IIPM B School

Monday, August 9, 2010

Rajat Bal, General Manager EMEA (Europe, Middle East & Africa), International Business, i.Tech Dynamic reveals his company’s India plans to B&E

Formed in 2002 in Hong Kong, i.Tech is a relatively young company that has successfully carved a niche for itself in the electronics space in a short span of time. The company has launched a range of headphones and headsets. In addition, it is carving a market for itself in the realm of

green-friendly chargers and bluetooth devices, that run on solar energy. They have taken their products through distributors to several countries, including China, Mexico, Middle East, India, Singapore, Europe, Malaysia, Thailand and countries in Europe as well. Through the tie up with Ingram Micro in India, the company is looking to expand its product reach in the market in a big way. In this interaction, Rajat Bal talks about the potential of the Indian market for the company and how they plan to expand their reach into the market. Some excerpts:

B&E: Tell us about the key products that i.Tech plans to leverage on in the Indian market.

RAJAT BAL (RB): i.Tech has been present in the Indian market since 2008. i.Tech has an extremely innovative range of Mono as well as Stereo Bluetooth headsets. I.Tech offers unique innovative product features such as multipoint, multipoint and vibrate, stereo headsets with AVRCP, Noise cancellation, Bluetooth headsets with display as well as Radio features, as well as first in the market Solar Headset with multi point as well as Nosie Cancellation. i.Tech has a number of achievements to its credit. It was the first company to promote a stereo bluetooth headset in 2005. We introduced the first multipoint headset in 2006 which pairs two BT devices at the same time. In 2007, we launched the first stereo product with a radio FM feature. In 2008, we introduced the first bluetooth headset with 2.1 EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) and have also launched the first bluetooth headset with the triple point feature last year.

B&E: What is the main USP of these products that i.Tech has broght into the market in all these years?
RB: i.Tech products have a very unique form factor, the Clip form factor, which allows users a much enhanced user experience. i.Tech products use enhanced features such as Display, Vibrate, and AVRCP in our products with relative ease that our competitors with the over the ear form factor cannot use. Our innovative feature set as well as a unique, user friendly Clip form factor are our key USPs.

B&E: Does the organisation have some significant business diversification plans going forward?
RB: The core business of i.Tech is design and development of Bluetooth Wireless accessories and computer peripherals. We are looking at a diversification of our product range. Having said that, our core business will remain Bluetooth Wireless Accessories.

B&E: How would you rate your products in terms of the pricing?
RB: A majority of i.Tech products are focused on mid to high end of the market, although limited to a few SKU’s i.Tech also has very strong entry level products. Our product feature set truly adds value to the end user. Our key value proposition is the price and quality of our products.

B&E: But what’s your core competence with respect to other players in the same industry?
RB: i.Tech’s core competency lies in its in-house R&D and in its product design teams.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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Saturday, August 7, 2010

The giant’s not dead? Praise the...

With the Sybase deal, SAP’s new management has shown a welcome display of strategic intent, but SAP has a number of questions to answer with respect to its role in the changing IT environment by Virat Bahri

SAP’s acquisition of Sybase doesn’t up the ante in the database and business analytics space immediately, but it is a welcome display of strategic direction on the part of SAP. Sybase is the leader in mobile application database with dynamic data movement technology, database for analytics and has presence in telecom and financial services. It helps SAP tap the growing number of mobile and smart phone users through its enterprise offerings. Wilson opines, “The major benefit to SAP is Sybase’s mobile middleware platform, which is device-agnostic and provides strong device security and management capabilities.” Oracle & IBM haven’t been too aggressive in mobile analytics, so SAP plans to steal a march.

There are other reasons, as a report by IDC confirms. Around 80% of SAP R3 users are on Oracle’s database, and SAP has been wanting to change that with little success. Sybase ASE provides SAP with a valuable database for its enterprise solutions. Obviously, it is not a replacement of Oracle, so it’s no wonder that SAP maintains that it will maintain database independence, i.e. support Oracle.

But in the long term, there could be some surprises. Henry Morris, Senior VP, Worldwide Software and Services Research, IDC, comments to B&E, “As per Dr. Hasso Plattner’s speech (Chairman, SAP AG), the phased roadmap to in memory leads to an end state where conventional relational databases are eclipsed by in memory. Down the road, this could threaten Oracle’s position as the most popular database under SAP.” Actually, third generation database technology with columnar and in-memory features (benefit of the Sybase acquisition) is also widely touted as the future. “These technologies are becoming mainstream, and are offered by a wide variety of vendors to solve common, real-world data management problems,” says Carl Olofson, Research VP, Database Management and Data Integration software research, IDC. Oracle, IBM and Microsoft already have databases based on these technologies. Assuming the deal does get completed after some contentious issues with Sybase shareholders are resolved, there are risks for SAP too. Firstly, the company risks alienating other mobile partners like Syclo and Sky Technologies. Also, its challenge will be to demonstrate that the combination of in memory and columnar technology is a genuine value addition to customers.

