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Channel Czarinas
If you are the type that gets its kicks from keeping track of labyrinthine relationships that are a must for any self-respecting soap, read on. Forget on-screen soap queens, there is a surfeit of backstage divas in the Indian broadcasting scene. In the news are Kacon Sethi, Director (Sales & Marketing) of Sony Entertainment Television, and the person in charge of the network's newest offering max, and Ambika Srivastava who has just taken charge of Discovery's marketing thrust. Then, there are those who've always been in the news: like Raveena Raj Kohli, CEO of HFCL-Nine Broadcasting India who claims the three hour prime time slot, Nine Gold, her company has on DD-Metro has increased the channel's revenues five-fold. Or Laxmi Hariharan, Director (Marketing) of Hallmark, who's striving to position the channel as the complete English-language entertainment one in India (coincidentally, May is Women's Month on Hallmark...). Rounding off the list is Natasha Malhotra, the peppy executive producer of MTV who has helped the channel build a Gen-X oriented programming mix. Other than gender, most of the women have had long stints in advertising: Kohli, Sethi, and Malhotra have worked for Grey and Srivastava was Executive Director, McCann Universal. Says Sethi, 34, ''The field opened up and a lot of talented women leapt on board.'' Adds Srivastava, 43, ''It is driven by the value we add to the brand as professionals and not as women.'' Drama queens with a twist surely... Ctrl+Shift
He is logging out again. When Suresh Rajpal left Hewlett-Packard (India) as its CEO in 1998, it was only to become the first employee of a company being financed by Chase Private Equity. With a funding of $8 million, Rajpal set up e-Capital, an infotech services company, only to merge it a few months later with Leading Edge, a company with a similar business profile. The merged entity was renamed Trigyn Technologies. But now, Rajpal, who was the President and CEO of Trigyn, has quit, citing personal reasons. Says Rajpal, 56, ''Basically, it was an issue of control. From an owner-proprietor, I again became an executive reporting to a board of directors, which was not my intention at all. Now, whatever I do, will be completely my own.'' Rajpal can now choose from setting up a similar solutions company, starting-up a joint venture, or returning to the mainstream as a professional CEO. ''All you need in this business is an understanding of technology and the ability to get and retain talent, which I have,'' says Rajpal. Hope it will be a repeat+success this time.... The Yum Principle
Yum at $20 billion Tricon Restaurants Inc.,
does not describe the fare dished out by its three subsidiaries, Pizza
hut, KFC, and Taco Bell. Rather, it is the ticker name under which the
company is listed on the NYSE. It is also the preferred adjective to
prefix anything desirable in the Tricon Fold, including its people
practices. So says Dan Adams, its Vice-President (HR), Asia.
Recently, Adams was in India to conduct Tricon's famed HOWWT or
How-We-Work-Together programme, which seeks to bind its multi-cultural,
multi-locational workforce around the world. Says Adams, 52: ''The
programme, like everything else in Tricon, hinges on instilling customer
mania in all our employees.'' Like asking the restaurant employees to
perform a little dance while presenting a birthday cake, or shifting a
party to a customer's house, on the day of an India-wide bandh-all of
which, Adams claims, employees in India have done. The company, says
Adams, backs up this commitment with continuous recognition. Good recipe,
that... |
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