BOTTLED WATER- A few decades ago, if someone told you that you would have to pay to drink a bottle of water you would have thought he was out of his mind. So, the inventive idea of bottling purified water and selling it was indeed both bold and beautiful. Want to know who did it first? Mineral water from San Pellegrino in Italy has been drawn, produced and sold since 1395 (Believe it!). Five centuries later, a French doctor began the Perrier company in 1898, and the water used in the bottles was pulled from a Roman spa.

At first, these companies sold their water in glass bottles. Although a certain form of plastic was invented by Leonardo DaVinci during the Renaissance, plastic did not become widely used commercially for water until the mid-20th century. This was due to the high cost of manufacturing the material. In India, its advent was initiated by Bisleri (Italian origin) in the year 1965.In 1969, it was bought over by Parle. Bottled water is currently a Billion Dollar industry in India. Don’t be surprised if it becomes the next Oil industry by 2050.

POST-IT NOTE- You must be thinking why such a trivial tool like this is there in the list? The reason will astound you to the core. Post-it Notes was a genius business idea generated out of a failed engineering experiment conducted by Dr.Spencer Silver – a 3M scientist. He said in one of his interviews that like many ground-breaking innovations, this was a product nobody thought they needed until they actually used it. The story goes like this:

Dr.Spencer was researching on developing strong and tough adhesives. During the process, he discovered something peculiar: an adhesive that stuck lightly to surfaces but didn’t bond tightly to them. Initially, he didn’t find a way how to make use of this invention. Then one day his Eureka Moment happened. He decided to distribute yellow-papered notes based on this adhesive to the entire company. And the employees simply loved them. ‘Post-it’ Brand and its 4000 products are now used in more than 150 countries and Dr.Spencer has 22 US patents in his name. Need I say more?

SEARCH ENGINE- The world’s first search engine was created as a school project by a computer science student Alan Emtage. In the year 1990, Alan developed Archie (Archive without the ‘V’) at McGill University, Montreal. In spite of being a groundbreaking technology , the immense business potential it encompassed was still untapped. Until the year 1994 when the legendary giant “Yahoo!” arrived. Yahoo! made money every time a user clicked on one of the ads in its search results. This avant-garde technique was known as pay-per-click advertising.

In 1998, Larry Page and Sergey Bin launched ‘Google’. They created a revolutionary  algorithm called Page Rank, which was based on relevancy rankings. But at that time, Google was a relatively unknown player in the industry. Later on, in the year 2000, Yahoo! partnered with Google to power their organic search results. Ironically, the end result was that Yahoo! inadvertently introduced its biggest competitor which ultimately made Google into a household name. Then, in the year 2003, Google acquired blogger.com and launched Ad Sense which marked the beginning of the present-day blogging revolution. The sponsored link that you see when you search for a related phrase is a system devised by Google called Ad Words, which assists those who need to market their products or services through the ubiquitous Google search engine.

E-COMMERCE- As you all know Electronic Commerce is the process of trading across the Internet and includes Online Shopping/Trading, Mobile Commerce, Internet Marketing, Internet Banking etc. The origin of E-Commerce dates back to the year 1971 when the U.S. Department of Defense developed ARPANET (predecessor of the Internet we presently use). Subsequently, in the 1970s, it was used by academics for sharing research material. Then in the year 1989, when Tim Berners Lee (A scientist at CERN- A Swiss-based research organization) proposed the World Wide Web (WWW), the use of E-Commerce became widespread and grew at an exponential rate. Then in the early 90s, with the advent of Microsoft Windows based affordable Personal Computers and easy access to the Internet further surged up its usage for the common man.

However, it was until 1994 when Marc Andersen invented Netscape Navigator, which quickly became the world’s most popular web browser. In 1995, Microsoft responded with the widely-used Internet Explorer, which led to a further surge in Online Shopping. As a result, in July’95 Jeff Bezos sold the first ever book from his garage on Amazon.com. Within 30 days, Amazon was selling books all over the U.S and 45 more countries.

 

Soon after, in 1995, a software programmer Pierre Omidyar sold a broken laser pointer to a willing buyer based on a bidding system. Thus, the online auction and shopping giant  ‘eBay’ was created! Bezos and Pierre are the undisputed founding fathers of E-Commerce and eventually paved the way for today’s e-commerce merchants. They absolutely changed the way consumers all over the world make their purchases today.

In India, though Rediff.com introduced the concept in 1999, it was deep discount model of Flipkart.com, which actually changed the face of online shopping in 2007.

IPHONE- Graham Bell made the first telephone call in the year 1878. Motorola introduced the world’s first cellular phone namely DynaTAC 8000x in 1984. And just when people thought that telephones have come a long way, IBM launched the world’s first Smart-phone in 1994 under the name ‘Simon Personal Communicator’. It was a touch-screen phone which was able to send & receive faxes and Emails. It offered useful apps like World Clock, Alarm, Address Book, Calendar, Calculator, Notepad etc. Interestingly though, these were not called “Apps” back then. They were referred to as “Features”. Sadly, the ingenious ‘Simon’ lived fast and died young.

At the beginning of year 2007, Nokia was the top-selling mobile company in the world. Android phones didn’t exist and high-ranking executives were addicted to their Blackberries. On the 9^th day of January 2007, Steve Job’s Apple absolutely reinvented the smart-phone market when it introduced iPhone to the world. It was marketed as a wide-screen iPod, a revolutionary mobile phone and a breakthrough internet communicator all rolled into one magical gadget. It brought ‘touch-computing’ into mainstream acceptance and use. The iPhone, like the Macintosh and the iPod truly redefined the market. A whopping 1.4 million iPhones were sold within 3 months of its launch.By 2013, Apple had sold more than 150 million iPhones worldwide and generated over $90 billion in sales. It was the greatest business and technological innovation of the decade and is considered as an important milestone in the history of modern computing.

Some more path-breaking business ideas worthy of mention: Recycling Industry Business, Interest on Money, Franchise business model, Credit Card, Fitness Industry and Multi-Level Marketing.

