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Now that the B.K. Modi Group has sold its Kolkata cellular licence, Dilip Modi has to decide on the future of the group's telecom business.
Word has it that Dilip Modi, the 27-year-old CEO of ModiCorp's cellular businesses, feels like a soon-to-be-given-away bride, one swamped with suitors. Ever since he sold his Kolkata cellular operations to Sunil Mittal's Bharti Enterprises in July this year, Modi has been widely expected to align his remaining cellular operations (Karnataka and Punjab) with another TELCO. While the sale of the Kolkata operation raises the question of whether the Modis are at all interested in telecom in the long-term-if you can sell one op, there's no reason why you won't sell all-an obit for the group's cellular businesses may be premature. ModiCorp has already received 51 per cent of the Rs 425 crore due from Bharti, and its two remaining operations aren't exactly doing badly.
Dilip Modi himself refused to talk to this correspondent till the middle of September. But he will find it difficult to find a role for himself in a ModiCorp that is out of telecom altogether. A senior executive of a company interested in acquiring the company's remaining cellular businesses, says one issue that needs to be tackled is finding a suitable ceosque sinecure for young Modi who has always seen himself as a telecom-exec. The Modi scion recently won a 10-year licence to operate cellular services in Nepal where his company will compete with incumbent Nepal Telecommunications Corporation. And he is also believed to be eyeing other opportunities in telecom and it, like domestic long distance telephony, and it-enabled services. Starting out again, at 27, with Rs 216 crore in your hand, and two cash-positive operations isn't so bad. -Suveen K. Sinha BROADCASTING
Her name is khushi. she is, her creators claim, young but mature, contemporary, but wholly Indian, and savvy but straightforward. She is also Zee's great new hope, the brand persona that Group Broadcasting CEO Sandeep Goyal thinks will help Zee recapture its lost glory. That fall from grace-KBC and all-is well documented. Can Khushi breathe life into a channel whose programming was rapidly degenerating into the moribund kind of stuff one would associate with the state-owned broadcaster? Goyal believes it can, but Zee's second coming bears a strange, but striking resemblance to Star Plus' now legendary KBC-led strategy of building a channel around special genres of programmes, successful producers, and proven concepts. There's the much-touted interactive poll, Aap Jo Bolein Haan to Haan, Aap Jo Bolein Naa to Naa, (if you say yes, it is yes, if you say no, it is no) licenced from Globo TV Brazil, where viewers can, literally, choose what happens next. There's the Hindi version of a best-selling Tamil serial, Chotti Maa-Ek Anokha Bandhan (Stepmother, A Strange Relationship). And there's the producer responsible for Star's biggest soaps, Ekta Kapoor (she's producing Zee's new prime time soap-Kohi Apna Sa (Somebody Your Own)). If there's something unique about Zee's makeover, it lies in the fact that everything has changed, all at once. With the exception of a few programmes, everything else is new; the channel is offering 26 new programmes to viewers. ''The relaunch of a brand has to happen across the channel, and it has to be an one-time effort,'' stresses Goyal. That fits in well with Zee's new strategy of focussing, not just on one time-band, as channels are wont to do, but at every time-band, an approach it terms 'broad-basing'. ''We will fight for every half-an-hour slot,'' says Partha Sinha, Zee's Director (Marketing). The business logic for this? A countrywide poll that showed that there was a sizable television audience to be served at all times of the day. Khushi has lots of help too, in the form of a Rs 15 crore ad campaign. Most of Zee's new programmes are at the premium-end of the ad-spot spectrum where rates could be as high as Rs 1,80,000 for a 10-second spot. That could be why media planners, and Zee's marketing team, will watch out for the first ratings to come out after Zee's revamp (by mid-September). Sinha claims the channel has sold 60 per cent of the ad time on most new programmes, but that could change for the better or worse depending on how the audience reacts to Zee's new avatar. ''The pecking order, with Star Plus at top, and Zee at number 3 after Sony isn't likely to change anytime soon,'' says a Mumbai-based analyst who tracks media stocks. ''We may react,'' says a candid Peter Mukerjea, CEO, Star India, ''but only if they achieve sustained viewership''. In the short-term, Zee will do well to make an entry, once again in the Cable & Satellite top 50 (10) even with just two-three programmes. That would also bode well for the impending relaunch Goyal has scripted for other core channels of the Zee family, Zee News, Zee Music, Zee English, and Zee Alpha. So, will Khushi bring happiness to Zee? Will Goyal's high-decibel marketing initiative pay-off? Watch this space two weeks from now. -Shailesh Dobhal Now, A
Sports Car Called Kingfisher
Coasters? yes. glasses? certainly. mineral water or soda? Flogged to death, but functional. But a sports car as a vehicle of surrogate advertising? Now, that's really outlandish. The company behind the idea, United Breweries, plans to launch a sports car called Kingfisher. Accepted, a ban on liquor ads in media has forced liquor companies to go for surrogates, but the choice of a car as a surrogate brand, even given UB chairman Vijay Mallya's whims, does seem like stretching things a bit too much. Explains Kalyan Ganguly, President, United Breweries, ''The challenge is not just to achieve top-of-mind awareness, but keep the brand imagery close to the aspirations of the target audience.'' That's a lot of words, but UB is serious about the car and is speaking to some Indian and global car companies to source an appropriate model. ''It will be a limited edition model,'' adds Ganguly, ''with the sole objective of enhancing the appeal of the brand.'' Bottomline: Kingfisher is, and will remain solely a beer brand. Only, this time, UB will be wishing that driving and drinking do mix, at least at the subliminal brand level. -Shailesh Dobhal Executive
Tracking Look at where making coloured water took Vikram Tandon. The 52-year old Executive Director (Operations) at PepsiCo's South Asia business unit has moved to New York as Vice-President (Worldwide Technical Operations). There's more movement news at Pepsi. Rajnish Rohatgiri, who joined the company from International Bestfoods just under a year ago has moved on to Max Healthcare, where he'll serve as Vice-President in-charge of marketing and customer support. Vice-Presidents seem to travel in pairs. Max Healthcare has also got itself a new V-P (Projects) from Indian Hotels, Rakesh Sharma. Meanwhile, the RPG Group is finally getting serious about reviving CEAT. Paras Chowdhary, has taken over as CEO. Chowdhary, who spent 20 years at Apollo, may be just the man to get CEAT back on track. One of his first decisions as MD was to hire a new A team: former TI Cycles V-P, Sales, Kalyan Paul, as V-P, Marketing; T. Thomas, from Vikrant as V-P, Technology; and boc's head of hr, S. Soni, as V-P (HR). Firing, as was reported in this column some time back, is apparently not the only unusual thing HLL is doing these days. It is also hiring middle managers. Clearly the days of relying only on in-house talent are coming to an end. But the funny thing is that the news has not created a stir among headhunters; most say they would not want to work with HLL as it would mean they would have to stop poaching from it.
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