Wit Wisdom and Whoop

In this the 3rd part of my 4 part blog about India and its market, I talk about the major characteristics of the Indian market.  The Indian market is not exactly price sensitive but more cash flow sensitive. They like to spread every dollar as much as possible. Hence for example a leasing option or a deferred payment gains greater attraction than outright purchase. The whole motivation is to do more with less and if the option is to do less due to price, it’s usually the desire for more that wins. The single use shampoo sachet is said to be 90% of the Indian market as against the bigger bottles. While unit cost may be lower, the fact is that the vast population at the bottom of the pyramid can now afford to buy a single use shampoo sachet.  Generalists run most institutions in leadership positions than specialists. They multi task on various areas of a business, industry and technology. So you will have a government officer who runs the Tourism department one day and then the...

How often have you heard the phrase "India is different"? But how many have tried to ponder as to why it is different ? Usually the focus is on the diversity, the languages, dress, food and so on which is taken to mean that India is different from other markets. However when it comes to doing business, India IS DIFFERENT and most including our own selves fail to understand this and so doing business becomes difficult. The ease of doing business is seen as how quickly you get government paperwork completed. While that is no doubt important, there are other complex issues that need to be understood, For this note I have classified the world into 5 market geographies, namely - Americas, Europe, China, India & Rest of the world. The American market is the most advanced and mature technologically and the rest of the world follows them over time. The closest behind them is the European market which is unified on many issues since long, even before it became the EU. Both these m...

Prompted by a question I was asked, I decided to write a 4 part blog on the subject matter of India and doing business in India. The audience to me for this blog is anyone who is keen to do business in and with India, invest in India. I published this first on Linkedin but thought will share it here also. This is the first part of the blog. In my long career with global companies meeting people across the world I have learnt to accept diversity of every kind including biases, discrimination but it has mostly been wonderful relationships, friendships and the positives far outweigh the negatives. The learning has been beyond compare or valuation. One question that I get asked often is about describing India, of knowing India especially when it relates to foreigners making business or investment decisions. I get told about how they have met people who seemed to know India, know everything and making assurances while I come across as someone who is not making commitments at the big picture...

Much has been said and written about the Demonetisation decision of the Modi government. Everybody and his uncle, aunty and niece have an opinion about it. If the government thinks that this is one great way of winning the war against black money the opposition thinks this is the one great way to destroy the economy.  Manmohan Singh has been Chief Economic Advisor to the Govt of India, Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Finance Minister who helped turn the Indian economy around to become what it is today and was the Prime Minister for 10 years. Celebrated and hailed globally for his acumen in economics  he wasted a golden opportunity in Parliament when he spoke. He could have explained economic theory, impact of demonetisation, what exactly happens  and what the future is likely to hold for India. Instead he chose to throw some numbers without any basis, filmy dialogues and even the one quote of the father of economics John Meynard Keynes was misused. The comp...

As I checked my twitter feed late in the night I was shocked to hear of the ouster of Mr. Cyrus Mistry as Chairman of Tata Group in what seemed like a Surgical Strike. Least expected and more importantly there had been no hint in any media including those on economics and finance that there was any trouble afoot within the Tata group. What is even more intriguing is the fact that even as the announcement was made, the name of Mr. Mistry and his team has been removed including his speeches, interviews etc from across the group websites in one clean sweep. It's one thing to change the Chairman of a company such as Tata’s, but another to do so in such a brutal fashion? One would think that such brutal change would happen only when the person involved has been caught in a completely unacceptable position, but here that doesn’t seem the case – or is there something that nobody knows about? The news that Mr. Mistry is going to drag the group to court indicates that he doesn’t qui...

The flavour of the day be it on Whatsap groups or social media or even MSM, is the news that Britain is leaving the European Union. There has been much hand wringing, abusing, predictions of dire futures, commentary of Left, Right, Centre policies and some have even extended the arguments to racism, casteism, religion, anti minorityism and what have you.  51% of the people think the future will be great and 49% think its going to be bleak.  But those who think that the 51% are wrong also swear by democracy. Funny. If you believe in democracy then it means that you disagree with them, but accept the majority verdict. But many especially Indian MSM stars have been abusing the 51% with choice words – directly or indirectly – mobs, scoundrels, haters. Listen, what the UK citizens want to do is their business, those amongst us who have and do business with them  – live with change. Change is the ONLY constant in the world even if it is not what you espouse, but don’t beli...

1975 to 1977 – Emergency declared by Congress under Indira Gandhi. The atrocities of that period were predominantly in northern India. Whole slums demolished with bulldozers, thousands of people sterilised even if they were young, others killed. The Turkman gate incident where many Muslims were rendered homeless and thrown out is still well known. In the south the effect of the emergency was far less. We did have the infamous Rajan murder case where a young engineering student was brutally tortured and killed and his body never found. The prime accused Karunakaran went on to become a Chief Minister and  a very senior national leader of the Congress. As a 14 year old my own classmates were arrested ostensibly for wearing khaki shorts, identified with the RSS, and transported to a jail 200 kms away and lodged there. They were let off after a day with dire warnings. In 1977 the Janata party swept to power with 295 seats, squabbled, lost and fresh elections held in 1980. A nat...