“IT SYMBOLISES STRENGTH TO ME”

With India entering the league of a select few who have their own currency symbol, the creator of the new symbol for the Indian rupee shares with 4Ps B&M the symbolic meaning of the creation, his research and the cultural roots etched deep into the symbol

How does it feel to be the man behind our new rupee symbol?
It feels great to be able to become a part of something that will give this country its own visual recognition globally. Actually, the feeling is quite phenomenal.

What did you want to portray while the design was still in your mind?
When the Government of India had announced this competition, if you can call it that, there were certain guidelines to be followed. We were supposed to work on something that will reflect our culture. So I was focussing on how the Indian culture could be best portrayed. I did a lot of research on Indian scripts as I had already done my PhD in the Tamil script. After a lot of research, I decided to use the Devnagri script.

Why the Devnagri Script?
I could not afford to miss the uniqueness of this script. While every other currency symbol in the world starts from the baseline, it is only in Devnagri script that you write from the topline. I tried many other options, but this was unique among other scripts. I thought this will represent India’s identity distinctly!

What does the symbol symbolize to you now?
It symbolises strength to me. All this while, I had the same concept in my mind. It was a strong concept then, it is still a strong one after it got selected. The verdict has not changed anything for me, I see the symbol in the same manner as I did when I created it. Even people will see it in the same light.

Would this symbol change India’s stand globally?
It has given the nation’s currency a visual recognition, which is an important landmark in itself. I think it has brought about a face value to Indian currency. More importantly, it has served as a symbol of differentiation among our seven neighbouring countries that have the same currency as the rupee.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

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IIPM Proves Its Mettle Once Again....

FACE2FACE WITH ASHA GUPTA, MANAGING DIRECTOR, TUPPERWARE INDIA

What exactly do you consider as competition ?
Every storage container available in the market is our competitor. But the parameter and the policies we have, make us unique. So I would say we do not have any competition. There are many products in the market, which say they are warm and airtight, but they end up in having worms and stale food.

We have never seen much glamour from your side. Why has Tupperware shied away from the ad world?
Our brand itself has so much of a glamor quotient. Our brand is our brand ambassador which speaks much for itself and outside. We don’t have many endorsers. I believe only 12-13% of population go for ads, rest of the population takes only what they feel is good. For example, if a friend of yours posts on Facebook that they didn’t watch a certain movie as it was a waste of time, you would generally trust him/her rather than a newspaper review. That is the way we sell – by building the chain of confidence.

What other market segments is Tupperware heading towards?
We are looking at cookware as our new showcase. Cookware has tied up very well with out product. We know about the market in India quite thoroughly and how people behave. We are going to bring in very high quality cookware and help Indian housewives to save on gas and cook healthy food. Through cookware, we will be completing the whole kitchen: from cooking to preparation, to serving, to taking food out and saving it to the refrigerator.

And any CSR activities of Tupperware?
Yes. We have focused our target on young girls, helping them get educated. We also have an association called Literacy India. So every time a Tupperware product is sold, there is an amount which is being sent to the fund maintained by Literacy India. Through that, these kids get education, training in paper making, handicrafts, colour paper etc. We help them selling their products by promoting them and buying them ourselves (for the company).


For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM makes business education truly global
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm - Planman Consulting
Arindam Chaudhuri (IIPM Dean) – ‘Every human being is a diamond’
Arindam Chaudhuri – Everything is not in our hands
Planman Technologies – IT Solutions at your finger tips
Planman Consulting
Arindam Chaudhuri's Portfolio - he is at his candid best by Society Magazine

IIPM B-School
Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri
Planman Consulting

Marketing - On Steve’s Radar

AUTO PILOT

Lee Thomson,
Senior VP, Corporate Sales, Asia Pacific, Salesforce.com

What is the logic behind offering multiple clouds?
Lots of organisations have legacy technologies and they don’t want to make that leap in one transaction. So we have many customers who want to adopt some of the technology on the cloud, retain some of the technology on premise or legacy technology. As long as you can give that customer an integrated solution and once they evolve, and once that legacy technology becomes older & less relevant, they move to new technology and tend to move to the cloud.

What will be your major competitive advantages going forward?
A number of people are now researching on cloud computing. A lot of people would look to internet for advice on CRM or cloud computing. People would talk to Salesforce as it is the market leader. The more powerful thing is that those organisations will talk to our other customers and understand why they shifted to Salesforce. That’s where the real value is.

Virat Bahri

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM makes business education truly global
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm - Planman Consulting
Arindam Chaudhuri (IIPM Dean) – ‘Every human being is a diamond’
Arindam Chaudhuri – Everything is not in our hands
Planman Technologies – IT Solutions at your finger tips
Planman Consulting
Arindam Chaudhuri's Portfolio - he is at his candid best by Society Magazine

IIPM ranked No 1 B-School in India
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs
IIPM: Management Education India
Prof. Rajita Chaudhuri's Website

IIPM B-School
Arindam Chaudhuri
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WHY HDFC STD’S BET MIGHT JUST PAY OFF

4Ps B&M cuts across the honchos within HDFC Standard Life, as well as the whiz kids of Leo Burnett, the creators of their campaign, to understand why a simple, staid, standard message may actually get the numbers running along for the financial behemoth

But first, why in heavens didn’t HDFC Standard rub the money into some electrifying campaign with loads of, say, sfx... or comedy perhaps, or better, celebrity branding? Alright, they have some part of the celebrity stuff, but surely, not much of the rest. Take your pick – the latest Indian Premier League’s Sar Utha Ke Khelo, Sar Utha Ke Jiyo ad campaign in association with the Rajasthan Royals; or the Kal Ki Socho, Sar Utha Ke Jiyo campaign, which urges people to look at insurance in a new light and get them to do proper financial planning for themselves and their families; the Chanda Mama campaign, which suavely shows a small child aspiring for an expensive profession and subconsciously assumes her dad not being able to support her; the ‘dependable papa idea’ based around the insight that whatever the child’s need may be, she can depend on her father to provide for her; or the Simplelife Plan ‘Big Car’ ad campaign; the insurer has always promoted messages that are not, for the lack of a better word, shocking.

