Domination June 2011

8/4/2019 Domination June 2011

1/25

A Monthly Newsletter from the Students of

Department of Management Studies,

IIT Roorkee

Breakfast Time Frugal Manage-

ment Practices Women (Will) Power Food Inflation Electronics Industry a

sneak peak Our witheringunstable life

DoMS-da-Evince

In this issue


2/25

-Regards

Team Domination

Dear Readers,

It seems change is the key word for the month that went past. The month witnessed few radical and quiet

unexpected changes all around. On the global front, the death of FBIs Most Wanted - Osama Bin Laden

brought an end to Americas worst nightmare and rekindled the hopes of a terrorist free world. Back

home, the Left front witnessed a major upheaval as voters across Kerala and West Bengal made it clear

that they wanted a change from this regime. Amidst so much changing there is one thing that is constant,

Domination. Yes, we are back again with yet another absorbing edition but with some interesting changes.

Watch out for our latest segment, DoMS-da-Evince. Evince literally means to bring to light. So in this

section we bring forth you those alumni who have made their mark in the industry in short span they haveworked and taken the name of DoMS to even greater heights. Listen to the story of success direct from the

Horses mouth.

From Black and white to LCD, from computers that filled a room to laptop, from landlines to mobile

phones, the electronics industry has been successful to capture the need gap with its sharp acumen. Catch a

glimpse of this industry and its ever changing dynamics in Electronics Industry - A sneak peek.

Breakfast time, covers the foray of the cereal giant Kellogg into Indias breakfast menu, its reasons of

initial failure and its stance for the future in the Indian market.

There have always been extraordinary women who exemplified women empowerment by their deeds. Theclean sweep of Trinamool Congress in West Bengal added yet another name to the list-Ms. Mamta Baner-

jee. The same story is covered in Women (Will) Power.

Energy conservation is the call for the day. With limited resources in hand, every organization wants to

put them to best possible use. Frugal Management Practices throws light on the prudent practices ob-

served by the company where the writer is currently an intern.

The soaring food prices have always posed challenge to the government. Food Inflation, captures the

reasons in terms of supply chain and makes the suggestions to control the same.

In the chlorophyll section the budding poet finds inspiration from a falling leaf.

It has been well saidNothing endures but change. As the world around you changes unceasingly and end-

lessly, grab on to this edition of Domination. We will be back again next month with another page turning

edition. Till then its team domination wishing you happy reading.


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Breakfast TimeChetna Yadav

Frugal ManagementPractices

Jagadish Vema

Women (Will) PowerMukesh Rathi

Food Inflation

Electronics Industry asneak peakNikhil Reddy

Our Withering UnstableLife

Interaction withApar Bansal

DoMS-da-Evince

Vivek Verma

Paresh Kulkarni


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Page 4

Breakfast Time

Page 4

Spicy hot paranthe, butter and lassi, varieties ofdosa, puri bhaji,a cup of tea or hot coffee...That

describes a typical Indian Breakfast table. In

1994, entered the cereal giant, Kellogg, and tried

to take head on the traditional breakfast habits

inculcated for centuries. It resulted into what is

now known as a cultural mishap. Why Kellogg

initially failed in India and how it looks forward

to establish itself in the current Indian market,

lets peep into it.

Back in 1990s, Kellogg had been the market

leader around the globe (though it was facing

tough competition from General Mills) in the ce-

real industry. With little room left

for growth in the traditional U.S.

and U.K. markets the company had

started looking for new markets.

India was definitely a lucrative

market after the liberalization pol-

icy came into force in 1991 and

Kellogg readily understood the kind of potential

the growing Indian economy offered. The com-

pany made its foray in the year 1994 but inspite

of spending 16 years in the market it has not been

able to tap the potential of the same.

What went wrong?

Firstly, to establish itself the company had to

change the very definition of breakfast. Position-

ing itself as a breakfast substitute simply meant

that the company had to not only promote its products but also the very idea of eating cereal

breakfast in first place, a Herculean task.

Secondly, for most of the middle class families

cornflakes was a onetime novelty purchase. The

prices were far too high as a substitute of breakfast.

The companys initial sales were decent and en-

couraging but it soon became apparent that to repli-cate its success of west the company should bow to

the prices. But Kellogg was not ready to do so.

Rather without any further market research it

launched few other Indianized products like

Honey crunch, chocos, mango flavor, special K but

none could make a lasting impres-

sion.

Thirdly, it failed in the advertising

strategy. The advertisements some-

where hinted that traditional Indian

Breakfast was not healthy which

directly hurt the ego of the home

makers, who were also the decision makers of buy-

ing cornflakes.

And lastly they pitched themselves as an alternate

to the breakfast. The Indians are used to having a

heavy breakfast.( Eat breakfast like a king, lunch

as a prince and dinner as a pauper very well de-

scribes the eating habits of the Indians). For them

cornflakes could be a supplement but not a substi-

tute. Moreover cornflakes are supposed to be taken

with cold milk but again due to inherent cultural


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Page 5

Breakfast Time

Page 5

practices, Indians poured hot milk over them

making them soggy and tasteless.

A simple comparison between the positioning

strategy of Nestle Maggi and Kelloggs Corn-

flakes can reveal the reasons of success of one

and failure of other. (A lesson Kellogg has now

learnt).Maggi has positioned itself as an easy to

make, fun to have product, a meal that can be

taken as an evening snack ,between lunch and

dinner and not as a substitute of any of the three

meals.

