Cover Story

Learning from disasters
The Thums Up saga in India throws up some invaluable lessons and some knotty problems for both MNCs and local companies operating in India. Prof. Y.L.R. Moorthi sheds light on both.

The brand that refused to die
Thums up is possibly India’s most resilient iconic brand. While legions of companies pump large sums of money into their brands in the hope that they attain “icon” status, Thums Up has done so with minimal fanfare. After being shunted aside for years, it is once again the king of Indian colas, reports Shamni Pande.
The fizz is back
Coca-Cola India is regaining market share and is gaining mindshare too. It is making profits on a turnover that’s estimated to be over Rs 4,000 crore. Its tale is a heady mix of strategy, tenacity and luck, reports Shamni Pande.

2009-05-31

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Editors note

From the editor

Our cover story for this issue can be seen as one such report from the frontlines. It chronicles how Coca-Cola India has finally put its house in order after almost two decades of struggle.

People

Sukhinder Singh Cassidy,  the newly appointed CEO-in-Residence, Accel Partners, laughs when queried on how she would adjust from working in a maverick organisation like Google to a perceptibly more sober VC firm like Accel Partners.

Features

Baggage billion

India’s biggest conglomerates feel the pain after an adventurous bout of mergers & acquisitions in the boom times.

Affordable, but at what cost?

Real estate developers are offering homes within reach of the middle class wallet. But buyers may still feel shortchanged as home sizes get smaller and locations leave a lot to be desired.

A house for Rs 3 lakh now

While affordability is the new mantra, some developers are going even lower— houses at less than a million bucks. Apart from the small ticket sizes of the apartments, developers are resorting to several innovations to cut down on costs and, thus, keep a check on the final price tag. Tejeesh N.S. Behl & Anusha Subramanian report.

The F word that's laid India Inc low

The time-bomb of foreign currency-denominated debt has been ticking for some time now and some of India’s best-known companies are at the doorstep of a default.

BT More

Metro Watch: Catalonia dreaming

When it comes to fine wines and degustation menus, the Lodhi Restaurant in Delhi sets a new standard.

Spanish Conquest

We were stunned by the San Ramon’s fruitiness and silky tannins—it’s the kind of wine that pirouettes on your tongue and stays in your memory long after dinner is forgotten.

Freeze the bird

The Snow Grouse takes the trend of frozen whisky to another level. Now if only it would launch this summer…

Metro resort: The antidote

Is the Aman effect possible in a throbbing metropolis? Sanjiv Bhattacharya finds out.

Book review: The kindly ones

The French novel is a hallowed institution, where legends like Balzac rub shoulders with Andre Gide and Victor Hugo, to name just a few. Some of the modern novel’s key conventions came from the French, and then there’s the influence.

The books that shaped my life

Tarun Katial, the COO of Big FM, has been transformed by Vipassana, Sun Tzu and Asterix.

The digital man

He lives in the now, in technology’s golden summer, a world in which slick, powerful gadgets complement every aspect of our lives. Whether at home, work or play, Digital Man is on the leading edge—he’s slick, fully-loaded and immaculately informed.

The executive consumer

Top restaurateur Rahul Akerkar likes things simple, unfussy and elegant.

Sound like you know about Formula 1

All you ever wanted to know about racing but were too afraid to ask.

Music: Act naturally

U2 try to do too many things on their new album but succeed only when they play it straight.

Ask Anurag

We play 20 questions with Anurag Kashyap, the director of Dev. D, Black Friday and Gulaal.

Hot stuff

From breathe easy tees to chic and stylish eyewear, there’s plenty out there to beat the heat this summer.

Letter from the Editor

The best gizmos in class in every department of an executive’s life—at work, at home, chilling out and on the move.

Hang loose

As the heat mounts, ring out the tight jeans and usher in the loose pyjamas.

Deodorants: So fresh and so clean

Keep the stink at bay with some great deodorants.

Living the dream

Between partying with Naomi Campbell and launching his latest Dream Hotel in Cochin, Vikram Chatwal takes time out to talk money, ambition and the private jet he had to sell when the economy collapsed.

Lion Heart

A Honda that outguns a Benz? You better believe it.

60 minutes

'I want to see an Indian car designed by Indians at Maruti'

Shinzo Nakanishi, Managing Director, Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL), has been an employee of Suzuki Motor Company for the past 25 years. With the industry facing flagging demand, thanks to economic downturn and increased competition, Nakanishi today faces his toughest challenge yet. He speaks to BT’s Kushan Mitra as MSIL prepares to launch the ‘Ritz’, its seventh product in the small car segment. Excerpts:

Book

Can India build global enterprises?

While India’s Global Powerhouses offers an interesting collection of business experiences, it fails to examine why Indian firms are unable to become truly global players, says Gita Piramal.

Are you truly global?

Sumantra Ghoshal and Christopher Bartlett, in their path-breaking book, Managing Across Borders, identified four types of global companies.

Special

The world's biggest newsmakers

For the first time, Business Today along with CARMA International present an extensive study of the world’s hottest and most writtenabout CEOs of 2008-09.

The Kampani conundrum

Independent directors have to pull up their socks, but if they don’t, should they be thrown in jail?

Image as the CEO's KRA?

Poor spending, inefficient resources, bad job—aren’t they all related?

The asset called image

Strategic communication is a fundamental investment to ensure the future of any business.