Contributed By : Pranshu Awasthi (Class of 2007, IBS Gurgaon).

With a vitriolic campaign, involving bitter attacks from all the parties concerned and a long recession, the General Elections of May 2014 were a watershed in in Indian politics. After more than a decade of political uncertainty and coalition politics, the Indian voter had appeared to give a single majority to a single party based on the promises and plans detailed by a single candidate.

The elections ended the policy stalemate of at least two financial years which had cost the economy tremendously in terms of delayed and cancelled projects increasing the cost of doing business and making a negative impact by bringing all the inherent fault lines to the fore in all the key and critical areas of the economy like infrastructure, transport and most importantly banking.

The new government headed by Mr Modi has either announced or put in place a slew of measures and policy reviews which will have important and long lasting ramifications on the students entering or undergoing the MBA programme.

With the basic premise of the new government and the new ‘regime’ being minimum government, there are very few cabinet ministers and in most cases, it is a Minister of State (MoS) who is carrying on important activities such as Human Resources Department and Education.

Several new initiatives have been announced by the government, and all these call for greater, wider and more in depth participation by all companies operating out of India.

This greater participation not only calls for all companies both domestic and foreign to not only increase their investment in India, but also abroad.

The government has also consistently nudged the corporates including even the state run banks to carry out their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities to further the cause of government welfare programs and schemes. Case in point— the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana which is scheduled to have a ripple effect on banking which will last in the years to come.

Starting with the mere opening of accounts, this scheme has now diversified to include the beneficiaries in enrolling themselves for both life and accidental insurance. Steps have been taken for a pension scheme as well to improve the social safety net for all Indians.

The incremental jobs created in the entire gamut of the financial sector-comprising the Banking, Financial, Services and Insurance industries is something all MBA aspirants and students must watch out for.

Both the first and the second budgets presented by the Finance Minister, while being criticized for not taking the big and bold steps the government should have taken, are taking the country and its all-important finances in a new area.

Steps being taken to make the Indian Railways more viable will free up more resources for the government budget deficit and improve fund allocation to other fund starved sectors such as renewable energy, inland waterway transportation, and dedicated freight corridors.

MBA aspirants and students interested in the fields of operations research and warehousing will find an immense demand for their skills.

The huge push in policy making towards the defense production sector has already seen many domestic companies such as Bharat Forge, Mahindra, and the Tatas taking the first steps towards indigenous production of defense equipment. Even by the most conservative estimates, defense procurement by India has been ranked consistently amongst the highest in the world, and even a mere 10% substitution of these costly defense imports by these Indian stalwarts will create many jobs for the skilled graduates.

Engineers, armed with an MBA degree will be much in demand for industries involving considerable greenfield project experience along with execution skills.

The Indian economy, while showing the first green shoots of recovery is yet to achieve the dizzying growth rates of the erstwhile Asian tigers. The level of industrialization as well the scale of economic reforms required to be undertaken along with reforms in taxation and law are beyond the scope of a five year term for a government.

The initiatives in the foreign policy space for the government are encouraging investors, both Institutional and others to look at investments in India with a fresh, long term perspective. Nowhere is this more evident than in the huge, bustling and sometimes stumbling industry of e-commerce.

E-commerce firms, both established ones and start-ups alike are managing to achieve what no other centrally or otherwise sponsored government program has tried to achieve–that of connecting millions of small customers to millions of small sellers in Tier II and Tier III cities in India. If, figures are anything to go by, then the demand for the latest fashionable shirts and mobiles is strong and vibrant enough to drive the sales of mobiles exclusively via digital and online channels rather than traditional ‘brick and mortar’ stores.

The resultant gains in cost and efficiency is something to watch out for. MBA aspirants in the marketing and digital marketing fields will stand to benefit immensely from every investment in a start-up by an angel investor or venture capitalists.

The passage of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill in the Lower house of the Parliament will free Indian manufacturing and trade of some of the ignominies of an extremely regressive taxation structure which increases the cost of doing business in India. (For MBA aspirants hoping to crack their GD’s in 2016, this might be a much heated topic of discussion and presentation)

The most important announcement which shall drive Indian manufacturing and industry is the start of the ambitious ‘Make in India’ initiative. If the government, (and it’s a very big IF) is able to supplement and support this initiative with substantial reforms in Labor Law, Environmental Law, and Taxation, this will have the potential of generating 20 million new jobs which will go a long way in addressing some of the issues of rural India and agriculture.

Professionals in Human Resources (HR) will see a surge in recruitment activities along with new challenges of rapid growth and industrialization. MBA students will do good in updating themselves on production trends in the economy so as to correctly identify and understand which particular sector will grow the most and plan their skill up gradation accordingly.

All MBA aspirants, students and those expected to pass out within the next two years must constantly strive to constantly acquire, upgrade and consistently enhance their skills-be it adoption of new technologies and improve their understanding of different markets and economies.

Contributed By : Sunil Iyer ( Class of 2008, IBS Gurgaon).

Life is all about the choices we make every day. Whether it is about deciding on an outfit to wear for an annual meeting or about considering getting married to a special someone, it is critical that we make a wise decision.

For some of us every decision is an internal battle and we are never quite sure about how good or bad the decision is.When we are in a situation where we have to make a choice we either go by our gut feeling or choose the logical path.

The challenges we often face when confronted by a decision-making situation are:

1. We do not consider all possible options:

When faced with a decision-making situation weinstinctivelylimit the number of choices assuming that they are too complex or may have a negative outcome.

Let us see how Eonex softsol overcame this issue. Eonex Softsol, an IT consulting firm was looking for a technology solution provider to partner with. There were two companies that topped their list. The first company had excellent products but poor service and the second company had an average product but excellent marketing and after sales training and support. Eon ex was in a dilemma as to go for the company with excellent products or the one with excellent service. Both aspects were equally important.

