Come September 15, 2000, and the world will be gripped by the Olympic fever. An estimated 3.5 billion people world wide will tune into the 14 hours of sports that Sydney Olympics 2000 will host every day until October 1, 2000. But India doesn't seem enthused by the Greek sport festival that was first held some 3,500 years ago. Ergo, marketers estimate that Olympics related advertising in India will generate less than Rs 50 crore in revenue. The good news? A handful of Indian corporates are making up for the general lack of ardour. A reason why Suresh Kalmadi, 56, President, Indian Olympics Association, is optimistic. ''Since Olympic sponsorships are tax deductible, we are getting good response from corporates,'' says he.

Leading the pack are Satyam Infoway and Samsung India, which are forking out Rs 15 lakh each to be the official sponsors of the Indian delegation to the Sydney Olympics. The Korean consumer durables company also has announced a prize money of Rs 50 lakh if the Indian hockey team wins the gold medal. The coaches will receive Rs 25 lakh separately. Says J.H. Park, 44, Vice-President (Marketing), Samsung Electronics (India): ''The idea is to support the Indian team and generate some excitement over Olympics and our brand.''

Satyam Infoway's Khel.com will be the official Indian Olympics Association (IOA) site for the duration of the game. Says Padma Chandrasekaran, 39, Vice-President (Portal Business), Sify: ''For us, it is another opportunity to drive home the usefulness of the Net to India's youth.'' For beer maker Foster's, though, the occasion is just right to reinforce its Australian lineage. The company will be airing special commercial on channels like Sony, Channel V, and star Plus. The adspend? It won't tell.

This apart, Foster's plans to run promotional activity, named 'Australia 2000', in nine Indian cities. The company will give away Australia 2000 merchandise including T-shirts, caps, and jackets to contest winners, selected through periodic lucky draws. Sportswear major Reebok, on the other hand, is equipping the Indian athletes, and rival Adidas has come up with special apparel for them.

Conspicuous omissions from the Olympic hype are the Indian arms of cola majors Pepsi and Coca-Cola. ''The primary interests in India are cricket, films, and music, and not Olympics,'' says Alexander Von-Behr, 40, Coca-Cola India's President and CEO.

But Coke is taking six of its top bottlers to Sydney for the event. Philips India is sponsoring an even bigger junket, comprising 100 of its key dealers.

Corporate India may not be head over heels about Olympics 2000. But for some, there surely is plenty of thunder down under.

-Vinod Mahanta

EXECUTIVE TRAINING
Mind Benders, The Legit Sort

Sick of listening to your managers moan and groan about sales and profit targets? Or why a particular deal was not clinched? Relax. (In fact, while you are at it, close your eyes and take a deep breath.) Now, zap them with hypnosis. As competition gets stiffer and shareholders more demanding, corporate India is avidly experimenting with radical methods of performance enhancement. And hypnosis is one of them.

Sounds spooky? Maybe, but India Inc.'s blue chips aren't letting that scare them away. Right from Nestlé to Coca-Cola to Hewlett-Packard to HCL to Bharti Telesoft, companies are putting their execs through such mind-stretching exercises. Santhosh Babu, an expert in experiential activities for learning, has used hypnosis in his corporate training programmes at these companies for a variety of purposes. These range from managing stress to embedding a vision in the subconscious to team-building to improving persuasion skills. Says the 33-year-old Myers-Briggs Type Indicators (MBTI)-certified pro: ''With hypnosis you can modify existing behavioural patterns in the desired direction.''

Babu should know. When at the end of a three-day workshop for Bharti Telesoft execs, he asked its CEO Shabd Swarup Sinha if his team would like to firewalk, he thought Babu was joking. Of course, he wasn't and he managed to convince Sinha and his team to walk barefoot on a seven-metre fire bed, only to come out of it feeling exhilarated.

Hypnosis is just one of the many tools that Babu uses on his subjects. His personal favourite is neuro-linguistic programming (NLP). It works on the premise that if thought can improve language, then language should be able to improve thoughts. NLP basically involves altering the common language patterns (spoken, thought, and written) with a positive attitude to achieve desired results. Says Babu: ''NLP teaches you about others' mental maps, and how to use it to create an immediate rapport with whoever you deal with.''

That's what he did when he set up a marketing team from HCL Perot Systems against a steep task: How to create a rapport on a subconscious level with clients within half-an-hour of the first meeting? Says Babu: ''Success in selling depends on how accurately you understand your client's buying criteria.''

Clearly, Babu's techniques aren't for the faint-hearted. But, then, neither is India Inc.

-Praveen S. Thampi

MARKETING
Compatriot Competitors

As rivals go, LG Electronics India and Samsung India Electronics couldn't be more similar. Both of them are, of course, Koreans; their Korean CEOs are of identical age, 49; and they even have similar-sounding names: LG's India boss is called Kwang-Ro Kim and Samsung's is Kwang Soo Kim. Moreover, the two companies are into almost identical product segments, their pricing strategies are similar too, and they follow more or less identical business models.

Yet, in the marketplace they are the most spirited of rivals, and in the past few months haven't shied from throwing punches at each other-figuratively, of course. Sample this: In April 2000, when a Samsung executive crossed over to rival LG, allegedly with confidential information, the piqued employer promptly filed a complaint with the local police. Then, in June, 2000, it was LG's turn to file a complaint against a staffer who had joined Samsung in February that year.

