IIMK Newsletter 2

Inside this issue…

Articles
3| Equity Risk Premium in India
5| Managing and Fostering Corporate Innovation
From the Eds Desk 7| Winning ‘Stree’k
For over 11 years
10| Social Networks and the ‘New Media’ Paradigm
now, the Indian Institute of 12| Distributive Manufacturing
Management Kozhikode has 14| The New Age Business Focus - The B2E concept
been shaping the best minds
16| Private Equity - Is the picture really as rosy?
in the country to become
some of the finest managers
18| Strategy Paradox - Commitment vs. Flexibility
in the world. The transforma-
tion is in the experience and Interest Groups
while we wouldn't even dream
4| Financially Yours (FY)
of attempting to fit that into 24
pages of a newsletter, a small 7| Konsult
whiff of that experience is 9| mPower
what we have attempted to 9| AbaKus
capture in DeKaf , published
13| Omega
for the very first time.
19| HRiday
DeKaf features arti-
cles from the think tanks of
each of the interest groups, a Buzz@K
brief on the various activities 20| Upcoming programs
of committees during the term,
21| Committee news
campus buzz at IIM-K and
22| Events
much more.
We would like to ac-
knowledge the contributions of
all the interest groups and
committees of IIM-K. We
would also like to thank Prof.
Sanjay Jharkaria and the De-
sign Committee for their valu-
able inputs.
Please send in any
feedback or suggestions that
you think may help us improve
DeKaf to editboard@iimk.ac.in

Happy Reading!!
IIM-K Editorial Board Team
Front Row (L-R): Angad Keith, Kumar Vivek, Shilpa Lanka
Back Row (L-R): Soheib Ali, Burhan Hussain, Hrishikesh Kelkar
3 IIMK Newsletter
Equity Risk Premium in India
The equity risk premium is
the aggregate return earned
in the stock market in excess
of that earned by default-free
securities. It is a vital compo-
nent in the Capital asset pric-
ing model which states that
the excess return earned by
a stock over the risk free rate
is equal to the equity risk pre-
mium times the riskiness of
the stock as estimated by its
beta. Accurate estimation of
equity risk premium is impor-
tant as it has implications on
asset allocation decisions in
portfolio management and
capital budgeting decisions in
corporate finance.
Estimating the premium
using historical data
The most prevalent method
used to estimate equity risk
premium is by observing the
historical risk premium
earned by the stock market
over long periods of time.
This approach has its limita-
tions especially in emerging
markets where the historical
data is often limited and too
noisy to yield a reliable esti-
mate. Though capital markets
in India have a history of 130
years, the economy has un-
dergone many structural
changes over the period. In-
dia has moved onto a higher
growth path since 1980 ow-
ing to key structural changes
in the economy around that
time (Rodrick and Subrama-
niam, 2004). Hence, we have
to confine ourselves to about
25 years of stock market data
while estimating the equity
risk premium for India.
There are several
other serious problems while
using the historical approach
to risk premium estimation in
the Indian context. Though
the BSE Sensex does go
back till 1979, the index did
not undergo significant revi-
sion till 1996, implying that
by the mid nineties the index
was not representative of the
Indian stock market. Also,
Interest rates in India were
administered till the early
nineties. Varma (2002) esti-
mates the repression of in-
terest rates in India at 3%
pre-deregulation. This distor-
tion has to be taken into ac-
Time Pe- Geometric Mean
riod
Risk free rate
Pre mid 91 12.02%
Post mid 91 9.47%
Entire Pe- 10.53%
riod
count while choosing the risk
-free rate with respect to
which the risk premium will
be calculated.
Varma and Barua
(2006) overcome these prob-
lems by constructing an al-
ternative index comprising of
the most liquid stocks for the
period 1981-96 and estimat-
ing risk free rates separately
for the pre-reform and post-
reform periods. They con-
clude that the equity risk pre-
mium in India, based on geo-
metric mean of annual re-
turns is about 8.75% with no
Shrikanth K
significant difference be-
tween the pre-reform and
post-reform period.
A Modified Historical Risk
Premium
Because of the problems
associated with the use of
historical data in emerging
economies, Damodaran pre-
fers an alternative mode of
estimation which employs a
base equity premium and
country risk premium.
Equity Risk Premium = Base
Premium for a mature Equity
market + Country Premium
Generally the US
risk premium is used as the
base premium for a mature
Market return Risk Premium
20.98% 8.96%
18.05% 8.58%
19.27% 8.74%
equity market. The country
risk measure is a function of
the sovereign rating and
volatility of the country‟s eq-
uity market relative to the
bond market. This approach
estimates India‟s equity risk
premium at 9.23%
A Premium for bearing
Risk?
It is evident that the rates of
return on stocks in India
have been significantly
higher than the rates of
return on risk free assets.
 IIMK Newsletter
But are stocks so much risk-
ier than bills to merit a pre-
mium as high as 8%?
The charts clearly
indicate that the difference in
risk between risk free instru-
ments and stocks is not as
high as suggested by the ob-
served equity risk premium.
Mehra (2006), estimates that
the excess risk of stocks with
respect to bills does not merit
a risk premium higher than
0.16%, even at very high lev-
els of risk aversion. This
value is an order of magni-
tude lower than the actual
risk premium in the markets.
To account for the observed
discrepancy, we must reex-
amine the assumptions used
in estimating risk-adjusted
returns. While calculating the
Source: The equity risk premium in India, Rajnish Mehra (2006)
theoretical risk premium, we
assumed that the marginal
investor holds the market
portfolio and ignored taxes
and other regulatory con-
straints. By relaxing these
assumptions the excess pre-
mium over the theoretical
premium can be attributed to
diversification costs, different
tax rates on dividend and
interest income inter-alia.
Views on the ex-ante eq-
uity premium
Can the ex-post historical
estimates of equity risk pre-
mium be considered as fair
estimates of ex-ante equity
premium for the future, say
the next 25 years? There are
good reasons to believe that
expectations of a risk pre-
mium in excess of 8% in fu-
ture are well-founded. As
equity ownership which has
percolated to about 1% of
households, goes up mani-
fold in the coming decades,
we can expect returns on
equity to go up considerably.
Also, as the quantum of for-
eign institutional investment
in Indian markets goes up,
we can expect the Beta of
Indian markets vis-à-vis
global market indices to in-
crease, resulting in higher
expected equity returns.
Therefore, notwithstanding
the fact that market indices
are currently at all time
highs, expectations of a an
8% risk premium are very
realistic.
4
Financially Yours (FY),
The finance interest group
of IIMK is one of the most
popular and active interest
groups on campus. The
group meets every week to
discuss the recent happen-
ings in the world of business
and finance.
IBOK
Incepted last year, FY runs
the Investment Bank of Koz-
hikode (IBOK). It has 102
students in analyst roles and
45 students in associate
roles working in teams
tracking 22 different sectors.
Research teams churn out
reports analyzing the growth
prospects of different indus-
try sectors and the factors
that influence the perform-
ance of various companies.
The sectors tracked include
Pharma, Telecom, Media,
Oil and Gas, Banking, Fi-
nancial Services and Insur-
ance, Retail, Transportation,
Power, Metals, Forex and
commodity markets and a
few major sectors in the for-
eign markets as well.
FY Weekly Sessions:
Panel discussion on the
budget 2007-08
Introduction to financial
markets
Financial Derivatives,
Time Value of Money
and its implications
Sessions on important
topics such as securiti-
zation, credit default
swaps, intangible valua-
tion
Preparatory session for
the summer placements
5 IIMK Newsletter