After a lot of brainstorming the firm came up with an option of partnering with both the companies as against the natural option of going with just one company. Clients had multiple options to choose from. The clients who were already comfortable with technology and did not need in-depth training opted for the product from the first company whereas those clients who wanted their staff to be well trained went for the product from the second company. By not limiting their options Eon ex could leverage the strength of both the partner firms and cater to the requirements of a larger customer base.

2. We look for information that supports our thought process:

When we watch news, we follow more of those channels that agree and support our views. This strengthens and confirms our thought process. In other words, we see what we like to see, we hear what we want to hear and we interpret in the way we want to understand.

Similarly, when it comes to analyzing the alternatives for a decision, we have a tendency to look for and collect options that supports our point of view. Our point of view may not be correct, neutral or fair always. But we make critical decisions based on the analysis of such options, thinking that we are being rational.This is known as confirmation bias and it affects all of us in one way or the other.

To deal with confirmation bias, the first thing that needs to be done is to initially take in all the information as it is without getting into any analysis. Secondly, for every option that is considered, come up with 3-4 supporting reasons. Thirdly, rather than looking for information that confirms with your views, try to come up with reasons that dis confirms. This will give a holistic and unbiased perspective to the analysis. This will also boost up the probability of sticking with the most suitable option. Once the above three are accomplished revisit all the options once again. This will ensure that you are systematically dealing with the tendency to be biased.

3. We find it tough to overcome short-term concerns:

Short-term concerns pose to be a big hurdle in the path of change. Everyone resists change and it becomes difficult to look beyond the current issues to find the

long-term benefits. There could also be a situation in which you are able to see the big picture but there may be others in your family, your team or your organization who are unable to and therefore may cause resistance.

There are many ways to deal with this issue. The first being familiarity. Introducing something in a big bang manner will lead people to a state of shock. It is always better to bring in new concepts in small packets over a period of time. Familiarity leads to acceptance and understanding. Organizations use this technique when a new change is implemented. Newsletters and office magazines are sent out to introduce the topic to the employees. Employee sentiments are gauged through meetings and informal talks. Time is given deliberately for the concept to sink in and in due time the change is brought about.

Taking a step back also helps to give a new perspective. If you are planning a life style change but are unable to get out of the daily grind, your plan will never get implemented.  You will need to slow down and create time and space for yourself to think and introspect. Familiarity will give you the knowledge and reduce resistance but taking a step back will give you clearer ideas, effective solutions and prove to be your way forward.

4. We are overconfident about our previous decisions.

A typical case of overconfidence is when physicians close the initial diagnosis without completely listening to patient. This leads to incorrect diagnosis and multiple visits to the clinic before the actual problem is found out.

This usually happens with a person when the previous decisions were a success. We stop questioning our assumptions, seeking dis confirming information or checking our biases. We become over assured and start ignoring the process that lead to our past success.  Every major decision should be an outcome of critical thinking.

Power is another reason where people become overconfident about their knowledge and stop listening to others who present a different point of view.

Lastly start small rather than trying to completely avoid making decisions. As you consciously become comfortable with small decisions your confidence will increase. For critical issues be ready with the needed information; question the information; ask opinion from others typically someone who is an expert in the matter; try not to be too sensitive about how others will perceive you if the decision fails.

Be prepared for the worst-case scenario. If your decision goes wrong, accept it and try to find out what went wrong and use it as a lesson to be kept in mind and not a reason to escape.

Contributed By : Sanjit Das (Class of 2005, IBS Hyderabad).

“Entrepreneurship” – To work for one own self and run one’s own business. In short,to earn for one’s own living. Initially it is just like watering a seed without any surety if it will grow to a plant or not. It is like that seed, which a farmer pampers with pesticide and waters every day and in some days is glad to see the steam popping out. With excitement and more care, the steam gets leaves and with further care and hard work, it grows to a full lavish tree with leaves and fruits. Likewise, entrepreneurship is just the same like nourishing the seed. If one has a logical business plan in place, working towards it and investing in it surely multiples the investments with virtue of time. Initially there is more running around, stress and much more of hard work to do but when with time we see things turning the way it should be then the level of stress and hard work also sobers down.

Gone are the trends when lots of young talent after completing the academics and work experience had a drive to do something on their own. A person with utmost courage and full confidence can only take up to a decision of doing his own thing. It doesn’t matter what grades one carry or how bad one has been in particular subject, if one has a business drive to do something of an own and not work under achieving somebody else targets, the story starts then. Had the coke not been packaged from a roadside drink, it wouldn’t have been the brand it is today. Companies like Facebook, snapdeal are the examples of young talents who had a drive to do something on its own. Not to talk about corporate if they do not interest you, the best example is of the comedian Kapil Sharma, we saw him as a stand up comedian in a reality show. The man took a decision to run his own format show, created the first five episodes of content on his own expense. He went to Star Network first with his content and they did not entertain him. Post that he took the content to zee and did not see any interest coming. Finally Viacom network agreed to telecast only five episodes in the prime time and now they cannot imagine colors without the “Comedy Nights with Kapil” and hence with time his production house is doing pretty well for him. Had he been working in some reality show he would not have been the brand he is today. I am sure it would not have been an easy task for him when his content was rejected and not bought by any but eventually the stress and running around is a worth for.

Today when there is world to hire management pass outs, we get lured by the job positions, brands and the monies that we are offered. During placements we see people sitting for the job profiles they would not have imagined to be in just for heck of monies offered. The same people have grown up saying “I want to become XYZ” and eventually get lured by some HR coming and offering an amount and a created position to sit on.  If we are determined to begin our career fixing that I want to do something of my own and start working towards it, five year down the line life is much secured than your peers who would have joined elsewhere under someone. We get carried away that we will not have any investments in the job and at least we have an assured salary that we will make at the end of the month. But that is not even right, there is no job security and stability that if it doesn’t work and the company doesn’t make monies we will have to hunt for another job. Over and above that there is no job satisfaction, because most of the times we work for the monies and do not have a choice of profile. On the contrary, when you are an entrepreneur, no one can replace you as it is your own venture and you are the boss. Also, things happen your own way, any change in working or any strategic implementation is just your call away. Having a choice of doing something of your own it becomes easy to pick things which interest you.

