suhit's Xanga

Friday, November 28, 2003

Fri, 28 Nov 2003 11:39:48 GMT

My New Site

Thanks for visiting my site. I have changed my blog.

Please visit my new site World is Green.

Thursday, September 11, 2003

Thu, 11 Sep 2003 16:32:51 GMT

On Sep 11th 2001

Atanu Dey's post on this resonates with what I feel.

It is not immediately clear why the death of 3,016 should merit all that global attention and grief. Yesterday, 10,000 children died of malnutrition and preventable childhood diseases. Three times as many died yesterday as were killed on Sept 11th 2001. They were humans too. Where is all the breast beating and the public mourng for those innocent 10,000? And not just those 10,000. What about the 10,000 that died the day before? And the day before? What about them? What about the 7,000,000 children who died since Sept 11th 2001?

Is it because the 3,016 were Americans that all the world has to put everything on hold and mourn those dead? Is it because the US can bomb 10,000 innocent Afghanis in retribution for their 3,016 dead that the world has to collectively mourn the American deaths and not give a second's thought to the 7,000,000 children that have also died for no fault of their own?

Why are American lives so much more valuable than the lives of other humans?

Monday, September 08, 2003

Mon, 08 Sep 2003 18:23:40 GMT

Art of the global village

The Rural artists using the web increase their exposure in turn their sales and value.

They also have a chance to see other online galleries and increase their exposure to new stuff.

Something which can increase with the proliferation if RISC.

Monday, September 08, 2003

Mon, 08 Sep 2003 14:37:58 GMT

Shashi Sinha - FCB Ulka ED and Lodestar Media chief executive

During an interview with www.indiantelevision.com he comments on the major problem for companies in Rural India.

Since the monsoons have been good, the rural demand will pick up. The definition of "rural" is also very subjective in India. And the wholesale market in rural areas is a different ballgame.

The real challenge here is to ensure that the distribution systems are in place.

How many companies have the wherewithal to invest in setting up distribution network across the length and breadth of the country and advertise constantly to stimulate demand? I would say - just five or six companies.

It's easy to crack "rural media" but distribution is the true challenge. I would say that several clients haven't been able to reap the benefits of TV advertising due to weak distribution channels in rural areas.

Infrastructure, too, has to improve in rural India too and the onus of that rests on the government.

RISC could be a fantastic fit for most of these companies as they can create a world-class distribution center at every 100 kms all over the country. It would change the face of Rural distribution and marketing.

Sunil Jain in the business-standard also talks about similar problems to Coke and Nestle.

Not surprisingly, at a CII marketing summit where Banerjee made this point, Nestle India's chief Carlo Donati was quite dismissive of the mad rush in search of the rural consumer -- three fourths of India may live in rural areas, he conceded, but finding and servicing these customers was expensive and hit your profit margins.

While Coca-Cola India chief Sanjiv Gupta refused to rise to the bait, or answer specific questions on Coke's margins for rural areas versus urban ones, he did concede that rural operations were an expensive business -- the disposable income in rural areas is usually half that in urban areas, and distributors often have to drive 200 kilometres to service five shops to drop off less than a case of Coke each time.

Friday, September 05, 2003

Fri, 05 Sep 2003 21:18:24 GMT

Business Models – 2

In the course for Social Entrepreneurship Startup from Stanford I have found a section on General Business models for doing business with the poor in the developing countries. All these models are derived from the project to take LED lighting from a promising idea to a reality for as many who would benefit as possible as part of the course.

The principles of affordability, credibility, sustainability and wealth generation have guided the design of each of these models such that the product is geared towards the poor in the developing world. The hope is that the end-product will go beyond its original function to become a renewable source of income for the user as well.

1. Caravan Model

2. Lights for Goods

3. Remittance Model

4. Salesperson Model

5. Small Store Model

6. Other Options

6.1 The Added Value Light Option

6.2 Leasing Option

6.3 Medical Clinic Option

Friday, September 05, 2003

Fri, 05 Sep 2003 21:04:33 GMT

Business Models

A business model is the who, what, when, where, why, how, and how much an organization uses to provide its goods and services and develop resources to continue its efforts. By business model innovation, we mean any successful change in any elements of the business model that substantially enhances a company's on-going performance in delivering benefits versus the available alternatives.

In the most basic sense, a business model is the method of doing business by which a company can sustain itself -- that is, generate revenue. The business model spells-out how a company makes money by specifying where it is positioned in the value chain.

The basic categories of business models discussed in the table below include:

Brokerage

Advertising

Infomediary

Merchant

Manufacturer (Direct)

Affiliate

Community

Subscription

Utility

I have been reading these models. This article has been written for the web-based models. But it is interesting to have them together and will be useful to use them for selling the possible service-models through RISC.

Friday, September 05, 2003

Fri, 05 Sep 2003 20:24:43 GMT

The Network is the Market

[ Source : Always-On Network]

Social Networks (unlike Political or Creative Networks) are fundamentally transactional. We each have a group of people, no larger that 150, that we passively track and trade with. We have relationships of a kind with each of them and are aware of their relationships with each other. What we are monitoring is social capital. When someone wrongs another, if you have both people in your Social Network, you become aware of it and adjust your tacit social credit ratings.

