How Would You Like Your Case – Raw or Cooked

Yale University-School of Management has developed a new method for teaching in Business Schools. They informally call it the ‘Raw Case’ method. Raw cases are delivered online by creating a web site to make use of the multimedia capabilities of the Internet. Raw cases present a complex, often real world and almost real-time business situations

A raw case aggregates a lot of materials re[presenting  a variety of perspectives and culled from multiple data streams that can include original source documents such as 10-K filings and analyst reports, news media reports (print and broadcast), faculty-authored notes and background readings, scholarly articles, interview videos or transcripts with the parties involved, as well as other multimedia tools, such as Google maps. Raw cases consist of hundreds, even thousands, of “pages” of data. So, in addition to the lateral synthesis of many disparate piece of information, part of the student’s assignment is to determine the most efficient allocation of time and attention in order to answer assigned questions or perform the required analysis.

The coventional B-school cases of 15-20 pages are written with the objective of explaining a concept to the students. This is being referred to as a “Cooked” case.

 

I feel raw case  is a great innovation in management education. Real world problem solving for managers or  consultants is closer to a raw case than its cooked counterpart. Information overload is a reality which all need to cope with. Information does not always come in the written form and tables as is often neatly presented in the conventional management cases.

Explosion of other media beyond the print media is another reality which students need to cope with. The use of multimedia capabilities of the Net to deliver these “raw cases” is an excellent use of the medium.

 

An example of a raw case can be seen in this link. http://cases.som.yale.edu/txu/

- G. Mohan

An Enigma Called Siva

NRI prowler, deal-maker exraordinaire, serial entrepreneur are labels that are often attached to  C. Sivasankaran or just Siva.

Strangely, there is not much in the  public domain about this maverick  busnessman. For someone, who runs a US$ 2 billion company called Sterling Infotech Group, there is hardly an interview of his in the business media.

 

Would you believe that Siva apparently started off as a  humble fabrication contractor at Madras Refineries ( now CPCL)?

However it was with  Sterling Computers that he first tasted success. Sterling was a business which he bought from Robert Amritraj ( Vijay Amrtiraj’s father). Sterling Computers gained a sizeable marketshare in late 80s when it sold Siva PCs at basement bargain prices.

 

Siva’s name sprung up again when he was involved in the Tamilnad Mercantile Bank (TMB) deal. In a complex deal involving Siva, the Nadar community and the Essar Group, Siva bought and sold significant stakes in TMB and profited greatly.

 

Siva hit the headlines again he secured cellular licences in a few states including Tamil Nadu and Delhi.  He sold the Delhi licence to Essar. He bought the RPG Cellular business and merged it with his company Aircel. Aircel achieved significant scale and success in the South and in 2006 he sold it off to Maxis Telecom for over US $ 1 billion. Aircel is, probably, the only instance of Siva building a sucessfull business from scratch. 

 

Cellphone services were not his only interest in telecom. He also started Dishnet in 1998, an Internet Service Provider based on the DSL technology. During the dotcom boo,  this business achieved some success. He sold it to a Tata group company, VSNL.

 

Siva and Ratan Tata probably came together for the first time during the Dishnet deal. Their friendship is now an open secret. Mr. Tata has publicly acknowledged that Siva is close to the group and that the latter had helped  the group to bring down telecom purchase costs significantly.

The Tata-Siva friendship has led to a few more deals. Siva bought 7 % stake in Tata Teleservices Ltd. He had sold a significant stake in Barista to Tata Coffee which he later bought it back and then sold it to Lavazza, an Italian chain.

 

Apart from the Tata Group, Siva seems to had a close realtionship with the Essar Group in the past. It is hard to fathom though  whether Siva and the Ruias are friends or adversaries now. The TMB and the Delhi cellphone licence deals are , of course,   public testimony to their relationship in the past.

 

Vijay Mallya is another person with whom he has had many a deal. In the 90s, Siva bought a 9 % stake in UB Group through open market purchases and there was even hint of a takeover, but  this never fructified. Later ,  news appeared that Siva had taken over Best and Crompton, a Chennai based engineering company belonging to Mr. Mallya. Whether Best and Crompton shares were traded for Siva’s UB Group stake, is not known.  