Managing and fostering Corporate Innovation Jaspreet Singh Arora

Introduction innovations include tele- provide unique features and

phone, desktop computers, quality enhancements in
Innovation involves using
fiber optics etc. new products/services, en-
new knowledge to transform
Incremental Innovations: gage in product innovation.
organizational processes or
create commercially viable Incremental innovations Process Innovation: This
products and services. It enhance existing practices can be typically associated
occurs when new combina- or make small improve- with improving the efficiency
tions of ideas and informa- ments in already existing of an organizational process
tion bring about a positive products and processes. especially manufacturing
change. Innovations help an They can increase revenue systems and operations.
organization to stay fresh by creating a new market- Process innovations are
and reinvent itself as condi- place offering or can reduce more likely to take place in
tions in the business envi- costs by providing new ca- the later stage of an indus-
ronment change. The em- pabilities that minimize ex- try‟s life cycle, as compa-
phasis on newness is a key penses or speed-up the pro- nies seek ways to remain
point; in fact the root of the ductivity. Some examples of viable in the markets where
word innovation is Latin incremental innovations in- demand has flattened out
Novus, which means new. clude digital telephone, fro- and competition is more
Innovation is not only re- zen food, shatter-proof intense.
stricted to technology; it also
involves human resources,
firm infrastructure, market-
ing, service or any other
value-adding area.
Types of Innovation
Innovation can be classified
in terms of its degree of in-
novativeness. Most of the
innovations lie between the
Challenges of Innovation
range of the highly radical glass etc.
and the slightly incremental. Innovation has numerous
Another classification can strategic implications. It is a
Radical Innovations: Radi- be: force in the external envi-
cal Innovations produce fun-
Product Innovation: Prod- ronment (technology, com-
damental changes by evok-
uct innovation can be ex- petition) and also a factor
ing major departures from
plained as efforts to create affecting a firm‟s internal
existing practices. They can
product designs and appli- choices (corporate strategy,
be highly disruptive, some-
cations of technology to de- business strategy, value-
times to the tune that they
velop new products for end- added services). However,
can transform the company
users. They tend to be more innovation is essential to
or revolutionize the whole
radical and are more com- sustain competitive advan-
industry. They may provide
mon during earlier stages of tages and a company not
a strong competitive advan-
an industry‟s life cycle. capable of innovation in to-
tage for the firm by resulting
Product innovation can be day‟s competitive environ-
in new products or proc-
associated with a differen- ment, is bound to decline.
esses that can be patented.
tiation strategy. Firms that Factors which make
Some examples of radical
 IIMK Newsletter
innovation difficult include
„uncertainty about outcomes‟
and „numerous choices in-
volved in innovation proc-
esses‟. These choices can
present companies with fol-
lowing dilemmas while pursu-
ing innovation:
‘Seeds versus Weeds’: Out
of abundant innovative ideas
that a company has, which
ones are likely to be success-
ful i.e. to separate seeds from
weeds.
‘Experience versus Initia-
tive’: Who would lead an in-
novation project – A senior
manager with experience
who is risk averse or a middle
-level manager who has more
enthusiasm but lacks experi-
ence
‘Internal versus External
Staffing’: People within the
organization may have
greater social capital but it
might inhibit them from think-
ing outside the box whereas
external staffing requires time
& resources for recruiting and
training.
‘Building capabilities ver-
sus Collaborating’: Building
capabilities on your own
would require time and
money but would guarantee
your independence. How-
ever, collaborating with part-
6
the purpose of exploiting a
window of opportunity, may
use a milestone approach
that is more stringently
driven by goals and dead-
lines. Not all innovation lends
itself to speedy development.
Collaboration with Innova-
tion Partners
Partners can be from:
ners that bring resources Other personnel within
may share costs of develop- the department
ment but can create depend-
Personnel from other
encies.
department within the firm
Defining the Scope of
Personnel outside the
Innovation
firm.
Defining the scope of its in-
Non-business sources like
novation activities (known as
research universities and the
the “strategic envelope”),
government can also contrib-
ensures that a firm‟s innova-
ute to being innovation part-
tion efforts are not wasted on
ners. Strategic partnering
projects that are highly un-
requires firms to identify their
certain or outside the firm‟s
strengths and weaknesses
domain of interest. Strategic
and make choices about
enveloping defines the range
which capabilities to leverage
of acceptable products and
and which capabilities need
creates firm specific view of
further development. In order
innovation that defines how a
to choose the right innova-
firm can learn from innova-
tion partner, firms need to
tion experience even if the
ask a basic question: what
project fails. It also gives a
competencies they are look-
direction to firm‟s innovation
ing for and what the partner
efforts which helps to sepa-
will contribute.
rate seeds from weeds and
Conclusion
build internal capabilities.
Managing the pace of Innovation requires a com-
Innovation pany-wide commitment be-
cause the results of innova-
The project time-line of an
tion affect every part of the
incremental innovation is
organization. To effectively
short term (six months to two
implement innovation, an
years) whereas a more radi-
entrepreneurial spirit and skill
cal innovation is typically
set are essential. However,
long term (10 years or more).
in order to be successful,
Radical innovations often
innovation process has to
begin with a long period of
stay focused on its ultimate
exploration , whereas, an
purpose i.e. to introduce new
incremental innovation, for
products and/or deploy new
7 IIMK Newsletter
processes that build com-
petitive advantages and
make the company profit-
able.
Konsult
The consulting IG of IIMK has
always spearheaded the
cause of consulting activities
on campus. The various ac-
tivities this term include:
Knowledge Bank: A search-
able database of consulting
focused interview preparation
material was setup on the
intranet providing students
access to a wealth of informa-
tion on the industry, job- pro-
files, recruitment methodolo-
gies & preparatory material
Case Interviews: Taking a
leaf out of the Live Case-
Interview Workshop held by
McKinsey & Co, Konsult
learnt quickly and set up
teams of students for practic-
ing Cases. Live Case Inter-
view simulations were also
held
Industry interaction: Indus-
try captains from leading
C o n su l t i n g f i rm s l i k e
McKinsey & Co, Boston Con-
sulting Group, KPMG and
Deloitte Consulting visited the
campus and addressed stu-
dents on a myriad of issues,
providing them practitioners‟
perspectives and in turn,
gaining exposure to bright
ideas of the next generation
of leaders.
CV Building workshop: A
workshop on “How to build a
top Consulting CV”, in asso-
ciation with a global leader in
consulting, was organized.
Winning ‘Stree’k Deepika Chhajed
Introduction
“Tum apni lambi umar ke
liye sign kar do……Jeete
raho”. This is a dialogue from
the recent ICICI Prudential
ad which showcases a
housewife asking her hus-
band to sign on the insur-
This is the stereotypical
ance papers.
image of a housewife.
In a recent HSBC adver- There has always been a
tisement a housewife is strong demarcation be-
shown managing her own tween the responsibilities of
book shop successfully. the husband and the wife.
There were various reasons
A female in a Deutsche
for this:
Bank advertisement, says
“Someday, I would like to Joint family structure:
start a new venture”. When a girl is married in a
In a recent Knorr‟s soup joint family, being the „bahu‟
advertisement, the house- of the house leaves no time
wife is successfully able to for her to think beyond. The
cook delicious food, using Indian culture, which still
doesn‟t allow a woman to
Knorr‟s soups.
speak in front of the elder
Since when have Indian
males of the family, disal-
housewives started taking
lowed the females of the
financial matters in their own
house to voice their opinion
hands? Wasn‟t this the so
in front of the whole family.
called „men‟s domain‟? All
these advertisements show Education: The lack of
the increased stature of the education was a reason for
Indian housewife. What has the skewed decision power,
changed? as uneducated women did
not know the ropes well
Indian housewives: Past
enough to talk confidently to
These are some of the their husbands about their
ideas and were left to
household chores. This lack
of confidence went a long
way in deciding the
woman‟s domain. She was
not involved in any big pur-
chase decision, neither in
any of the major decisions
images that come to mind like children‟s careers, fi-
when one thinks of an Indian nancial matters etc.
housewife.
 IIMK Newsletter 8

