How technology makes life simple & fun

Do you like being confused? Ofcourse not, but scientists like being confused because it makes them think about things but businesses run a mile away from the very idea of confusion because it upsets the applecart for them. So, what do they do? Socratic Arts, CEO, Roger Schank feels businesses should appreciate confusion because it leads to new ideas. He told CNBC, "When everyone in your company agrees on the question, innovation is possible."

Some businesses have changed the way we live and Illy Coffee is one of them. CEO, Illy Coffee, Andrea Illy comes from a illustrious family with coffee running in his veins. His grandfather, Francesco Illy was the first person to invent the espresso machine and at one time, the company held 17 patents. For more than 70 years, Illy Coffee has been at the forefront of innovation.

And then there is CEO, On Demand Books, Dane Neller who has made it possible to print, trim and bind paperback books at a penny a page, with the help of his espresso book machine. This has made it possible for him to print only a single copy of any book. He has plans to use the vast reservoir of written content available, that can be printed anywhere in the world.

Both these men have made consumers their focal point and made sure that their respective businesses keep that in mind. Neller says, "In our case, the consumer wants the product cheaply and immediately. And that's what we are delivering with our book machine. You can get any book now, at any time at a fraction of the time. So, in the end, the consumer is king and that determines what your technology is going to do."

Window-shopping at Ralph Lauren

Just how much more fun shopping can be made is proved by Ralph Lauren. The ace designer's 25,000 sqft Manhattan store has put up an innovative touchscreen on its store window. So, as people walk by, the touchscreen grabs their attention and they can touch and call up merchandise. Right now, they have only their range of tennis clothing up but this is going to expand to their casual wear as well.

The screen is a transparent sheet right on their huge store window and people can browse as well as buy the clothes standing right there, without even having to step into the store at all! With a credit card swipe machine also fixed onto the window just beside the touchscreen, this use of technology has given window shopping a whole new twist!

Senior Vice President at Ralph Lauren, David Lauren is impressed with the way people have taken to this concept, that he plans to extend to all the other stores.

Schank feels the same way about Illy developing better and better espresso machines, so, that people can enjoy the same great cup of coffee at home, as they would do in Italy! And this is a espresso fan expressing his desire. So, this is the kind of consumer feedback that makes technology get user-friendly, so that eventually, everybody has access to it and can learn how to use it.

Similarly, there are other inventions in the works that could prove revolutionary, and one of them is RFIDs, which is chip that carries information about each and every product it can be embedded into. It has no battery or keyboard. When it hears a radio signal, it lights up and sends out a serial number. So, if accepted by everyone, it could do away with barcodes and barcode scanners for good. It will become the easiest way for packages to say 'who' they are and 'where' they are! Ultimately, this could lead to change in supply chain, supermarkets and payroll processes.

This is a way of using technology to enhance our own efficiency. But Schank also sees this as something that will build communities and it is something that will help with education. He feels that a virtual world like Second Life, that was created by the CEO, Linden Lab, Philip Rosedale has the potential to teach students about entrepreneurship while they are still studying in school. It can help a law student practice law before he/she even hits the street, looking for their first job.

So, in the sense of defining what innovation truly means, then creating a memorable experience as well as changing the way the world interacts, this invention - a virtual world - is truly going to be the way forward for the way people and technology interact.

Written for moneycontrol.com

Read more stories here:
Watch what customers do
Innovating to stay in the fast lane
Do you have to fail to innovate

Shahrukh Khan portrayed him in Swades

CEO and Founder, SKS Microfinance, Vikram Akula believes that business should always have a soul and should make a real difference to the life of people and not just its shareholders. Let's catch up with Vikram Akula, who made it to the Time magazine's list of people who will shape our future.

Reel life does sometimes imitate real life. Remember Shahrukh Khan's character in Swades? He does what Vikram Akula did with his life - give back to the country and make opportunities available to the last man or woman - often the most-neglected.

Vikram Akula decided to make his matrabhoomi his karmabhoomi, which may sound like pop-patriotism. After all, how often does one see a graduate from Yale, a scholar who gave up on the American dream for an Indian one. But that's exactly what Vikram did; he first came to India in the early 1990s and worked with an NGO and finally in 1998 launched Swayam Krishi Sangam or SKS - an NGO to provide economically underprivileged women in the Telangana region an entrepreneurial opportunity.

So, how did his NGO really start and what gave him the impetus to do something in India. He told CNBC-TV18, "There are images from my experience in India that will forever stay with me and there is one story in particular, I was about seven years old at that time, visiting my aunt and my aunt bought pots from a woman. She was dressed in a torn sari and she had a child of about my age."

"So, as children we did make a connection, while this sale was going on and after my aunt bought the pots, she then gave rice to this woman and the woman put out her sari and my aunt poured the rice into it and then my aunt left. About 20-30 grains of rice fell on the floor and then she pressed her fingers on the floor and literally picked up each grain and for me that was the first time in my life, that I really understood what it means to be hungry. For them 20 grains of rice really made a difference. Although, that was at a particular moment but images like that stayed with me and somehow said to me, that at a certain point I need to go back."

That's when he realized that something needed to be done for Indians. He says, that charity is not what people want but an opportunity to make things happen for themselves, and that has been his career's work. So that is really how is started his micro-finance business.

He explains, "My first experience with a traditional NGO was one that was doing a number of different activities - education, health, environmental work. So, I had enough to do – it was a kind of a learning in different aspects of the work and after that experience, the key takeaway for me was that economic development was the single most important thing needed. Not that it is the end of development, but it was the anchor on which everything else hinged. So, that was when I decided after that first year and a half, that this is the piece that I like to focus on."

"Then I came back again and this time I was working in micro-finance and the key takeaway from that experience was that micro-finance is important, but the way the NGOs were doing micro-finance was incredibly slow and inefficient and that is when I said, that there is got to be a better way to do micro-financing, and then I founded SKS in 1998."

Then in 2005, he converted it from an NGO into an NBFC. But how was his first sales pitch, when he had to get bankers on board, to participate in his vision? He says, he was rejected by many as no one would give them the time of the day. And these were the very same regional rural banks, who were in business to lend money to the rural people.

Akula says he was laughed at and these bankers called him a foolish American and this was not how business was done. But, today he has 2, 30,000 lakh clients and Rs 50 crore has been disbursed so far and he's looking to scale this up to 7 lakh clients and give away Rs 700 crore across 10 states, in 2007.

Vikram's dream is ambitious but he is confident because he believes in what he's doing, which is empowering women – he is not lending to men – because "women tend to invest profit back into their households. So, if you are looking to make an impact on a household, they are the ones who bring money back, invest it in their household and women atleast in rural areas, tend to be better entrepreneurs. They are slightly more risk averse than men are, they are slightly more careful with how they manage money. So, their projects tend to succeed more often than not."

"We have disbursed about Rs 436 crore in the last year. We have got about 163 different activities that women are involved with. One popular one is lifestock - selling milk at the weekly market and repaying a loan at the end of it – so, having a buffalo is an asset. Other activities are small kirana stores - they will buy stock from the local town and sell it at fairly high margins – so, they can earn a significant return on their investment."

Akula's policy of only lending to women also works out in another way, as SKS has seen a 98% repayment rate. He claims that SKS provides the lowest cost financing to the poor, with the exception of a subsidized government loan. For a loan of Rs 10,000 the borrower will end up paying Rs 200 a week on the principle and Rs 25 as the interest.