There was a time when any potential business man would do irrespective of what business plan they had in place as it was a monopoly phase where everything would sell. With the changing consumer behavior and market, the number of sellers has enormously increased compared to the takers in the market, hence when we have imbalanced demand and supply, one needs a factual business plan in place. So a potential entrepreneur needs at least a five year business plan with the projected budget of investments and marketing plan so as to define the working of the business. Rolling behind the bush does not work anymore. The reasons the companies are changing the advertisements every then and how and are advertising on all the mediums possible to tap the customers is the fact that now the seller has to go all the way to tap the potential customers let it be by hiring a PR agency and holding events or by raising for a social cause and positioning as a social friendly brand.

Every profile that we take has its difficulties and sugar points. Let it be running around the targets in the corporate or managing the own investments in the business by taking loans. Tensions are everywhere and so is the reward. If we perform well in the job that we do no one can stop us from getting us what we deserve. Now it is on us to choose what do we want to work on basis what interests us. Rather than growing old and thing I wish I would have… its better to get out of the discomfort zone and start doing thing which you want to see yourself growing old to.

Contributed By : Rahul Wadhwa (Class of 2013, IBS Gurgaon).

I am sure many of you would have first read just Osho before reading about what he actually said. It’s all right! He has been outraged talking a lot about sex and has captivated his image on the same note and that’s what we all love reading about. But that’s not about it. If you go back now and check what he actually said, I find it very appropriate. For a cribber like me, who wants all in life I think Osho solved it all. P.S – Not that I am a follower of osho, this picture is as fresh as someone’s Facebook share.

So Yes, I think all my life I have been cribbing about a lot of things. Let it be a taking up on a decision like Science or commerce to a decision like a fashion designer or a collared job. Alike most of us, my decisions have been based upon what my parents or society want to see me as. Coming from a small town, when i walked up to my parents saying I want to take up fashion. More than me, the relatives were thought about and then it came to evaluating the children of the family friends and neighbours. Anyways, I know now it does not matter now. I have still managed to take a diploma from NIFT but post a B.COM+MBA(Marketing Major Finance Minor) and a work ex in Media of 2 years. Ok! I am not that old. But yes I have blamed a lot of people for my discomfort in Life. I just right now blamed parents for not letting me pursue fashion, society for what it actually thinks. But somewhere down my heart, I know if i would have even fasted for a day/consulted my parents well and made that extra effort of actually pursuing fashion I would have been in that stream today. Bow down to you Osho, Yes we are only one who are responsible for our smiles and tears and its all based on our decision. But also we are not a dead fish who has to go with the flow, Life is changing and moving all and then. But I also agree had I not been in discomfort of doing what I do not want to I probably would not have figured out what I actually want in life. Had i not taken up a job in Star Tv and got to know that this is not what I am meant for, I would have never got the gist to pursue fashion. Remember, if you do not see yourself in what you are doing today. You are wasting your time. And to get into something we need to get out of something.

But yes i do agree there are lot of things which that period teaches you when you are stuck in an Unfit Job and it is very important for us to actually be in that discomfort to be more serious on what we want to do, Let’s talk about it one by one:-

• “Makes you very mature”

For someone who has never given a damn in life right from what he wants to become to “chal bunk mar” attitude. It is an eye opener. It’s like life saying you, “Hello! Enough of honey moon period, earn you bread” and then from a clumsy person who does not give damn about stats has to work on excel and MS word all the time. Besides regularly saying “I love you Papa” we also begin to realize where our happiness lies and that ignition is what one wants.

• From “give me the money” to “show me the money”

Someone who has always called home and fluently just said three words “Papa paise bhejdo” and like a lucky kid has always got a voice back “Kitne chahiye?” now suddenly begins to go hevaya all the day in realising where can he get the revenues from against the targets allotted for the month. The sudden respect for the salary and the usage of Laxmi mata comes in place when he realises how hard are thirty days to spend to get a text from HDFC.

• Hello, How are you? J (in the head “Why are you still alive?”)

So yes, People Management is the biggest lesson for those who have always been a free bird and have had a choice in what group of friends they want to be in and most of the times ignored people they disliked and now you just do not have a choice than being subservient to those who torture you the most expecting them to sober down. Eventually some of us end up become those ever smiling plastic dolls with “Hi, how are you” paired with a fake smile everywhere we go and especially to those of our clients who do not take the phone calls and neither revert on mails. Imagine, from someone who wouldn’t call back and now calling endlessly to someone whom you wouldn’t have given a second look to.

• We always think of what we will do when we get the Job we love

The phase which grows on you also grows you. When we are low on the present job, we always think of what we will do when we get into what we love to. To plan the thing we love is in itself taking a step towards it. By the end of we dropping the unfit job, have an entire plan of action in hand.

• The unfit job shows who stands by you no matter what

The people whom we call siblings, parents, friends, partner show how you matter to them when you are fed up with you job. Those who are true they are always supportive in pursuit for your happiness and those who do not care about your personal happiness and want you to stick to what you are doing are the one’s who want something else from you but not you.

• You understand emotions

From a person who never gave a damn on someone’s break up or to a sad happening can actually now consult people on how they should take some really serious things and as they say when one can understand how other feels, the actions are always in favour.

In last, Remember, you are not a tree keep moving till the time you are not happy because it is just you who matters.

Contributed By : Rahul Wadhwa (Class of 2013, IBS Gurgaon).

Believe it or not – Even in highly developed country like the United States of America, roughly 40% of Gross National Product is contributed by companies owned by families. More than 80% of all enterprises are family-run. The same culture and trend is prevalent in many European nations as well. But, what makes me dedicate an entire article to business families in India will be made clear if you bear with me a little longer. You will understand why their impact on nation building, wealth creation and employment generation is undeniably monumental. When Anil Ambani raised ownership issues in the board meeting held on 3rd August 2005, the sensex went down 80 points and shook the entire business community. Need I say more?