Mental make-up and aspi- outlook of Indian women. she can do it, why can‟t I?”
rations: After a lifetime of Nuclear family: Nuclear Higher confidence levels
household chores, many family is the cement and re- and ambition: There is a new
women showed little or no inforcement. In a nuclear found widespread need for
concern for things outside family the decision makers productivity. All the females
their domestic circle. The pre- are reduced to two. Also, it interviewed said that they
scribed path for them was increases the pressure on wanted to invest their time
considered a given and they the husband to perform and doing something which
were comfortable walking work harder as he is the only would make them feel satis-
along it. bread winner of the family. fied and content at the end of
Lack of a strong Media This in turn makes him very the day.
busy and conceding, making
Changes over the years Extent of change: It has
him rather grateful when his
been observed mainly in the
The Indian women, especially wife is able to manage the
women belonging to SEC A
in cities, have undergone a house.
and B. This could be be-
sea of change over the last
Influence of western culture cause the reasons cited for
few years in terms of attitude,
and media: It projects the the change apply only to
interest, activities and ambi-
horizon which they haven‟t these segments of society.

tion. The major reasons are:
Indian landscape: At the
macro level, the Indian soci-
ety is experiencing a gender
role-reversal process. Frag-
mentation of family bonding,
fast paced life, long busy
working hours, increased
pressure to perform and
stress, especially in the met-
ros, are the building blocks of
change. The new generation
is more educated, exposed to
western culture and open.
The outlook of the society has
undergone a tremendous
change as they have ac-
cepted „bahus‟ in their new
roles.
Education: Education is seen
as the biggest enabler in the
360 degree change in the
reached, but can. Edcation, modern ideas, me-
dia, technology etc. still
Mental-make up: They are
haven‟t reached towns and
seeking a perfect balance
villages.
between work and home,
social life and family life. Another factor noticed was
that this empowerment has
Power tussle: The power
still not reached all sections
has always been more on
of the society.
the mans‟ side. But the
newly educated and empow- Marketing and advertising
ered women now want the changes
power shifted towards them Shift in decision power:
by making the more impor-
“House managers, Chief pur-
tant decisions instead of the
chasing officers and family
„low level‟ jobs like regular
financial officers”
household chores.
„The man makes the
Jealousy: This was an un-
decision for any large pur-
expected reason which came
chase whereas the woman is
up during one of the inter-
given a budget to manage
views conducted. A finance
the house‟ days are gone.
post graduate recently mar-
This was the traditional
ried in a joint family said “If
model on which the market
9 IIMK Newsletter