Lessons Learnt-

A sudden renounce in positioning is not only

difficult but can also be dangerous for any

brand. Kellogg definitely could not have all ofsudden placed itself as evening snack instead of

breakfast. Therefore it started promoting it as

supplement to breakfast.The new Kelloggs ad-

vertisement portrays how the breakfast provides

for 85% of supplements and the remaining is

being provided by Kelloggs cornflakes.

According to Vikram Bahl, CMO, Kelloggs

primary focus is Tier I and Tier II cities. How-

ever, after tracking the success in major Indian

cities, they are now expanding footprint to Tier

III cities also. Surprisingly the growth in Tier III

cities is very robust, mainly due to the Rs. 10/-

pack. It is a big growth driver and is now slowly

positioning itself as a 4:00 PM snack when thekids are hungry and mums are looking for

healthy & convenient options. Now the focus

now is on understanding the consumers func-

tional and emotional needs. For instance, in case

of Special K, while weight-loss is a functional

benefit, being confident & loved by loved ones

is the emotional benefit.

Surprisingly Kelloggs major returns come from

the unorganized sector and not from the organ-

ized retail sector. It is important for Kellogg to

understand it and plan its moves accordingly.

In its long journey in India, Kellogg has learnt

the hard way. Globalization is definitely the call

of today but one solution to all wont serve the

purpose. The success of any brand lies in under-

standing the cultural differences and localizing as

per the demand. In an article in the Hindu news-

paper, Business Line, the managing director for

US Pizza (which has successfully launched a

range of pizzas with Indian toppings) said The

rules are very clear. You can alienate me a bit

from my culture, but you cannot make me a

stranger to my culture. The society is much

stronger than any company or product. With its

new strategy in place how well Kellogg will do

only time will tell. As for me its time to enjoy

my evening snacks-Chocos here I come!!!

- Chetna Yadav

DoMS, IIT Roorkee

[email protected]


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Page 6

Women (Will) Power

Page 6

Hail Ms.Mamata Baner-

jee! Not for

dethroning the

Left from their

stronghold in

West Bengal,

not for going

on to become

the first woman CM of West Bengal but for show-

ing to the naysayers and to the entire World what

a womans will-power and self-belief can lead to.

Who would have otherwise believed that Bengal

would one day witness the complete route of the

Left Front and that too single-handedly by a

woman. Who would have supported the view of

Left losing its stronghold after 34 strong years of

complete dominance and a sort of single-party

politics in Bengal? But the entire scenario

changed once Ms. Banerjee stormed political wa-

ters by setting up a regional party of her own in

Bengal The Trinamool Congress or the TMC.

TMC took time to get the recognition of a major

political player, who could pose serious challenge

to the Left, but kept learning from a number of

losses during its infancy in the assembly and by-

elections, all at the hands of the Left Front. The

moment of reckoning for the TMC came in the

form of Nandigram and Singur where Ms. Baner-

jee rooted for the land rights of the poor peasants

and was dead-against handing over even an acreof any unwilling famers land to the forcing Gov-

ernment which turned the spotlight against the

Left Front Government for the first time in Ben-

gal. It all culminated into violent blood-shed all

around with Government-backed forces on the

one-side facing TMC-led farmers agitation on the

other due to which Ms. Banerjee was able to win

the hearts of the masses by being pro-poor.

Initially, there was a feeling among the urban elite

and Intelligensia that no matter how many rallies

she takes out, no matter how many how many

strikes she calls in the city, (leading to huge busi-

ness-losses) but she will never be able to topple

the Left Front Government in Bengal, especially

after she denied somebody of the stature of Mr.

Ratan Tata to set-up the World-renowned Nano-

Car Factory at Singur, which ultimately got

shifted to Sanand, Gujarat and Bengal was once

again left devoid of investments. But the signs of

change became evident after the by-elections of

2008 and the Lok Sabha Elections of 2009 where-

in Left suffered heavy losses to the TMC, and

Bengal for the first-time in 34 years witnessed the

vote bank of the Left shrinking. After that, every-

thing was for the first time for the Bengalis in so

many years. Still, there were a number of doubters

believing that the voters would ultimately be

swayed towards the Left come the State elections

of 2011. But all doubts were put to rest as the


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Page 7

Women (Will) Power

Page 7

TMC Coalition went on to win as many as 218seats out of a total of 294 seats which left the

entire Left cadre completely shocked, still they

were gracious enough to congratulate the new

CM of Bengal with their main party leaders be-

ing present on her swearing-in ceremony. Ms.

Banerjees win was a

victory of womanhood

and democracy.

Ms. Banerjee was not

the only new-female

politician to occupy

the Chief Ministers

chair. Down South in

Tamil Nadu, Ms. Jaya-

lalitha too held her

head high by becoming the CM of Tamil Nadu

for the third time. In fact, in this election, noth-

ing went right for Mr. Karunanidhi and his party

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagham (DMK) as its

main opposition, AIADMK and its allies, led by

Ms. Jayalalitha, used the corruption plank

against the DMK as its ministers are being in-

vestigated for several cases of corruption, bothat the State and at the Central level and this

time, it was really difficult for them to convince

or rather to fool the people about their hands

not being dirty. Several of DMKs ministers viz.

Mr. A. Raja, daughter of Karunanidhi , Ms.

Kanimozhi find themselves being grilled by the

CBI for their involvement in high-profile cor-

ruption cases like the 2G scam to the tune of

Rs. 200 Cr. siphoned through the DMK ownedTV channel Kalaignagar TV. Whatever may

be the reason, women power prevailed in TN

also. In fact, we find so many women in impor-

tant positions in the political circles these days.

