The Coldest Sales Call

It was the time, when I had just joined a company V-Tork Controls ( A valve manufacturer),I was travelling across various states to big public and private enterprises of different domains that includes JSW, Appollo tyres, Kochi Refineries..etc, I was a sales guy striving to get at least one order which will the first. I was in Mangalore travelling to Kudremukh Iron ore plant, thinking where to start whom to meet.

Finally I reached Kudremukh I could see no shops there, even a tea shop. I could see only huge walls, giant gates with five to six big security officers with gun in their hand. It was then I got a call from my boss… Sometimes securities are better than bosses. I went closer, there I saw a board in security office that has all the extension numbers of employees working there. Then I told that, I have an appointment with the purchase manager  to the security head and I told him the name of purchase manager which I heard from another sales guy near me, just a minute before.

The security told me to hold on for a minute, and then all of a sudden he gave me the  telephone saying that the purchase manager is in line. For me the crucial part was that I haven’t got his appointment till then . I heard a voice who is this, I told the same what I told the security to the manager, he told I don’t remember so. Then I affirmed that I got your appointment two days back please consider me sir, I have travelled all the way from Coimbatore to Mangalore. Then he told me to give the phone to security. I was tensed when the security  told me to get inside the company. I was a very excited, but the bad part was I coudnt express that. Its very difficult to enter into such a company as a student, as an aspirant but I am inside there as a sales guy.

I went to each and every department, being a mechanical engineer a little curious to know what is happening in the plant. Huge machineries, roller of the size of Giant wheelers running just closer to me, Captive power plants, Huge pipe lines, thousands of Valves which was our product. By then, only one thought struck my mind, Imagine if all these valves are of our brand. A thought of a typical sales guy,a little exaggerated but was the truth. I met some vendor development team members spend some time along with them inside the plant educating them about our product, meanwhile got educated from them. And the best part was , even though  I did something small I had a sense of accomplishment that I could able to forward some enquiries from Kudremukh to our company…

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Suraj Kumar

Curious Case of the ITALIAN ECONOMY - A Footy perspective

Raj Shekar 
Aditya Raghavan


With EURO 2012 making news everywhere lets take a footy perspective of the Italian Economic Crisis.


Imagine an Italian national football team, with 2 forwards, 4 midfielders, and 4 defenders(and, of course, the goalkeeper).

Consider, a situation, where this football team resembles the country's current economy.The following players will take the positions, as listed:


Forwards-Product market regulation

One can think of two types of (bad) product market regulation:
-Call the First-inward oriented". It aims at protecting incumbent Firms from
potential domestic competitors, through entry restrictions and other means.

The result is the creation of rents, and their distribution to incumbents,                             
to the state, and to politicians. The inefficiencies generated by regulation
may be substantial, but incumbent firms are better off, and the state and
politicians are happy enough to go along.
- Call the second -outward oriented". It aims at protecting domestic Firms
from foreign competitors, through barriers to trade and other means.

 In this case, maintaining the first
type of regulation may become quite costly for incumbent firms. The inefficiencies
generated by inward oriented regulation may make it difficult to compete with
foreign firms. So, from the point of view of incumbents, the best reaction to
a decrease in outward oriented regulation may be to decrease inward oriented
regulation. In other words,One type of deregulation may well trigger
the other.Hence,the goals dry up !!




Midfielders/Playmakers-The country's economy

So why is Italy in soup ?

The reason is because its economy is so weak.The midfield is the heart of any football team, and if it is unable to  play ball, the team is bound to suffer on all the fronts.

Italy is plagued by poor regulation, vested business interests, an ageing population and weak investment, all of which have conspired to limit the country's ability to increase production.

Defence - Labor regulations

There is a clear inverse relation across countries between the degree of employment protection and the degree of unemployment insurance.If unemployment is painful, workers will lobby hard to avoid it, and ask for high employment protection. Governments may go along, thinking that it is much cheaper to have the firms provide employment protection, than having the government to pay for unemployment insurance.Starting from the Italian starting point, more generous unemployment insurance, in exchange for a reduction in employment protection, appears to hold the scope for an improvement in efficiency at little or no cost in social protection.A football team, in a crunch situation,tends to take a defensive approach.As a result, the team has no lead secured, to play for.

Goalkeeper- Financial Framework

In Italy there are a few large banks and many small and medium-sized banks operating on a regional scale. The crisis touched the larger banks, which lost funds as a result of the Lehman Brothers crash, or found their assets devalued by the stock-market collapse. However, Italian banks were  not very heavily involved in highly speculative sectors. The main problem for Italian banks, apart from the reduction in liquidity, came from links with Central and Eastern European countries,where had extended their network of branches.There was a risk of the collapse or illiquidity of this part of the network. Small and medium-sized banks instead reacted to the liquidity crisis by reducing credit to clients and consumers and raising the amount of collateral required for new loans. This policy reduced investment in machinery and houses and threatened the  small and medium sized firms in various sectors, in particular the most export oriented of them.  So, sectors such as real estate, house building and cars collapsed.A weaker financial framework affects the other industries as well.Thus, an incompetent goalie not only allowed goals, but also triggered the collapse of the entire team.