SAP clearly needs to do a better job in articulating the business benefits with solid use cases. While it gains advantages in the mobility space, SAP has to ensure that its enterprise products are suited to the changing environment where SaaS, on demand and cloud computing are in vogue. Business By Design (SAP’s SaaS solution) requires a very different go-to-market model than SAP has used historically in that it relies on a high-volume, low-margin model, quite different from the low-volume, high-margin model of the past. This will be one of SAP’s critical tests now. SAP has to also strengthen its vertical presence and build or acquire more applications to build its SaaS portfolio before the competition. In all, though McDermott and Snabe have proved, for once, that SAP retains the ability to think ahead of the market. But that claim, in the IT sector, holds water only for a quarter. The giant has to move more often, and faster.

Virat Bahri

Friday, August 6, 2010

F-bomb diplomacy!

All Obama requires to ensure that US is seen as a great ally by the world is to force US officials to control their urge to humiliate people

Not that the US administration has given him any special treatment, they’ve done that with many other nations too. In a weekly column in Forbes magazine in September 2009 titled Humiliating Japan, C. Chang wrote about the various instances when US officials had malevolently belittled Japanese government officials continuously – leading to growing discontent amongst the Japanese population against US, and their elongated presence at Japan’s Okinawa base. This is the very reason that the current Hatoyama government has started giving the US eloquent tit-for-tats, not failing to responde to each and every repartee.

Beside Iraq and Afghanistan, even Japan, Germany and many other countries seem offended with the way American establishment officials behave. Many global conferences are being organized without US involvement now. Latin America hardly pays heed to US remarks and suggestions – and one believes pays them back in the same coin; so does the rambunctious Iran. China’s distaste for American philosophy hardly needs any formal introduction.

With Barack Obama being elected as the first Muslim-black President, there has been a ray of hope for a more approachable and understanding America with a world view. To add to that, Obama is a great orator – perhaps the greatest yet in the line of US Presidents – and one who has the least respect for off-the-cuff verbal assaults (he practices his speeches excruciatingly diligently and never gives a speech without a tele-prompter). In other words, Obama knows the power of speech, the power of communication, and the power of sending the right “friendly” signal.

And he’s realising the follies of his people – in the Karzai case, for example, he sided immediately with the Afghanistan President and blasted his national security team, telling them to treat Karzai with more public respect. In a similar manner, Obama needs to send his team on goodwill visits to countries like North Korea, Afghanistan, Iran, Japan and the likes to promote the power of good faith. If Bill Clinton can get two US journalists freed in North Korea by deciding one day to simply fly in, meet the boss (Kim Jong-il), talk sweetly, and fly out, then why can’t the same be done by Obama’s people? Sadly, as long as dimwit stalwarts like Dick Cheney keep feeling proud of the ‘F’s in their lives, F-theory would stay.

Sray Agarwal

Thursday, August 5, 2010

“In the midst of transformation, client needs one throat to choke!”

Finacle global head Hargopal M. engages in an exclusive interaction with Virat Bahri of B&E

B&E: Finacle has been one of the most talked about Indian IT services brands. What is the transformational impact of the product for Infosys?
Hargopal M. (HM): We were one of the first vendors to work with one of the public sector banks. We had a pilot incidentally here in Parliament street; the idea was very clear – that banking industry being a very mature industry, has defined processes, which can be standardised and encapsulated into a product, which can give time to market advantage for the banks; also bring in the advantages of best practices across various parts of the world. Finacle was launched in 2000. India was luckily going through the need for the next scale and looking beyond the total automation part of it how can we bring in anywhere banking, in terms of the customer part of it. The whole core banking transformation wave started in Asia Pacific. It’s a good made in India success story. In 2000, Indian banks used to look westward for best practices, now global banks look at India; average bank spend per capita of customer is $76, whereas in India spends $11-14. Indian GDP increased 184% between 2000-2010, bank deposits 500%, lending increased by 300-350%, while scale of staff has gone up by a mere 5%.

B&E: The core banking solution space is still quite fragmented. What is Finnacles core differentiation?
HM: The richness of the whole functional software in an integrated fashion is one. Core banking reaches millions of customers; today a benchmark is over 100 million transactions per hour. Finacle is very flexible with around 5000 parameters. The agility part is extremely high. When a bank like ICICI is looking to go and sell in Canada, they are not only looking at expat Indians. With one branch, they can reach many more customers like any other local bank. Then there is the efficiency dimension – how you manage the scale. In 2003, 92% of ICICI customers were serviced through branches. Now only about 13% are serviced through branches. We also have an excellent delivery track record. At any time, 6000-7000 projects are running across the company. The whole ability to partner the bank and take it through the journey is very important. A large Tier 1 bank has 2500-3000 sub systems, all disparate. Let’s say you need to retain 900 sub-systems and promote to the same level as the core banking; you have to integrate and rewire. The ability to address those integration challenges is the key. For banks, it is like “Changing the engine of the Boeing/Airbus while on a transit landing flight”. The client needs one throat to choke – whether it is consulting, BPO, infrastructure, product, ADM, performance management – I need to talk to one guy that brings them comfort.