We have the leader of the UPA, the leader of the

opposition in the

Rajya Sabha, The

L o k S a b h a

Speaker, The

President, as

many as four

Chief Ministers,

all women is it

not the time that

we acknowledge

the presence of women in power and give

women their rightful one-third representation in

Parliament of India?

- Mukesh Rathi

DoMS, IIT Roorkee

[email protected]


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Page 8

Frugal Management Practices

Page 8

It has been almost a

week I have joined a

company as an intern.

Since then it has been a

great learning experi-

ence for me in the area

of frugal management.

A week before joining

this company, I was

among the people who never think about saving

resources and utilizing them optimally. But,

now at least the basic practices of frugal man-

agement are well ingrained in my system that

they have become a habit within a week. Let me

share some of my observations which I believe

contribute to significant cost cutting in white

collared work space.

Switching off the power when not in use: Em-

ployees in the organization punctiliously switch

off the fans, lights and computers when not in

use. This practice is followed by the entire or-

ganization from top to bottom be it the top man-

agement, middle level management, line work-

ers, daily wage workers or the trainees. After a

meeting or a briefing, the last person coming outof the hall makes sure he switches off all power

to the hall or any person who leaves in between

or anyone who leaves his workplace switches

off the lights or fans of the area where he had

been sitting or working. Number tags are hung

from each lamp or fan and a layout of the

switches with the corresponding numbers is

pasted near the switch board, which helps in

switching off or on the required lights or fans.

Right objects at right places: Areas are marked

with tapes where certain objects are supposed to

be placed. For example, the snack cart that comes

in during the break is to be placed within the

marked area. The same goes for the tea keg, snack

box or the water cooler. The desks of the employ-ees are not cluttered with unnecessary files rather

they just have the required file in front of them.

Timings: Each employee is supposed to work

from 8:45 AM to 5:30 PM in a general shift and is

entitled to two seven and half minute tea breaks at

10:30 AM and 3:30 PM and a half an hour lunch

break at 1:00 PM. So an employee has a break

time of 45 minutes and an effective work time of 8hours. Meetings are conducted at each department

at the start of the day to discuss daily objectives.

Once the objectives are clear, time is not wasted

on unnecessary discussions in between the work-

ing hours.

Office Layout: I would like to talk about the office

layout rather than the factory layout because I be-

lieve in any big organization the layout of a fac-tory is optimally designed but when it comes to

the white collared work space it may not be so.

But in this case even the office layout is designed

such that it not only helps in cost cutting and opti-

mal utilization of space but also enforces modern

human resource practices which you can infer

from the observations I am going to share.


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Page 9

Frugal Management Practices

Page 9

A rough layout of a division is shown below:

As can be seen in the figure, the huge cabin offices

and the cubicles have been done away with which

in turn reduces the area per employee significantly.

All the employees in a department sit along witheach other and the hierarchy increases from the

leftmost position to the rightmost position. The

head of the department sits at the top of the depart-

ment as can be seen in the figure. In this arrange-

ment each and everyone is in the line of sight of

each other. The seating arrangement is such that

the rightmost position corresponds to the highest

level of hierarchy in the department and the left-

most position corresponds to the lowest level of

hierarchy. This makes it easy to implement Open

Door Policy and a healthy interaction ensues be-

tween the employees across hierarchies. This lay-

out also enables smooth interaction and communi-

cation across the departments. The meeting rooms

too have glass walls to ensure openness and are

designed such that the meeting space could be ad-

justed accordingly by shifting the movable dividers

in either direction.

Reduce-Reuse-Recycle and Rethink: In office

spaces, most regularly used material is stationery

like A4 sheets, notepads, pens, pencils etc and Iobserved some practices the employees follow in

case of A4 sheets. For regular purposes, employees

are required to use both the sides of A4 sheets.

Colour printers are limited and are supposed to be

used only when absolutely necessary. The papers

printed on one side but no longer required for offi-

cial purposes are stacked near the printer so that

employees can use the blank side for their notes or

taking printouts for regular uses. I also observed

many employees using these papers as post-it notes

though it is not a standard practice.

-Jagadish Vema

DoMS, IIT Roorkee

[email protected]


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Page 10

Food Inflation

Page 10

Food supply chain Indian perspective

Rs 5,80,00,00,00,000 or alternatively, Rs

58,000 crores. Whichever way you look, it is

certainly a great deal of money. As per esti-

mates, this is the amount of money that is get-

ting wasted in India every year in the form of

food items. It is indeed ironic that in a country

that faces the most adverse food inflation

amongst all Asian nations, food items in such

copious quantities go wasted every year. The

wastage, it is believed, is mainly due to lack of

post-harvest infrastructure such as cold chain

facilities, transportation and proper storage fa-

cilities and other infrastructure bottlenecks.

A report mentions that India is among the most

affected countries on account of rising food

prices. According to this report, the rise in food

prices prevented more than 19 million people

in Asia, a good chunk of them Indian, from

pulling themselves out of poverty last year.

This should sound a warning bell

to the government which is bat-

tling rising food prices and some-

what failing to restrain it so far.

Union Finance Minister Pranab

Mukherjee accepted the fact that

the sticky food inflation was be-

cause of rising demand for pri-

mary commodities amidst in-

creasing incomes as well as prob-

lems in food supply chain. While demand can-

not be lowered and supply can be increased

only gradually, supply chains can be managed

well to increase their efficiency, he said.

Much to the surprise of many of us, for decades

in twentieth century, food inflation in real

terms was declining. The gains of Green revo-

lution surpassed the negative pull of the in-

crease in population and the rise in income lev-

els, to tame the food inflation. But recently

things have gone out of control.

