hApPy nEy yEaR tO aLl

The Indian Retail

Retail is the sector which is touching the sky in India and other developing countries. The Indian retail Industry saw a drastic change in it’s grown mainly after 2005. This was the time when the retail in India started becoming more and more organized.

There are various players from huge market players to medium companies which are trying their hand in the organized retail market. The present Indian retail could be categorized under Rural and Urban Retail.

Rural Retail: This option was first taken out by ITC in a mass scale in India. It was kind of a mix and match of a few services which was a revolutionary step in India (I would not go into details as per now) It was a complex structure which centralized everything. There are many companies which are into rural retail now.

The major step in the Urban retail was from Reliance which launched its chain of Reliance fresh with a newer concept of vegetable retail. The company applied such a wonderful supply chain and quality standards that it was even considered as a threat to the traditional vegetable retail market; as an outcome it was forced to be closed in Uttar Pradesh.

If you see the present situation there are many major players in the market from Wallmart with EasyDay to In and Out the the gas station retail outlet, the other players are 24X7, 6 to10 Big Bazar from the future group.

The Indian retail companies use the best of the technology to streamline their processes and get the best out of it. POS (Point of sales) Systems are a very common sight now a days. Using customized RMS (Retail management Systems) various ERP packages SAP packages is a common trend to monitor the whole cycle and have a good control over it. As a result major IT companies are having a gala time implementing these services as the domestic client now has the power to pay.

The retail companies are not only present in the market but are segregating their chains according to the customer’s need. Reliance has Reliance fresh, Reliance retail; Future Group has Big Bazar, Furniture bazaar, pantaloons, Future bazaar and Pluss. The retail is now segregated according to the market segment and is more consumer centric.

As per my knowledge the Indian Retail has a lot of potential which is still to be explored in the coming decade.

The Wine Industry in India

The Indian wine industry has seen a revolutionary change in the last few years. Though Wines in India have come up as a trend rather than as a culture as in the other European countries.

The Indian wine companies like Sula, ND wines are the once that could be seen most commonly on the stands in the liquor shops. These are the brands the common Indian knows and uses. Its only the color or the name and the bottle that attracts most of us and we have no idea what we are drinking. Most of the wines are not even kept at the adequate temperatures for them. We could see the white wine and the red wine stocked together. That's amusing as the white wine if kept at higher temperatures more than 12 degree C it turns into vinegar, looses its taste, odor and acidity. Though the red wine is supposed to be at room temperature but that does not include 48 degree C temperatures in the Indian subcontinent.

There are some differences in stocking organic and inorganic wines but who cares its all the same in here.

Though there is a demand of fine french wines ans well as Italian wines in India but that is more restricted to the upper segment of the society. These imported wines are not available on general counters , there are very few suppliers and could be found at some good hotels and food joints only.

The point is that though India has grown into a beer drinking nation but still for wines to be accepted there is a lot of time.

The Indian Defense Industry

The market trends in India have been changing but what has not changed much in terms of the market trends is the Defense market. India has been one of the potential markets for defense companies all around the world. It has been for a about half a century now that the defense companies have found India and Pakistan as one of their target markets.

The major countries involved in defense market are Russia, Germany, USA, UK, Israel, France and China. These are the companies which dominate the defense market in the world and each country has its own specialty in which they excel in. Like Israel is famous for its small and hand held weapon industry and produces one of the best handheld weapons in the world. Germany has the best tanks in the world, US has the best tactical equipments and air borne vehicles in the market.

The Indian subcontinent has been the market for some of the best defense companies like: Lockheed Martin (US), Northrop Grumman (US), Thales (France), Israel Weapon Industry (Israel), E Bit Systems (Israel), Sikorsky (US), Sukhoi (Russia) and many more. Even there are many Indian agencies which have come up with some very good defense products.

DRDO, HAL, Gun factory board, ISRO are working on new research projects and coming up with better products. But the only question mark is is the effort in the right direction and is the pace of advancement right? I say this because we have the best naval ship and submarines facilities in the world but still we buy submarines and retired ships from Russia and other countries. The Arjun tank took such a long time that till the time it was out the technology was obsolete. Tejas, when in the final phase of development the scientists realize it’s a light weight combat aircraft and the engine used is not powerful enough to lift the assault weapons.

India has the capability and the technology to implement it but we always lack the system needed for that technology to work in the right direction and on right time.

Software Industry Changing its CG

In the last half decade the global software market has seen the center of gravity changing from a single country to the whole globe. The whole globe is a marketplace now either in terms of providing services or in terms of being a potential revenue generation market.

Till the beginning of this decade it was only India as a service providing nation with the software industry experience and offering low cost resources. Now if you talk about the nations which were potential buyers of these services the only name we could say 6-7 years ago was America.

America was the only explored market where India uses to provide services as being the only major provider. In the initial times India only has low level designing and coding work in all the projects. The higher level architectural designs were done in USA, UK or the project parent company. Its only recent that the CG (center of gravity) of this structure has changed and there are research projects coming in India and the companies are investing hugely in the R&D departments to keep up the growth graph.