At the outset, let me give you a brief profile (however superfluous it may be) of the oldest family owned businesses in India.

The Tata Group- Established in 1868 by Jamshedji Tata as a trading company, Tata Group has become the global face of Indian business. It has 32 listed companies with a market capitalization of 6 trillion. JRD Tata’s death in 1993 symbolised the end of an era. His legacy was continued by Ratan Tata, who took over as chairman in 1991. He guided the Tata group in a fast-changing business environment. Tata group is now more cohesive and united than it has ever been.

The Dabur Group- Dabur has come a long way since its foundation by Dr. S. K Burman in 1884. It’s currently the largest manufacturer of Ayurvedic medicines in India. In the 1990s, when they were scaling up their business, the family showed a lot of maturity in recruiting the right people from outside and looking into their own talent pool. This maintained work culture within the family and at the same time the business grew exponentially. Probably the most important thing they did was to align all family members on the same page. They created a one-of-its-kind family constitution and a family council, which determined what happens in the family and who does what.

The Birla Group- The Birlas could be described as the Rockerfellas of India. This Marwari clan which originated from a small town called Pilani in Rajasthan became the tallest industrial house of the 20^th Century India and were rivaled just by Tata’s post independence. It invested in tea and textiles, further expanded and diversified the family business into cement, chemicals, rayon and steel tubes. Subsequently, Grasim and Hindalco were formed in 1947 and 1958. The list goes on.

GODREJ GROUP- Ardeshir Godrej founded the Godrej Group in 1897 to manufacture locks. They are present in industries such as furniture, industrial engineering, real estate, agri-business, construction, information technology and FMCG. It’s currently managed by the 4th generation of the family. The group has revenue of $3.5billion. They employ 26,000 people. The present chairman of the group is Adi Godrej. When asked what has kept the Godrej Group together? Adi Godrej replied “We’ve been lucky in that there have always been more businesses to run than there were family members available.”

Some other old and mighty family businesses worthy of mention are The Kirloskar group (Been in the business of pumps and engines since 1888; Currently under the leadership of Sanjay Kirloskar), The Bajaj Group (Comprises 34 companies with Bajaj Auto being its flagship firm ably headed by 4^th generation member Rahul Bajaj), The Wadia Group (started with ships and docks manufacturing ; Current Chairman is Nulsi Wadia), The Murugappa group (originally money lending and banking; presently managed by 4^th generation members, and The Modi Group (Diversified business portfolio including tea & beverages, education, entertainment, health-care and hospitality ; Current Chairman is 2^nd Generation member Krishan Kumar Modi. He is known as the Tobacco king of India. His older son was the infamous chairman of the equally famous IPL cricket tournament).

In all business families mentioned above and thousands of others ranging from small mom-and-pop grocery stores to large conglomerates, the one thing that perpetually binds them is TRUST. It is undoubtedly the most vital ingredient for a business group to prosper. In the words of Adi Godrej, “Trust can be a source of significant competitive advantage to a family business.”

Indian firms, by and large, continue to be family-run. And that, too, by the Bania families of traditional trading castes. It is predominantly the Aggarwals and Guptas in the North, the Chettiars in the South, the Parsees, Gujarati Jains and Banias, Muslim Khojas and Memons in the West, and Marwaris in the East, and, in fact, across the country. Of these, the Marwaris have been the most successful. Fifteen of the twenty largest industrial houses in 1997 derived from the Vaishya or Bania trading castes – eight of them were Marwaris. Take that!

Take the example of Marwari ‘great firms’ of the 19^th Century. They transacted large business arrangements as far away as Central Asia and China merely based on trust. They mastered the deployment of a financial instrument called ‘Hundi’, which served as a cashless remittance facility. The hundi made it possible for a grain dealer from Kanpur to sell in Kolkata without taking cash and risk being waylaid during transit. In another example, it’s only because of the inherent trust in joint family system why Jain diamond merchants rely on inter-ethnic ties to keep this highly scattered, specialised and intrinsically high-risk business together.

Moreover, since the family’s name is on the line and the stake is both emotional and economical, it becomes all the more important for family members to stand for the pre-existing value system, long-term commitment and the dignity earned by foregoing generations. Neeraj Bajaj (Rahul Bajaj’s cousin Treasurer of Bajaj group) attributes Bajaj’s success in keeping together the strict equality with which they divide the pie. In one of his interviews he said, ‘We may run businesses of different sizes but we have the same standard of living. Rahul runs the multi-billion Bajaj Auto and Shekhar runs a relatively modest Bajaj Electricals, but they get equal salaries and equal pocket money.’

In spite of innumerable achievements and invincible feats of these business empires, they are very often accused of lack of professionalism, nepotism, infighting, and mismanagement. Until now, their sustainable driving forces were non-existent bureaucracy, fast decision making ability and its practice of socialism.

But the question is – Can they overcome their historic weaknesses and survive extant competitive demands? Will they be able to become professionally managed corporations of the kind that exist in Japan and the United States? Will they be able to separate family’s interest from the interest of the business? Only time will tell. But presently they remain the unsung heroes of the Indian Economy.

Contributed By : Pranshu Awasthi (Class of 2007, IBS Gurgaon).

A few months back, I met a friend who started an online portal for listing colleges and universities of India.  The venture looked really promising on paper and it did take off well. But it was too overwhelming and big for him to manage it with limited resources. Eventually, he had to shut it down. It did make him wiser but at a certain price. While I really appreciated the initiative from my dear friend, failure in an online venture did not take me by surprise. A few years back even I had my share of failure while trying to create a portal for sourcing IT related (specifically Enterprise Resource Planning software) services for clients. Luckily, timely action saved us from losing more resources in terms of money and time.  Hence, in this post, I would like to share some of my experiences as well as that of my friends so that if any of the readers want to start an online venture in future, they make sure that they do not repeat commonly made mistakes.