 

Siva surely has friends in political circles too. But, you will never see him sharing diases with any politician. Recently one newspaper published from Mumbai suggested that Siva has funded Kalaignar TV, a channel started by Tamilnadu  CM M. Karunanidhi.

 

Siva has expressed his interest in investing and entering media and entertainment business. He had made a statement that he would enter the regional TV business through strategic stakes in regional TV channels. Apart from a 15 % stake in Sahara One, nothing much is publicly known of his media business. 

 

After making a windfall profit though the sale of Aircel, Siva created an investment company called  Siva Ventures Limited. Through this firm he is entering new businesses, through a mix of organic and inorganic growrth strategies. He has acquired a Norwegian shipping company and a wind-farm company in Finland. He has also started greenfield plants to produce ethanol from corn in the USA.

 

Nothing much is known about the other people behind Siva except two of his advisers- Vijay Bhatkar and V Srinivasan. Looks like Siva is a lone ranger, without an organisation behind him.

 

While Chennai remains the headquarters of the Sterling Infotech Group, its businesses span the globe. Siva himself is an NRI, who has been changing his home ever so often. After living briefly in Dubai, he now lives in San Francisco.   

 

Is Siva an industrialist ? In many ways, not. He has definitely managed a few companies for few years, but you can hardly associate any industry with him. He is definitely not an institution builder or a top-notch manager.

 

Is Siva a value investor in the Warren Buffet mould ? Perhaps not.  A look at the TMB or UB Group stock deals would indicate that he is a value investor, but he hardly has a portfolio of high quality companies which he has nurtured over many years. He appears to be an opportunist, who smells deals through his network, rather than by analysing balance sheets.

 

Is Siva a stockmarket wizard ? Maybe yes, maybe no.  No doubt, he is a consummate deal maker. He holds on to his investments till he gets the target value. He held on to his Aircel business for a long time and did not yield to lesser offers. He also does not shy away from selling and buying stakes back, like Barista or TMB. However, he seems to be reluctant in taking any of his company public. Had he been  a stockmarket wizard, he would have understood that lot of value can be unlocked by taking companies public. is he afraid of the  transparency requirements and the scrutiny by shareholders and analysts?

 

Is Siva a venture capitalist who takes big risks in new technologies ? In some ways, yes, in many ways no. His investments in ISP, ethanol and wind energy would indicate he is interested in entering new technologies, but then  how do you explain his huge investment in shipping,  among the oldest  of old economy businesses?

 

Is Siva a dodgy businessman with a shady background ? I’m not sure. He has been in business for over 20 years, which is a fairly long period of time. It is diffcult to survive this long with a dubious track record for that long. His businesses are now in countries which have strong corporate governance rules. He has a friend in Mr Tata, whose sense of ethics and morals are unquestionable.

But, if everything is above board, why is Siva so secretive? ” “Behind every fortune there is a crime ” said Blazac once. Could that be true for  Siva as well?

 

- G. Mohan

 

Brand SRK : Milking It to the Max

 

 

I am no fan of Shah Rukh Khan (SRK).  Though I happen to have seen most of his movies, I don’t really like him as an actor. He hams much too much . Chak De India and  Swades are the only exceptions.

 

Ironically, it is the IPL tamasha which has helped me to develop a grudging respect for SRK, the businessman. If you have been watching the matches and the media jamboree around them, you just can’t miss SRK and his high jinks.

 

 

First thing first, SRK didn’t cringe to spend top dollars to hire the best in the business for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). Be it the coach, the CEO, the physio, the trainer and , of course, the cricketers.

 

 

He then threw himself completely into the job. SRK’s inexhuastible energy and hunger for success are there for all to see.

 

SRK also knows how to use his charisma, tact and PR skills. He is exploiting them to the fullest in his attempt to take  Brand SRK beyond the silver screen  by five powerful forces  -  the small screen, the journalists, cricket, moolah and politics. The interesting thing is how  Brand SRK and the five forces are feeding into each other.

 

 

Now, let’s look  at  a few of  SRK’s clever moves.