Notes Rajiv Karwal, 37, Senior Vice-President, Philips India, and formerly an LG brass: ''The competition between LG and Samsung is almost similar to what exists between Coke and Pepsi.''

If the two cola warriors fight tooth-and-nail for every crate they sell, then LG and Samsung do the same for every piece of consumer electronics. Ergo, when in July, 2000, Samsung came up with an advertisement, proclaiming itself the leader in the 310-litre and above frost-free refrigerator segment, LG responded by suing both Samsung and ORG-GFK, which provided the marketshare data. Samsung would not comment on the continuing brawl, while LG downplays the spat. Says Ajay Kapila, 38, Vice-President (Sales & Marketing), LG: Electronics: "If at all we have any benchmarks, it is Sony in consumer electronics; Whirpool in refrigerators; and BPL in terms of brand and volumes.''

In developed markets, both the brands are perceived as low end and the cost of changing that perception is too high. But the nascent Indian market provides them an opportunity to position brands on a premium scale at relatively low costs.

Besides, as K.S. Raman, 50, President, Consumer Electronics and Television Manufacturers Association (CETMA) notes: ''(High-profile rivalry) is the easiest and cheapest way to be in the news.''

It probably is. But what's corporate life without some good old slit-throat competition.

-Ranju Sarkar

SNACK FOODS
It's Cookie Time

Crunch these numbers. According to org and NCEAR data, the Rs 2,500-crore organised biscuits market is growing at 7 per cent plus. And it could touch double-digit growth by the end of the year. And that's despite the doubling of Excise duty on biscuits from 8 to 16 per cent. The unorganised sector, which accounts for half of the 450,000-tonne market, is growing at an even faster clip-an estimated 20 per cent a year. Confirms Amita Shetye, 35, Senior Research Director, org, "The biscuit market is likely to grow at a healthy pace."

The glucose biscuits segment, which makes up about 60 per cent of the market, is growing, and so are newer categories like breakfast biscuits, cookies, and the standard salted and non-salted wafers. However, cream biscuits and arrowroots are finding less favour with the biscuit-popping public. The top end-comprising less than 5 per cent-is likely to grow, courtesy imported brands, and so is the bottom-end, or the around Rs 5 segment. Says Nikhil Sen, 42, Senior Vice-President, Britannia Industries: ''There is a huge opportunity in the biscuits market across segments, particularly in the low-end, value-for-money offerings and health biscuits.''

Another reason for healthy overall growth could be the proliferation of players. While traditional players like Britannia Industries, Parle, and Bakeman continue to rule the roost (See The Cookie Pack), there are surprise entrants like Kelloggs, which has breakfast biscuits; SmithKline Beecham Consumer Healthcare, with its Horlicks brand; and Cadbury India, which is currently test marketing its Choco Bix brand, to be priced at Rs 5. Says Jagjiwan Kaur, 39, General Manager (Marketing), Bakeman: ''The new entrants will grow particular segments as well as the overall market.''

Though biscuits are largely positioned as a snack food, the health plank has been used to great advantage by Britannia. It now has several offerings under the Nutri-Choice umbrella-Digestive, Cream Crackers, Good Morning, and Junior. Even the wafer-thin super-premium segment, which has seen a fillip following easing of import restrictions and entry of players like Sara Lee, has health offerings by imported brands like McVities.

Yet, large-scale volume growth is likely to come from the low-end of the market. ''The super-premium segment and even the premium segment have price barriers which are difficult to overcome,'' cautions Jagdeep Kapoor, 40, CEO of Samsika, a Mumbai-based marketing consultancy. Have no doubts. Biscuit makers will cut their cookies to size.

-Paroma Roy Chowdhury

MANAGEMENT EDUCATION
Call It Entrepreneurship Inc.

B-schools are places you go to learn the basics of management theory and some amount of real-life management. But going to B-school to become an entrepreneur? It may not work in the case of all its students, but the brand new Indian School of Business (ISB) is going to try it anyway.

The school, which has a corpus of $130 million and unveils its first academic session June, 2001, has a few things going for it. For one, its Entrepreneurship Centre has been funded in large part by a Silicon Valley-based Indian entrepreneur, whom ISB wouldn't name.

Besides, the school is the effort of more than 50 corporations world wide and two top B-schools, J.L. Kellogg and Wharton. Its governing board has corporate czars, including Anil Ambani of Reliance Industries, Rajat Gupta of McKinsey, and Rahul Bajaj of Bajaj Auto. Says Pramath Raj Sinha, 36, CEO, ISB and a McKinsey consultant, who put the ISB idea together: ''The challenges of entrepreneurship in an environment that is not fully mature are very different. We hope to create business leaders who are better equipped to succeed.''

The MBA curriculum, therefore, has a heavy dose of entrepreneurship. Right from the second term, students will work in groups on new business development projects, which will be judged by industry experts. Says Sinha: ''Ideally, some entrepreneurs will become real-world mentors to our students.''

The entrepreneurship centre is a great idea. And, fortunately for ISB, it has supporters who can help make it deliver.

-R. Sridharan

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