He's on the Time magazine list and he sees it as an affirmation of his work and says, "This is the right way to help our country get out of poverty. I very much feel in the end that I love this country and love the work that I do. This country has tremendous potential and this is one way to release that potential."

Written for moneycontrol.com

Watch what customers do: Schank

Are customers really aware of what they want and should businesses be listening to them at all? CEO, Socratic Arts, Roger Schank told CNBC that this management concept is overhyped far too much. He feels people are so confused about what they want in a girlfriend, or what kind of home they want or even what they want from their life, why would they be so clear about other things! He emphasizes, "Don't listen to what your customers say, watch what they do. See what they do in real life. Observation is everything.

He adds, "Experiences are about learning and people love to learn because they are growing and changing. Customers don't know what they need. It's important to know what the real issues are and asking your customer may not be the right way to do it."

People didn't know they needed a cellphone or a computer, but now it's part of everyone's lives. This goes for all the gadgets that today makes our lives so much simpler (or complicated, as some people believe). So, asking a person 20 years ago, if he wanted a PC would have led to a simple "No" or "What for?" But the PC is here today. The thing is to ask new questions or put questions in a different manner, so you get different answers.

CEO, Moen, Richard Posey is heading a company that produces fashionable plumbing products. From the ultra-sleek faucets to shower heads..Moen's got all that and more. His is such a research focused company that he admist to watching people shower or generally use their products, so that they can get some good feedback!

He says, "We use this information and see how people interact with our products, and use this insight to develop our products. But we look at other information - our own knowledge of the market, our own instincts and then say, this is what we should do."

But CEO & Founder, SKS Microfinance, Vikrum Akula agrees with Schank and says, that even he finds that people don't say actually say what they want. Though CEO ebay, Meg Whitman, says that a lot of ebay customers tend to be entrepreneurs thenselves and ebay keeps an eye on them. (Read a complete profile on him here: Shahrukh Khan portrayed him in Swades)

For instance in 1999, her colleagues suddenly noticed a lot of demand for die-cast car models and brought it to her notice. Then suddenly, real cars soon started listing. And now ebay Motors is the biggest revenue earner for ebay.

Schank feels ebay is still evolving, so no one knows where it's headed, while Moen, is in the business of showerheads, which have been around for a long while now. So, what is new, that is going to come out from this company...that is something, that is not going to come from customers.

Grameen Gives!

The Grameen Bank is a co-operative bank which is an example of what one man's vision can accomplish. Mohammed Yunus is the only economist to have won a Nobel Peace prize but then he deserves it for the immense social responsibility movement, he has single-handedly started in Bangladesh. He saw that pithy economic concepts were not making a difference in the lives of his poor countrymen What they wanted was hard cash to tide them over. So, he started handing money out from his own pocket to people to start their own businesses and this included women entrepreneurs as well.

Women are considered by most banks as being high risk borrowers, so they didn't loan money to them. But Yunus's own experience is that women make for better borrowers, as they have consistently repaid Grameen Bank. Also, he knows that money in a woman's hand is channeled into her household, and more importantly, her children's education and future.

So, in making a difference in so many people's lives, Yunus has a social revolution in the making that will, hopefully, lift his countrymen out of the clutches of stark poverty. Yunus admits that in the future he wants Grameen Bank to be known as the 'bank of the former poor.'

This is his dream for Bangladesh but it's a dream that Vikram Akula also has for poor Indian women, who struggle for a living in rural India as well. Well, more power to such social entrepreneurs!

Posey did see what his customers wanted and came out with a line of safety, bath products. So, his company designed a shower seat for elderly or injured people, where the soap, the wash cloth were easily handy and the hand shower could also be kept where it could be reached easily.

So, his company does watch customers...literally! And, the fact is that customers can not be discounted completely and there are some customers who are trendsetters and they should be observed to see how soon they are copied by the mainstream.

This is happening more quickly than ever because of the smaller time lag involved and also because of the new media like the internet, which is making trends available to a larger audience, much sooner.

Written for moneycontrol.com

Read more stories here:
Innovating to stay in the fast lane

Do you have to fail to innovate

Innovating to stay in the fast lane

How are big, monolith companies gearing up for life in the corporate fast lane? Companies like P&G, Toyota, Dell and Apple are either innovating and fast at that or just stagnating and losing pole position to their closest rivals - like Ford, which has been overtaken by Toyota in the US because it's not giving customers what they want, while Toyota is doing just that.

At Procter & Gamble, innovation is a bit of an obsession and Larry Houston is the man in charge. As Vice President of Innovation, he was in charge of generating ideas outside the company. A testimony to how well he does his job, P&G has been called the 'World's No.1 Brand Company'.

Then there is Travelocity that has revolutionised the travel industry. Terry Jones is the man behind the success of this travel portal. He's worked with American Airlines and then moved to American Airlines-owned Sabre - the world's first computerised reservation system. From there, he launched Travelocity - the world's first consumer direct travel services. Today, he gives his expertise to other companies making their transition to the digital economy.

Jones says that there were a lot of obstacles, in terms of inertia that needed to be overcome and there were people getting in the way. So, he told CNBC's Maria Bartiromo, "It's was really important that I was high up in the organisation, who had some clout, who reported to the CEO, so we were able to move them out of the headquarters and move them somewhere else."

Houston recalls that P&G's CEO AG Lafley told him to get innovative ideas from outside the company because most companies try to invent everything themselves, when there is tremendous talent all over the world. What's more is that P&G is willing to put money where the idea is.

But most large businesses seem stymied by the New Age technology revolution and can not seem to put their businesses on the fast-track to growth, despite being in the forefront. And that's partly because of traditions, which, the CEO of Socratic Arts, Robert Schank, feels is a not a good thing because then a company feels bound by its rules and traditions.

Traditionally, the big three car companies in the US have been General Motors, DaimlerChrysler and Ford. But now, Japanese carmaker Toyota has zoomed past Ford and is snapping at General Motors' heels. This year, almost 70 million cars, SUVs and trucks are going to be built around the world - almost 8,000 every hour - and Toyota is expected to build the most.

The secret to Toyota's success is its production system, which is also called TPS. It was created decades ago, and calls for constan improvement from planning, to assembling to sales. What they have going for them is that they are very creative, they also have a very educated workforce and great engineers.

Other companies who are learning from Toyota are Boeing, Ford, Caterpillar and even Nike. Consultant, Bill Schwartz says, "The real success of the Toyota production success is that it can be applied to any company because at its core, it's about eliminating waste. Eliminating waste in production or business process."

One of the latest innovations in the Toyota production system is that, at the end of the assembly line, when all the cars are built, they are taken to a sound booth so that the cars actually 'sound' the way they are supposed to!

Experts in the know, feel that even established companies can innovate if they get their hide-bound processes and decisions out of the way and became agile and nimble. But a leading expert in business strategy, Gary Hamel feels that large corporations do not have the "innovation DNA" but they can be taught the skills - the way Apple or Dell does it. Seconding him, Schank says that, CEOs don't have the motivation to innovate and don't want to innovate.

Hamel adds, "One of the things we know about innovators is that they are contrarians - that's the reason why so often the industry gets changed by outsiders. The real thing that inhibits innovation is the top management's prejudices, biases and assumptions about how to run the business."