 

 

SRK bought the franchisee for Kolkata though he has stonger ties with Delhi ( his birthplace) and  Mumbai (his workplace).He knew it well that if he could fill up Eden Gardens, he would hit the jackpot. The Eden Garden is the largest cricket stadium in the world, not just in India.

 

 

Mukesh Ambani had to pay huge sums for Hrithik Roshan’s star power. Vijay Mallya has to bring in cheerleaders from the US. G M  Rao too had to shell out a lot  for Akshay Kumar. SRK, on the other hand,  just had to pay himself!

 

 

He also brings along his groupies like Karan Johar, Arjun Rampal,  Manish Malhotra  et al to KKR matches,  adding to the glamour quotient. Last Sunday, SRK displayed his political clout by  getting his friends from the first family of India to make an appearance at the Eden Garden.

 

 

SRK gives away 1000 tickets free to Shah Rukh Khan Fan Club for every KKR match.

 

In the endorsement race too, KKR seems to be ahead of the rest. SRK has got  quite a few companies whose brands he endorses, to sponsor KKR.

 

 

Is there no stopping the SRK juggernaut?

 

 

I’m not sure. Brand SRK is running  a serious risk of wearing itself out.  Super celebrities are known to have killed their brand mystique  by stretching the brand  way too thin. 

 

 

As for me, I’m rooting for Kolkata Knight Riders, not because  of SRK.  In spite of him.

 

- G. Mohan.

Bona Fide Cause or Wilful Lapse

Yesterday, The Economic Times reported a claim made by the General Manager of Bank of India (Gujarat Region) that hitherto the bank had only two defaulters on  their education loans extended to IIM-A students.

 

Why even two? It is the collateral value of the brand IIM-A that is at stake here. IIM- A Alumni Association, are you listening?

 

 - G. Mohan

Smelly Indians

Deodorant is now the fastest growing FMCG  category in India. The market is growing at 40% as reported by the Economic Times the day before yesterday.

 

Looks like  a growing number of Indians are now rich enough and ‘cutivated’ enough  to undo the noisome side effects of eating spicy food and living in a hot and humid country.

But what is the core underlying driver of this demad – personal hygiene or personal grooming?

- G. Mohan

What’s in a Designation

Mr. Bill Gates is the Chief Software Architect of Microsoft.

 

Mr. Narayana Murthy and Mr. Tarun Das are the Chief Mentors of Infosys and CII respectively.

 

Now I read Mr. Subroto Bagchi, has started calling himself Gardener of Mindtree Consulting.  What next? Mr. K. V. Kamath getting anointed as Vaultkeeper of ICICI Bank?

 

- G. Mohan.

Singh is King

Mr. K.P. Singh and his company DLF are now all over the media. The media has suddenly found a new rich guy to cover ever since Mr. Singh got listed as the 8th richest billionaire in the world by Forbes. 

 

While allowing Mr. Singh his place in the sun, let us spend a few minutes in trying to understand how did he amass a net worth of $30 billion in just three decades.

Mr. Singh’s wealth comes from real estate, particularly the huge valuations that the DLF land banks enjoy. Real estate is a murky business. It is a kind of business where political, muscle (read crime) and money power are inexorably interwoven. Unless you are at the top of the game in all the three areas, it is hard to be a real estate tycoon. Although, there are no evidences ( at least, not yet proven) against Mr. Singh, there are legions of stories of how he  had acquired land using all the rules in the book “Saam – Daam – Dandh – Bhed” to snare away  land from the farmers  of an erstwhile Haryana village now home to glass-and-granaite megapolis called Gurgaon.

 

However, credit has to be given though where it is due. Mr. Singh has shown a wide range of relationship management skills. On the one hand, he could befriend  Haryanvi village sarpanches , sipping lassi  with them, sitting on their khatiyas.

 

On the other hand, Mr. Singh proved to be equally adept in winning over the trust and admiration of  the  then American deity of the corporate world - Mr. Jack Welch. Let’s not forget when Mr. Singh met

Mr. Welch first, the former had very little of his current day clout.

 

Not only, GE turned out to be the first major international client of DLF in Gurgaon, Welch proclaimed Singh as his friend and credited the latter for introducing GE to India (and vice-versa) in the former’s autobiography.

