developers who had designed from video games to other time consuming applications. Though most of the applications cost less than $10 there was one applications which costed $999.99.There were eight suckers who bought this costly iPhone application from App Store. The theme of the application: “I am Rich” (really rich one). After Apple got blasts for making this application available for sale they quietly removed it.

For Kwizers: Curious to know the application? A hint: It has red jewel in it.

Another Comedy in Apple stable
How would you react on seeing your obituary column? Here is a case of Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs. In August, Bloomberg News accidentally (they say) released an obituary for Steve, who in spite of his widely publicized pancreatic cancer is still alive and giving a run for their money to his competitors. To add oil to the burning fire, in October a post of CNN’s user generated site, iReport claimed that Steve suffered a heart attack. Result – Apple’s stock was 10% down in just 10 minutes. (A perfect 10-10).In counter Steve appears in front of a giant screen with the message, “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” (Ya it was really a great exaggeration!!!)
My Choice of Bestest among the best
What will you say about a person who says his building is strong after one of its pillars had collapsed? This is what US Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain said. When Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy on the morning of Sept.15, McCain was declaring that “the fundamentals of this economy are strong.” By the day’s end Dow had already fell more than 500 points and the date becomes known as Black Monday. So McCain starts backpedaling fast. (Worldwide politicians are uniform atleast in the aspect of their skill in Backtracking). Recollecting what the same McCain said in late 2007, “the issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should, so only I’ve got Greenspan’s book.”

For Kwizers: Who is Greenspan and what are the titles of his books?

Peanuts at Cashew Price!!!
In a bid to counter Goliath Google, Microsoft makes a $44.6bn offer for Yahoo. The $31/share offer was 61% premium over Yahoo’s price at that time. Though Microsoft had rationale behind this offer it didn’t have a mechanism to find out Yahoo’s CEO mood. He declined the offer. With tech sector getting a huge beating in this economic crisis forcing Yahoo’s share to trade at $12 by year end, which means its present worth is $17 bn. Though Ballmer has the last laugh at Microsoft it is not the same case with Jerry Yang, since he has moved out.

Yahoo’s great mistake
If Microsoft made the mistake of over estimation then Yahoo made the mistake of rejecting the offer. Microsoft waited for a longtime before walking away. The deal would have made Yahoo’s shareholders three times richer in an economic downturn time. Yahoo did not stop with that, there were talks of merger between Google and Yahoo which attracted the attention of antitrust regulators. Hence it was put off, resulting in Yahoo making its final attempts for survival now.

For a perfect 8 in 2008
Homeowners in US are the most worried group. In order to bring HOPE to them, US Congress passed the only rescuing plan till date in July. A plan to guarantee upto $300 bn worth of mortgages and prevent more than 300,000 foreclosures. In order to be a part of that, banks must take steep losses which is voluntary!!! The anticlimax: Paltry 321 applications are filled since Oct.1 launch and not one loan workout has been completed according to US Department of Housing and Urban Development

Send in your comments to quizerkk@in.com or post in comments section

Source: Adapted from Fortune magazine news article

Kwiz No.2

1. Connect John Hay,China and open door policy

2. Quebec bank and Royal Bank of Canada. Any link is there?

(Hint: Interestingly for Q1 and Q2 the answer is same also with the same line of thinking one can crack Q5 too)

3. How many firms manufacture the Indian Flag? Who are they?

4.What is actually referred as Big Ben? (its not wat u always think)

5.  If its Alcatraz Island for US federal Prison then for David Packard and William Hewlett ?

Worthy enough to start this year ……

Keep Kwizzzzzzzzing

As usual send in your replies to quizerkk@in.com

 

I appreciate Rams and Jeyantan for their try. Though they r correct with the No.3 answer they did not answer for the other questions correctly. They might hav tried with a different frame of reference. But it was not inline with my answer key. So here we go………

1. I had given a hint to answer Q1 and Q2. This would have been a good way to find the answer.

   The answer is on January 2 John Hay announces the policy of Open door to promote trade with China.

2. Similarly ans for Q2 is also January 2. Royal Bank of Canada takes over Quebec Bank.

3. Karnataka Khadi Gramodyoga Samyukta Sangha based at Hubli,Karanataka is the only licensed Unit by KVIC to manufacture The Indian Tricolor National Flag.