Food Inflation: Indian Scenario

Global food inflation is due to increase in

population, decrease in area under cultivation,

increase of other uses like fuel production from

food grains, increase in income, accessibility ofgoods and many other complex issues. Consid-

ering Indian scenario, normally, it is self suffi-

cient to meet the food requirements of domestic

market. But regional disparities in terms of

supply and demand points lead to problems.

Barriers to movement:Regulations such as the

APMC Act, tax regimes, excise, and other

regulations prevailing in the states that restrict

the free movement of food grains. Such regula-tions often lead to 'artificial shortages' of com-

modities even when the overall production has

been regular or near regu-

lar.

Wastage: Lack of access

to markets, even the

nearby urban market,

most of the times leads to

storage of food grains onthe open farms or im-

proper storages. At this

point food grains are

more vulnerable to rodents, insects or natural

decay.As per the budget speech, about 40% of

farm produce is wasted like this every year for

want of storage, transportation, cold chain and

other infrastructure facilities.

Lack of proper Distribution:India lacks a goodworking PDS to provide cross subsidies


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Page 11

Food Inflation

Page 11

to the poor across the country. Even normal mar-

kets have multiple intermediaries creating barriersin market integration. Hefty commission to the

middlemen and hoarding incidents leads to in-

creases in price to the consumer.

Rise in fuel costs: Fuel is used by farmers for irri-

gation and also for transportation of food. Global

rise in fuel prices result in spurt in food prices too.

Solutions to the problem:

Any corrective action is to be taken considering theuniqueness of India; large population with diverse

needs, poor PDS, prevalent corruption and growing

disparities between rich and poor. Temporary or

isolated problems like rise in price of only one

food grain can be dealt with various short term

measures like regulating the import- export of that

commodity or releasing reserved stock. Like the

sudden, last years Onion price hike was tackled

with import of Onion and curb on hoarding stocks.

Long lasting, long term measures:

If we look into the issue with the concepts of sup-

ply chain management, problems are with all com-

ponents of the value chain right from supply, stor-

age, distribution, demand nodes to the policies and

laws governing it, leaving the consumers high and

dry.

So a holistic approach to the issue is essential.

Production: A boost was given to the agricultural

sector in the recent budget in form of more farm

credit at subsidised rates, removal of production

and distribution bottlenecks in food items, and a

second green revolution in the east. The govern-

ment has raised the target of credit flow to farmers

to Rs.4.75 lakh crore in fiscal 2011-12. Short term

crop loans, high farm output and better marketing

system are focus areas of government.

Storage: Union Budget to provide infrastructure

status to cold-storage and post-harvest facilities

will spur investment in this sector and help reduce

losses during storage.

Transportation: The losses can also be reduced by

all weather roads and vehicles with cold storage

facilities.

Distribution: To reduce wastage of farm produce,

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has declared

to set up 15 more mega food parks in the country

during 2011-12 and asked states to reform the Ag-

riculture Produce Marketing Act (APMC) urgently

to improve the supply chain.

Private and cooperative sectors are encouraged to

invest and develop appropriate market mechanisms

and supply chains. Business Models like ITC e-

Choupal, Reliance fresh that are helping farmers

and consumers, should be encouraged.

Demand: People should be made more concerned

about proper usage of food and various Stop Food

Wastage initiatives must be encouraged.

People, central & state governments and business

community must be integrated to ensure that all

bottlenecks in the supply chain are removed.

CONCLUSIONTackling food inflation is the

key priority of the Government and policy makers

as it impacts the weaker sections of the society.

The issue should be tackled by addressing supply

side risks through economic and policy-oriented

actions. Only an integrated approach would ensure

long term food security and thus, a much lower

rate of food inflation.

- Vivek Verma & Paresh Kulkarni

DoMS, IIT Roorkee

[email protected]

[email protected]


12/25

Page 12

Electronics IndustryA Sneak Peek

Page 12

Now that Im being

trained in one of the

leading consumer

electronics company

of India, it intrigued

me to know and un-

derstand how the Electronics Industry as a whole

is doing over a period of time. This minuscule

composition is full of interesting facts and figures

(pertaining to the Indian context), that Ive accu-

mulated in this process from the worldwide web.

Ive tried to understand the trend of this thriving

industry and have concluded with my perspective.

In the year 2010-11, the performance of Electron-

ics & IT-ITeS industry was marked by sustained

recovery and revival in momentum of the growth.

The total production of Electronics & IT-ITeS

Industry is estimated to grow at 13.1 per cent in

2010-11 as against 11.6 per cent in 2009-10, out

of which the dominating contributor is Software

& Service Industry (which mainly drives on ex-

ports). However one can notice (in the chart be-

low) that during the economic slowdown during

2009-10 the IT Industry growth has changed its

speed to lower gears while the Electronics Indus-

try continued to accelerate without any hassles.


13/25

Page 13


Page 13

The electronics Industry can be majorly classified

into six segments Consumer Electronics, Com-

munication & Broadcast Equipment, Industrial

Electronics, Computer Hardware, Strategic Elec-

tronics and Components. In the graph above, it can

be observed that the highest growth is recorded by

Consumer Electronics and Communication &

Broadcast Equipment. While others categories are

also growing, they are not moving with the pace

the first two are traversing.