"Innovation is like everything else in business - you have to be able to do it efficiently and cheaply - and that means borrowing ideas from outside." He does feel that old dogs can be taught new tricks, if they are willing to learn from their mistakes and make the necessary changes required.

Written for moneycontrol.com

Read more stories in the series here:
Do you have to fail to innovate

Fancy a sail on the Arabian sea?

Aashim Mongia loves to ride the waves and this 37 year old was all set to live his dreams when he joined the National Defence Academy, NDA. But just three months before he could complete his course, he was diagnosed with a rare blood disorder. He ploughed on nonetheless and completed his course until the disorder resurfaced and he was downgraded.

He had been downgraded to 'unable to serve at sea' and he had joined the NDA to be able to do just that. So, he had to switch his career path and he did it with the right attitude. He believes that whatever occurs, happens for the best. Though he acknowledges that there were tough times when he first started his business, West Coast Marine. But since 1997-98, there was a buoyant feeling in the air and by then, the economy had started to move.

He got help from his wife to make his dream come true, as it was her salary that paid his workers back then. She also shaped his business and today the company has clocked revenues of Rs 4 crore. And with her business acumen and his sailing skills, they expect the business to touch the Rs 50 crore mark in the next five years. Also, in that much time, he wants to make the sailboat market as common as the car market.

Today some of his clients are the 'Who's Who' of multimillionaires who come to India on a one-stop shop trip and he puts together everything for them, cars, yacht rides including personalised fashion shows and art shows. He says these are the kind of people who have no qualms about spending USD 100,000 on just one shopping spree.

He says that it's easy (though expensive) to buy a boat but it's the maintenance that will kill owners because there is no infrastructure to talk about to maintain sailboats, which is what makes it so expensive. He would like the 6,000 nautical miles of coastline to be developed into a major waterway as it will help the congested commuting scenario in Mumbai. He would also like a marina to come up where boats could be anchored.

What's more, he's geared up for just such a future, when the blue Arabian sea beckons atleast more of Mumbai's residents to go out and ride her waves.

Written for moneycontrol.com

Do you have to fail to innovate?

Experts on the subject of innovation say that ‘failure is good’ and that fear of failure often leads people to strive for creativity. CNBC's expert on learning and innovation and CEO of Socratic Arts, Roger Schank feels that innovation is something that should be freely forthcoming, like how children innovate spontaneously all the time, but there are others who feel that everyone should be given the space to innovate - from the executive down to the security guard.

This is ofcourse what the ideal workplace would do but that kind of Utopia rarely exists because in reality, the boss would rather listen to that expensive, Harvard dolt than the brimming-with-enthusiasm lift operator, who just may have some great ideas. As Schank puts it "Harvard graduates are good at being....Harvard graduates!" He also advises that employers should look at hiring the bottom 10% of the class at Harvard because these kids were smart enough to get in but then quickly felt disillusioned and he wanted to know what their reasons were for not doing well in class.

But he does give former CEO, SouthWest Airlines, Howard Putnam a pat on his shoulder for thinking about offering a low-cost airline with great service before the big giants of the US aviation industry, like United Airlines, understood the concept. Former CEO, SouthWest Airlines, Howard Putnam told CNBC's Maria Bartiromo, "One key thing we did was, we said we'd hire attitude and we will teach them the skills. So, we hired attitudes, we teach the skills and then you get the people who fit the culture that you are trying to build and the opportunity for innovation increases and the opportunity for failure decreases." And ofcourse, the reason SouthWest succeeded was because the bigger airlines managed to make their customers feel miserable.

Then there is the saying that a part of the success of innovating is a willingness to fail. So, do bosses agree with that? Do they hire people and allow them to fail? Putnam says, "You got to say if you do fail, I am not going to slap your hands and throw you out of the door. If you do that, then innovations will go away."

President of Hearst Magazines, Cathleen Black says, "I am not sure that if you are thinking about hiring somebody who has had any number of different failures but I think it depends to some extent, on the scale of those failures but what we are all saying is, we want a culture that encourages risk and innovation and I think that’s the most important thing."

Founder of Khosla Ventures (a venture capital), Vinod Khosla adds, "There are two kinds of failure. There is failure because you fail to change and failure because you try something new. I look on the upside not on the downside and that’s the asset of succeeding in the new world. In fact in our business the biggest risk is not taking any risk."

How do you stay innovative? Today everyone says that Google is an amazingly innovative company but the key question is can it keep that innovation mojo. Google is taking on ebay, PayPal, it is killing Mapquest and it’s changing the advertising game by selling directly to newspapers and small businesses. But Google whose global search market share reached nearly 73% in October 2006 but still trails Yahoo in total traffic and Google’s biggest challenge maybe inside the company rather than outside.

One of Google’s core strengths is hiring the best and the brightest. The biggest brains in America and the world could be a headache. Google knows the value of innovation, now it's a challenge to retain the right employees and using their creativity.

Schank agrees, "Google is being particularly innovative company. Search engines have been around for a really long time and they had a little bit better one than other people. I am willing to believe that Google employees are happy employees. They have a lot of money so they should be innovating a lot more."

Schank adds, 'I think if you want to keep your people, you better make sure that there are really good ideas being percolated all the time. That will keep your people.'

The Rite Way To Innovate

Rite Solutions is software company that twists the stock market to let the creamy stocks rise to the top of the heap. It builds advanced — and highly classified — command-and-control systems for the Navy, and innovation is built into the fabric of the company.
“We wanted to start an experiment to see if it was possible to innovate and if a pyramid organization could be replaced by a community of employees that could be part of that innovation,” says Chief Executive Officer, Rite Solutions, Jim Lavoie whose main responsibility is charting the course for Rite-Solutions and create the culture that separates Rite Solutions from a typical IT firm.

Lavoie’s came up with an innovative in-house stock or internal market game, called Mutual Fun, where any company employee could propose either the acquisition of a new technology, a new business idea, a new service or product launch and make efficiency improvements in the company.

Each idea or proposal in the highly popular market game becomes a stock and comes complete with ticker symbols, discussion lists and e-mail alerts. Each stock comes with a detailed description — called an 'expectus', as opposed to a prospectus — and begins trading at a price of $10. Every employee gets $10,000 in 'opinion money' to allocate among the offerings, and employees signal their enthusiasm by investing in a stock and, better yet, volunteering to work on the project.

Employees buy or sell these stocks, and prices change to reflect the sentiments of the company's engineers, computer scientists and project managers — as well as its marketers, accountants and even the receptionist. Volunteers share in the proceeds, in the form of real money, if the stock becomes a product or delivers savings.

The other popular software from the company is called the 3-D Data Visualization software, which was created by four technologists in the firm and is currently licensed to the US Navy. This software alone accounts for up to 30% of the company’s annual growth. “We’re trying to take advantage of those quiet geniuses in the company,” says Lavoie. So, while it’s all right to have community and employee participation, it often boils down to sound business practice.

“We were able to experiment with the notion of community as opposed to corporation, and participation instead of hierarchy. It has been a lot of fun,” concludes Lavoie

Khosla says, 'Let me disagree, Apple is a great example, they had a lot of innovation, then they introduced a lot of process and killed all the innovations. When Steve Jobs came back, he re-introduced a passion and a vision and innovation.'

