Link to my article in Economic times on companies innovating for Indian consumers

Sharing the link to my article in economic times on companies innovating for Indian consumers, link

Books on India II

Over the last couple of months I have got a mixed collection of books on India, thought of sharing five of the books with my readers,

Would like to start with Narayan Murthy's ' A Better India A Better World' which is a collection of speeches given by him on various occasions when he was invited, from convocation addresses across the world, to memorial lectures. It is a collection of thoughts of one of the most respected business leader in the country, in which he shares his passion and conviction about India and youth. Infact he says in the book that he never misses out an opportunity to speak out to the youth to impress upon them some of the ideas which he feels are critical in today's world. In the book he acknowledges his son for pursuing him to put his work together in a book. Companion website for the book, link.

Second book in the list is 'India's Global Power Houses' by Nirmalya Kumar. An out and out India success story book, covering more than 10 companies which have managed the transformation from domestic to global players. Covering company case studies from Tata Group to Infosys, Arcelor Mittal and Bharat Forge. A good resource for people seeking info on Indian companies too. The companion website is www.indiasglobalpowerhouses.ning.com

Third book in the list does not form a part of the set as it is not about the positive and feel good side of India which has been written by the first two authors. The book 'The Caged Phoenix' by Dipankar Gupta looks at the limitations of the Indian success story. He raises the question of growth versus human development. In the book the author says he has made an attempt to sound the warning bell with the hope that at least intellectuals and members of the concerned public will take a second look at Indian growth story.

The last two books in my list include books which are not ones which talk about the current status of Indian market, not linked to the growth or success that the country has achieved in the recent past but are infact historical and sociological in nature. 'India after Gandhi' by Ramchandra Guha is a close-to 1000 page compendium on History of Democracy in India starting from the British onwards. There are many reviews which have been written on the book and a lot of recognition which has come its way, some the reviews, NY Times, Hindu, The Guardian.

The last book in the list is 'Oxford India, Srinivas' a collection of the best of M N Srinivas's writing, one of the most distinguished sociologist of the country.His writings give us insights into village life, caste and social structure, religion and cultural and social change in India. Ramchandra Guha in writing the foreword for the book says that the book should on the shelf of every thinking Indian.

Books on India I

Mumbai Dabbawala - A Sucess Story

A year back I had an opportunity to listen to a presentation made by Mr Manish Tripathi of Dabbawala from Mumbai. He shared his ideas with us on the working of the model and he kept the audience totally glued to his presentation inpite of limitations of English. Later on he shared with me that he had made similar presentations in many Ivey League schools overseas also.

For more on Dabawabawala visit thier official website, link

I have made an attempt to document Indian success stories in my blog and felt that this one is on top of the pile. The model is totally designed for India and provided its utility and efficiency over many decades. Now many companies are trying to leverage this network for pushing their sales, be it the telecom companies to sell their re-charge coupons to the clients of dabbawala or the insurance companies trying to reach these people during the March end rush. I found a very good presentation in slideshare so thought would upload that here..

But one of the learning's from the model which at times gets unnoticed by people is that there one can achieve record efficiency levels(beyond six sigma)by using simple basic coding. Most of us when told about this level of efficiency would associate it with a extremely sophisticated modern way of working backed with a lot of IT....

Mumbai's Dabbawalas - Amazing Management Success Story India

View more presentations from Paavan Solanki. (tags: lunch boxes carrier)

Low Priced Product - Impact on a Company

The introduction of a low-priced product into the product portfolio of a company can have many implications. Many a times it can change a company in many fundametal ways. As a premium high priced product's a company can afford to ignore many retailer while distributing and communicate to a select group of customers, but when such a company is forced to introduce a low priced masss product, then....

One company which has gone through this sort of a fundametal shift is Britannia Industries. A premium biscuit and cookie seller till the launch of Tiger biscuits. Tiger was launched in 1997 and marked a shift in the overall distribution and marketing focus of the company because tiger was pitched against Parle-G Glucose biscuits , the Rs 40 per kg mass biscuits.

In the pre-tiger era there use to a gap between supply demand for britannia biscuits, and the company had a laid-back approach towards distribution and in tier-II cities in the coutry a situation of non-avalibility of Britannia biscuits was not a very uncommon . The launch of tiger changed all this, the company was forced to think, act and distribute like a mass marketer and they ended up developing specific models for distributing Tiger in rural markets across the coutry....

And the introduction of the Rs1 Sachets of Tiger meant that the company had to even place the product in Tea shops and other smaller shops where it would be cosumed with tea....

Today Tiger brand is a Rs 650 Crore plus brand in the market and the comapny itself has trasformed itself from distribution power house.....