• Create a realistic revenue model first

 Be it an online marketplace, an educational or gaming portal, an affiliate marketing website or review blog, the first step that needs to be taken is to create a business model. The model may not be perfect, but one must have the numbers in place for understanding revenue recognition and costs estimates. While creating a business model, one must be very specific about revenue model. Simple statements like revenue through advertisements, listings, leads or collaborations will not help. Having at least a three-year revenue plan along with month-wise cost and revenue structure is advised. It is always better to have a minimalistic approach while creating the revenue model. It may not be perfect, but it is required to keep you on track of the progress. Also, there could be possibilities that the model evolves or changes with time. So one should be flexible enough to accommodate changes with time.

Most people are consumed by their own ideas. Their overconfidence leads them to believe that they just need to launch their site and revenues will follow. This rarely happens and it is good to know this fact.

• Knowing what runs behind the scene

 We are so fascinated and enthralled by the success of other websites that we are impelled to think– “If they can do it, why can’t we”. This is probably one of the biggest and most common mistakes committed by amateur entrepreneurs. What we often forget to see and study is the amount of hard work, struggle, sacrifice, patience and passion that went into the making of a successful website.

Anyone can replicate a website or a business idea. But it is very difficult to replicate processes that run behind the scene.

For instance, there could be an online marketplace that is known for reaping huge benefits through ad listings. We might know how to create such a marketplace, but simply an online market will not help. An established network of suppliers and buyers will have to be established first to sustain such a business. It has to be remembered that in such cases, the website is an offshoot of the business itself and not the other way round.

• Know your market

 “We plan to launch globally when we go online,” mentioned one of the participants in a startup meet recently. They wanted to enter into the business of online tutoring. The word ‘global’ overwhelmed me because it sounded that the team was still not sure of which market they wanted to cater. This can be a major disaster for any business.

For startups or amateur entrepreneurs who have limited resources, it is always wise to start small. Instead of trying to be global or for matter instead of trying to serve the entire nation, at the beginning, it is better to test the waters through one ‘pilot zone’. Once the business is established or sustained in one area, one can slowly move on to another geographical region. That will be more sustainable and easier to manage.

There is another reason as to why one should not try to go global or cater to a very large section of users. It is easier to get visibility at a local level than at a global level.

• Do not wait for the perfect site or application

 There is nothing called perfect in any application. That is why we have ‘versions’ just like the ‘Windows’ OS. The same is true for websites. Instead of waiting for an entire season for your website to be stable and perfect, it is better to launch it once you have the basic functionalities up and running. Slowly, adding to it will help more in creating a stable site. The sooner you enter the market, the earlier you will be able to achieve sustainable revenue.

• Take into account Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Cost

 As per webopedia.com “SEO is typically a set of “white hat” best practices that webmasters and Web content producers follow to help them achieve a better ranking in search engine results.

If you want to achieve business though your website, you will need good website ranking that boosts your visibility.

SEO is one of the biggest and hidden cost components of a web based business. Failure to plan, execute and manage the SEO costs can lead to an eventual shutdown of a business. Even before creating the website, one must study and research thoroughly about SEO. Any mistakes in the design, architecture or the content can lead to costly rectifications afterwards.

I recollect one of my business acquaintances mentioning that they had to overhaul their entire website as it was not compliant as per web standards requiring SEO. So plan for SEO from day one of execution.

• Do not try it alone

A business cannot be built alone. You need teams to take forward a startup business. One may have a brilliant idea and think that he has ownership over the idea and therefore he should execute it as well. It may sound reasonable at the beginning, but it has been proven time and again that you need a good set of competent people to work with you for transforming an idea into a successful business. Most people do not want to take the risk of discussing their idea thinking that they may be stolen or someone might execute it better. It is wise not to share your ideas with every person you come across. However, you should start sharing your ideas with your close group of people who can evaluate its feasibility, criticize it and then finally give finishing to it.

Through such discussions with closed groups you may come to know of new people who will have faith in your product or idea. It is important to track such people from the beginning so that when you them on board you can pull them in faster. Having different people on board helps in delivering the ideas faster.

Contributed by Sanjit Das (Class of 2005, IBS Hyderabad)

“Any publicity is good publicity!” is an old and famous saying in the business sector. Its significance though is not too applicable any more. Today, companies look out and struggle to maintain a consistently positive word of mouth, a strong image and an ambient relationship with their customers. “Reputational risk” is no longer optional and now taken seriously.

The competition is forever increasing and it is difficult to stay ahead in the race. Companies resort to different means for achieving the above mentioned objectives, all of which constitute a good PR. Conventionally, advertising, both print and digital, was the prime means of communication with the consumers. Companies used to pay hefty money to stay in the news through advertising. But then emerged the concept of public relations; a way of increasing your visibility, strengthening your image and therefore building consumer trust.

An important field of marketing mix, public relations, first started to become popular in Indian market during the 90’s and has since then gained momentum with the advent of internet and further, with the expansion of social media. Reaching out to your target audience today has become much easier than what it used to be earlier; and yet, equally challenging has become the task of maintaining a strong and positive image of your name.

The prime reason businesses today have come to realize the increasing importance of a good PR is because publicity is more effective than advertising. It is cost effective and has longer impact. An article about a business or a company is remembered far longer than an ad. But that does not mean that building a good PR can happen without effort. It calls for careful planning, persistent effort and spending money to hire PR consultants or firms, copywriters etc.

Besides, social networks have made marketing very interactive. Online behavior has significant impact on the buying pattern of the consumers. These days, every product is researched on the internet- before a decision is made to purchase it. The role of PR is very instrumental in creating a social engagement strategy.

Since the initial scope of PR was limited to media relations only, it drew professionals from the journalism background. But today, in a more advanced business set up, there is a lot more to public relation which requires going beyond media. It includes an understanding of the consumer behavior, right audience, market scenario and ability to think out of the box. This has attracted many MBA professionals these days to pursue their careers in this exciting field of marketing, both as executives and entrepreneurs, aiming to venture into their own PR consulting business.