India's biggest newsmakers

The sixth BT-cirrus study reveals which CEOs, companies and groups got the best press in 2008-2009.

Current

Disney's India Walt(z)

Taking small but sure steps, Disney is pursuing its long-term plan to become the most sought-after family entertainment brand in India.

On solid road

IRB Infrastructure’s focus on the toll road business is keeping its cash registers ringing.

100 day dos

More for sentiment than outcome, what the new government does in the first few weeks will be critical. Business Today spoke to a few experts to find out what these initiatives should be.

Bucking the downturn

India Inc. shows resilience to post better-than-expected results in the March quarter. It could be an indication of an incipient economic recovery.

Two at the top

STAR Plus can no longer claim to be the undisputed leader in the Hindi general entertainment space.

Leadership Spotlight

Flawed genius, super captain

It’s not just results—Warne’s team, the Rajasthan Royals, won the first edition of the IPL and looks a sure-fire contender for the second—that speak in Warne’s favour.

Letters

In a trough

It was with some trepidation that I began reading your cover Indian IT’s Worst Hour (BT, May 17). However, it was with a great sense of relief that I put it down two hours later.

Back of the Book

Mercury rising

April, May and June are make-or-break months for a few categories and sales trends indicate that these products have overcome the slowdown blues. Tall glasses of thick lassis up north and salty buttermilk down south, branded ice creams, colas, prickly heat powders… anything and everything to do with summer seems to be doing well. Shamni Pande reports.

Jobs

Ready, aim, hire!

There are companies in many sectors that are bucking the overall hiring trend. These are financially-strong companies that want to be more competitive in the market. Upping the hiring momentum, these companies discover a slowdown is a good time to cherry-pick talent. Saumya Bhattacharya, E. Kumar Sharma & N. Madhavan report.

Markets

Room for the third exchange

The new kid on the trading block that’s set to launch an equity and derivates platform is from Financial Technologies, which currently has in its stable India’s largest commodity futures exchange, the Multi-Commodity Exchange. It is giving competition to NSE, which is gearing up to deal with the commodities bourse major. Rachna M. Koppikar reports.

Printed Circuit

The BlackBerry killer?

How good is the new Nokia E75? Well, to begin with here’s a sample: all the text on this page was written and then e-mailed from the phone!

Money

Beating the street

Despite the challenging business environment, a clutch of companies posted stellar results in the earnings season. BT handpicks 10 outperformers on Dalal Street.

Trends

Night before another day

Chrysler, the fabled US carmaker, has many firsts to its credit. Will it survive its second brush with death?

Beauty secrets

Bucking the crippling slowdown, the beauty services industry is growing at 25 per cent annually. How is it happening?

IT sector comeback not before Jan 2010: Shanto Ghosh

The Indian IT industry can only think of bouncing back once contracts come up for renegotiations in early 2010, Shanto Ghosh, Principal Economist at audit firm Deloitte, tells K.R Balasubramanyam.

To be precise

“I think that virtually everybody associated with the financial world contributed to it. Some of it stemmed from greed, some from stupidity, some from people saying the other guy was doing it”

CFL for Rs 15

Even at 10 times the price of incandescent bulbs, the CFL is a good buy. Guess what, you can now get one for almost the same price as your old bulb. Here are the details.

India gets the Cat

Jaguar’s “Leaping Cat” hood ornament is one of the automotive world’s most recognised symbols and two years after buying into Jaguar-Land Rover, Tata Motors is bringing the “cats” into India.

Taxing Times for BPO Industry

Obama’s tax plans could give the outsourcing industry a fresh headache.

Numbers of note

#1: Google’s rank in the fourth annual BrandZ top 100 most valuable global brands. The Internet search engine giant is worth $100 billion, way ahead of Microsoft, which occupies the second spot with a value of $76.2 billion

Indian mobile patent?

A small-town engineer from Madurai in Tamil Nadu, S. Ramkumar (36), who holds the Indian patent (No 214388) for dual SIM cards in a single mobile handset, is battling established cellphone manufacturers and retailers.

Study tells advertisers how to maximise profit

Choosing the best advertising spots in a stadium or the right time to telecast a sporting event is no easy game. A TAM Sports study shows possible ways to ensure best returns on investments.

Riding High on Tamiflu

Indian pharma companies say they are geared to meet the global demand for the antidote to H1N1 infection.

'Investing in research helps us stay competitive'

Mark M. Little, Senior VP and Director of GE Global Research, was in Bangalore to open a new unit at the firm’s John F Welch Technology Centre. He spoke to Rahul Sachitanand.

Instant tip

The fortnight’s burning question. Do the Q4 results indicate that the downturn is over?

Targeting tax havens

While efforts to rein in tax havens may not affect investment into India, this is an opportunity for policy reforms.

Top Mind

The new kindle

What is it? This is the new “Deluxe” edition of Amazon’s e-book reader, the Kindle.

Noted

Garnered: Over 2.03 lakh bookings by Tata Nano, deliveries of which will begin in July. At Rs 95,000 per car booked for the base model, plus the 6.1 lakh booking forms sold at Rs 300 each, Tata Motors has garnered around Rs 2,500 crore from the launch exercise.

Treadmill

Why your workout isn't working

Pick a weight that you can handle safely for the prescribed repetitions and watch your timings—four second negative with an explosive positive (push.)