He adds, 'You cannot have innovation in a command and controlled environment. If you encourage risk-taking, you encourage experimentation and if you allow and reward failure, you will see innovation in the corporation.'

In fact, during the 12 years Jobs was gone, Apple stocks rose 120%, in 10 years and since he came back, it has risen more than 2260% - barely blinking even when he left for a short time in 2004 - to battle pancreatic cancer. What would the Wall Street do, if Jobs was out of his job? Apple without Jobs would lose 20% of its market value, which is USD 60 billion. But in a company filled with talented people, it's hard to name a single other executive. One has to wonder what’s next, after all nothing and no one can last forever.

Another maverick entrepreneur who has built a brand from scratch with Virigin Records and now has 200 businesses flaunting that Virgin brand name, is Richard Branson. He personifies his brand - it's fun, puts its customers first over shareholders (as anyone who has flown Virgin Atlantic will testify to this), and was the small competitor who stood up to big-time bully and monopolist British Airways.

Branson says as much in his autobiography 'Losing my Virginity', that for him, his employees matter the most. If they are happy, they provide good service to his customers who come back again and again for that fabled service, thus keeping shareholders happy. His penchant for making business seem like a lighthearted affair has won him kudos....as well as brickbats. But ultimately, Virgin's many businesses are bringing in the money.

His entrepreneurship and his ability to build an empire with a single brand and make it an unbelievable adventure along the way, has made him the success story he is today.

Written for moneycontrol.com

Is chivalry dead?

Written for Femina

Please right click on the image and open it in a separate window and you should be able to read it just fine.

'Heartbreak Kid' touches heartstrings

'Heartbreak Kid' is a Ben Stiller movie which has warm hearted moments that could happen to anyone. He is 40, a bachelor who rushes into a marriage because his ex-fiancee gets married and his father is urging him to do the same.

His father, (played by real-life father Jerry Stiller) is funny and very Seinfeld-ish in the movie – speaks his mind loud and clear – just like he does in the sitcom Seinfeld.

The film could have easily turned slapstick if handled by David Dhawan but with the Farrell brothers writing the script and Ben Stiller doing his lame-lover routine with dignity, this movie is good for laughs. A light, frothy, misunderstanding-filled story.

Ben Stiller is a star who can act goofy and still get the bombshell. But that’s because he’s sexy in a very believable way. He simply carries the movie on his shoulders, while his female co-stars are not exactly props, but their attractive enough to be that.

The blonde wife who looks like a dream and soon turns into a living nightmare of sorts and the peppy, beautiful brunette who walks into his life while he's honeymooning (and regretting his decision) are just the kind of women that most men hope will walk into their lives. But most guys know it is wishful thinking and this only happens to Ben Stiller - the lucky guy!

Watch the movie and hope some of the star's luck rubs off on some of you sorry guys out there!

The online dating and mating game

Perfect Stranger has the gorgeous Halle Berry playing the part of an investigative journalist, Rowena Price. She gets her hands on a good story of a handsome, happily married senator, who is staunchly against gays but he himself is one - albeit still in the closet. And Rowena has pictures of him cavorting with his male interns and so ofcourse he manages to stop that story from being printed.

She goes off in a huff and quits the job but then finds herself quickly trailing another influential and wealthy man, Harrison Hill (Bruce Willis) because she believes he lured her friend, Grace, to him via an online chat forum and they had a torrid weekend affair and he later dumps her. He then has her killed for blackmailing him about the affair...or so Rowena thinks.

Rowena gets on his tail but the truth is actually far from obvious. I didn't have too much of a problem with the script because there were a couple of red herrings that keeps the finger pointed away from the real killer, almost till the end.

But I don't understand why the director - James Foley - was shooting almost most scenes from below, where the audience gets too many views up Halle Berry's and Bruce Willis's nostrils. Not a good camera angle. Besides there were gratuitous scenes of nudity that the script just didn't require.

Everyone knows Halle Berry's got one of the best bodies on this planet and no one is really disputing it so there was really no need for a scene where she's looking through her lingerie drawer, while being stark naked. (Don't go rushing to see the movie for this scene because she's not facing the camera!). This scene just didn't need to be there.

Some actresses don't take care, over how they dress on screen, despite the enormous budgets allotted to precisely that - dressing them up. (See Meg Ryan in 'Proof of Life' and you'll know exactly what I mean...in a lot of scenes, she has not even bothered to wear a bra.) But Halle Berry looks hot in almost everything she wears and she (or her stylist) have picked good clothes that make her look stunning. Ofcourse, Berry is a very good dresser in reality as well.

Here again, in the world of a Hollywood film, office-goers working for an advertising agency all dress as if they are readying for a photo shoot. But, I guess we are willing to forgive because even the extras look good in their figure-hugging leather pants and coordinated jewellery and makeup.

All in all, it's a film that I wouldn't watch twice..but it does highlight the dangers of the online dating and mating game. You truly don't know who is the one you are chatting with anonymously in a chat room....these perfect strangers could become life partners or completely wreck lives. So, that's a message that screams loud and clear in this movie.

Written for www.moneycontrol.com

Dixit charms in 'Aaja Nachle'

This movie is the gorgeous Madhuri Dixit's comeback movie after her marriage and two kids. And time hasn't marred her beauty - just like wine she's become better with age. And her dancing skills seem unmatched. She's poetry in motion and that beautiful smile of hers lights up the silver screen.

She plays Diya, a New York based choreographer who comes back to her hometown Shamli, after her guru dies to save his institution - Ajanta - being torn down to make place for a shopping mall. She comes back to save her roots and also to find herself again because she gave all this up to elope and get married to a foreigner. Her parents leave Shamli because of the taunts of their neighbours and her teacher loses all his students because the other parents are scared their daughters will do what she did.

But Diya is one of a kind. A small town girl with guts to follow her own heart and the will to make a success of her life despite her marriage breaking down in the US. She comes back with her daughter, Radha, and takes on the narrow-mindedness of her hometown. She has to fight a local politician, a local businessman who wants to build the mall (Irffan Khan) and win a bet with the local 'raja' (Akshaye Khanna), whose family has owned that open-air theatre for generations, and now it's up to him to either let it remain a theatre or give it to the government to build the mall.

How she does rescue Ajanta is the plot of the film and you have to watch it to really see her work her magic on Shamli's residents and us - the audience. She's bold, modern, broadminded and just the right person her guru chooses to rescue his school. Does she succeed? Ofcourse she does...this is a Hindi film after all. But it doesn't look easy and even she has her doubts but that's just what makes the film so likeable and believeable.

Watch it for Madhuri Dixit. She makes acting look so effortless because she's so good at it - the other actresses better wake up!

Written for www.newsgaze.com

Bridal Boutique

Are you getting married and thinking of putting together your trousseau? This is the exciting bit for most brides - but where does one go to shop for hi-end ethnic wear. Sure, there are designers like Ritu Beri and Ritu Kumar and ofcourse Tarun Tahiliani but sometimes even their prêt lines may be out of reach of the upper middle class budget.

So, there is a great new alternative option – a store called Kalki which has opened just over a month ago in Worli. This store is the first retail store of Suarabhakti Goods Pvt Ltd, who are into exporting and importing textiles. This store showcases those textiles as finished products.

While materials like georgette, chiffon and velvet can be bought for Rs 2,000 onwards, the readymade salwar-kameez suits in unique colours (like mustard yellow) and with gorgeous hand-work, start from Rs 5,000 onward.