 

DLF had a huge IPO last year. DLF IPO had its fair share of problems, being deferred many times due to various reasons. DLF IPO went through but the share has been very volatile ever since. Its current share price is very close to the IPO issue price.

 

Mr. Singh is now trying hard to improve the market perception of the real estate business in general and DLF in particular. Yesterday, he was on CNBC talking to a cub reporter on the former’s private jet, talking up the DLF stock.

 

As if being the lead sponsor of the Indian Premier League isn’t enough of a promotion,

nowadays, Mr. Singh is found delivering convocation addresses at the Indian School of Business, 

 

G B Pant University (they even conferred him an honorary Doctorate!) and some such hallowed portals.  Such PR events doubtlessly do a lot of good to Mr. Singh’s image. But what does it do to the image of the academic worthies who run these prestigious institutions?

  

-  G. Mohan

Charisma and the Corner Office: Question Time in Infosys

Infosys Technologies (Infy) has been a company which has adorned the covers of many a magazine, Indian and international. It has received numerous awards as an excellent company , best employer, best annual report and what have you.Infosys campus in Bangalore has featured in many TV programmes as a symbol of modern India. Foreign dignitaries visited the Infosys campus in Bangalore the way they would visit Raj Ghat in Delhi.

 

The founder CEO of Infosys N.R.Narayan Murthy (NRN) has been written about more often than any other Indian CEO in recent times. His rags to riches story, his frugal lifestyle, his professional capabilities have been covered in great detail. His views and advice were taken on even matters outside IT like managing IITs or reservation in corporate sector or Bangalore airport. There was even a strong campaign among his followers to make him India’s President. His wife Sudha Murthy also helped his cause in her own way. Her interview to the Savvy magazine in which she describes how she saved money or pledged her jewels for starting Infosys was one of the most forwarded interviews in the email circuit. Sudha Murthy through her writing and Infosys foundation work added to the image of the Murthys as role models for the new India . On  their middle class indian values  success and wealth has sit lightly.

The second CEO was Nandan Nilekani. Nandan after being under the shadow of NRN came on his own pretty quickly. He came across as a young , suave contemporary manager who was more business oriented. He was also helped by the fact that during his tenure Infy had a dream run in business. Nandan also gained a lot by his mention in the bestseller “The World is flat” by Thomas Friedman. Friedman gave Nilekani the credit for coming up with concept of a flat world. Nandan also showed rare grace by leaving the CEO’s chair at a time when he could have gone on easily for another 5-10 years.

 

During NRN and Nandan’s time, Infosys was a darling of the stockmarkets. Infy as a company was covered by maximum number of analysts. It was a must-have stock in every mutual fund or foreign institutional investor’s portfolio. The quarterly results of Infy was considered as the start of the earnings season even if some other companies would have announced the results before Infy. Infy was known to under-promise and over-deliver, so much so that if the earnings of Infy were in line with their guidance the market would react adversely.

 

Kris Gopalakrishnan took over from Nandan Nilekani. Being one of the original founders, I guess it was his turn to become the CEO. At the time when Kris took over, the going was good but hard times were round the corner. Not that there was any decline in sales or losses. It was just that Infy stopped growing at the rates it had gotten used to. Then the dollar-rupee equation put a question mark on the entire IT industry. IT industry stocks gave way to capital goods, power and financial services stocks. In the bull run of 2007-08, IT industry underperformed and Infy stock declined by nearly 30 %. Infy moved out of the radar of most investors and magazines and TV channels stopped giving it the prime space or time. It did not help matters that the current Infy CEO does not have the stature or charisma of NRN or Nilekani to inspire confidence. He can easily be mistaken for a Chief Engineer of a State Electricity Board or a Jt Secretary pushing files in North Block.

 

Suffice to say that the profile of Infy and its CEOs have been diminishing in recent times. It will be interesting to see if the media gives them back their high profile, if their stock starts performing well. In a company where the promoters own less than 30 % stock, it is time they looked outside the founders for their next CEO. Perhaps a non-Indian, non-promoter CEO brought in from outside will be able to take Infy out of its comfort-zone and also help Infy regain its high-profile. 