Consumer Electronics

Consumer electronics is one

of the largest segments in the

electronics hardware sector in

India. Given the confluence of

information, communication and entertainment,

there has been new momentum in the consumer

electronics industry in India. Changing lifestyles,

higher disposable income and greater affordability

is fueling the growth in this segment. Products and

devices that come with smart technology, innova-

tive designs and aesthetic looks are gaining prefer-ence, of which the premium products, particularly

in the metros and tier 1 cities are the prime con-

stituents responsible for growth.

Color television is the largest contributor in

this segment with its market size in 2010-11

expected to be at 16.1 mn units (5.5% growth

over previous year)

LCD TV sales are increased from 1.5mn units

in 2009-10 to 2.8mn units in 2010-11. The rea-

son being declining prices and increased pene-

tration levels.

CRT TV segment on the other hand is stagnant

around 13.3 million units.

The DVD player market decline from 6.20 mn

units in 2009-10 to 5.40 mn units in 2010-11,

on an account of rapid growth and popularity

of the DTH.

Home Theatre segment grows 25% from 0.24

mn units in 2009-10 to 0.30 mn units in 2010-

11.

Microwave oven production is estimated to

grow by 21.6 per cent to reach Rs.930 Crore in

2010-11 as against a growth of 7.9 per cent in

2009-10.

Domestic production of Public Address (PA)

system is estimated to remain flat at 10 per

cent in 2010-11 over a base of Rs.410 Crore in

2009-10.

Industrial Electronics

This includes critical hard-

ware technologies and sys-

tems with built-in software.

It is a very challenging area,

multi-disciplinary in nature, requires high level of

technical skill to design systems for applications in

a variety of industrial sectors of the economy.

Though we have a considerable expertise in con-


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Page 14


Page 14

conceptualizing such systems and its implementa-

tion and undertaking, the sector is largely depend-

ent on critical hardware and associated software

imports. It has been a practice that large projects

are implemented with total import of packages

from abroad without any knowledge of its design

leading to higher initial cost and a much higher

maintenance cost in the long run.

The important devices used in this segment relate

to power electronics, medical electronics and other

intermediates like semiconductor. Semiconductors

are integral part of most medical equipments, start-

ing from high end imaging to small hand held de-

vices. The estimated production figure for this seg-

ment for 2010-11 is Rs.18190 crore as against

Rs.15160 crore in 2009-10, a growth of about 20

%.

Computer Hardware

India is one of the fastest-

growing IT systems and

hardware market in the

Asia-Pacific region.

Most of the prominent

global and some local vendors have strong pres-

ence in the Indian market. Most MNCs have their

assembly units in India. BFSI (Banking, Financial

Services and Insurance), telecom, ITeS

(Information Technology enabled Services), manu-

facturing verticals, Small & Medium Enterprises

(SMEs), e-Governance and households are the key

drivers of the IT systems and hardware market in

India. With significant IT adoption plans to be car-

ried out, the IT systems and hardware market is

expected to expand rapidly in the coming years.

PC sales are expected to record a growth of 12

per cent in 2010-11 to touch 9.7 million.

Notebook sales are estimated to grow by 40%

from 3.5 million in 2010-11 to 2.5 million in

2009-10, indicating that the laptop computers

have caught the fancy of the consumers.

Desktop sales are expected to reach 6.2 million

in 2010-11 against 5.5 million in 2009-10, a

growth of 12.7 per cent.

Sales of servers posted a growth of 41 per cent

during second quarter 2010-11 on account of

the easing of the Economic slowdown. Estab-

lishments which had been postponing their ma-

jor IT purchases in last few quarters are now

ready to invest in IT, which could be the major

reason for the growth in the server sales. The

Server market is expected to register positive

growth in the future as the Server market ex-

pands to smaller cities (whose growth islargely fuelled by the larger organizations

strengthening their base here on account of

cost advantages) and Small and Medium Busi-

nesses (the growth of these is propelled by the

adoption of non-traditional businesses like edu-

cation, retail, healthcare & hospitality).

Domestic production is estimated to remain flat

in 2010-11 at Rs.14970 crore because of decel-


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Page 15


Page 15

-erating growth in exports and substitution of do-

mestic production by cheaper imports and rising

input cost.

Communication and Broadcasting Equipments

As on December 2010,

India is third largest in the world in terms

of gross telephone subscribers (787.28 mn

by Dec 2010, of which 752.19 mn are wire-

less and 35.09 are wireline), and second

largest in Asia.

The overall Tele-density in India reached

66.16 per cent in with overall urban and

rural tele-densities being 147.88 and 31.18

respectively.

The total broadband (256 kbps download)

subscriber base of India is 10.92 million.

The FM radio policy has been well received

and there are a total of 248 channels operated

by 42 operators in 84 cities at the end of Sep-

tember, 2010.

Besides the free DTH service of Doordarshan,

there are 6 private DTH licensees, offering

their services to the DTH subscribers. As on

30.9.2010, their reported subscriber base is

26.44 million. It is set to overtake the US as the

largest DTH market in the world by 2012, an-

ticipating an addition of 10-12 million sub-

scribers every year. The growth is from both

the urban area (where subscribers are moving

away from cable) and rural area (where cable

has not reached).

Local manufacturing of DTH Set-Top Box has

now commenced and is meeting about 25 per

cent of the total requirement of the DTH indus-

try. Number of Set Top Boxes (STBs) installed

in CAS notified areas of Delhi, Mumbai, Kol-

kata and Chennai increased from 770,519 in

June-2010 to 775,876 in September-2010.