The store also has wedding saris going all the way up to Rs 60,000 and I saw a lady trying on one made out of dark green velvet with silver embroidery on it and it looked stunning. That’s because though the store does have four trial rooms, it also has an upraised ‘stage’ kind of area in a corner, where wannabe brides get help to drape their sari and model it for their loved ones in front of a mirror.

The store also custom dyes a fabric for you. For instance, if you like a certain fabric and the texture but want it in another colour, then they do it for you.

The store also stocks some Indo-Western tops and tunics but the range is limited, though the owner has promised to bring in more variety this Christmas season.

The store also has a small accessories range - like heavy ‘jhumka’ type earrings, tiny hand mirrors and elaborate jewellery boxes and embroidered cloth bags. Though the selection is limited, it is great quality stuff. The jewellery boxes, especially, are beautifully done up and look good enough to gift away by themselves. You can put chocolates and even a bottle of champagne in some of them!

So, do step into this store and add colour and fizz to your celebrations.

Details

Store name: Kalki

Address: 227, Dr Annie Besant Road, Worli, Mumbai – 400025

Tel no: 91-22-24912361

Fax: 91-22-24912362

e-mail: info@kalki.co.in

Read classics free of cost!

Going online to do research for your projects or to check on new hairstyle trends is not the only reason you should be doing your internet surfing. Well, try to make it more varied and less need-based. Meaning? How about just letting yourself go with a good book – an e-book to be more precise.

If you find you are way behind in your reading of the classics, then this is just the site for you. Check out www.online-literature.com. There are complete works - including some which you never see in print - of 260 authors and 2,260 complete books have been scanned and posted on this site. There are also 3,664 poems and short stories as well to chose from.

A detailed biographical sketch accompanies all the authors and you can even post your own quiz, of any novel that you may have read. A related and very useful link takes an explorer of this site to the Essay Archive site which has access to some 35,000 term papers.

This link makes for a great study tool as well. Imagine finding critical essays on existentialism and Jacques Derrida’s surreal influence on a writer. This is the place for just that kind of plagiarism. I wouldn’t advocate it ofcourse, but then there is so much to tempt you!

Go to this site and relish the caustic wit of George Eliot with a dash of Alexandre Dumas’s mysterious romances. Or if you prefer bland but never dull Charles Dickens with mischievous E Nesbitt novels, then this is just the site to wander….and get lost in.

A nice touch that has been added is that you can order a CD of any of the authors and gift it to someone. At the moment though, the site claims to have just put 268 titles onto CDs and no short stories and poems are available. But what is available is a great resource, which is already a vast repository of more words than most people read in a lifetime anyway.

So, begin your journey ..one word at a time.

Ticking Conscience

Death is divine.
Everywhere abounds its spectral presence.
To doomsday, mankind is hurled.
Racing along to collective paralysis;
of mind, matter and soul.
Youth; de-sensitized to the gift of life,
awake to the demons of war.
Lets rivers of blood overflow.
Loathes any voice of sanity
that seek to dam(n) it
But like the furies of nature;
I shall plant the seeds of endurance and
nurture any hope of salvation.
Else, birth ends in exalted annhilation.

A woman's touch

If you've ever taken your car to a garage, it's quite possible that you have not spent much time admiring the mechanic's skills. But Namita Chibba stands out because she practices those skills and is one of the few women willing to get down and dirty under the chassis of a car.

However she isn't out to ruffle feathers and she told CNBC-TV18, "I'm a normal Indian woman. I live in a joint family with 12-13 people. I have a husband and two kids to take care of. If they haven't complained, it's obvious I'm taking good care of them. It's just my work that's different."

She is a doting mother to nine year old Arjun and four year old Aaliya. They could be just another content, middle class family but for Namita's unusual choice of career. She says, "The garage is my second home. I feel lost if I don't work here. I was married and on the verge of becoming a mother. I worked in the garage till the last moment, despite everybody advising against it. And I went straight to the labour room from here."

That's a braveheart for you. After all, it is not only about doing battle but also about being a trendsetter - being the first to do something different and that's what Namita has done. She is one of India's very few women mechanics. A philosophy graduate from Delhi's LSR college, she handled the accounts in her father's garage. But before she knew it, she was running the garage itself. She may have earned her stripes on the job. But new customers are still pleasantly shocked.

She agrees, "Many customers are surprised to see a girl here. They think I'm just here to hang around the garage or be with my dad. And when someone tells them that I'm running the show, they're very surprised. But usually they are happy with the work."



She adds, "In real terms, almost anyone can do anything. I consider changing a tyre a very minor thing. Women should know how to do it themselves. Even a loose terminal is a minor thing. All you have to do is hit it with a stone and your car starts up. So these kinds of things I don't think you should wait and say this is a man's job."

Namita doesn't just handle modern day beauties, her garage's speciality is dealing with vintage cars. Namita has always had a way with them. Withered metal comes alive under her care and ancient, stately beauties start sparkling again because she spends hours together on each car. If she can't find or make the parts herself, she has them flown down from London.

She explains, "Most of these cars are abandoned, until some car lover recovers them. One car came to us in cartons and we searched on the net and built it back, part by part."

It's such passion that's kept Namita going for almost 15 years. Her family is supportive enough not to complain and her husband, Vikram Chibba is proud of his wife. He elaborates, "I'm proud to have my wife work as a mechanic. I have a fleet of cars and it gives me peace of mind to know they won't be manhandled by someone who doesn't love them. And I know I won't be overcharged!"

So, if you are a typical male who is still living in the Jurassic Age and think women are dumb when it comes to cars, then Namita Chibb will set you right. Do any of you know what valve tappets, a wheel camber, or steering play and gear linkages are? Well she does and knows how to take it apart and put it back together again.


Picture is representational

Written for www.moneycontrol.com

Future art maestros to watch out for

If you want to have some art on the walls that makes your home look great and also makes an impression because it spells 'money' very clearly, then there is only one thing to do.

Buy the right kind of art. This means that you consciously buy artists who may not be big names today but are sure going to be talked about in the future.

Not all people who like art are savvy about the Indian art scene and that's no crime. But buying in haste because some gallery is trying to palm off some inferior artist who they claim is the next Tyeb Mehta is a big faux pas!

So, want to know which artists to look out for. Well, here I'll give out the secret list of names according to sources at Tao Art Gallery...

Vijay Shinde, Anwar, Sujata, Yusuf, Yogesh Rawal, Heeral Trivedi, Venkatesh Pate, Justin Ponmany and Chintan Upadhyay.

Now, that you know which artist to look out for...happy investing in art!

Picture is representational

Written for www.newsgaze.com

The Bourne Ultimatum

The latest Bourne film called 'The Bourne Ultimatum' has Matt Damon reprising his role of CIA officer Jason Bourne. His character has spent the last three years running away from himself because he doesn't recall who he really is... and why he was programmed to become some kind of a killing machine. Then there is the desire to take revenge for his girlfriend who was killed in India (in the previous film, for which Damon came to Goa to shoot.)

This movie - the third one in the Bourne series - is about Jason going in search of his true identity and a operation called Blackbriar, of which he has the dubious honour of being the first graduate. Telling you anymore would be giving away the entire plot but the movie is fast paced. After a while you get breathless watching him zip across Madrid, England and Africa all in the space of 45 minutes.