B&E: What are the new technology challenges for global banks?
HM: Banks in India did not have a legacy problem, but these banks had a problem. So the option was to do it piece by piece, sans major commotion. We talked to about 400 C-level executives across Americas, Europe, Asia. During 2009-August to October, what is your major challenge. About 78% of the banks said that innovation is an important agenda. They want to look at how I will compete in these tough times better. A mid-sized bank wants to acquire the customers of larger banks when they are in trouble. Large wants to ensure that he holds on to the customer and ensure that he has a platform for future growth while the slowdown is there. For instance, when there is an M&A, where is the data; if it is strewn across 200-300 systems, it is a nightmare. For the same dollar, you have to now sweat it out much more. Whatever you are doing today, how can you do it doing it tomorrow at 40% or 60% of the cost is the challenge.

Virat Bahri

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Time out!

Aishwarya Rai will be seen with literally no make-up in Raavan. Apparently, it’s a once in a lifetime role for the actress as she got to show her true acting abilities in the movie. The Bachchan bahu is so tired after working back to back for four movies that she isn’t signing any other movie for now and will be taking a break and accompanying hubby on his outdoor shoot in Greece. After continuously working for three years after marriage this is definitely a well- deserved break for Ash!

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

The Views

Shahbaz Bhatti, Minister for Minorities, Pakistan

On being minority in Pakistan
The government believes in social justice, equality and humanity. It wants to offer democratic choice to all. We did not have a democratic regime for many years and therefore we had problems. The present government believes in the concept of Islam that guarantees the rights of the minorities. The present government has taken steps that is not only historic but ensures protection of minorities. For the first time, this ministry has been created separate from the ministry of religious affairs. For the first time, two members of the Hindu community in the National Assembly have won on the general seats.

On blasphemy law and legislations
We are changing laws to ensure proper registration of marriages for Hindus and Christians. The blasphemy law is being reviewed. The changes will ensure it is not be misused to harass minorities. We are also bringing in a minority protection bill. We are consulting political parties and community leaders for inputs. In the blasphemy law, we have decided that before the registration of FIR, there will be a thorough inquiry. Also, if somebody levels a false accusation, the complainant will be charged with perjury.

On minorities being targeted by Taliban
The atrocities on minority communities should not be taken in isolation. This is a mindset we are fighting against. This mindset has killed more fellow Muslims than minorities. Government has taken action against such people. We are sorry one of our Sikh brothers got killed, but we managed to free several of them.

On innovative steps taken by the ministry
We have launched a campaign for interfaith harmony. It is one of its kinds in the world. We have planned to establish Interfaith Harmony Committee in all the 127 districts of the country. Each committee will comprise 24 members, 12 each from Muslim and non-Muslim community. We are also planning to launch a 24 hours helpline for minorities.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Did he get it wrong all along?

Prof. C. K. Prahalad might have been instrumental in challenging convention and initiating very relevant debates, but Prahalad’s theories weren’t exactly conclusive in themselves with respect to the logic they purported... B&E presents a review of why and where Prahalad got it wrong by Virat Bahri

It obviously didn’t come easy – accepting the fact that the meeting I had had with Prof. C. K. Prahalad just a few months back in India was going to be the very last. He had then talked at length on how MNCs entering India were tapping the market better than Indian companies and how he hoped for an India where we would world class in every way. As we were talking, a student doing his post graduation in computer science came up & asked how he (the student) could be world class. Prahalad’s reply was, “Have you contemplated doing a Ph.D.?” On receiving a negative reply, he said, “That’s what I mean by world class.”

That reply consolidated how the most respected Prahalad, perhaps to his biggest disadvantage, summarised solutions in templates that could have been dismissed as being too simplistic, were it not for him being the proponent. Prof. Prahalad’s most popular perspectives – Core Competence and Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid – will undoubtedly be the ones the world will remember him most for, and would also be the ones most criticised for glaring structural fallacies, most to do with being based on subjective commentaries rather than on quantitative evidence.

The Core Competence theory (by Gary Hamel and C. K. Prahalad) elucidated – with theoretical surveys – that a successful corporation is one that can develop its range of businesses based on a few ‘core competencies’ rather than having diverse SBUs. Amidst numerous counter arguments, the BCG report titled ‘Managing for value: How the world’s top diversified companies produce superior shareholder returns” (by Dieter Heuskel, Achim Fechtel and Philip Beckmann) was arguably the strongest, to the extent that it devastated the competence proposition ruthlessly.

BCG’s comprehensive report was based on a 1996-2005 research of 300 diversified, slightly diversified and focused companies. While they mentioned that 52% of diversified companies beat the stock market average based on Relative Total Shareholder Return (RTSR), the important factor was that their average RTSR was also higher than that of focused firms that beat the stock market average. Better, they showed that a majority of focused companies could not beat the average shareholder returns provided by diversified firms. The report concluded that there is no correlation between diversification and performance.