Yesterday was Martyr’s Day in India – the day when perhaps its most illustrious martyr, Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated more than 60 years ago. It’s a day largely unnoticed by the Indian public . We have many “days” these days – Children’s day, Teacher’s day, Father’s day, Mother’s day, and so on. Many are the product of a commercial opportunity exploited. In the clutter, the not so commercialised...
Sunday, 31 January 2010
Friday, 29 January 2010
Bravo Ford
Much of the press on the calamitous state of the US auto industry centered around General Motors. Spare a thought for Ford, which has quietly done some amazing things.Ford was the only one among the Big Three that did not take the US government bailout. They also were the only one that did not go into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. And yesterday, they announced pretty good 2009 results. They made a profit...
Tuesday, 26 January 2010
Marketing 101 from Apple
If you’ve been within 100 miles of any business school, you have , no doubt, memorised from cover to cover, all the pages of Marketing Management by Philip Kotler. A doyen of marketing, Kotler is the S.C. Johnson & Son Distinguished Professor of International Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management . His work was the standard text book 30 years ago, and still is.Many marketing hotshots are...
Monday, 25 January 2010
It isn't just another building
Its difficult to get all senti with concrete. But then office buildings are no ordinary slabs of concrete. They are a piece of history in themselves. They have seen numerous people come and go, they have seen victories and defeats, they have seen joyful moments and sad occasions. They deserve a farewell when its their own time to go.Today a corporate giant moves away from a legendary building, which...
Sunday, 24 January 2010
Zaijian xiao Zhang
Goodbye Zhang ; as the title says , this is a farewell post for Zhang Dan, my wonderful Chinese teacher.
This week, I had my last class with Zhang, a moment tinged with some sadness. For she leaves next week to study in the UK. She hadn’t expected this to happen, but an opportunity came and it all worked out. So off she goes.
Some months ago, I had gathered courage to attempt to learn Chinese. I...
Friday, 22 January 2010
Not too big to fail
It had to come. The backlash against the banks was long overdue after the mayhem of the financial crisis of last year. It took the Massachusetts election result, where Ted Kennedy’s seat was won by a Republican (yes the liberal bastion of the US actually voted Republican) to trigger it.This blogger is a staunch and unabashed votary of free trade, capitalism and the efficiency of markets. This post,...
Tuesday, 19 January 2010
No love lost for hedge funds
Its difficult to reconcile to the way the Kraft Cadbury deal finally ended (the deal got done today). Not the outcome – M&A transactions like this happen all the time. But the way it happened makes me reflect if unbridled capitalism is really a good thing.
My ire is on the hedge funds – they are no different to a herd of vultures which circle over an animal that’s about to die. When there’s a...
Monday, 18 January 2010
Caveat Emptor
Caveat Emptor , or let the buyer beware, is a fundamental law in property buying and selling. The buyer is expected to make enquiries and be sure that he is getting what he thinks he is getting. Once the sale is done, he cannot moan about defects that he subsequently finds out.
These days the principle is better deployed in financial transactions. Banks and finance companies spin a complex web around...
Sunday, 17 January 2010
A post for a friend - and many others like her
A dear friend posted in her blog, a couple of days ago, something that brought a lump to my throat. She’s a brilliant professional – great academic track record (a national gold medalist, no less), top drawer performer, highly regarded in her company. And yet she faced the same choice that confronts every Indian career woman – family or career. As 90% of Indian woman do, she chose family. She passed...
Thursday, 14 January 2010
The awfulness of food price inflation
Inflation, of any sort, is bad. Some stability in prices, is necessary for orderly economic activity and for growth. Countries which have experienced hyper inflation recall it with absolute horror. But the most awful form of inflation is when there is huge inflation in food prices. In non food products, one can curtail demand if prices rise. But what do you do with food ? After all, you have to eat....
Monday, 11 January 2010
Don't cry for me Argentina
Don’t cry for me Argentina, could very well be refrain of Martin Redrado, the governor of the central bank of Argentina. He was dismissed by the President Cristina Fernandez a couple of days back, only for the courts to reinstate him and rule the President’s action unconstitutional.
At heart is the issue of the independence of the Central Bank. In many countries, including Argentina, the Central...
Sunday, 10 January 2010
What's in a name
Your name is something you are born with ; unless you take the trouble of changing it later on in life. The vast majority of us grow to like our name and keep it. But consider the unfortunate few, who have been named rather quixotically by their parents. Why on earth parents do that is not clear, but do it, they sometimes.
Imagine if you are named Adolf Hitler or Idi Amin. Thankfully there’s a law...
Saturday, 9 January 2010
Minorities be damned
A curious side show to the Alcon deal that I blogged about in my previous post is the treatment of minority shareholders. You may recall that Novartis bought 52% of the shareholding in Alcon, from Nestle, at $180 per share in cash. It had already held 25% bought from Nestle earlier. So it now has 77%. The balance 23% is held by minority shareholders as Alcon is listed in the US.
Novartis has now...
Tuesday, 5 January 2010
In praise of the long term view
There are some companies famously long term in their outlook. Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway is a famous example. Another company in the same league is Nestle.
Nestle , as everyone knows, is a food company. However, the way they dealt with two pieces of their portfolio that has nothing to do with food, is very demonstrative of their long term approach.
One is Alcon, an eyecare business. In 1977,...
Monday, 4 January 2010
Bihar, the star performer !
In India, regional disparities in growth and poverty alleviation are well known. In general, the more western and southern a state is, it is much better off. And the more eastern and northern the state is, it is in doldrums. So says conventional wisdom. Well, not any longer.
The economic growth of states over the last five years has just been published, and has been seized by the media and reported...
Sunday, 3 January 2010
To be an expat
Man is a territorial animal. His natural preference is to live with the group that he belongs to. But for two reasons, people choose to live away from their natural communities. The first, and the biggest, reason is economic. The second is political.
I would guess that 90% of migrants are economic – they move to earn more money; to have a better life. Even where people ascribe other reasons, the...
Friday, 1 January 2010
Don't sack the CEO !
What would you say to a job that was one of the riskier jobs in the world – the chances of being sacked is high, and its very unlikely that you would survive 10 years. Not appealing, is it ? Welcome to the job titled the CEO.
In the UK, the FTSE 100 is the index that covers the top 100 listed companies. As the decade ended, only 16 of the CEOs who were there in 2000, were still there in 2010.
Heading...
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