But it's a great world tour and Tangier, where some of the action has been filmed is really a place worth visiting - it's narrow bazaar lanes, white-washed houses and mosaic flecked buildings made for some good chase scenes. It can take second prize after the one Daniel Craig did in Casino Royale.



Another reason, you get a sense of immediacy and as if you are actually participating in the film is because a lot of the scenes where he is being chased or he's driving away from people who are chasing him is done with cameras are that almost placed on Matt Damon's lap or in his pocket - atleast it feels that way. So, when cars come and smash into his car, you can expect to go wide-eyed and say 'oh God I'm dead!" But of course, Bourne makes it through everything - even when he drives a car off the roof of a building!

While Bourne uncovers some truths about himself, he is doing it at the expense of people who want to hide their own involvement. So, there is plenty of killing to get rid of people who know too much, plenty of scope for double-crossing and of course the whole movie is about men trying to cover their ass after playing God with other people's lives.

Then there is the great way how technology can be used (or misused) to keep an eye on people halfway across the world via surveillance cameras, internet, satellites, mobile phones being tapped, text messages being intercepted. The way people are plugged into the technological network these days, this is an inevitable result.

I found the ending a little tame and predictable and the director has left the ending open for yet another sequel... But if a well made, slightly thin on the plot, slam-bam movie is what you want to watch this weekend, then go for this one.

Written for www.newsgaze.com

Serigraph exhibition of great artists

The season of wet, mucky roads is still with us so, what does one do for amusement? Well, try art exhibitions for a change. Visiting them can enrich your knowledge of art. There are many exhibitions happening throughout the city and it's a good way to educate yourself and spend quality time indoors - out of the rain.

One such art show is on at the Tao Art Gallery at Worli till September 14, from 10.30 am to 6.30 pm. It's displaying serigraphs by noted artists like SH Raza, Madhavi Parekh, Jogen Chowdhury among others.

There is a colourful series of paintings called 'Telangana People' done by Vaikuntam. These paintings are done in rich, bold colours which complements the dusky hues of the skin tone of the South Indians depicted in the works. The smooth brush strokes just about mirrors the clear complexions of most village folk, in reality.

Raza's famour 'bindi' series is also up for display. His fascination with the round 'tikka' that is sported by most married women is now legendary. The artist has found so many layers of meaning in this symbol of matrimony - for him it embodies eternity, and is also a metaphor for mother earth and her everlasting influence on mankind and her timeless significance.

Then there was Chowdhury's 'Nandi' series with blue cows frolicking with women in water and generally being comfortable with human contact. The paintings were addressing the idea that people and animals benefit from tender, loving care, equally. So, one painting titled 'Nandi Cure' actually shows a vivid blue cow licking a human leg with veneration and affection.

But to each his own, so, one can walk away from this exhibition with your own interpretations and that's the real charm.

A catalogue is also available of 15 of the serigraphs for Rs 15,000.

Written for www.newsgaze.com

Key ingredients of McDonald's success

It's part of the American landscape and a global icon and it has been 50 years in the making. McDonald's attracts 15 million customers a day, and has 31,000 stores in over 118 countries. So, how did McDonald's get this big and how profitable can a franchise be?

A visionary named Ray Kroc made a few hamburger stands into a food empire. Back then hamburgers were sold for 15 cents and French fries for 10 cents. Today, this giant makes $41 million in revenue.

Ray Kroc tapped into the drive and ambition of the individual store owners. But his success started when he realised what a rage drive-in restaurants were in Southern California in the 1950s, especially those run by the McDonald brothers. But Dick McDonald knew that customers were looking for even faster service. After all this was a country that was entering the jet propulsion age.

They sped up the process by dropping most of the things from the menu like root beer and orangeade and copying a factory assembly line. So, they retained the big moneymakers and these were the fries, cheeseburgers and milkshakes, which were then put on an effiicient production line. They reopened after this revamp and they began to get sales clerks, cab drivers and construction workers, who wanted their food fast and here they got that.

At that time, Ray Kroc was selling multi-mixers that could make five milkshakes at once and he got an order from the McDonald brothers for eight such machines. Kroc had never received such a large order from one place before, so, he went to check out the place and that was when history was made. He signed a contract with them to be an exclusive franchise representative.

In 1960, Kroc bought out the McDonald brothers and it first went public in 1965. The very next day, Ray Kroc became a millionaire.

McJobs
Back in the 1950s, you could open a McDonald's with $30,000. Today, ofcourse, it could cost a million dollars or more to buy a McDonald's franchise. But working at McDonald's can be thought of as a low paying 'Mcjob' with a staggering turnover. A McDonald's manager can earn $100,000 or more and soon they can move on to having their own store and becoming a millionaire - just like the store owner they first began working for.

Tyron Davis is one such manager and he's all set to own his own franchise and he knows how to work the ropes to keep them happy and coming back for more. He cheerfully oversees the other employees, offers a refund because a customer waited for his food and ofcourse, just knows that the restrooms have got to be clean - or the customers won't come back again.

It's this efficiency which has made McDonald's bigger and more efficient than any of its competitors. Financially, McDonald's is soaring with annual revenues of more than $21 billion but that's a major turnaround from where the company was a couple of years ago.

Chief Executive Officer, McDonald's, Jim Skinner told CNBC, "I call the year 2002 the 'year of the perfect storm', where all of ths strategies I was pursuing - we hit the wall with our growth strategy in 2002." This strategy included opening more than 2,000 restaurants a year. It was unsustainable. Skinner recalls, "We invested $4 billion in new store growth over the last 3-4 years. There was no incremental growth. So, that was a formula for failure."

Customers were not finding happy meals, but instead they found dirty stores, cold food and a detached staff. On Main Street, McDonald's was out of favour and on Wall Street, McDonald's stock was getting hammered. So, executives woke up to pull up their socks and clean up their act in their existing facilities. They knew they had to concentrate on cleanliness and better quality service. The kitchens were revamped and sandwiches were no longer stockpiled but were instead made-to-order.

They added more chicken and salads to reflect the evolving taste. They spent less time building more stores and more time focusing on the ones they had. But in the middle of this turnaround, McDonald's weathered a double blow - in a span of seven months - the company went through two CEOs because one keeled over and died of a heart attack at a McDonald's convention and his successor died a few months later due to cancer. Skinner was the third one to step up to bat.

But change was in the air and work on bringing customers back was on in full force. So, McDonald's added a line of premium coffees which lured people back from Starbucks. People started coming back for breakfast as well, which is huge for McDonald's as it brings in almost a quarter of a dollar.

Culinary journey
Getting back on track has been good news for the company. And some franchise owners have also been the reason for this success in the past. Just like the clown, Ronald McDonald is now the ubquitous mascot of the golden arches - it was also the idea of a Washington-based franchise owner.

Sometimes, even menus have been tweaked to suit local tastes as Lou Grone did. His store was in a Catholic neighbourhood in Cincinatti and there was nothing for them to eat on meatless Fridays. So, he got the idea to introduce fish sandwiches, which Kroc opposed because he said it would stink up the restaurant.

Instead he suggested a hula sandwich - an exotic sandwich made up of a slice of pineapple grilled in butter, placed in between slices of cheddar cheese in a toasted bun or bread. Then the crowds of Cincinatti were allowed to judge which they wanted. Guess which won? Filet-o-fish was the first new addition to the menu.