For MBA professionals, an entry into the PR field could be through marketing communications. Here you work with a company’s marketing team to help launch new products or re-positioning the existing ones. PR firms hire MBA professionals for the reason that they understand the various concepts of marketing crucial for generating good PR. For instance:

1. Understanding the USP – Unique selling proposition of a product and how to leverage it through effective communication
2. The sense of targeting the right audience and finding the right placement to ensure the message reaches the target audience.
3. Exploiting the competition’s weakness and what differentiates your client’s product.
4. An MBA credential can provide networking opportunities

An emerging field of PR is also in community relations, where you work on finding ways of attaching your client’s name to the positive events in the community, for instance asking them to sponsor a children’s sports event or a cultural program, having to volunteer for city cleaning initiatives etc. Tata group for example has established the Tata Council for Community Initiatives; it acts as a central body to facilitate the entire group’s social initiatives.

An interesting aspect of a PR profile is facing the ethical dilemma. A PR professional is constantly tied between fulfilling its client needs and the public’s right to be honest and fail-dealing. Hence, various associations of PR provide professional code of conducts to help professionals and enhance public trust. The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) website offers a detailed code of ethics for its members to help them overcome ethical challenges.

The PR job prospects in the Indian market are abundant and assuring for well skilled professionals. Once entered in the field of PR, some people further take up courses in photography or visual communication and expand their horizon to work with film making agencies. The growth of advertising agencies that promote various events has also boosted the number of jobs in the field of PR. You can also work for celebrities or rich tycoons who want to maintain a good public profile.

Many believe an MBA degree might not enhance your chances of starting to climb the PR career ladder. It is true to a certain extent if you are willing to work on the agency side, because they look out for hiring creative problem solvers. But I always believe that an MBA is not just a degree targeted to launch your career in a specific field. It hones your skills such as team work, problem solving, analysis, critical thinking. All these skills are valuable in business sector communication and PR.

If you are willing to get into the field of PR, there are a few key things that you should know:

• It is different from advertising. In fact, it is a form of sales. It calls for maintaining a good network with the media personnel and some field work for planning and arranging participation in public events, conferences and conventions etc for your client or your company. The major part of public relations work involves generating publicity for your client.
• Building a good PR requires knowledge of utilizing the best possible potential of social media.
• PR isn’t always all glamour and jazz, it can involve a challenging career as you sometimes have to work on turning around a company or a client from negative or defamed image. It is important to have the ability to multitask and a flexible attitude as you might be expected to stretch hours and work under deadline pressures.
• It requires good verbal and written communications skills, as well convincing ability. You handle and communicate with the press and work on writing press releases to journalists and publications.

If you hold a passion for the field of communication and PR, you might want to add on a specialized course or certificate in media relations or public relations alongside your MBA. This would not only improve your placement prospects in this specific sector, but will also provide you a more thorough knowledge of the domain. And yet if you are naturally creative with the ability to bring out of the box ideas, PR is the field for you with incredible scope of success.

Contributed By : Isha Jajodia (IBS Gurgaon, Class of 2010).

From cricket scores to movies timings, from spotting a location to navigating to it, from finding a house to finding a person; today we use internet for practically everything. Internet is our savior in all situations as we all are information seekers all the time.

But as much handy the World Wide Web is, most of us still do not know how to make the best of it. Knowing the correct ways of tapping the best possible potential of internet is an art. It is important to learn this art if you want to save further time and find exactly what you are looking for. Data on the internet is increasing manifold every year and access to information is more important than ever. It is all out there and yet most of the time, we don’t find it. This is because although we are looking through the right medium, we are not able to look at the right source of information.

Search engines have a unique way of working. For them relevance is more important than finding a page with the right key words. They have been developed over the years to better match results with our queries. Search engines also assume that more popular the site or page, the more useful it will be for the user. This assumption seems to have fairly matched the end user satisfaction. So, given all this, what are the things that we could take care of from our end to fulfill our means? Let us start by looking at the most effective and reliable search engine of today – Google.

Google offers multiple tools, operators and filters to refine your search. We will look at some of those tools and other tips and tricks to make your search easier, time saving and yielding more precise and accurate results.

Keywords

• The first step to any search is the keywords. Normally, Google returns the result giving priority to the pages containing most of your keywords, irrespective of the order. If you want to improve your search results, it is advisable to use 5 to 7 keywords as then it is easier for Google to understand what you are looking for. Please note that Google tends to ignore frequently used key words like a, an, the, I, this, that etc.
• Use of within-quotes (“ ”): to get the exact phrase or the order of keywords in your search results, you can put your search query within quotes. By doing so Google will look for sites with the exact phrasing. For example, if you want to look for the growth rate of the IT enabled services industry, you might use – “IT enabled services” “industry” “growth rate”, to yield more specific and precise search results.
• Use of asterisks (*): If you are not sure about what keywords to use, or do not know what to look for, you can use * symbol in combination with your keywords. This will make Google find all possible combinations of pages. For example, * internship

• If you want to exclude some words from your search, you can use the minus sign. Google will exclude all the pages from your search result that contain the specific words, except where the minus sign is used as a hyphen.
• Use for comparing data
• You can use the ‘OR’ operator to get choice in your search results. Google will display the sites with either of the two keywords, instead of the sites containing both the words. For example:

Other important points to consider are:

• Use precise keywords to describe what your are searching
• Do not use questions to search on Google. For example instead of using ‘in which year Pfizer acquired Wyeth?’ use ‘Pfizer acquired Wyeth in’
• Use Google shortcuts to save time.

Google Advance Search

Since you cannot always memorize the different search operators, Google offers us the advance search options. You can access more accurate information by using these basic tools:

• Site/Domain search: If you want to search on a specific site then you can use your keywords along with the name of the website separated by a double colon. Google will return results from the same website. You can also use this trick for searching a specific domain. For example, Disaster management : .org

• You can find pages that link to a certain page. For example- link:linkedin.com
• Search specific file type by using, Product development:PDF
• Access a cached version of a website by using cache:timesofindia.com
• Find related pages to the website you already know, related:IPL
• Use allintitle: to view a page with a title containing your desired keyword

Please note that while using operators, do not use any space between keywords and punctuation to refine your search.