Richard Wilhelm recently made an argument for increased use of social capital instead of financial credit for Internet commerce:

...Mutual trust, when it exists, is a far better and more efficient alternative; it substantially lowers transaction costs, and it can offer a big competitive advantage. One World Bank study, using a regression analysis covering the 1980s, suggests that a 10 percent difference in the degree of generic trust among the citizens of a nation is reflected in a 0.8 percent variance in that country’s rate of economic growth. With average annual growth worldwide in the range of 1 to 3 percent during the same period, it is easy to see the payback in building trust...

We must bring to cyberspace “social capital,” the notion popularized by the political philosophers James Coleman and Francis Fukuyama. Social capital represents the matrix of behavioral norms and reciprocal expectations that allow any social network to function. These informal constraints provide the essential context within which societies can establish formal institutions, procedures, and rules of law. The core of social capital’s process is self-restraint, a willingness to forgo potential advantage...

[Source: Strategy+Business (reg. required)]

My first interaction with virtual social networks has been Ryze. The funny thing is that once I have become a virtual member of this social network I have started to concentrate more on more common networks (classmates, friends, workplace, alumni networks, neighborhood, family etc…)

And I now believe that “The Network is the Market”.

Friday, September 05, 2003

Fri, 05 Sep 2003 19:58:14 GMT

SoBig pain in the Butt

Source : FastCompany Weblog

The SoBig worm has been a major headache for me. Personally I have received hundreds of mails and its been irritating.

I have just joined a new e-mail provided www.antispam.com which promises to stop this nuisance. Morever they also provide a clever way of generating some random e-mail address which can be used to enter sites where we need to provide an e-mail address.

Some way to tackle this is required.

Friday, September 05, 2003

Fri, 05 Sep 2003 19:48:19 GMT

Links from Business Line

I have been reading the Business-Standard and the Economic times for the past 5 years or so as part of daily intake of business information/analysis etc.

Rajesh sometime back said that most of the business papers have something new to offer. I have then started to add Business line in my daily intake. On the website I have found some cool stuff in terms of links to various articles.

Hindu E-books

A collection of various Hindu magazines, article collections etc published as a Acrobat file. The only issue is it is costly ($3-$5 for each).

Simple Economics

Archive list of all the aricles dating back to 2002 published in the paper on economics for the layman under the column Simple Economics.

Rural Marketing

Archive links to articles published on Rural marketing.

Friday, September 05, 2003

Fri, 05 Sep 2003 19:32:47 GMT

Rural India

I have just started a new Google Alert for tracking articles on Rural India.

This is from the search for today.

Corporates turn to rural India for growth – Rediff

Coca-Cola India doubled the number of outlets in rural areas from 80,000 in 2001 to 160,000 in 2003, which increased market penetration from 13 per cent to 25 per cent.

It brought down the average price of its products from Rs 10 to Rs 5, It doubled the spend on Doordarshan…It also tapped local forms of entertainment like annual haats and fairs and made huge investments in infrastructure for distribution and marketing.

Result: the rural market accounts for 80 per cent of new Coke drinkers and 30 per cent of its volumes. The rural market for Coca-Cola grew at 37 per cent over the last year, against a 24 per cent growth in urban areas.

The rural market was tempting since it comprised 74 per cent of the country's population, 41 per cent of its middle class, 58 per cent of its disposable income and a large consuming class, Coca-Cola India CEO Sanjiv Gupta said. Today, real growth is taking place in the rural-urban markets, or in the 13,113 villages with a population of more than 5,000. Of these, 9,988 villages are in seven states -- Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

According to the National Council for Applied Economic Research, the millennium belongs to the Class III and IV rural-urban towns. It estimates that an average rural Indian household will have five major consumer appliances by 2006, almost double of what it had five years ago.

In order to efficiently and cost-effectively target the rural markets, the companies will have to cover many independent retailers since in these areas, the retailer influences purchase decisions and stock a single brand in a product category.

NDTV adds:

But experts say rural India needs much more than clever TV ads. A skit, a contest, a live demo in schools - such strategies work far better.

For companies that are hoping to cash in on this monsoon - experts offer a word of advice. Rural marketing is not cheap. Companies need to start investing money in research and products aimed specifically at rural India.

"There is a chicken and egg situation. Unless you invest you would not be able to develop. Until you understand rural consumers you wouldn't be able to bring out products. And until you do that there will be no return on investment," says Kamini Banga, MD, Dimensions Consulting.

The returns are waiting to be reaped. Just a few statistics prove that - 70 per cent of toilet soap users are in rural India; 38 per cent of two wheelers are bought in rural areas; 80 per cent of Coke's new drinkers are in rural markets. Need one say more?

Also, similar points were added in the CII’s battling for market share summit discusses in Rural marketing. One thing is sure is that Rural India is where the new innovation in products/marketing/pricing/advertising will be in. And this is where RISC comes into the picture.

We are where the Fun is.

Some more articles from the archives of Rediff.