But today, the reason McDonald's is such a success is because of the great new additions made by McDonald's 'Culinary Innovation' department which introduced the scrumptious Fruit-n-Yoghurt Parfait or the healthier Southwest salad. All of this has been under the direction of Chef Dan Coudreaut, who graduated at the top of his class from the Culinary Institute of America and has worked for many top notch restaurants, including the Four Seasons Resorts.

Coudreaut knows that people think of McDonald's as being synoymous with burgers and fries, so, they have been slow to notice the parfait, the salads and the triple thick milkshakes in different flavours. But he admits to being looked up to as a big hero by five and seven year olds!

Every item goes through intense scrutiny and an exquisitely detailed development process. Each year, some 1,800 menu ideas are tossed around in Coudreaut's kitchen. Only 3-4 make to the store and by the time a product reaches the menu, it has gone through more than 200 tests and has been years in the making.

Even their coffees undergo this scrutiny. McDonald's sells more than two million cups of hot coffee each day in the US. They have recently added gourmet coffee to their lineup. In the test kitchen, each new flavour is analysed and deconstructed by refined palates.

Fast food or fatty food?

All this is well and good but their portions have just got bigger and critics are blaming McDonald's for the increasing number of obese children in the US. A big mac, big fries and a large Coke equals 1,430 calories and 59 grammes of fat. Their double quarter pound burger has 500% more hamburger meat and their largest size fries has increased 250%. McDonald's products are easily available, cheap and tasty and that has led to obesity. Since the 1960s, obesity in adolescents, children and adults has more than tripled. Today, more than nine million children in the US are obese.

Skinner, though, says that people don't eat often enough at a McDonald's, for it to be blamed and there are lot of healthy options to chose from.

But Professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University, Mary Ann Nestle says this kind of food can lead to a rise in blood pressure, blood sugar, cholestrol and weight gain.

There is a growing movement fuelled by scientists and city and state governments that requires McDonald's and other fast food chains to state the number of calories right up on the menu board. But McDonald's is fighting back hard and joined a lawsuit to block the regulation (that New York restaurants should list calories). Now with the issue of transfats being in the news, it will most likely keep the spotlight on fast food chains like McDonald's.

Thought Skinner does say that he wants to be part of the solution and will put McDonald's power behind any solution that comes up. With more that half of its stores in foreign countries, McDonald's has long since given up counting how many burgers it has sold. But it is counting on the golden arches spreading across the globe, generating more fries, visibility, income.. and possibly more controversy as well.

Written for www.moneycontrol.com

A journey of a lifetime

This man has a heritage souvenir sitting on his property. It's not a statue or even a restored home. He does have 18 beautifully restored vintage cars but more than that, what catches a visitor's eye is the train in the green shed.

A train with wonderfully cared for coaches nestles in Tarun Thakral's garden, on his property in the outskirts of Delhi. He's maintained the interiors the way it used to be when the Jodhpur royal family used to travel and entertain in it. He got started when he went abroad for two years to do his MBA and he saw people spending a lot of time pursuing their passions.

He told CNBC-TV18, "When I came back, I met a guy who took me through Rajasthan and I started collecting old gramaphones and record players and suddenly I came across a car - a 1932 Chevy. That's triggered off my collection of cars."

But with vintage cars being collected by most car lovers with money and taste, Thakral decided to buy a saloon. The train is 75 feet long and weighs 30 tonnes and made of Burma teak. This 1930s train belonged to the the Maharaja of Jodhpur and was built in England. The train has ferried royalty and their privileged guests in luxurious comfort.

A train is hardly your ordinary garden ornament, so how did Thakral find it and restore it? Thakral says, "I read in a magazine that in the UK and the US, people have converted old railway carriages into weekend retreats and even hotels. So I wrote to the Indian Railways asking if there was a provision of selling a old rail saloon."

"Initially, the railways were very surprised. They still couldn't figure out why I was buying it. So there was a bond which I was supposed to fill and give it to the authorities, which said that it was going to be restored and used as a personal saloon only. I can proudly say that I'm the first person the Indian Railways has sold a train to an indiviual per se. They have earlier discarded them all as scrap."

That was the easy part, but then came the difficult proposition. He recalls, "The second big task was getting the wagon from Ajmer to Delhi. It costed me a fortune and yet it was some king of a mechanical or engineering feat to move a full carriage made out of wood, which could be damaged at any time. To transport it, we needed a huge Volvo trailer and two huge cranes were needed to lift the entire saloon and park it in my place."

The furnishing and the intricate work on the ceiling and the inlaid panels on the saloon's walls have been restored to its original glory. The Princess of Bikaner helped in the project by picking the artisans herself. There is room on the train to live and party in.

A stylish living room to party the nights away and a comfortable master bedroom ensures peaceful sleep. A spanking new kitchen makes this a self-sustained home away from home. Thakral's children and their friends can have camp nights out in an unusual style. After all, not even the Ambani kids can boast of inviting friends to spend a night on a private train.

That's called living life maharaja-style, in these modern times.

Written for www.moneycontrol.com

He is jiggying with cartoon characters

He is a musician at heart, an artist by night, a designer by accident and an author by will. That is Jiggy George for you, the man with several talents who believes in doing a lot of the things he loves. His colourful career began at Zodiac Apparel, where he was made to design socks!

Soon he got bored and decided to team up with brother Gogi George to promote live musical gigs. Their big break was getting Bon Jovi to Mumbai. After a short stint at being an entrepreneur, he decided to gives sales and marketing a shot.

At 34, he is now the Director of Cartoon Network Enterprises, India and South Asia and this Welingkar Institute alumni is putting a lot of those marketing strategies that was crammed into his head, to good use.

George told CNBC-TV18, "Just after graduation, I was going through with this 'I still haven't found what I am looking for' phase. I always knew there was a part of me that loved the Arts and there was a part of me that knew sales and marketing and business. So after Zodiac Apparel, I joined my brother's event management company."

"My brother's company was doing things like corporate parties, Independence Rock and the project on which I worked was a big one - bringing Bon Jovi down to India. That is when I moved into the first leg of business. After this, I moved to Times of India where I did a full fledged sales job, in different departments within the sales team, for about three years."

Then Cartoon Network happened to him. A strong believer in promotional licensing, he hopes to give Cartoon Network's portfolio of characters a life beyond their shows. So there are interesting tie-ups with the usual, FMCG companies and kids brands like Frito and Cadbury and some unusual partnerships, like the one they have with BPCL. Merchandising will also be a serious revenue stream for the company, which has just celebrated 10 years in India.

"When I look at Cartoon Network, there is a huge canvas. You have brands which are cult in the lives of kids and you have sub-brands like Dexter and Johnny Bravo etc. Level one, we did promotional licensing, which is like a Jerry Maguire job. Here we lease out the equity of our characters to clients to run promotions, increase sales and build loyalty."

"Level two is where we have used our characters in commercials. In the UK, we have used Scooby Doo with David Beckham in the Adidas commercial."

The Frito and Cadbury tie-up is understandable but how did George pitch to clients like BPCL and Red Label? He explains, "Red Label was always talking to the family and this Diwali they wanted to gratify the kid in the family, so it was buy a gift for your kid."