In fact, one would even accuse them of looking more towards developing the insurance sector in their ads rather than plumping in for their brand. Sanjay Tripathi, Executive VP and Head of Marketing, HDFC Standard Life, tells us, “The need for life insurance – either protection or saving – is universal, and thus, there is a tremendous need to increase awareness about life insurance.”

But that’s not to take anything away from one of their campaigns that clearly has moved a lot of minds. That’s the IPL ad campaign; the communication strategy was to convey the brand philosophy through individual stories of players (Shane Warne, Yusuf Pathan, Swapnil Asondkar, Munaf Patel, and Kamran Khan). The campaign celebrates pride and self-respect of individuals who, while others see adversity and despair, see a challenge and hope and strive and struggle to reach their chosen goal against all odds. Creditably, one has to accept that the campaign seems to have integrated cricket and insurance well.

“The campaign has been received very well. Through that campaign, we blended the common values (to both HDFC Standard Life and Rajasthan Royals) – self respect or living life with head held high with each of the success stories of these players,” says Tripathi. And one strong reason for that could be the fact that all the so-called ‘struggles’ that you see the featured players revealing in that particular ad-series are in fact real issues that the cricketers have experienced in their life. We jump across to Rupesh Kashyap, Creative Director, Leo Burnett (the agency credited with the ad campaign), who lets us on to the huge challenges in making the players open up, “When we started working on this brief, we had not one or two, but almost four challenges. The first challenge was to bring out the personal story and experiences of the players, which they knew better than anybody. The second challenge was to make them feel comfortable as they were going to share their personal stories with the world for the first time. The third was to shoot five individual films within five hours. And the fourth challenge,” Rupesh adds amusingly, “was to make them act!”


For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM makes business education truly global
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm - Planman Consulting
Arindam Chaudhuri (IIPM Dean) – ‘Every human being is a diamond’
Arindam Chaudhuri – Everything is not in our hands
Planman Technologies – IT Solutions at your finger tips
Planman Consulting
Arindam Chaudhuri's Portfolio - he is at his candid best by Society Magazine

IIPM ranked No 1 B-School in India
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs
IIPM: Management Education India
Prof. Rajita Chaudhuri's Website

IIPM Awards - IIPM Leaders: Unfurl their Wings “Convocation 2010 - Ahmedabad"

Ahmedabad, July, 2010: The Indian Institute of Planning & Management (IIPM), one of the leading management institutes in the country paved the way for generation next to excel and be the best leaders of tomorrow. IIPM, Ahmedabad conferred Diploma Certificates to students of batch 2007-2009 on the successful completion of their Post Graduate Programme in Planning & Entrepreneurship and also the Post Graduate Degree in Management from IMI, Europe.

The Convocation saw 55 students being awarded their respective graduating diplomas. It was an opportunity for all to reunite and relive the memorable moments of the most exciting and crucial two years of the students' lives that they had spent at IIPM. To inaugurate the event, IIPM students performed Vandana Dance-a prayer to the Lord.

Dr. J J Irani, Director - Tata Sons graced the occasion as the Chief Guest. Among other Guests of Honour’s were Mr. P. R. Joshi, President Group-HR & CC, Zydus Cadila, Mr. Pankaj Sachdeva, Managing Director, Kalpataru Power Transmissions Limited, Mr. Kaushal Mehta, Founder and Chairman, Motif Inc., Mr. Mukesh Bhandari, Chairman, Electrotherm India Limited, Mr. Hitesh Buddhbatti, DGM & Branch Head, Times Group and Dr. Binod Agrawal, Vice Chancellor, Himigiri Nabh Vishwavidhyalaya.

The Directors’ Gold and Silver medals for outstanding performances both in academic and non-academic activities were also awarded by Dr. J.J. Irani to the brightest stars of IIPM. The Academic Gold and Silver medals were awarded to students who ranked first and second consistently throughout the two years of the program by Prof. A. Sandeep, Dean-IIPM, All India.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. J.J. Irani, called upon the graduating students to be responsible to the one billion Indians rather than only to the shareholders of the companies they work for. He stressed on the fact that businesses need to cater to overall community and successful businesses are created by taking the communities they are surrounded by with them. Dr. Irani stressed that India should become a 'Happy Nation' rather than an 'Economic Superpower.' This he felt can be achieved by ensuring corporates and their executives follow ethical practices. He demanded that the new generation pay heed to values and ensure that these values are passed on wherever they go.

The diplomas were conferred upon the students of IIPM Ahmedabad by the various Guests of Honor. The alumni then gathered on stage for the cap-throwing ceremony. It was a very proud moment for the parents when all the students joined for the cap throwing ceremony after receiving their testimonials.

The ceremony also saw the Corporate Recruiters’ Award being presented to various organizations for their continuous association with IIPM Ahmedabad. These included Claris Lifesciences Ltd. , Hitachi Home and Life Solutions, ICICI Securities Ltd., Evosys, Zydus Cadila, Mahindra Finance and Times Group.

The ever dynamic and competitive world patiently waits for our wits, talents and abilities to grow sharper. These would grow sharper when we put our mind, thoughts and actions in the right direction and grab the right opportunity at the right time. IIPM has never let this opportunity shun away and has given its students the right platform to explore and boost their abilities keeping pace with this dynamic business world and help them “Dare to think beyond.”