Strategic Electronics

This encompasses satellite

based communication, naviga-

tion and surveillance system,

radars, navigational aids, so-

nar, underwater electronic sys-

tem, infra-red based detectionand ranging system, disaster management system,

internal security system, etc. The Indian strategic

electronic industry has been able to meet the bulk

of the requirements of Indias defense and para-

military forces. Indias defense, aerospace and nu-

clear sectors are poised for substantial growth on

the back of economic growth and the need to

maintain national and energy security. The role of

IT in defense is expanding with the new focus on

cyber security, thereby indirect increase in com-

puter hardware requirement.

India is expected to be one of the top-5 markets for

defense equipment by 2015. Similarly, economic

growth and a focus by commercial aircraft manu-facturers on low-cost countries are expected to cre-


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Page 16

-ate growth in the aerospace market in emerging

markets in general and India in particular. The

civilian nuclear agreement between the US and

India will enable commerce and cooperation, in

particular allowing India to collaborate with

global companies on nuclear projects. India has

an opportunity to play an important role in this

global phenomenon. The estimated production

figure for this segment for 2010-11 is Rs.7680

crore as against Rs.6980 crore in 2009-10, a

growth of about 10%.

Electronic Components

The electronic compo-

nent segment caters to

the consumer electron-

ics, telecom, defense and

IT verticals. The growth in these segments is key

determinant for the growth of electronic compo-

nents. The key constituents include semiconductor,

capacitors, and resistors, picture tubes, X-ray tubes

and cathode ray tubes. Its production for the year

2010-11 is estimated to be around Rs.14970 crore

as against Rs.13610 Crore in 2009-10, registering

a growth of about 10%. The emergence in this pie

of electronics industry has been driven by increase

in domestic consumption of IT products, e-

Governance initiatives of the GoI, and rise of

semiconductors (solar photovoltaic, optical LEDs,

displays, display panels, storage devices and ad-

vanced micro and nanotechnology products).

The reason behind

It will highly interest everyone, and Im no excep-

tion, as to why the total Electronics Industry led

by steep incline in demand and production of Con-

sumer Electronics and Communication & Broad-

cast Equipment was least fumbled during eco-

nomic slowdown when even the closely associated

IT and ITeS industries, let alone others, took a no-

table hit.

No matter which part of the globe it was, in the

tougher times the electronics industry, though

might not have been at its full potential, has been

above par compared with the other counterparts,

one of the biggest reasons is that consumer elec-

tronics (CE) has started becoming a necessity,

and less thought of as a luxury these days, and

CE is an area where consistent and continuous in-

novation in technology and products is ingrained,

which has been fruitful and making life even eas-

ier. Also the slowdown time was when the prices

of the electronic products were relatively lower

and the obvious trend would solely be that more

technology and features come with lesser prices in

the future. The only thing that changed with con-

sumers during low economic activity was that

unlike other areas viz. real estate, automobiles

etc, they were spending their money on CE, but

in a cautious manner, and were looking for

more value in any product they might like to

purchase. The CE companies had no problem


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Page 17

coming up with products that had higher customer

perceived value and innovative features, because

of which there has been a consistent incline in the

demand and production of CE in India. Though the

customers might not want to go with the premium

products during the downturn, they were certainly

not backing up from buying any product that they

deem as relevant and necessary. With the advent of

internet revolution and ingress of large number of

companies into the tele-services and broadcasting

segments the demand for mobile phones, smart

phones, mobile devices, mobile computing de-

vices, high definition television sets, DTH set top

boxes, DVD/Blu-Ray players, and other wireless

devices has only been escalating.

With respect to the other consumer electronics like

washing machines, microwaves, home theater seg-

ments, portable music players, the increased mar-

ket for these devices can be accounted to the

changing life styles and preferences

of the consumers. Urban and semi-

urban citizens are into this mode of

lifestyle where they hardly have

enough time to do daily chores like

washing, cleaning and cooking

which have been made easier with devices smart

washing machines, microwave ovens, dishwashers

etc. Also, they have been growing conscious of

appealing and thrilling TV viewing and music lis-

tening experiences, which is why the demand for

the entertainment segment devices like home thea-

ters, portable music players (to relax when stressed

out or to use while traveling or exercising).

There is another, important, reason why the indus-

try is able to bloom in the country. It is because of

the measures that the Government of India

(GoI) has been taking to promote this thrust

area, which is increasingly finding its applications

in all sectors of the economy and thus is accepted

as a prime facilitator in development. Given the

telling growth of economy (one of the fastest

growing economies in the world), steady rise in

disposable income of the people and inclination of

the young generation towards technology, the con-

sumption of electronic appliances and gadgets in

the country is acquiring pace making India one of

the fastest growing electronics hardware markets,

here the domestic demand of electronics hardware

is estimated at US$ 400 billion by 2020. Hence

India has a huge opportunity at

hand to turn itself into an electron-

ics hardware manufacturing hub to

meet its domestic requirements as

well as the global requirements,

which is the reason why the Gov-

ernment of India (GoI) has accorded high priority

to this sector. The promotional steps that GoI has

been taking include Special Incentive Package

Scheme to create a conducive environment for

manufacture of high technology capital intensive


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Page 18

semiconductors and other high tech products, and

to attract global investments and bridge the viabil-

ity gap due to lack of adequate infrastructure and

ecosystem, Export Promotion of Capital Goods

Scheme imposition of relatively very low cus-

toms duty on import of capital goods with certain

export obligations, setting up Special Economic

Zones (SEZs) to enable hassle free manufacturing

for export purposes,Relaxing Excise and Custom

duties significantly on component parts and raw

materials to a large extent to promote indigenous

production.