Hence,it is not all that difficult to envisage how and why did Italy, inspite of being such a superpower,land up in such a mess.

Full Time !!! :)


Content : Raj Shekhar
Concept : Aditya Raghavan

TEXTILE INDUSTRY - A VIABLE CHOICE



Hi all,this is the wonderful startup by students.

->I would like to share my views about my ambition.My aim is to start a textile business.Here is some info about textile history.

->India Textile Industry is one of the leading textile industries in the world. Though was predominantly unorganized industry even a few years back, but the scenario started changing after the economic liberalization of Indian economy in 1991. The opening up of economy gave the much-needed thrust to the Indian textile industry, which has now successfully become one of the largest in the world.

India textile industry largely depends upon the textile manufacturing and export. It also plays a major role in the economy of the country. India earns about 27% of its total foreign exchange through textile exports. Further, the textile industry of India also contributes nearly 14% of the total industrial production of the country. It also contributes around 3% to the GDP of the country. India textile industry is also the largest in the country in terms of employment generation. It not only generates jobs in its own industry, but also opens up scopes for the other ancillary sectors. India textile industry currently generates employment to more than 35 million people. It is also estimated that, the industry will generate 12 million new jobs by the year 2010.

As per the facts(http://business.mapsofindia.com/india-industry/textile.html)u can see that this is a blooming industry which has a lot of enterprenurial potential. So i request all buddies to consider this industry as a future business option.

Krishna Kumar

Advantage India- In Pharmaceutical Market 


By Rohan chowdhury                        

The Indian Pharmaceutical Sector has come a long way. Considered to be a non-existing sector during 1970, it has rose to a prominent provider of health care products, meeting almost 95% of the country’s pharmaceutical needs. Currently the Indian Pharma Industry is valued at approximately $8.0 billion. There are some competitive advantages of Indian Pharma Industry such as follows:

• The development of  cost-beneficial chemical synthesis for various drug molecules is excellent and cost effective.
• With a democratic set up, the country possesses a solid legal framework and strong financial markets. This has helped in establishing a cordial bridge between international industry and business community.
• The international pharmaceutical industry has discovered a wide range of  opportunities in India. The process of consolidation, which has become popular in the world pharmaceutical industry, has also taken place in the Indian pharmaceutical industry. The Indian pharmaceutical industry which is worth US $ 3.1 billion is growing at the rate of 14 % annually.

It is a fantastic student initiative. I am sure, through my experiences, that there is a huge demand for these services and more importantly, it can have a huge impact on your applications of marketing fundamentals. Good. Keep going.

Dr.Murthy

History : A Potent Tool for Branding

Aditya Raghavan

I have often wondered what it takes to be a great brand manager. The variety of skills needed to be possessed as a management student pretty much sums up the wide knowledge the students are supposed to have as they enter the corporate jungle.

But getting caught up the rat race and a micro focus on aptitude,quantum and  theoretical skills results in a black hole when it comes to branding. We cannot deny the importance of analytical ability but it cannot be overstated.

Here is where knowledge of History places you in a different league all together. In my own personal experience, active interest in History, symbolism and a passion for archaeology during my younger days helps me look at brands in a different perspective.

History, being perceived as a boring subject which is more of a result of uninspiring teachers rather than the syllabus in itself , can act as an amazing bridge between good brands and great brands.

Knowledge of history and culture of your own region gives you the 3rd eye in terms of marketing insights and creating new brands.

An example would be the art of bargaining in the streets of Istanbul. Istanbul's markets are fascinating wherein the art of bargaining while drinking coffee is a matter of pride for the shopkeepers who treat instant buyers with disdain.

If you do not understand this culture and history of Turkish markets as a marketer or consumer, you are most likely to have forgettable turkish adventure :)

Marketing Insights - Reading between the lines

Rohit Bengani


Today there is lot of dissonance happening in terms of what the consumer actually wants and what is being offered, especially in the case of SMEs. Is it the marketer who is suffering from marketing myopia due to lack of improper MR?Or is he trusting his intution baselessly? The question is open and unanswered. So such an attempt to bridge the gap between the market and businesses is a warranted and amazing initiative.

Here another concept of Marketing Intelligence can be related to as it is a great source of Marketing Research and Marketing Intelligence of sorts for businesses.

So, what do you trust as a marketer? Insights or Instincts?