- G. Mohan

Why I Love Captain Gopinath

When Mr. Vijay Mallya took over Air Deccan in June 2007 , both Mr  Mallya and Captain Gopinath projected a united front. By appointing himself as the Chairman and Captain Gopinath as the Vice Chairman, Mr. Mallya made it clear who would call the shots. The official communication stated that Air Deccan and Kingfisher would co-exist as two separate airlines, Air Deccan being the Low-Cost Carrier and Kingfisher being a full service airline. The synergies were apparently in the back-ends because both had a Airbus fleet.

 

From October 2007 onwards when Air Deccan went ahead with a rebranding exercise, it became clear that it was slowly losing its identity and getting prepared to be merged with Kingfisher The blue and yellow  Air Deccan colours gave way to Kingfisher red and white. The font was same as Kingfisher’s. Also, its mascot, Mr. R.K Laxman’s common man was dropped and the simple yet elegant logo of  two hands joined together, gave way to the Kingfisher logo.

 

Now we hear the two airlines will be merged and Air Deccan will no longer exist. Captain Gopinath will leave the passenger airline business and start a new business in logistics, which will probably be called “Deccan Cargo.”

 

Air Deccan may not exist tomorrow  but no one should forget the role it played  in bringing about a radical change in the aviation sector in India. Captain Gopinath by creating a Low Cost Carrier business model made millions of Indians fly for the first time. He linked small cities like Hubli, Pathankot, Raipur and other places which even the national airline did not operate in. Air Deccan showed the power of the Internet in a country like India by selling the tickets through net only. Now comparitive shopping of air tickets on the Net is assumed as a natural way of purchasing air tickets.

 

Air Deccan had its huge number of detractors who cursed it for its cancellations, unreliable service etc, but if they were paying lesser fares for their Jet or Indian Airlines tickets it was thanks to Air Deccan.

 

Captain Gopinath is a gutsy and tenacious entrepreneur with flair for disruptive strategies. I am sure that he will make a success of whatever business he gets in.

- G. Mohan

David vs Goliath – A Bollywood Story

Jab We Met (JWM) was a relatively low-budget film produced by Shree Ashtavinayak Productions. Besides the curiosity value of checking out the chemistry beween its lead pair and  erstwhile lovers - Shahid Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor ( their relationship had  turned sour just before the release of the movie), nothing much was expected of it. The film’s director Imtiaz Ali had shown some promise in his first movie Socha Na Tha, but as a director he was hardly hot property.

 

JWM was released in October 2007 in the midst of  high voltage promotion of two really big movies, Om Shanti Om and Saawariya. All the news channels and entertainment channels were so full of them that JWM hardly got any mention. The newspapers gave it a decent review and whoever saw it said, it was a nice candyfloss love story.

 

The movie was pulled out of many theatres to make way for the two big movies, reducing the exhibition of the movie to an odd show in the multiplexes.The trade magazines announced it as a hit, although it just made Rs. 13 crores as against Rs. 11 crore by Saawariya, which was declared a flop.(Source : www.indiafm.com)

 

The post-release promotion of JWM is really a  case worth studying, particularly for its exploitation of several channels of distribution innovatively.

 JWM video rights were given to Moser Baer and they launched the JWM videos within four months of the release of the movie. They did killer pricing at Rs 34 for the VCD and Rs 48 ( approx) for the DVD. JWM VCD and DVDs  flooded the market. JWM was the top selling video for weeks together in most stores. People who had watched the movie in the theatres bought it to see it again and those who missed the movie in the theatres also bought the videos.

 

Parallely, the producers kept the interest in the movie alive by playing the music videos in all TV music channels and FM stations. The music of JWM is a huge hit in itself. JWM is now being screened by many Hindi movie channels as the blockbuster movie of the week.

 

Through intelligent use of the various channels and revenue streams the producers of JWM laughed all the way to the bank. Shree AshtaVinayak can surely teach a lesson or two to the Sony Pictures of the world. 

 

The moral of the story is that if you have a  superior product, don’t lose heart at being outspent by your bigger rivals.  Focus on outwitting them.  Persistence and innovation usually make for happy ending.

- G. Mohan