ing companies used to base mPower AbaKus

their promotions till date.
mPower,the Marketing Inter- AbaKus, the System‟s Inter-
From viewing women as im-
est Group at IIMK is driven est Group at IIMK was in-
plementers of decisions
by the singular goal of creat- volved in numerous activities
made by their husbands and
ing and stimulating market- during last term. Some of the
mothers-in-law, advertisers
ing interest on campus. major activities are,
have now moved to women
who proclaim, "The home is It holds weekly ses- HCL Case Study Chal-
my territory, I am the boss sions attended in over- lenge (July) : The first
here." whelming numbers by the event for the batch of
student community at IIMK. 2009, the HCL Case
Some things never change:
These sessions work to- Study Challenge based
Stereotypical images are still
wards , on implementing a pro-
juxtaposed, giving a very
Unraveling the latest ject for telecom multina-
'mixed' message.
developments in the tional had an 21 teams
Newly-weds are still world of marketing. participating.
shown worried about the Endeavoring to encour- Business Networking
wicked pimple which will af- age interaction amongst
like-minded enthusiasts. via the Web (Aug) A
fect their marriage, Ponds‟
session showcasing sev-
Miracle coming to their help. Sharing summer intern-
ship experiences eral tools on the Internet
The Cinderella fantasy is still
amongst peers, juniors. to grow, cultivate and
used to lure women. And
mPower kicked off maintain a network of
then the image of a super
the year by introducing the contacts, one of the
woman still persists.
new batch to the fascinating most valuable yet under-
Future outlook and oppor- used assets in an MBA
world of marketing, this was
tunities professional's armory
brought about by a Case
In response to the Presentation focused on the Thinking in Word 2007
question, if in the future, marketing talismans, 4Ps and Excel 2007 (Aug)
there is an advertisement and STP In path-breaking series
showcasing a housewife of sessions, Sanjog Jolly
This was followed up
managing the financials of and Prasanna Bora took
by a session on 'Mischief
the house, would you like it? audience through the
Marketing’, which was re-
almost all of the interviewees philosophies and best
ceived with great enthusiasm
replied affirmatively. practices of using Word
for its take on unconven-
Keeping all this in and Excel 2007 as pro-
tional methods of marketing,
mind, it would seem sensible fessionals.
their successes and the pos-
for brand managers to target
sible pitfalls. Summers Experience
these new generation em-
Sessions on Rural Session (Oct) - A series
powered housewives and
of talks by PGP10 par-
come up with Integrated Mar- and Retromarketing pro-
ticipants who have
keting Communication strate- vided insights into the „hatke‟
worked in technology
gies, which target their new side of marketing
firms. Talks covered
found needs of productivity T here is
roles, projects, organiza-
and the desire to prove them- much more in the offing for
tion-specific details and
selves in front of their hus- the academic year, as we
expected career paths.
bands, family and society at gear up to Marketing. Every-
large. thing
 IIMK Newsletter
Social Networks and the ‘New Media’ Paradigm
The surge in popularity of
what is popularly known as
social media has put the
power of mass communica-
tion into the hands of the indi-
vidual. “Old media”, both print
and television, have only just
begun to wake up to this
threat to their hegemony.
This article examines this
phenomenon in some detail
as well as the threat to tradi-
tional media empires before
projecting into the future –
what old media should and
should not do to continue to
survive and prosper in the
new ecosystem. The inten-
tion is not so much as to seek
depth as to draw the reader‟s
attention to the evolution of
this new media economy.
What is social media ?
The past dizzying decade
witnessed the obsolescence
of the phone and the simulta-
neous rise of email and in-
stant messaging as the Inter-
net spread its tentacles into
every region of almost every
nation in the world. However,
in the past couple of years
even email has taken a back
seat to a new generation of
communication media, which
resemble a noisy market-
place rather than the hushed,
private conversations of old.
Almost everyone
would have seen social me-
dia in action – blogs, wikis,
chat forums, social commu-
nities such as the white-hot
Facebook, social bookmark-
ing ala del.icio.us, virtual
worlds of the Second Life
kind, marketplaces pio-
neered by eBay, and col-
laborative tools like Google‟s
Online Office Suite. All these
are characterized by the no-
tion that each participant
adds value to the product –
the more people use it, the
better it gets – unlike any
media in the past. Most im-
portantly, the individual can
communicate with an audi-
ence potentially as vast as
the entire Internet.
Why is old media threat-
ened ?
Old media, the traditional
media houses, have long
been able to control the mes-
sage, because they also
owned the channel. This
gave them terrifying power
over people‟s opinions and
therefore actions.
New media, unfortu-
nately, disrupts every single
stage of the media supply
chain – from production to
programming to publishing to
distribution. It seizes control
of every stage and thrusts it
into the hands of the individ-
10
Rahul Gaitonde
ual. The familiar linear one-to
-many model of traditional
media stretches, twists and
under relentless pressure
from the cacophony of a mil-
lion voices, morphs into an
almost chaotic many-to-
many network.
As tools like blogs
turn every opinionated mind
with a keyboard and an inter-
net connection into a publish-
ing house, entry barriers are
being razed to the ground.
For old media the implica-
tions are that public attention
will be drawn to sources over
whom they have no control –
and that strikes at the heart
of their revenue stream.
What should old media
do ?
The new media ecosystem
throws open entirely new
business models and yet,
retains some. Old media
needs to realize that control
of content is no longer possi-
ble (or even necessary), that
value lies in ownership of the
platform for production and
publishing of this content.
The most high-profile exam-
ples are News Corp‟s pur-
chase of the networking web-
site, MySpace, in 2005, and
Google‟s acquisition of You-
Tube in 2006.
Advertising still re-
mains the chief source of
revenue for new media, but
in a more evolved form –
highly targeted ads displayed
by tracking individuals‟ be-
havior on the web.
11
For advertisers, it
means a better conversion
rate and higher return on in-
vestment; for the platform
owner, it means higher vol-
umes and (in spite of lower
margins) larger revenues. An
example is YouTube‟s recent
move to overlay ads on its
hosted videos.
In its foray into the
Brave New World, old media
needs to understand this de-
coupling of the operational
model and revenue model. In
the old online economy,
money was spent on the pro-
duction of content, and
money was made through its
sale. With new media, con-
tent is free. Money needs to
be made indirectly, though
ads or by charging for more
rights to the platform (the Ya-most mobile providers in the
hoo!-owned photo sharing
website Flickr charging for
additional hosting space and
bandwidth, for instance), or
otherwise.
Finally, in a complete the old world.
turnaround of the old produc- What does the future
tion model, companies need hold ?
to encourage greater external
involvement in their medium -
by opening up the architec- every form of existing media
IIMK Newsletter
ture of the medium, encour-
aging developers to write
extensions and freeing ac-
cess to users. Perhaps blas- marks etc.), video (custom
phemous for traditional me-
dia houses, but this is the
only religion new media
knows.
What should old media not merce (purchase, auction)
do ?
Old media cannot
look at new media as an ad-
ditional channel of communi-
cation. It needs to recognize
that new media, far from
complementing traditional
communication, is often in
direct confrontation with it. A
typical knee-jerk reaction is
containment – creating so-
called walled gardens, to
control both production and
viewership of content, as
US have done. This is simply
transplanting old business
models into a new economy
and it rarely works. Switching
costs are far lower than in
If current trends con-
tinue, total personalization of
seems likely – text (news,
opinions, documents, email,
Instant Messaging, book-
channels and playlists) and
audio (from chat transcripts
to music); maps and location
-specific information, com-
and an almost infinite num-
ber of ways to merge media
(a book recommendation by
a friend via email, a video of
an interview with the author,
several reviews and a map of
bookstores with the best
deals for that book).
Debates on network
neutrality will resurface,
gather more steam as ISPs
and carriers gain more clout.
Is a video service, for in-
stance, allowed to strike a
deal with an ISP for preferen-
tial treatment of traffic origi-
nating from its website? Will
old media be allowed to own
both the message and the
channel?
It is early days yet;
for most of the world‟s con-
sumers, new media is a blip
on their attention horizon.
Yet, the sheer potential size
of the market means that old
media empires cannot afford
to ignore it for most of that
market will be at the expense
of their existing streams of
revenue. We are at the cusp
of a historic shift in the bal-
ance of power in global me-
dia. The winner, to para-
phrase Darwin‟s incredibly
enduring tenet, will not be
the largest or the strongest,
but the most adaptable.
 IIMK Newsletter
Distributive Manufacturing
How it works
Distinct from the concept of
mass manufacturing at a sin-
gle location, distributive
manufacturing aims to drive
the concept of mass entre-
preneurship. Here, the main
manufacturer builds the kits
of the vehicle at the main
manufacturing facility; these
kits are transported to differ-
ent vendor locations which
require assembling facilities.
Thus as soon as the cus-
tomer places an order with
the vendor, a kit is assem-
bled at the warehouse. This
model resembles the furni-
ture business model, where
small packages of home fur-
nishings can be assembled at
home with little help from the
main manufacturer.
Requirement from vendors
The vendors in the distribu-
tive manufacturing system
need to maintain 3 facilities
Warehouse: This is used to
Salil Sreen, Deepak Chaudhary
store the kits that are made
in the main manufacturing
unit. The size of the ware-
house terminal depends
upon the projected demand
on the particular region.
Assembly Plant: This facility
is used to assemble the kits
for the final product as per
the demand of the custom-
ers. It is a sub-manufacturing
system, wherein the last
stage of manufacturing is
carried out. This concept of
bringing the last stage near
the customers‟ site is the
12
distinguishing feature of dis-
tributed manufacturing.
Sales Office: This is the
product‟s interface with the
customers. Vendors keep
only a few cars/products at
the sales office. The actual
demand data is processed
and only then is the final de-
livery made to the sales of-
fice.
Distributed manufacturing
seeks a proactive role of the
vendors, making them part-
ners in the manufacturing
process. Hence it also in-
volves an investment from
the vendors, which far ex-
ceeds that involved in tradi-
tional manufacturing.
Cost distribution
The concept of distrib-
uted manufacturing is visual-
ized by Tata Motors in India.
Hence the cost distribution is
analyzed from Tata Motors
viewpoint and an empirical
structure is sought.
Empirically, in distributed
manufacturing the cost is
shared by all the partners in
the supply chain.
13 IIMK Newsletter