Additionally Google gives us the option to filter our search by language, region, time, etc.

Google Shortcuts

• Dictionary: Find meaning of a word without having to access the whole dictionary. For example, use define:ambient to get the meaning of the word ambient

• Calculator: directly use Google’s in built calculator by simply entering the calculation you would like into the search box
• World clocks, weather forecast
• Public data or demographics
• Fill in the blank – Google reduces our efforts by filling in the information that we seek by providing initial keywords followed by asterisks sign (*).
• Unit conversion and currency calculators
• Mortgage rates
• package tracking

Now after having known almost all the search modifiers offered by Google, we can use these options in combination to further clean out the unwanted results. For example, if you are looking for the managing director of a company you can use: “Unilever India” “Managing director” site:Linkedin.com

You can also apply these search modifiers to search for images, news, videos – which are again a form of filtering our search results.

Google’s search technology has reached new heights since it was launched years ago. Most of us do not even know how search works anymore. We just assume to get the results we want. However remembering these simple search modifiers discussed in the article and learning to use them indicatively, can make you search more proficiently.

Here are some links that you can refer to for further gaining clarity on Google’s advance search:

https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/134479?hl=en

https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/35890?hl=en

https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2466433?hl=en

Contributed By : Isha Jajodia (IBS Gurgaon, Class of 2010).

One of the skills that most, MBA grads or would-be managers require the most is persuasion skills. A sales representative or marketing person is nothing without persuasion skills. One of my professors used to say that a marketing guy must be well-equipped with skills to sell raincoats in a desert. Interesting it sounds but it is certainly difficult to get anyone to do what you really want by making them feel that they really want it.

First and foremost, you need to understand that influencing others isn’t luck or magic, it is science! Researches and management books always proclaim that there are a certain number of ways that make people agree to your messages or pitch. As a marketer, you must be well equipped with consumer behavior i.e. you must be able to understand what affects your target’s behavior.

See, no one can give you a clear explanation that why customers take a particular decision. But if you really, really understand the factors that influence their decisions, you can use them in your favor and that is real persuasion skill. Now since you have knowledge on behaviors remember that in your long term interest never push a product or service to a customer with poor quality or extremely high prices, else you will end up losing your dependability and trust in the long term.

The first mantra that I am going to share with you is ‘A Tooth for a Tooth’. Most of you would-be managers would have guessed by now that a target customer feels more affected and related to a marketer who gives them something or does something for them at no cost. Here, you have to understand that in order to receive you have to give first, let it be samples, gifts, information etc. The key here is to provide a positive experience before hand and then reaping its benefits.

Giving a free trial pack or demonstration gives the prospective customer a feel or experience which they would like to reciprocate. Such prospects become more open to hear your pitch, donate for your cause or tip someone. Also remember, you do not have to go overboard to gift a positive experience.

After you have mastered the reciprocation game, the next step is ‘Communal Consent’. Remember prospective buyers may doubt your information. Hence, just like little kids look for approvals from their parents; prospective customers hunt for approvals from friends, family, relatives, peers, competition and others for their purchase decision.

The number one reason nowadays android applications, products on various shopping sites; restaurants on food sites etc have reviews and ratings beside them is that prospects want to know what existing customers have experienced as well as how they feel about it. This strategy is actually a cost less one but remember the target audience always looks for people similar to them. I used to work for an online ad space selling firm and one of my prospects only bought my service because I gave him a plethora of existing customer’s name that were using the service, were in the same industry or were well known!

The third mantra is ‘Honoring Promises and Remaining Steady’. Would you purchase from a sales representative who commits something and backs out at the actual time of sale? No. A marketer must honor something after agreeing to it verbally or on paper given by him. Prospective customers really look for this steadiness or say consistency in marketer’s commitments.

Moreover customers do not like to leave good deals for which attitudes, values and actions have previously been set, said or discussed. They want to honor what has been decided previously. If you really want someone to say ‘yes’ to you, just make them committed to an action in your favor. Remember elder people value this consistency more!

The fourth mantra is ‘Aristocracy’. People really like to follow what experts or people of high social class do. They like to mimic attractive clothing, valuable and precious jewelry or good quality automobile for the credibility they provide. When someone imposes authority, customers generally tend to blindly follow or accept it.

Remember when prospects are insecure or hesitant they look for reference points outside to guide their choices. Authority figures leave a high level of influence in the form of testimonials, certificates, etc. This is the prime reason why a Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan endorses hair oil, suit fabric, etc and people actually buy them.

The next mantra is to ‘Invoke Affinity’; i.e. understanding that prospects say yes to things or people whom they either know or have a liking for. Remember customers place high value of genuine compliments because everyone is needy for praise that boosts their self confidence and esteem.

Customers might like physically attractive or people just like them or their friends approaching them for sales. Understand and know the challenges, problems and preferences of prospects. Remember that Walter Hudson will only be impressed and interested in you if you understand the problems he faces with his weight and give him a solution easing one of his challenges.

Lastly the mantra of ‘Scarcity and Dearth’, leads to creation of demand because the lesser something is available, the more it is in demand else Picasso’s paintings wouldn’t be sold at extremely outrageous prices. Also, offers such as special edition or limited period add to demand temporarily leading to immediate sales at high prices.

Show the prospective customer that you are sensitive to their possible losses than their would-be gains. Therefore it is wise for a marketer to emphasize less on product, its style, benefits and utility but on the opportunity being wasted. Use phrases and words like don’t miss the opportunity. Also, highlight the uniqueness wherever it exists!

Your skill to persuade in the extremely competitive environment, depend on your genuine efforts to show customers that you care and value them; proving social acceptance of your product or service; sticking to your commitment and steadiness; implicating aristocracy; increasing likeliness and showing that the offering you have to make is unique as well as limited in availability!

Contributed By : Chayan Jain (Class of 2011-2013, IBS Hyderabad).