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TECHNOLOGY The Prettier Box New launches, greater functionalities and price competition have the notebook PC market clipping at an enviable rate. It's been a year since Nitin Singla worked on a personal computer. At workplace, home, or at the airport waiting room, his trusted electronic workhorse is the 15-inch IBM Thinkpad. In fact, more and more peripatetic executives like Singla are opting to use notebook PCs instead of the big white box. Reason: it saves them the cost of one PC, the trouble of moving files between a notebook and a PC and, more importantly, increases productivity. Says Jyotin Verma, Country Head (Marketing), HCL, which distributes Toshiba notebooks in India: ''It makes eminent sense to have just one pc that's both mobile and stationary.''
Although the notebook market at 38,450 units a year (Rs 435 crore) is less than a tenth of the PC market, it is growing at a promising 32 per cent a year. Innovations in technology, growing usage and price competition promise to propel the market at a greater speed. Already, the price of cheapest notebooks from players like ACI, Acer, and Compaq is down to Rs 90,000, whereas the more expensive versions offer functionalities comparable to any desktop PC. Says Ravi Swaminathan, Director, Compaq: ''For professionals, a notebook doubles as a multimedia presentation device and an entertainment device for movies and playing 3d games.'' With wireless ''talking'' notebooks making their debut, the market has only one to go: up. -Venkatesha Babu AGRO-FOODS Nearly two years ago, when ConAgra acquired a majority stake in its Indian joint-venture, ITC Agro Tech Foods, rivals interpreted the move as a sign of things to come. True enough, the company promptly dropped the ITC bit from its name. Last month, it declared its intentions of going national by entering the branded atta market in north India. But the final idea may be larger still. BT learns that Agro Tech wants to use its Healthy World atta brand as a vehicle for entering key segments in the dry grocery. The products under active consideration are believed to be rice and salt, value-added atta (fortified with iron or vitamins), cereal bars (which can serve as a breakfast snack or a health bar instead of chocolates), breads, biscuits, soups, instant mixes or ready-to-cook chappatis. Says Uttam Sen Gupta, CEO, AgroTech: ''Over a period of time, we would like to be present across the food chain. But we have to see if the market is ready for these kind of products.'' It could well be another three to four years before any of its high-end food brands hit the market. For one, the company's distribution network is relatively small, simply because trading still accounts for 40 per cent of its revenues. Besides, there is fierce competition in the low-margin industry. For instance, Hindustan Lever Ltd's (HLL) Annapurna brand has a quarter of the branded atta market, followed by Shakti Bhog (10 per cent), and Pillsbury (8 per cent), an American company. (Cargill's Nature Fresh and Agro Tech's Healthy World do not have any significant national presence). A bigger national challenge for the players is that branded atta accounts for a bare 3 per cent of the atta consumed in the country. Gupta doesn't see that as a problem, though. For instance, in South India-he points out-Agro Tech has built up a 12 to 15 per cent shares in just 16 months. Sure, it may not have HLL's clout with the retailers, but it does have the parent's strength to leverage in terms of marketing and distribution. What seems clear, however, is that in the fight to set the Indian table, the winners will probably be the foreign labels. -Ranju Sarkar ADVERTISING
In far off places like Shimla, there were footmarks on the Mall Road, accompanied by the mysterious words ''Digen Verma was here''. On television channels, kids popped on and off screen, saying: ''When I grow up, I want to be Digen Verma''. Hoardings screamed ''Who the F*** is Digen Verma?'' Even cyberspace wasn't free of the teaser ads. On one of the portals, viewers were invited to vent their spleen over Digen Verma. In the 15 days that the campaign lasted, Digen Verma had become the most hated, faceless name in the country. Neither Parle nor Dhaimande were complaining, though. For, at a bare Rs 3 crore, it was Parle's the most-bang-for-buck campaign. Says Prakash Chauhan, Chairman, Parle Agro: "This has been the most cost-effective mileage we've got for our brand." In terms of consumer engagement, it was a hit too. One of the chain letters on the internet actually tried to explain the teaser campaign by saying it was an Apple Computer stunt for its supposedly digital generation versatile mainframe Boxes. Says Dhaimande: ''The success of the campaign is beyond our wildest dreams.'' Late last year, when Parle gave the Frooti account to Everest over five other bidders, all it wanted to do was squeeze the apathy out of its tetrapack drink. Sure, the market leader's sales were clipping at 15 per cent a year. But there was a clear need to create a greater consumer interest in the product. The problem, however, was that compared to the cola majors, Parle's advertising budget at Rs 20 crore was miniscule. ''Budgets matter, because the battle for share of throat is with the big guys,'' says Dhaimande. Brainstorming by the agency's creative team threw up some pointers. For one, Frooti had to be relevant to the college-going crowd. The next step was to figure out where the typical college kids hung out, what their reference points were, and what would grab their attention. Following intensive soul searching, the team drew upon its own experience to get an insight into their consumer's mind: the typical college student hung