The share of the suppliers in the project, the timely a further refinement of the
and logistics provider in- availability of the compo- mass manufacturing concept
creases drastically to almost nents to the main manufac- with the same standardized
one-third of the investment turing sites is a challenge. product being made at multi-
made by the main manufac- ple locations near the clients‟
Distribution of kits to the
turer. Distributed manufactur- vendors: This logistics of site. Whereas in mass manu-
ing is a volume game and distribution has been out- facturing the product/car is
seeks profitability from the sourced. The logistics pro- manufactured at a particular
base of the pyramid. For this vider has to make invest- site and then transported to
to be successful, long term ments in buying adequate different vendors, distributive
investments and tie ups with number of trucks to transport manufacturing seeks to
the partners are essential. a million kits a year to differ- make kits of the product/car
This is achieved by making ent locations in the country. at a central location and
the suppliers and vendors these kits are transported to
Estimating the demand of the vendors. This requires
key stakeholders in the very
each region: Demand from
concept. estimation of demand at dif-
each region of the country
ferent regions, a characteris-
Vendors become has to be estimated to mini-
tic of the car industry and
remote entrepreneurs, man- mize the costs of transporta-
adequate training of vendors
aging their customers and tion
to assemble the product at
channelizing the manufactur-
Information flow from ven- their sites. Quality issues are
ing themselves. The concept
dors: Vendors being near to be resolved again through
of distributed manufacturing the customer sites can pro-
some controls over the final
takes jobs to all such sub vide the most valuable infor-
product made by the ven-
assemblies located near the mation about the demand
dors.
client sites.
trends and the quality as-
Supply Chain Challenges pects of the car.
Omega
The concept of a low cost Intra-vendor transship-
Omega, the Operations In-
car/product is successful ment of kits: This issue has
terest Group at IIMK, is re-
through low margins per car/ to be addressed about the
sponsible for conducting
product and high volumes intra-vendor transshipment
weekly sessions related to
sold. These high volumes of kits if the demand in a par-
pose unique challenges to Operations. Sessions con-
ticular region peaks.
the supply chain managers. ducted so far are,
Quality issues: These need
Some of the challenges in the Career opportunities in
to be addressed at the ven-
supply chain of the distrib- dor sites. Vendors, who are Operations with particu-
uted manufacturing that Tata lar focus on the consult-
new to the manufacturing
Motors will likely face are ing domain
process have to be trained
Forecasting of the actual over the process require- Basics of Supply Chain
demand: Tata Motors has ments and the quality as- Management concepts
estimated a sales of one mil- pects required thereof. This such as Bullwhip Effect
lion cars every year. Errors may require certain control etc
and deviations in this forecast structures to be put in place
Summer Internship ex-
can lead to the whole venture wherein the parent company
perience sharing by the
becoming unprofitable. can enforce the desired qual-
second year batch who
Supply of components: ity from the vendors.
interned in operations
With more than hundred Conclusion area
component suppliers locked Distributive Manufacturing is
 IIMK Newsletter
The New Age Business Focus - The B2E concept
Businesses in the past have
either focused on the con-
sumer or other businesses.
The former was called B2C,
the latter, B2B. The concept
of B2E began to emerge
when organizations started to
realize that their people were
their biggest strength. Simply
put, it is Business-to-
Employee, an approach in
which the focus of business
is the employee. This ap-
proach gained importance
because of a decrease in the
talent pool across industries
especially knowledge based.
The employers recognized
the importance of attracting
and retaining talent in a
highly competitive market
with a skewed supply and
demand of talent. Organiza-
tions today employ various
tactics to attract this talent,
such as aggressive recruit-
ing, offering plenty of bene-
fits, education opportunities,
flexible working hours, bo-
nuses and employee empow-
erment strategies. All these
activities together constitute
B2E.
More specifically, the
term B2E is frequently used
to refer to the B2E portal
(sometimes called the peo-
ples portal), which is a cus-
tomized home page or desk-
top for everyone within an
organization. B2E portals or e
-HR systems are becoming
the de-facto standard in order
to streamline and optimize
the human resource functions
of the organizations. The B2E
14
Japneet Sachdeva
portal is not to be mistaken
ployees
with the organization‟s intra-
A single point of entry
net. They might look similar
on the face value but Components defined by
both the employer and
whereas an intranet focuses the organization
on the whole organization,
Corporations may
B2E focuses on a single indi-
develop their own portals or
vidual. The B2E portal will
they may rely on the services
provide an individual all infor-
of any of the large and grow-
mation that he would need
ing number of B2E portal
as part of that organization
developers. For instance, HP
or all information that the
consulting provides a five
intranet was providing him.
step design to implement a
But along with that, it would
B2E portal. They follow a
also include any personal
process in phases where
information that the em-
they start from requirements
ployee might seek like stock
specifications and a business
information or even games.
case development, followed
B2E is like a company intra-
by design and construction of
net customized for every em-
the portal and finally they
ployee. The intention is to
deploy it. Their last phase
increase not only efficiency,
consists of providing support
but also employee satisfac-
and operational help for the
tion and a sense of belong-
portal.
ingness to the organization.
The B2E portal has
A B2E portal has three dis-
various advantages to both
tinguishing characteristics
the employer and the em-
Customization to suit the ployee.
needs of individual em-
15
It acts as a new
means of integrating and
consolidating business infor-
mation and making it avail-
able to employees, custom-
ers and business partners.
Ease of availability of infor-
mation to employees, cus-
tomers and other stake-
holders results in enhanced
trust between them and in-
creased loyalty towards the
organization. It also enables
the organization to move to-
wards technology based so-
lutions. An internet enabled
organization has undoubtedly
faster and more efficient
processes. Portal technology
enables corporations to
transform business proc-
esses, eliminating redundan-
cies and making them more
efficient and less costly. This
dramatically increases pro-
IIMK Newsletter
ductivity by providing key employees to try it for the
stakeholders a single Web- first time. A very well made
enabled interface for con- portal would obviously be an
ducting business, no matter asset, so that the employees
where they reside. The portal like it and visit frequently on
combines in one place leg- their own. Room for changes
acy data sources and proce- in the portal as time passes
dures with other data and must be kept in mind. With
services from the organiza- changing times, the needs of
tion‟s Intranet and the Inter- the employees are likely to
net, thus empowering the change and the portal
employees, customers, and should be ready to address
partners with the self-service them. One thing to be kept in
access to the information mind is that employees may
needed to significantly im- feel they are not a part of the
prove process efficiency portal and that it has been
while lowering operational designed by the manage-
costs. ment and IT and merely
B2E also builds a transferred to them. To offset
better relationship between this, it must be ensured that
the organization and the em- the designing of the portal
ployees. It is quite unlikely must be made a participative
that an employee will only process. In the need assess-
work while in office. There is ment stage, the employees
a lot more than just surfing opinions must be sought and
the internet that is done they must be made to feel
while in the office. Rather like they are a part of the
than putting a stop on it, a process.
B2E portal addresses all the With time, there is a
needs of the employees. So rise in the B2E web portals.
an employee who is thinking There are several organiza-
about home when he is at tions who have already im-
work has answers right there plemented it. A large number
in the office. of consultants are already
There are certain providing B2E solutions to
challenges in designing and organizations. With IT and
implementing an effective people as buzzwords, B2E or
B2E portal. Firstly, it should people portals are sure to
have considered the needs grow in the near future too.
of the employees. There isn‟t
any point in designing a web
application that the employ-
ees don‟t find much use of.
Secondly, generating the
interest of the employees to
visit the portal is also a chal-
lenge. Sufficient publicity is
required to encourage the
 IIMK Newsletter
Private Equity – Is the picture really as rosy?
The last decade and a half
has seen India reap the
benefits of its policy of liber-
alization and a progressive
opening up of the economy.
With the economy growing at
8-9% , India saw Foreign Di-
rect Investment (FDI) touch-
ing a record high of an esti-
mated US$ 16 billion in 2006-
07.
One of the prominent
sources of foreign investment
into India is the private equity
investments. The initial flow
of foreign private equity was
focused on India‟s IT and
outsourcing industry but now
significant investments are
being made in manufacturing,
financial services, real estate,
telecom, media, engineering
and construction. PE activity
has increased not only in
terms of number of deals, but
also in terms of the average
deal size.
Factors leading to the PE
boom
Some of the significant fac-
tors contributing to the boom
are summarized in the table.
Advantages of PE
Pro fession al man ag e-
ment :The participation of
private equity in a company
results in an improvement in
the quality of management
owing to an automatic dis-
tancing of management from
promoters and traditional
ownership.
Transparency: Private eq-
uity requires companies to
16
Shayonima Ghosh
Shreyan Sarkar
FACTORS SYMPTOMS
High Economic Annual growth rates of 8-9%
Growth
Liquid and transparent secondary
market resulting creating an envi-
ronment for large number of exits
Mature Finan- through IPOs
cial Markets Domestic corporate turning into
strategic buyers
Commodity markets developing at
an increasing pace
Spurt in consumerism triggered by
a young demographic profile
Large and
Sustained government expenditure
Growing Do-
driving consumption in certain
mestic Markets
verticals
Culture of En- Large number of local entrepre-
trepreneurship neurs seeking national scale
High level of regulation and
Established Law maintenance of transparency by
and Regulation SEBI, the Finance Ministry and the
RBI
reveal a lot of information in ten, promoters wait for the
order to enable a PE fund to right time to tap the IPO mar-
conduct its due diligence. ket and in this wait projects
Financial discipline: A have to be kept on hold,
sometimes for years to-
management with PE partici-
gether. The option now is to
pation is believed to bring
cash discipline into the func- involve a PE fund and get a
tioning of an organization fair (negotiated) valuation
and helps in making the and also shorten the gesta-
company more robust and tion period. The issuance
thus enhances value to the time is also shortened com-
pared to the IPO route.
stakeholders.
International resources: It has been seen that
Companies which obtain PE PE and VC backed compa-
participation can also lever- nies grow faster when com-
age the resources of the par- pared to the non-PE backed
ent fund in terms of access peers and even more than
to resources, distribution net- the benchmark indices like
works, managerial and tech- the NSE Nifty. Sales of listed
nical skills etc. PE backed companies grew
at 22.9% as compared to
Speedier fund-raising: Of- 10% for non-PE backed
17
listed firms. PE backed firms
also added more jobs to the
economy and even the
wages at listed PE financed
firms grew at around 32% as
compared to 6% for non-PE-
backed firms.
Au Contraire!
The recent splurge in PE
deals has raised certain con-
cerns about the implications
of the unchecked growth of
PE in India. The RBI has ex-
pressed concern over the
impact of higher leveraging
by PEs on long term sustain-
ability.
A major concern is
the disproportionate rise in
the valuations of PE deals.
Conservatively, a deal at
EBITDA of 5-6.5 is consid-
ered modest with anything
above 7 considered high.
This is indicative of a broad
payback period of 5-6 years
through operating profits.
However, the race for acqui-
sitions has seen this number
comfortably exceed 7. In
other words, PE companies
have increased the number
of years to achieve payback
from current operations. Thus
with valuation parameters
climbing, the need to gener-
ate profits, that too in a
shorter time frame, in-
creases. This may also lead
to PE funds taking drastic
actions to increase profitabil-
ity.
The increase in
valuations is also, in part, due
to selling companies taking
advantage of a competitive
scenario and encouraging
multiple bids. The buyout
IIMK Newsletter
firms make offers at the up- faced with asset stripping,
per end of their limit to avoid high interest debt and its
a full-blown auction, further payout in their quest for such
raising prices. It is reported high returns.
that there were multiple bids Another issue is the
for 29% of the private equity
lack of clarity in the current
buyouts in 2006 as com- regulatory structure to pro-
pared to just 4% in 2005. Invide comprehensive guide-
the first six weeks of 2007 lines to deal with an evolving
this figure has risen sharply,
private equity driven sce-
with 70% of announced pri- nario. This event has accen-
vate equity buyouts having tuated the need for the regu-
multiple bids. lators to come up with more
The structure of PE detailed guidelines to ad-
funds, demands that PE fund dress private equity related
managers need to generate transactions.
Historically, it has
around 30% returns on an been seen that the deal sizes
annual basis to justify the and valuations rise towards
high management fees they the end of the bull-run cycle.
charge. Industry observers There is a fear that PE funds,
reckon that PE funds charge both globally and in India
around 1-1.5% of the asset may just be approaching that
size as management fee and stage. The real test is when
an extra 20% on investment the PE companies try and
gains. A study showed that take these companies public
on deducting huge manage- again or try and sell for cash-
ment fees, PE fund returns ing out. But if all companies
are actually lower than that try and sell out or take com-
of the benchmark S&P 500 panies to the public market,
index, raising concerns the downward pressure may
about the extent to which kill the market.
these funds will go to meet
these targets. PE funds may
see companies going under
when the companies are
 IIMK Newsletter 18