With 1/6thof the worlds population in India, more

liberal policies of GoI which are tending to pro-

mote any business in India, tremendous advances

in the technology, reduction in the prices of com-

ponents, enormous technical workforce, additional

support schemes from the Government (like ones

mentioned above), foray of more players into this

industry and their attempts to penetrate deeper into

unexplored areas of the market, competition near-

ing the perfect situation, I can only foresee a huge

unrealized potential in the Electronics Industry

where, I believe, all this is just the beginning!

- L Nikhil Reddy

DoMS, IIT Roorkee

[email protected]


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Page 19

Our Withering unstable life

Page 19

Closer to death we are with every passing day,Just like the distance falling between us now,Even as I am gazing,for she is falling now...

And I decided to break the silence between us...

How tough was the Sun's ogling in summer?No repartee...

Or was the numbness hard in winter?I continued..How strong were the wind trying to sequester you?Or burdensome was it when the rain drops sat on u?

And all (these) times you subsist only to fallOn a overcast day when in its shelter

Hides the cruel sun,while the wind rests on the clouds?Deign to answer,wont ye?ye sweet,peaceful leaves(souls)....

-Alex

DoMS, IIT Roorkee

[email protected]


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Page 20

Qutopia 17

Its Exquizite, Kills your Quriosity and adds to your Quizdom. Need we say more?Qutopia A Utopia of the best Biz Quiz Tidbits to wreck your brains! Rush in your an-

swers [email protected], [email protected] 30th June,

2011. The winner will have their names published in the next issue. Also, person getting the

highest score in the current quarter (AprilJune 2011) will get a gift voucher. Answers in

the next issue ofDoMination.

2. Under this kind of banking for mortgages, instead of loaning the buyer money to purchase,the bank buys the item itself from the seller & re-sell it to the buyer at a profit but no explict

interest is levied. What is this type of banking that is gaining ground with its strict provision

for collateral especially after the global financial crisis of 2008-09?

3. This is the longest running ad campaign in the world starting in 1966 and still counting.

Which campaign are we talking about?

4. "Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful". These are the lines

form the legend of our times. Name the person & the conglomerate he heads?

5. In a deal worth $8.5 million early this year, facebook bought this domain name from Farm

Bureau of America? What is the domain-name that facebook bought from the Farm Bureau?

6. Shubash Chandra bose was brother of his maternal uncle, he is now the Finance Minister ofWest Bengal ? Name this former Secretary General of FICCI.

Section A

(1 Point for each correct answer)

1. Identify this luxury hotel located in Dubai.
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Page 21

Qutopia 17

Page 21

2. Which is the largest mobile operator in the world by subscriber base?

3. As the new government takes charge of the state of West Bengal, it inherits an empty coffers. What per-

cent of total states revenue receipts is spent on committed expenditure like interest payments, salaries

& subsidies?

4. This is the book first published in 1989 which defines the life & times of a typical Wall Street trader in

the 1980s. The name of the book is derived from a gambling game popular with traders at Wall Street

in 1980s. Name the book & its author.

Section B

(2 Points for each correct answer)

1. He has been appointed as president of Confederation

of Indian Industry (CII) in April 2011. Identify this for-

mer Managing Director of Tata Steel.

Answers to Qutopia 16

Section A:

1. Larry Page, CEO & Co-founder, Google Inc.

2. Moody's Credit Rating Agency

3. Consistency, the fourth Dimension of Product Mix

4. Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC)

5. T.V. Mohandas Pai

6. Kisan Baburao Hazare popularly known as "Anna Hazare"

Section B:

1. Nathula Pass on the Indo-China border in Sikkim

2. Increase in Reserves as "Share premium" which is the difference between the listing price (Capital Raised) & the

face value of the share (increase in Paid up Capital)

3. Malcom Baldrige Model for Business Excellence

4. Global sourcing strategy

Winner:

Udit Gupta (DoMS, IIT Roorkee: 20102012 Batch)

Manoj Gurramkonda (DoMS, IIT Roorkee: 20102012 Batch)

- Rajneesh Kumar

DoMS, IIT Roorkee

[email protected]


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Page 22

DoMS-da-Evince

Page 22

Welcome to our new section DoMS-da-Evince.

This time we bring forth excerpts from the interview ofApar Bansal who is a

dynamic and vibrant professional with over 6 years of vast expertise in the ar-

eas of Sales and Marketing in Automobile Industry. He is a management

graduate in the field of marketing and finance from DoMS, IIT Roorkee and a

mechanical engineer from Punjab Technical University. He has worked with

Eicher Motor Ltd and is presently associated with Diamler Benz.

1. What are the common challenges faced in

the sales and marketing field of Automo-

biles sector?

Sales and Marketing are two different

fields which we often use interchangeably in

our day-to-day life. Sales in the automobile

sector is more of channel management and

people management. It involves a lot of chal-

lenges, especially, for a fresh MBA pass-

out ,who has to deal with dealers who have

been in the field for the last 10-20 odd years

and have fixed mind-sets. Similarly, one

needs to manage people who are much older

than you in age as well as in experience.

These kinds of challenges are very tricky in

nature as it involves a lot of patience. Most of

us generally aspire to end up doing strategy,

branding or real marketing jobs after our

MBA instead of sales. Even if we land up

with a Marketing job, we can consider our-

selves really lucky if we get to do things other

than giving power-point presentations, as

Marketing without field-knowledge is like a

pilot without flying experience and your planeis bound to crash in such a situation . To be-

come successful in marketing, especially, in

the automobile sector, one needs to spend at

least 3-4 years in the sales function to learn

the basics of actually selling the product.

