By Devangshu Dutta (Full version of a Guest Article that appeared in The Financial Express on 5 May 2006) With the possibility of 51% foreign direct investment (FDI) in India opened up to foreign retailers, one of the questions arising frequently is whether this means the death (or at least a slow-down) of franchising in India. After all franchising, in most people's mind, has these alternate images of unscrupulous franchisers ripping-off the life-savings of the small retailer on the one hand, and shady landlords in the guise of retail franchisees gouging at the pockets honest businessmen who are trying to…
In my previous column ("Deal Ya No Deal", 9 March, 2006), I raised a point about unrealistic volume expectations on the part of many marketers launching new products and brands in India. In some part these are due to the marketer believing his or her own hype. However, a more insidious influence on the expectations are the unrealistic assumptions - a big factor being the incorrect assumption about the size of the market. Back in the early days of economic liberalisation, during 1993-94, I remember figures being thrown about that talked about the 200-300 million middle class. Multinational and Indian…
By Devangshu Dutta (Column from The Financial Express - 27 April 2006) In my previous column ("Deal Ya No Deal", 9 March, 2006), I raised a point about unrealistic volume expectations on the part of many marketers launching new products and brands in India. In some part these are due to the marketer believing his or her own hype. However, a more insidious influence on the expectations are the unrealistic assumptions - a big factor being the incorrect assumption about the size of the market. Back in the early days of economic liberalisation, during 1993-94, I remember figures being thrown…
(This was a Case Study Analysis for The Financial Express on the justification for implementation of ERP in a start-up modern (organised) retail business - 15 April 2006) Most consumer, product-supply chains have evolved into fairly complex chains for two main reasons. Firstly, despite all the talk about removing intermediaries, there are still many people involved in the entire supply chain at different levels — for no reason but that they do add some value in the steps they are handling. Whether this is breaking of bulk, or handling of disparate products, shipping or storing goods, or providing bridge finance,…
Fashion is, by definition, perishable. Like, bread, eggs and milk. Or is it? When bread turns stale, eggs turn rotten or milk turns rancid, you do have to throw it away. Fashion is different, because its perishability is artificial, driven by popular perception that something is "out-of-date" or that something else is "the look of the day". You don't really have to throw that blue peasant skirt out in the garbage or in the Salvation Army bin...but you do anyway, because it is so yesterday...or that's what everyone else is saying. Earlier, perceptions took time to spread, today they can…
Geopolitical friction has again sparked renewed concerns over inflation and rising input costs for FMCG companies as @itmeansjustice @whysnavi write. @devangshu commented.