Strategy Paradox – Commitment vs. Flexibility Vaibhav Bhardwaj

Most people, pre- Perhaps leaders mitment to a vision also

dominantly students of strat- could borrow a few tricks plays with the minds of the
egy who are exposed to or- from their friends in high fi- employees. While the leader
ganizational success and nance and apply the concept may be having sleepless
failure stories galore, wonder of a financial portfolio to a nights about the strategic
why failures were always a
result of bad strategy and
successes a result of good
strategy. The author attempts
to clarify this in the context of
a term known as post-facto
rationalization.
W hat does un-
matched strategic success –
the aim of running a virtual
monopoly - require? It is a
virtual monopoly which surely
means that its position is
hard to replicate. Reaching
this position requires relent-
strategic portfolio. What it options he sees and appre-
less pursuit, a bold vision,
would entail would be a bou- hensions about those he
conviction from the leader-
quet of strategies with uncor- does not, his employees
ship and of course, un-
related returns, thereby re- need to have a strong com-
matched commitment. Apple
ducing the overall risk. But it mitment to the product or
has exhibited this well with
is very likely that investors service they are working on,
the iPod. An elegant high-
would view this very nega- believing it to be THE future.
performing product built
tively. Questions would be This looks strikingly
around the proprietary archi-
asked about the indecisive similar to another financial
tecture of software-hardware
nature of the visionless market running within a com-
integration, effective strategy
leader who is just not sure pany, where the leader be-
at its best. Or is it? But then,
about what to commit and comes the investor who can
wasn‟t the Macintosh based
where to commit it to. He and should manage risk bet-
on a similar model - proprie-
might also be taught a few ter than the companies in the
tary hardware-software inte-
basic lessons in finance that market viz. the various busi-
gration? Both of these were
investors can manage the ness units within the com-
hard to replicate, although
risk better than the company pany. This is what Michael
people did not want to repli-
itself and therefore they Raynor, the distinguished
cate the latter.
should be allowed to man- research fellow with Deloitte
The author wants to age it by probably investing Consulting LLP calls the
emphasize that high return in a competitor who might be „Separation of Management
strategies involve high risk as following a diagonally oppo- of uncertainty and the Man-
well. The road less travelled site strategy and hence re- agement of Commitment‟
may lead to glory as well as ducing their own overall risk! whereby the leader manages
ruin. The only trouble is that
Until now, the dis- uncertainty by strategic
the probabilities of the two
cussion pertained to the ex- hedging while the managerial
can‟t be computed as easily.
ternal environment, but com-
19 IIMK Newsletter