"With BPCL, they have been warming up to the fact that the petrol pump is not just this boring place where people fuel up and get out. In a parity market, where fuel costs the same in two different pumps, parents would like to stop at the pump giving away gifts of cartoon characters like the Power Puff Girls or Dexter wth their purchase."

The plan is to be all over the place - in large malls and single hypermarkets and by this Diwali, Cartoon Network merchandise will be in 2,000 stores around the country. Kids are sure to have a brighter Diwali this year.

He explains, "I think at the end of the day, we have to be broadbased and not be elitist and you have to do that in Hindi. We are very clear that the strategy is that wherever Cartoon Network goes, our products should be accessible to those cities. Even in terms of price points, our products should be accessible."

The man is also doing lots of other things with his life. Apart from making plenty of children happy, he has kept the writer in him going as well. He has written music reviews and columns for a vast range of publications - from Filmfare and Metropolis to the Times of India. Next on his agenda is a book on life in corporate India. Well, he is in a good position to pen that.

Written for www.moneycontrol.com

Do the IIMs need to build brand equity abroad?

When the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, IIM-B, decided to open a campus in Singapore, the Union human resources ministry vetoed the idea because they said, it didn't adhere to government norms but now they have relented somewhat, and say that IIMs can go abroad, but first they should cater to domestic demand, which they have not done properly so far. So, are the HRD ministry's concerns valid?

Sunil Alagh, who is on the board of IIM-B wants to clear the air. He told CNBC-TV18, "The very first day it was decided, we should do this and make a case to the government, get their permission and then go forward. So the misconception that there was any question of going ahead without government approval, should be removed instantly."

"We are not asking the government for extra funds. If anything, we will create income. Once the income comes in, then institutes like IIM-Bangalore will have less reliance on the government and the government can use the same money to create more IIMs."

Alagh honestly doesn't see what the conflict is all about. As he says, IIM-Bangalore cannot create IIM-Kanpur, that's what the government has to do. But what IIM-B can do is expand its own campus abroad, which is what it is seeking to do.

He explains, "The need of the hour is to establish a brand name with authority. If you want to be part of the global system, if you have the stamp of IIM outside - even if it is a 3 or a 4 month course - you are only adding to the brand equity."

Number of seats per institute

IIM Ahmedabad - 250
IIM-Bangalore - 260
IIM-Calcutta - 300
IIM-Lucknow - 300
IIM-Kozhikode- 180
IIM-Kanpur - 180


Commenting on the issue, Professor at IIT, Kanpur, Pankaj Jalote says that most of these institutes are stuck in the 1980s scenario, where demand for MBAs was low and what IIMs/IITs were producing, was not getting used. At the IITs, he says, it took them 20 years to double the output. He feels these institutes should play a more active role.

He explains, "Playing an active role does not mean that you start opening new campuses in Kanpur or wherever, but upgrading the education that is being imparted." So he feels that the IIMs have not catered to domestic demand.

He adds, "It is not just about increasing seats. We are the leaders in these fields and we should lead the people and not just create more capacity for students. There is point that one can do both, but looking at the faculty here (in Kanpur), I know that we are so stretched in various ways - so one can go to the US or to Singapore and expand in India also, but by and large, I think your bandwidth is limited."

Alagh elaborates and says that what has been overlooked is that, the MBA course offered abroad will be a short-term course and not a 2 years course, like in the Indian IIMs. And he says that they won't be stretched for staff and teaching resources because not the entire staff of the Bangalore IIM will be sent to Singapore, but only one or two professors will be sent to get the campus going, while the rest of the teaching could be done by Chinese or Malaysian professors.

He concludes, "It is not like you are taking the staff from India and opening a branch. So for to say that, we must not export until we meet domestic demand completely is being very myopic. I completely agree that we need to expand the Indian scene, or else how else can IIM Bangalore expand? They can only do that by taking more students in Bangalore but cannot create an IIM-Bangalore brand anywhere else."

Written for www.moneycontrol.com

Women's faces just got Lowe's attention

Lowe has released a book called 'Faces' which has studied changing consumer profile among women. With the urban Indian women being the target of most retail advertising these days, her disposable income is being eyed with eager anticipation. President & COO, Lowe, Pranesh Misra agreed and told CNBC-TV18, "If you look at most of our clients in the FMGC space as well as the durables space, the main decision-maker tends to be the urban Indian housewife and we felt that rather than looking broadly, just focus on this target audience."

The book describes five categories Mrs 'Hasmukh' (Popular) (27%), Mrs. 'Pataka' (Cool) (12%), Mrs 'Meri Awaaz Suno' (Attention Seeker) (31%), Mrs 'Gharelu' (House Proud) (18%), Mrs 'Hey Bhagwan' (Moaner) (12%). The question is how is an advertiser going to use this information for his brands.

Misra explained, "For example if you have your brand and you cross-analyze brands across different segments and you find that your brand is doing well, in the segment of Mrs 'Pataka' Cool and you want to influence those women a lot better. Then what you do is, you go deeper and you study what makes that woman buy (that brand) because there is a lot of data in the study, which talks about her lifestyle, her media behaviour, her attitude towards life - all that linkage data is available. So you are able to get a more holistic picture of this woman."

This helps now because more "women are getting into the workforce, as they are getting independent incomes, as they are exposed to more television, which is a good way to learn about a way of life. I think they are getting a lot more independence in their thinking."

Leo Burnett has been doing this kind of work internationally. In fact, last year at the Cannes Advertising Festival, they presented 'Miss Understood', this was a study on how advertisers are getting women consumers wrong or misunderstanding them. The key findings in the international study would help Indian advertisers.

Chairman & CEO, Leo Burnett, Arvind Sharma elaborated, "The key finding is to stop thinking of women as stereotypical homemakers. They want to enjoy humour as much as men or children do. They are described as emotional and therefore very often advertisers think that showing portrayal of emotion on the screen is enough. Now, you have to evoke emotion, not just show emotion and that's the difference between hugely successful advertising and an attempt at being a good advertising. They are participating far more in economic decisions. Earlier, they were participating in FMCG type of decision-making, then they started participating in durables decision-making."

Misra added, "We polled about 10,300 people and of that I think about 1,500 are working women. So now we have the ability to cross analyze and see what is the difference between a working woman versus a non-working woman."

All of this is an effort to involve women in the adverts being put out in the media as now they have greater control of their incomes and chose to spend it any manner they want to. Sharma elaborated, "In absolute numbers, in India, there aren't very many marketing plans that have been tailored to them. The financial sector is beginning to do a bit, automobiles is not yet doing it. But around the world, automobiles do that and you expect the change to come in. But on the other hand, you could argue that indeed they are beginning to get their due, though in a slightly different form - if you go to any of the shopping malls, the proportion of women will be higher on an average day."

Misra explained, "I think the main lesson is that don't look at Indian housewifes as a uniform mass. There are different strategies that can evolve, depending on who you are after and I think traditionally, marketing has been looking at urban housewives in the age group of 25-30 years. I think those kind of variables of target audience should evolve and you should be able to say now, okay what kind of mind does she bring to the party and therefore, how should my brand strategy evolve to fine-tune itself to the mindset of that consumer." Sharma agreed and says, "Stop looking at women as women, look at them as people."

With so many women working in advertising agencies, their perspectives have yet to permeate to the ad campaigns they create. Sharma said, "Men need to change their attitude and we certainly need to give women bigger voices in the campaigns that they are creating."

Written for www.moneycontrol.com