Recently an Indian company is working on a research and development project for a giant US based IT company on a mainframe UI application which will automate all the processes which were used to be done at the backend by high level code commands. This is going to be a landmark in the field of technology.

So the motive of the above example is to highlight the upcoming trends in the Indian IT industry. The industry has matured a lot in the last few years and is capable of producing results comparable to the high wage markets like US and UK. Now if we consider other service providing low wage countries as china, Taiwan, Philippines, Romania and others they are at the stage where India was 10 years back. And the main point these countries are working upon is the language barrier which needs to be taken care of.

So the result of the whole matter is that it’s a complete cyclic process and if a country slows down its speed the others following will lead.

India Experimenting

During the last decade the Indian market has seen a huge penetration in terms of the global products. You can see the presence of very international brand, every technology and every product in the Indian market. You can find it all here.

The reason for this kind of penetration of the global products in the Indian Market is the increased purchasing power of the customer or the general citizen here. A common Indian is willing to pay more for a better product. The living standard has risen to a level comparable to the other major civilizations of the world. Now the Indian customer wants the best possible option.

The Indian market has also become quite experimental as well, when it comes to fashion or food habits. If you travel to the metros you may see the distinct difference in the fashion trends as compared to the last half decade.

If you talk in terms of the Indian food industry there have been drastic changes and Indian has now learnt to acknowledge the international food and has moved on from the traditional Indian food. You can see the market place crowded with good Italian, Continental and Chinese food. India has started loving the taste of cheese and pasta and is ready to experiment in their food habits.

Another change of trend India has seen in the last few years is in the drinking habit. Beer is the new favorite of the youth in India and it has been started being considered in the beverage section. Wine is another growing trend in India; people have started developing their taste buds for the international and Indian wines. Though its more of in the sophisticated class up till now. The Indians can distinguish their wines now and know which wine goes with which kind of food. The most admitted fact is that wine makers took special pains to produce flavors to go with Indian curry.

So all the young and lively people out there go out and experiment with your food, clothes and lifestyle as now you have the options and the best of them

The World has Shrunk

The world has shrunk to a click of the mouse. You can access any data you can think of if you know where and how to look for.

As the world has shrunk so is the market place or the business domains. Now you don’t need to travel to the corners of the world and promote your business. Now you don’t have to employ a large force to promote your word and make a brand in the market. Its no longer about the company size the marketing team or the availability of the budget. It has all come up to a stage where it only involves the knowledge of the social and professional media and networking forums on the internet to promote your business.

The term is online marketing social media marketing, online promotion and so on. It all means the same. No matter what size your company is and no matter what size the marketing team is you can reach out to the world in the least efforts possible. It was once said “The pen is mightier than the sword” I would like to reframe it “net is the mightiest”

Now there are many networking forums, social networking forums, professional networking forums, online markets, online business portals for bidding in projects, online directories which are industry and geography specific. In short you just need to know the potential on this network called Internet and promote your business.

I would say the budget of your marketing activities has come down from millions in investment to a couple of hundred, that’s your internet bill.

Companies from big to small are adopting this trend and are making their presence in the global arena. Some of the companies have moved from their traditional style of marketing to the latest trends and in fact have a separate department for online promotion and marketing.

Does one need have a MBA degree to make it BIG in the market?

I always had this question in my mind and use to think about it for long hours “ Does one needs to be an MBA to understand the market” do these fancy degrees really makes you a champion. Do fancy college names in your degree give you a certification on the judgment of market trends? And many more…
I have worked with many professionals in my career with the Masters Degree in Business Administration some working under me and some above me.
I have been reading through some of the novels, biographies of the recent entrepreneurs and the young Indian businessmen have achieved in life and have found that it’s not the degree that drove them to the success of their business it’s their zeal to achieve something big make a mark in history to prove to the world that they were not meant to lead a simple life.. They had different goals in life and they worked hard to achieve them. It was not the books through which they studied business but the open market was their classroom. They learned by their failures, by seeing others, by not losing hope on themselves.
These are men class apart who could never walk with the crowd and always thought of making their own way. There was nothing which would come in their way. They never had any management degree but they understood the market trends, knew what was customer relationship, client satisfaction, quality control, branding, target audience and cash or finance management.
What I have felt in my education being a B Tech and being in the marketing and sales field that professional education never teaches you how to do stuff or how stuff is done. But it sure gives you the attitude to learn from your surroundings when you are in the market or in your arena. So it hardly makes a difference where you get the attitude from … by spending loads of money and huge time or by being there in the market and by experience.
I never oppose higher education or an MBA because it sure gives you something which might take a while for you to achieve.
I would be more than happy to gear your views and experiences. I would love to share some cases in my upcoming blogs.