Automobile Sector is very different from

other sectors as it involves a product which

costs a lot of money and people need to take

more rational rather than emotional decisions.

It is imperative to know why your customer

buys a product or a brand rather than going by

the USPs you offer and try to force them on

your customer. Unless your offering strikes

the right chord with the customer, the product

will never sell.

2. How was the experience while working

with Eicher Motors Ltd?

Working with Eicher Motors Limited, my

campus placement assignment, was one of the

best things that had happened to me. Right

from day 1, I was sent to manage one of the

biggest dealerships in India, for the company

in Mumbai. The first assignment was the most

critical one as I had to conduct demonstrations

of 3 trucks in the entire city taking them to

each and every truck stand (110 nos) and


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DoMS-da-Evince

Page 23

show the customers the new trucks we hadlaunched. Although, it being your first assign-

ment, you would hate to travel in a truck for 10

days, it actually helped me to get closer to both

-the customer and my dealership sales team.

The company provided me ample opportunity

for learning about the product, company, in-

dustry and customer. During the 4.5 years with

the company, I emerged as being one of the

top performers from my batch of 21 MBAs

who joined Eicher Motors in 2004 from pre-

mier institutions across India. I had spent 3.5

years in Sales and 1 year in Marketing in the

company.

3. How did the roles and responsibilities

change in your 4 years long association with

Eicher Motors Ltd?

I had started off with my first assignment as

Asst. Manager (Channel Sales Manager) for

Mumbai location for Light Duty Trucks manag-

ing two dealerships for the company and was

responsible for their sales. Having spent a year,

I was moved to the Head-Quarters in Indore in

Product Management for Heavy Duty Trucksand was responsible for all branding and pro-

motional activities for the product range. This is

where I felt handicapped of not working ade-

quately in the field and not having the knowl-

edge required to be in that function. The next

year, I was transferred back to sales in Delhi as

Dy. Manager (Channel Management) for Light

Duty Trucks looking after one of the biggestmarkets in India for trucks and managing three

dealerships. After successfully managing Delhimarket, I was promoted as Area Manager for

Light Duty Trucks for Delhi and Haryana. I was

provided with a team of 5 persons and was re-

sponsible for both sales and after sales. During

my last assignment with Eicher Motors (Volvo-

Eicher Commercial Vehicles, post JV with

Volvo AB), I was handling Heavy Duty Truck

sales for Delhi & Haryana, with a team of 7

people as Regional Sales Manager. Summariz-

ing my assignments, I rose from being a Chan-

nel Manager in 2004 to RSM in 2008 with more

and more responsibilities as I moved up the lad-

der . One thing I imbibed, was the immense

knowledge about various markets, customers,

products and departments within the company.

4. How different is it to work for Daimler?

Daimler AG is a German company which is one

of the largest automobile companies in the

world having distinction of inventing the auto-

mobile, 125 years back. We are the leading

truck and bus manufacturer in the world

(Mercedes-Benz, Freightliner, Western Star,

Mitsubishi Fuso and BharatBenz) and the sec-ond largest premium car maker with brands

such as Mercedes-Benz, Mayback and smart.

Working in an MNC is different from working

in an Indian company as they have different

values and mind-sets and a totally different

style of functioning. The nature of work at

Daimler AG has been very demanding and goal

-oriented as we set off from setting up a newplant which is in the construction phase right


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DoMS-da-Evince

Page 24

now. The challenges and opportunities are dif-

ferent in the two cases. Here we have to estab-

lish everything from scratch whereas in Eicher

most of the things were well set.

5. What are your current responsibilities with

Daimler?

I am currently designated as Senior Manager(Market & Economic Intelligence India) for

Daimler India Commercial Vehicles Pvt. Ltd.

(Indian venture of Daimler AG) handling the

responsibility of monitoring and forecasting In-

dian Economy, Automobile Industry and Truck

Industry. The role also demands setting up busi-

ness plan volumes and market share for the

company and tracking and forecasting influen-

cers that impact our business plan.

6. How has DoMS contributed to your suc-

cess?

DoMS had laid the foundation of my career as it

had helped me to shape myself and align my

thought process to the realities of the world. In a

way, the two years spent at DoMS, helped me to

analyse the entire problem and then arrive at so-

lutions rather than jumping to solutions and pro-

posing them to the management. Also, I would

like to mention here that the more you struggle

in your initial days, the better results you get

later in your life.

7. What has been the most challenging role in

your career so far?

The most challenging assignment I have handled

in my career has been the forecasting of truckindustry and economy way back in Oct 2008 for

Daimler AG, when the economy was nearing to

hit the slowdown. The thing thst saw me sail

through was the grounds-up approach and bot-

tom-up thinking which helped me convince the

management on the upcoming slowdown and

the ways to counter-balance it.

8. Any message for the readers, especially the

current batch?

I want to say that the mark you make in the industry

depends on the hard work and capabilities of the

individual. Though you might think money matters

but its the domain knowledge which helps you

grow in the industry. So keep your focus on learn-ing. Plan out everything before-hand, introspect as

to where do you see yourself 10 years down the line

and then work to achieve it. Remember there are no

shortcuts in life. All the Best!!


25/25

The Team

Shruti Goel

Anuj Mody

Chetna Yadav

Anirudh De

Deep PathakHarsh Singh

Mukesh Rathi

Pallavi

Rajneesh Kumar

Rishi Arora

Rohini Sharma

Udit Gupta

Sudeep Dakua

Domination June 2011

Documents

Transcript of Domination June 2011