4. Big Ben bell in the clock tower contrary to what everyone thinks is that it is the name of the Clock tower itself. Though some controversies exist over the name.

5. In 1934,Alcatraz Island becomes a US Federal Prison while on the same day in 1939, William Hewlett and David Packard found Hewlett-Packard.

Will meet U in Kwiz 3 very soooooon .

What is Advertising war ?

The epitome of Advertising War

Want to know what is advertising? 

Here is the answer for u……… 

Scene 1

Scene 2

 

 

Scene 3

 

 

 

Ya this can be called advertising war……..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Home minister of India’s speech

Here we go………….

This blog which is going to spread knowledge collected from various sources will start the journey with the message given by Mr. Palaniappan Chidambaram, Union Home minister of India on the occasion of inaugurating School of Management new building at Pondicherry University on 27^th December 2008.

            The Minister touched upon three areas including Indian and world economy status , Terrorism and Management in his special address. He said when UPA came to power in 2004, equitable growth was on top of their agenda and the UPA govt. has achieved fairly well in that agenda at the end of four and half years and it is going strong in that aspect. Further he added that consistent 9% growth does not happen miraculously but for the strong and visionary decisions taken by the Govt. as and when required led the India growth story. Agriculture sector clocked 4% growth on average in the last 4 yrs. due to the Indian farmer community whom we have to appreciate for that spectacular growth. Our Visionary professors and best in class educational institutions made sure that service sector grew with a growth rate of 10% on an average by producing good professionals who were the torch bearers for the service sector growth. First generation entrepreneurs were the people behind India growth story in manufacturing sector because they used the opportunity by challenging the unchallenged and thus making unconventional decisions thereby putting India on the manufacturing map of the world. Indian population’s hardwork and commitment paved the way for the India growth story he added.

            When the whole world is ravaged by the financial tsunami, India is not much affected due to the proactive fiscal and monetary policies taken by the policymakers. Sound banking system is the secret of our survival in this tsunami. When governments all over the world are bailing out the multinational financial institutions we are increasing our loans to the agricultural sector from Rs.84, 000 crores to more than Rs.2,80,000 crores. Similarly educational loans will also be increased this year. When whole world is having negative growth rate we will surely clock 7-7.5% growth this year and we will be back to achieve that elusive double digit growth by 2009-2010.

            On terrorism he said, we know from where it comes, though we are treating Pakistan as our friendly neighbor it is not treating us in the similar way. Both countries are into third generation after independence and there is no need that this generation should have hatredness in them. India is the only stable democratic country in full sense in the south Asian region. Mumbai terror shook the entire world and only after when we came to stage of “enough is enough”, governments all over the world are responding to it by putting pressure on the forces behind the attacks. I assure you, India will face and counter all the attacks on us by going for a permanent solution. I believe that we have declared our will and intent and now it is for the others to react to that in whatever way they want to respond to that. India will respond to that in a way so as to protect all its citizens and will uphold its sovereignty. Indian citizens has to be eternally vigilant wherever they are. In a civilized society all citizens has to abide by the law of land. There cannot be two groups one abiding and the other not abiding. Everyone has to take minimum measures for their security by being eternally vigilant. Police force is as good as the society from which it comes from, so we cannot blame the police entirely for the mishappenings. Police force behaves in the way its citizens want them to behave. It is the citizens who want to bribe them and choose the easier way when they were caught while not following the law of land. Hence as citizens we need to go by the law of land. This will go a long way in making the country more peaceful and secure than what we are at present. Now the Indian government is stepping up its measures to counter all the anti elements for the country and assure you all that time is not very long for us to achieve 24/7 security in our country.

            On management he said that, management is not only earning money but also includes better way in which traffic can be regulated, hospitals can be administered, space missions can be conducted. Though many of you may want to go into corporate world I request some of you to come to public services so that your management learning can be used in making the public systems to work in a more effective and efficient manner. I extend my wishes to all the students in general and management students in particular. 21^st century is going to be your century and you are going to be the torchbearers for India. I wish everyone that we live in harmony with the world and in a peaceful and secure India.

            He expressed his thanks to the Vice Chancellor, the faculties and students of Pondicherry University for giving him this opportunity.

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