cadre ensures commitment to maintain strategic flexibility. HRiday

the tasks assigned to them.
A suitable example to
describe this would be the
Microsoft of the early 1980s
pursuing highly uncorrelated
strategies while maintaining
divisional commitment within
the workforce. Although MS-
DOS was its staple product, it
was collaborating with IBM
on the OS/2 GUI even as its
very own Windows operating
system was being developed.
It was also exploring a ver-
sion of UNIX aimed at pene-
trating commercial markets
besides writing Word and
Excel programs for the Apple
OS. When pursuing these
types of strategies, it must be
kept in mind that some of the
ventures would necessarily
have to be abandoned before
they materialized and these
are aimed at hedging the risk
rather than giving assured
returns. So, while in those
early days projects like the
Word and Excel programs for
Apple OS fell flat on their the business world still
face, their complementarities awaits some tool which can
with the Windows OS be- help predict the future with
came the very material that necessary precision, better
built the Microsoft success than its competitors and fast
story, leading to decades of enough for it to be still called
industry dominance and the a strategy and not a tactic.
elusive virtual monopoly all Till then one grapples with
organizations dream of.
D i sc o u n t i n g t h e
benefits of hindsight which
makes one feel that Bill
Gates was an astute leader
with an impeccable sense of
judgment, an unbiased analy-
sis of the situation would re-
veal that, to a great extent,
he had forgone a strategic
commitment to be able to
This might include breaking
a strategy into much smaller
pieces and trying to incorpo-
rate the financial aspects of
systematic and unsystematic
risk. For instance, the Word
and Excel programs written
for Apple had a company-
risk involved – there were
concerns that Apple‟s OS
might not be popular enough
to generate a sustainable
stream of revenue for the
programs Microsoft would be
writing for the platform.
There was an industry-
specific risk involved which
could be related to potential
market not developing for the
programs themselves. By
breaking these risk compo-
nents Microsoft was able to
reduce the marginal costs of
starting afresh and develop-
ing these programs for an
OS that did later catch the
fancies of the market – the
Windows platform.
All said and done,
the paradox of going for
glory while risking complete
annihilation and becoming a
case for bad strategies
whereas all he did wrong
was to make a strong com-
mitment to a seemingly cor-
rect strategy.
HRiday, the HR Interest
Group at IIMK uses every
opportunity to interact with
industry experts and acade-
mia. Here are some of the
major activities conducted
during previous term,
A panel discussion with
industry experts like Mr.
Kashinath
Ramachandran, an ex
VP-HR at Ramco sys-
tems. The central ideas
behind the discussion
were tackling attrition,
role of HR in organiza-
tions and ways to moti-
vate and satisfy em-
ployee needs.
Dr. D P Sinha, former
group head, HR at
Zuari group facilitated
the next session on
balanced scorecards
and their uses. The
session provided in-
sights in view of deter-
mining the success of
CEOs and organiza-
tions.
Mr. Vishnu Mohan of
NTPC shared his ideas
and views on the prob-
lem of attrition and
bringing it down to envi-
able levels. He empha-
sized the importance of
HR in boosting em-
ployee satisfaction.
Student driven ses-
sions on email eti-
quettes, delivering ef-
fective presentations,
selecting the right per-
son for a job and recent
trends in HR.
 IIMK Newsletter
BUZZ @ K An in-depth coverage of all the recent events and programs at IIMK
Upcoming Programs
Management Development
Programs (MDP)
MDP programs at IIMK are
primarily aimed at building
capability and competence
among individual managers
that could in turn lead to
greater organizational effi-
ciency and effectiveness.
The varieties of programs
encompass all management
fields catering to the require-
ments of corporate sector
and government.
MDP programs:
Effective Sales Mgmt for
BFIS Professionals (Oct.
04-06, 2007)
Effective IT sales Man-
agement (Oct. 11-13,
2007)
Marketi ng Research
Methods (Oct 15-17,
2007)
Marketing of Educational
Services (Oct. 29-31,
2007)
Competitive Marketing
(Nov. 05-07, 2007)
Effective Sales Manage-
ment for Insurance Sec-
tor (Nov. 12-14, 2007)
Services Operations
Strategy (Nov. 29-Dec.
01, 2007)
Business Intelligence
(December 03-05, 2007)
Spread Sheet Modeling
for Business Decisions
(Dec. 06-08, 2007)
Faculty Development Pro-
grams (FDP)
IIMK conducts custom de-
signed FDPs for the benefits
of faculty from other aca-
demic institutions.
FDP programs:
FDP on Advances in
Manufacturing Planning
& Control (Oct. 08 - 13,
2007)
Workshop on Green-
stone Digital Library
Software (Nov. 26- Dec.
01, 2007)
FDP on Advances in
Marketing (Dec. 03-08,
2007)
Executive Education Pro-
grams
IIMK conducts Executive
Education Programs to help
practicing executives through
the Interactive Distance
Learning (IDL) mode. The
Executive Management Edu-
cation Program (eMEP) is
the first of its kind to be of-
fered under IDL Platform in
the Asia Pacific region.
Two new programs
under IDL Platform have
been announced to start
from the 2007-08 session.
They are:
Executive Education
Program in Finance
(eEPF)
Executive Education
Programmed in Strategic
Management (eEPSM)
Upcoming Seminars and
Workshops
Conference on Marketing to
Rural Consumers – Under-
standing and tapping the
rural market potential-(03,
04, 05 April 2008)
The conference explores the
emergence of rural markets
and attempts to find innova-
20
tive approaches to under-
stand and tap the potential of
these markets. The confer-
ence offers an opportunity for
exchange of research and
practical insights related to
marketing to rural consumers
and disseminate the knowl-
edge generated.
International Conference on
Statistics and its Applications
in Management-(01, 02, 03
May 2008)
The aim of the conference is
to provide a forum for the
presentation of recent devel-
opments in statistical meth-
odology and its novel appli-
cations in management.
Centre of Excellence (CEx)
The centre of excellence is
being incubated by IIMK with
the support from the SC/ST
department of the Govt. of
Kerala. CEx undertakes a
wide range of activities which
leads to increased equity and
excellence in higher educa-
tion and enables the under-
privileged to study in premier
institutions providing them
better access to economic
excellence and infrastruc-
ture.
The Centre carries
out a wide range of programs
including Certificate Course
for Professional Develop-
ment (CCPD), Management
D ev el o pm e nt P r og r am
(MDP) and other research
projects.
21
Committee News
Alumni Committee
The Alumni Committee man-
ages the widespread alumni
network of the Indian Institute
of Management, Kozhikode.
This past summer witnessed
Sangam‟07, the annual
alumni-fresher‟s meet, which
was held across the six cities
of Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta,
Chennai, Bangalore and Hy-
derabad. With the best loca-
tions and a great turnout from
the alumni, Sangam'07 ex-
ceeded all expectations.
January would bring in Nostal-
gia'08, the annual alumni
meet, held on the campus in
Kozhikode. This meet would
truly be nostalgic, with the
alumni coming back to cam-
pus, meeting the faculty and
getting a taste of Kerala
again. Clubbing it with Back-
waters would increase student
-alumni interaction, as well as
allow the alumni to relive the
moments from the cultural
festival of IIMK.
Backwaters Committee
Apart from Backwaters, the
committee also conducted two
other major events on campus
to kick-start the year, namely
“Roobaroo” – an induction
programme held for the jun-
iors at the start of the aca-
demic year and “Konnect” –
the inter-hostel cultural com-
petition. “Roobaroo 2007”,
organized around the theme
“Greek Mythology” was an
immediate success and a
great start to the year. This
was soon followed by
“Konnect” which garnered
IIMK Newsletter
great enthusiasm from stu- also organized a formal non-
dents of both batches. credit course on entrepre-
True to its tradition, the neurship for second year
Backwaters committee is students. The course was
also responsible for organiz- taken by Prof. Sunil Handa –
ing all celebrations on Kam- Professor of Entrepreneur-
pus including Janamashtami, ship, IIM Ahmedabad.
Diwali, Holi, Navratri etc. SPIC MACAY
Entrepreneurship Cell SPIC MACAY aims at intro-
The eCell at IIM Kozhikode ducing traditional Indian cul-
has been fairly active this ture to the youth of this
year, after a long hiatus. country with a hope that the
There have been two events beauty, grace and wisdom
conducted till date, with 3 embodied in it will become
more in the immediate pipe- an integral part of their lives.
line. The SPIC MACAY
The eCell kicked off Sub chapter at IIM Kozhi-
the year by organizing a kode has been an active
seminar by an IIMK alumnus, member of this wonderful
Mr. Nagesh Banchhor - foun- initiative and has played host
der director of ProC Educa- to a number of events. Some
tion. He spoke about the of the eminent artists who
challenges involved in start- have left an indelible impres-
ing a new venture and vari- sion among the students in
ous steps to make sure that the past include Padmab-
one remained focused on hushan Smt. N Rajam, Sri
one‟s goals. Kadri Gopalnath, Smt.
Aswini Bhide Deshpande,
This was followed by
Shri Shashank, Dr. L Subra-
a workshop on “Preparing a
maniam, Smt. Sujatha
Business Plan” by another
Mishra etc.
alumnus, Mr. Mohit Malik of
Anoova Consulting. Mr.Malik The targets set for
gave students insights on this year include continuing
different elements of making the recently launched news-
a proper business plan. He letter „TW2‟, organizing cele-
was accompanied by Mr. brations during festivals with
Rishi Das of Careernet Con- the help of the Backwaters
sulting, who, among other committee. These would
things, also spoke about the include Ganesh Chaturthi,
people issues involved in a Navratri and Diwali. The
growing company. SPIC MACAY Sub Chapter
at IIMK also plans to hold
The eCell is hosting
four concerts for this aca-
an internal Business plan
demic year in addition to two
competition for the students
programs from artists within
of IIMK which would be
the IIMK community.
judged by distinguished in-
dustrial leaders. eCell has
 IIMK Newsletter
Sports Committee
The sports committee has
been striving towards ensur-
ing state-of-the-art sports
infrastructure at IIMK and
organizing numerous sports
events within the campus and
competitions amongst differ-
ent campuses.
This academic year
started with „Face Off‟, an
inter-batch sports tournament
where the incoming batch
was „Baptized with Fire‟. As
of now, the score-line reads 4
-2 with the senior batch hav-
ing won Table Tennis (men &
women), Chess and Bridge,
while the juniors made their
presence felt with victories in
football and carrom. Other
events including basketball,
volleyball, throw-ball and
badminton are on the cards.
Face-off would be
followed by Vae Victus, the
inter-hostel sports meet
where all hostels vie for the
coveted general champion-
ship. Vae Victus would pave
way for the “War of the
Worlds”, the IIM Kozhikode-
NIT Calicut sports meet
which is being held for the
first time this year to provide
a healthy interaction between
the two campuses.
The pinnacle of all
sports activities at IIM Kozhi-
kode is “Sangram” - The IIMK
IIMB sports meet. In its short
hi st ory, Sangram has
achieved iconic status.
Scheduled to be held at IIM B
this year, Sangram promises
to be a humdinger.
Media Cell
The Media cell takes care of
media coverage of on-
campus events and simulta-
neous brand building efforts
of the institute. Driving on its
legacy, the group continued
fostering relationships and
interfacing with both the print
and the online media. Gener-
ating media publicity for
seminars, festivals, place-
ments and other campus
events along with getting
articles published by the stu-
dent community has been
the primary objective of the
committee.
As a new initiative
this year, Media cell kick-
started 'The K Files' which
shall henceforth act as an
IIMK life blog (http://the-k-
files.blogspot.com). The blog
intends to serve the brand
building for the institute
along with keeping a memo-
rable track record of the vari-
ous PGP batches.
Social Services Group
(SSG)
The SSG aims at strengthen-
ing networks and linkages
between and among stu-
dents, the community, so-
cially responsible corporates,
NGOs and other formal and
informal institutions that can
influence the impact of de-
velopment initiatives. It
strives to provide local self
help groups and other grass-
roots community initiatives
with critical financial, organ-
izational and managerial as-
sistance.
22
Some of the activities al-
ready underway this year
include:
Education kits for de-
serving and needy stu-
dents
Working with NGOs for
community development
project
A few initiatives planned for
this year are:
Internal education drive
for IIMK community
m em bers ( sec uri t y,
housekeeping staff)
Blood donation camp
Partnering corporates in
their CSR activities
The SSG annual fund
raising event - the SSG
Fete
Apart from this, SSG also
launched a „meal a month‟
initiative within the campus,
wherein students voluntarily
donated an equivalent of a
day‟s meal worth towards
society.
Mess Committee
The mess committee has
been one of the most dy-
namic and innovative com-
mittees on campus. Simple
initiatives like ensuring the
night canteen is operational
throughout the night and re-
ducing the waiting time for
meals have made it
amongst the most appreci-
ated committees at IIMK.
The committee also
plans to hold a dining eti-
quettes workshop for stu-
dents.
23 IIMK Newsletter