Indian Trade History

India has been a potential market in many ways in terms of export. We have been exporting some of the finest silk to the larger markets of the world. Currently we export cotton, silk, Iron Ore, spices, tea, coffee, leather goods, etc. But this trend is not recent we have been exporting to the world market since the ancient times when many of the world countries never knew trade by sea route.
There have been proofs of the Indian trade dating back to 2500 to 3000 BC which is the approximate time of the Indus valley civilizations. India has been trading with the various other civilizations in the world in Egypt, Rome, Middle East (Babylon), Persia since a long period of time.
The Indian market has been pretty developed since long ages and has been mature player in the international trade as well. There have been proves of advertisements of Indian silk on ships from the time of Samudragupta that is around 300 AD.
The above points prove that India has been in the International trade since the ages and has been a mature player in it. The major ingredients India uses to expot were Silk (major), Spices and ivory. There was a huge demand of Indian silk in the international market.
All the trade done by India was through the sea route from Gujarat ports of Lothal a little above Ahmadabad to the various other countries.
I would write about the complicated current Indian market in the upcoming block and this was just a pre chat before the whole discussion.

Some International Humor Over Phone

Interacting with the international client in various countries around the world could be quite amusing sometimes. Due to the communication gap and the lack of the local language terms used in that country sometimes the sales guys find themselves in an awkward situation which they know is humorous but cant even laugh.
I am sharing some of this humor with you guys and love to hear some of your experiences as well.

Long back I was working on the Turkish market it was a start for me so I had no experience on working in that market and neither was I aware of the local lingo of the country.

There was once I was communicating with a client in Turkey through mails but never had the chance to talk to him over phone. One day I got a call from him out of blue moon and after communicating (which was a really difficult communication) he started referring to something sounding similar to pasta and after much struggle I found he was saying “ e Posta “ and struggling further I found its the local term used for E mail.

Similarly I called one of my client's office and when asked for him was told “saahib” is not in yet. I thought the person I talked to might be a low level office boy or something but later I came to know he was the sales head and its a common term in turkey for owner.

Making a Russian understand what”@” is over phone while telling your mail ID. Even Russians find it hard to narrate what @ is called. One of my client while telling his mail Id was stuck when it came to @ but was intelligent enough to say “ Now you press shift and press 2”. I somehow avoided an attack of laughter.

In my last company there was a guy in my team, very energetic and keen to learn but the only problem was he had no patience. Once he was on a call in US territory and was talking to a receptionist and she was asking too many questions so loosing his patience for the moment he said “ agar kaam nahi karna aata to doosro ka time ku waste karti ho” (If you don't know how to work why do you waste others time) thinking she is an American and he was shocked hearing “ mujhe apna kaam aata hai and yes I understand Hindi” (I know my work pretty well and yes I understand hindi). Since that day he stopped doing such things over calls.

I would appreciate some contributions from your side also. :)

The Rural America Growing

The concept came from the American market during the last couple of years. Though the concept is a bit older but has got the attention in the last couple of years. The term could be broken into rural and outsourcing and as the word itself implies means that outsourcing to the rural areas.

The eastern part of the country has not been much influenced by the technology boom prevalent in the western part. Some of the states in the eastern and central part could be termed as the rural America such as Alaska, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, New Mexico, Idaho, Nebraska, Utah, Kansas, Iowa.

According to the recent rural outsourcing the IT industry in these stares have started to flourish, though still in the initial stages but it promises a lot of potential. The IT companies which till this date were finding economical off-shoring nations like India and China to cut down in their production or development costs are now going to this rural America.

Reason for preferring rural America over other countries may said as better communication. The off-shoring industry has always suffered due to the bad communication channel between two countries or companies, the reason being many like: Difference in accent, vast difference in the time zones, different in management styles. All these differences could be avoided in the Rural outsourcing plus the comparative rates or the costs involved a just a bit higher than off-shoring to other countries like India or China.

Though as fancy as it sounds for the US software industry it would still take a decade for the rural America to reach up to the level of India and its a challenge for India to move fast in terms of quality and project management because India is no longer the cheapest resource available in the market.

The Horizons Unexplored in Europe

The European IT industry is a mix and match of both the off-shoring nations and hi potential developed nations. It could be categorized in two segments 1) Low cost off-shoring destinations 2) High cost client nations.

Here I would concentrate on strong IT nations with high development costs involved.

Europe has been considered as a secluded part if we talk about the international software industry. It has never been in the open to give a direct competition to other major countries in the world. Having humungous potential in terms of IT and software; countries like Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, etc. have a per-set and mature IT/software industry with years f experience in the field but the main thing to note here is that it has never been approached with full force by service providing nations like India China specially from the Asian region

Reason: The per-set notion that language is a major barrier in the way and communication with European countries would be a challenge. Being in the industry for some time I have felt that companies feel that targeting these countries would be a waste of time and money as no one would entertain a sales person speaking English or it would be difficult to make the techies understand the requirements because of the communication gap.

All the above concepts were true till the last decade when these countries were concentrated to themselves. Now Germany is working actively in the international market be it any industry, mechanical, automobile, food, defense or IT. They have changed their corporate culture to a much international culture. 90% Germans in the business speak and understand English. They are ready to work with the international companies or are willing to go for off-shoring their services as this is the horizon unexplored for them. As it being a virgin market the rate difference is still huge and still intact.

The Europeans have started to welcome the concept of off-shoring and its time nations like India, China apart from concentrating on their traditional market USA on to Germany, Netherlands, etc.