out at the canteen, fed himself on small talk, and, invariably, his conversation revolved around the handful of star students of his college; and it didn't matter if few had actually met the celebrity students. Says Dhaimande: ''So we realised that a lot of socialising and talk always revolved around this one person who someone would know and the rest have only heard about.'' Incredibly, the creative team hit upon the winning name with little effort. But the tricky part of it was to build a personality around the name Digen Verma. There were a number of criteria that he had to meet to make a mass appeal: one, his name had to be ubiquitous enough without sounding parochial; two, he had to have a life that normal consumers could relate to and three, the storyline should have enough to sustain it for the two weeks of high-decibel campaign. Fortunately for Everest, all the pieces fell into place perfectly. The challenge now before Everest is to keep that kind of innovation coming. Worse, there is danger in Digen Verma becoming a bigger brand than Frooti. Dhaimande doesn't think those are such big issues. ''After all, Verma is unique to Frooti,'' he says. But will all the hype translate into numbers for Frooti? That's something Digen Verma can't tell you yet. -Shamni Pande EVENT
-Suveen K. Sinha INTERNET
Logically, having fewer people to place should spell bad news for online placement outfits such as careermosaicindia and monsterindia.com, which opened shop in India early this month. It's just that it isn't. Explains Krishna Krovi, General Manager, monsterindia.com: ''Companies are now more specific when it comes to recruiting, since they have specific projects, where they need specific skills.'' Placement portals, with their vast database of employers and employees, see the slowdown as an opportunity to prove their quality and cost-effective capabilities. Monsterindia.com, for instance, is doing specific searches for companies, while going beyond mere placement in the case of individuals. Krovi claims the site also does career management. With newer software markets opening up in countries like Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, and France, the job portals expect to be as busy as ever match making. That apart, what such portals are really waiting for is the old economy companies to move their search and recruitment online. If that happens, Krovi's resume is one that you won't find on the internet. -E. Kumar Sharma COMPENSATION
Courtesy the finance minister and his Budget: 2001, the number of tax-sheltered benefits is down to five: housing, car, retirement, leave travel, and medical. Hitherto, there were a multitude of tax-exempt benefits, including telephone, mobile phone, 'notional' loan subsidy; driver/gardener/helper allowance; furnishing allowance; training allowance, and even suit-buying allowance. Says compensation expert Watson Wyatt's Managing Consultant, Shailesh Shah: ''In companies where such perks were a major portion of the salary, there will be an adverse effect. On an average, the reduction will mean an 8 per cent higher tax bill for senior manager.'' But there just might be an upside to the tale. Points out Atul Vohra, Partner, Heidrick & Struggles: ''When it comes to senior level talent these days, the salaries are good. I think they will welcome the move. It makes life much easier and voucher free.'' Anybody who's spent the 30th of a month desperately searching for fake bills, will certainly agree. -Seema Shukla
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Milind Dhaimande loved it every time some
exasperated friend or the man next door foul-mouthed Digen Verma. No, the
creative director at the low-profile ad agency Everest Integrated
Communication didn't hate Verma. On the contrary, he absolutely loved
Verma. After all, as the mythical brand ambassador for Parle Agro's mango
drink, Frooti, Digen Verma had been Dhaimande's brainchild and undoubtedly
his best effort to date.
It's the last thing I need after a tiring
two-and-a-half-hour early morning flight into Bangalore. But here I am at
the much-hyped ''Asia's Technology Future: Transforming Business''
conclave, trying to pin down some listed speakers like Masayoshi Son of
Softbank, and Richard Li of Pacific Century CyberWorks. After 15 minutes
of futile search-and despite assurances-I am told that neither of the
gentlemen is going to be arriving. As it would turn out, that's the first
in the series of disappointments awaiting me over the three days.
Consider:
Monthly pay cheques and job security may
seem pre-industrial to the job hoppers of the internet age. But with paper
wealth-oh, it was heady to have had ESOPS-going out of fashion, and the
tech slowdown benching software stars, most people in the industry are
happy to have a job at all. Points out T. Muralidharan, 42, Managing
Director, careermosaicindia.com: ''There is virtually no new job creation
in the manufacturing sector, and within it and sales, the focus has
shifted from new jobs to replacement jobs.''
Most men go through their lives obsessing
about size. And if these men happen to be CEOs, on the wrong side of 45,
and more than just a little vain, then it is reasonable to assume that the
object of their obsession would be the size of their pay packets. The
bigger the better. Except for a small hitch: a bigger pay cheque means
more tax. But men who have armies of chartered accountants working under
them don't believe in losing sleep over matters of taxation. Instead, they
craft their compensation in a such way that the taxmen take away the
barest minimum. For example, the CEO of a large Indian company could
easily take home 50 to 60 per cent of his annual salary as perquisites
that are not taxed. Not any more, though.