Planning

Until about 1.5 years back, Investment banker was one of the hottest and wealthiest job anyone could ever have. It was the ‘Angelina Jolie’ of all campus placements. But today, if there is one profession you want to bash and kick at and get an applaud – just lash out at any top executive employed with one of the global financial institutes or banks. continue

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Every year a lot of people graduate from business schools and join marketing! Throughout business school a word taught in all marketing courses is ‘Brand‘. To be brutally honest one of the main reasons to go to a business school is The Brand! but lets try and have a better look at the origination of brands and its current use. continue

3 Idiots is an amazing movie! It hits the right chords in comedy, philosophy, romance and everything else that any bollywood movie can touch. Till now everyone whom I have asked has given only positive feedback about it. Amir Khan has given an amazing performance and the movie has done very well at the box office as well. The message of the movie is also very clear, follow your heart when picking your profession, and not necessarily the safe professions like Engineering / Medicine in India. A very good concept indeed. continue

This is an article by our guest strater – Sasmita Patnaik – a student from XIM , Bhubaneshwar. We thank her for her thoughts and hope she would continue writing on strat.in!

Today we often talk of concepts like Globalization and World Economy. While we reinforce these ideas again and again, what we tend to ignore is the reach and impact of these concepts. Do we ever think of what these mean to a man in a village in rural India where more than half of Indian population lives or to an illiterate housewife. They say India engulfs an America and an Africa in her. On one hand while Delhi is looking forward to launch the Common wealth games hoping it would bring great publicity, exposure and opportunity to the nation, there is another part of India that is struggling to locate itself even on local maps of District Authorities. The question here is not if we should stop focusing on events like the Commonwealth Games and Olympics that India aspires to host in 2020 but if the focus is balanced. As much as we need to work at increasing opportunities, it is equally important to ensure that these opportunities created are accessible to all sections. Can we look at alternative modes of passing on the benefits of the Globalization to the ones who are indirectly an integral part of world economy? No one may recognize the individual farmer who cultivates crops, but he definitely is a part of our nation’s export economy. Recently the finance minister of our country came up with this idea o having cluster meetings with banks once in 3 months instead of annual meetings. This was done to ensure that smaller banks have a say in the meetings and are able to express their opinions more openly. If the government is looking at making the meetings more Participative, why can’t we come up with similar models of ensuring participation at grass roots. We have tried to integrate villages with nearby town economies. Why not look at a village – village integration, where the villages are interdependent for raw materials or markets. There are several small villages which cannot become self sustainable unless they are provided with adequate infrastructure and employment opportunities. It becomes too expensive for the government to develop infrastructure for smaller villages and settlements. So, the government could look at integrating smaller villages with larger ones and bring in cost effectiveness. continue

As some of my batch mates went from IITs to MITs and other US Universities around the world, the number of publications in their resumes started to increase at an exponential speed. To me this phenomenon really did not make a lot of sense as how can a student or his research change within a couple of months to take their number of publications from non-existent (in IIT years) to innumerable (in US Universities). The simple answer I got from my friends was funding and resources available. Ofcourse IITs being one of the best institutes in the world in terms of students still lack the resources for producing world class research. continue

A mobile phone has become as ubiquitous as a wrist watch these days; one rarely leaves home without it. However, if asked about the economic benefits of having a mobile phone, most of us wouldn’t look beyond that important conference call we were able to attend while in the car or being able to access voicemail anywhere, anytime. Mobile telephony can have very real economic consequences, above and beyond the value proposition that is offered to the average urban citizen. According to UNCTAD, the growth of mobile teledensity has been shown to have a direct correlation with the growth of GDP per capita in developing countries, which tend to have overwhelmingly high percentages of rural populations. continue

Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) are a brand known all over the world in technology, and Indian Institute of Management (IIMs) have also made their mark in the world in terms of management. The premier institutes of India are known for selecting the best of the best, or the cream of the country as some people call it and make this cream even better. Well I really don’t think I need to write more about IITs and IIMs, as the identity is well established. But the question right now in front of us is the dilemma of Central Government opening 7 more IITs and 7 more IIMs. I will try and present some points around the topic and hope for a nice discussion in the comments. continue

Knowledge and Growth

Are these the best of times or the worst? Does the rise in the Sensex recently tell us that we are getting out of the depression or should the drought like situation tell us that we are getting into a worse one? Paradoxically – given the fact that almost 400 Mn people live on less than Rs. 50 a day, while another 250 Mn odd are over Rs. 200 a day – they have different perspectives. The top layer thinks about the sensex, the bottom about the drought. Dangerous situation to be in, where the wheels are turning inherently against each other. So what makes us believe that “India is on a growth path”? The media? Yes. Your friend the broker? Yes. The fact that more housing projects are still coming up? Maybe. The fact that India is held together by a glue that has been written about, experimented on and continues to lubricate the engine – the 500 Mn strong Great Indian Middle class. Definitely! continue

Kaminey was definitely the most awaited movie of 2009 so far. The hype it had created was huge! The song Dhan Te Nan was already a rage all over India and it starred last year’s Best Actress – Priyanka Chopra. The marketing team of the film hadn’t put a foot wrong until disaster struck. The article tries to dissect all visible elements of the marketing rollout for Kaminey and how they reacted to the swine flu disaster . continue

When iPhone 3GS was released in the UK and US a few months ago, the sales went soaring. The number of phone connections spurred! I was also one of those people who were able to get their hands on one and I am really quite happy about it. But lets consider in India, will anyone be able to buy such a device? A device worth Rs 35,000! continue