Concert by Pt. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt IIMKLIVE : The Students’

The evening of 23rd October saw a full house at the Portal of IIMK
auditorium as members of the faculty, staff and students
thronged to listen to a Mohan Veena recital by Padmashree The Students‟ Council has
Pt. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, organized by SPICMACAY, IIM launched a new website:
Kozhikode. http://iimklive.com, the Stu-
dents‟ Portal of IIMK which
will be entirely maintained by
the student community itself.
Based on latest
OpenSource Web 2.0 based
technology, the site is ex-
tremely dynamic and sup-
ports collaborative content
Creator of this unique instrument and winner of the writing.
Grammy award, Pt. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt held the audience
The aim of the site is
spellbound with his rendering of the raag Purvi, followed by a
to showcase the vibrant stu-
mesmerizing piece from his Grammy award winning album,
dent life at IIMK – popularly
'A Meeting by the River‟. He was joined by Pundit Ram
known as „God‟s Own Cam-
Kumar Mishra, renowned for his mastery of the Tabla and a
scion of the „Benaras Gharana‟.

AIMS 2007
The technology conclave of IIMK, every year AIMS
identifies a topic that is of immediate interest to the Technol-
pus‟ and the academic excel-
ogy industry and proceeds to dissect it over two days of in-
lence of IIMK as reflected in
tense discussion. Its fifth edition this year, AIMS 2007 is shift-
its student community.
ing its focus to an Industry wide Technology Summit and the
theme this year is "The New Frontiers of Technology: Con- IIMKLIVE is a fea-
sumer Internet, Wireless and Mobile". ture rich website which inte-
grates a content manage-
ment system with a blog, a
forum and a photo gallery.
Also integrated with the site
is Google Apps Education
Edition Service which allows
registered users to utilize the
power and functionality of
Google Apps to collaborate
as an online community and
network with the alumni.
A panel discussion, the highlight of the first day, will The mission of
focus on "A Nation Online - How the Internet is changing our IIMKLIVE is to become the
Everyday Lives". In addition to attracting participants from most popular B-School stu-
over 40 B-schools and Tech colleges, AIMS broadens its dent website in the country.
scope by inviting top 10 IT companies as well.
24 IIMK Newsletter

Bharat Ek Khoj - Horizons 2007

Horizons, the Annual Management Conclave of IIMK was held from the 5th to 7th of October
2007. The overarching theme for this year was Bharat Ek Khoj with sub themes of
“Rediscovering Rural India”, “Unleashing India Inc.” and “Unlocking the Human Potential”.
Inaugurated by Dr. A
Jayathilak, the District Collector of
Kozhikode, the conclave saw a host
of eminent speakers from corporate
India grace the occasion. Mr. Pa-
resh Chaudhry, Head of Corporate
Communications, HUL; Mr. P K Ke-
savan, Director - Ministry of Pancha-
yati Raj; Mr. Harish Bijoor, CEO of
Harish Bijoor Consults Inc. and Mr.
Sunil Chainani, Director of FabIndia
Overseas Pvt. Ltd. all spoke in great
depth on the topic of Rural India and its untapped potential.
Mr. Abheek Singhi, Partner and Director of BCG, emphasized the key drivers of India‟s
growth while the CEO of Marico‟s Consumer Products, Mr. Saugata Gupta gave a talk on how
to become winning managers.
The conclave ended with an HR Summit in which eminent HR Managers like Mr. Nara-
yanan Nair, VP-HR of Mphasis EDS and Mr. Sheen Sunny Akkara, Director of Resource Man-
agement of Deloitte Consulting participated. In addition to this, a B-Plan Guidance workshop
was also held in which Mr. Gururaj Potnis, CEO of Manthan Services gave key pointers to bud-
ding entrepreneurs.

A Prelude to Backwaters 2008

Backwaters – the annual management-cum-cultural festival of IIMK – is back and this time it‟s
bigger than ever! If BW 07 will be remembered for launching White Knight and for the pulsating
performance by Euphoria then BW 08 promises to surpass all the milestones it has reached
before.
Six weeks of online events, three
days of intense competition and
three nights of unrelenting fun.
The best brains across B-schools
will spend sleepless nights out-
thinking the competition to be pro-
claimed the White Knight in our
flagship event. It‟s raining events
in BW 08 with challenging compe-
titions across verticals -from HR to
strategy, marketing to operations
and finance to systems. Simula-
tion games, case studies, paper
presentations, B-plans: you name it, we‟ll have it!