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Cover Story
COVER STORY ?I8S0T
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Winler O-1O
5MEs in ndia Iace many challenges, but perhaps none more Iormidable than the challenge oI nancing, both short-
term and long-term. This article portrays the enormity oI this challenge and outlines a possible partial remedy.
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) constitute an
important segment of the economy in India and in
other emerging countries. For those countries, they
often serve as the engines of growth. Using data
from the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises
(MSME) Ministry of the Government of India,
Shamika Ravi, Assistant Professor of Economics and
Public Policy, ISB has estimated that the MSME sector
accounts for 8 percent of Indias GDP, 50 percent of
total manufactured exports, 45 percent of Indias
total industrial employment, and 95 percent of all
industrial units
1
. The gures underline the importance
of the sector.
The ofcial denition of an SME differs for
manufacturing and services sectors. Under the MSME
Development Act 2006 of the Government of India,
a manufacturing rm with investments in xed assets
of plant and machinery below Rs. 100 million (about
US$ 2.2 million) qualies as an SME; for rms in the
services sector, the ceiling is Rs 50 million (about
US$ 1.1 million) in xed assets.
SMEs in India face many challenges, but perhaps
none more formidable than the challenge of nancing,
both short-term and long-term. In this short article,
Ill try to give the readers an idea about the enormity
of this challenge and outline a possible partial remedy.
My discussion is based partly on research underway
at the Centre for Analytical Finance (CAF) at the ISB,
and partly on the work we did for the Financial Sector
Reforms committee headed by Professor Raghuram
Rajan, Eric J. Gleacher Distinguished Service Professor
of Finance, University of Chicago during 2007-08.
In our ongoing research work, conducted
jointly with Franklin Allen, Nippon Life Professor of
Finance and Economics, The Wharton School, Rajesh
Chakrabarti, Assistant Professor of Finance, ISB, Jun
Qian, Associate Professor, Boston College and Meijun
Qian, Assistant Professor, National University of
Singapore
2
, we classify the sources of funds in four
broad categories:
utc:ual sou:ccs. uct ucouc atc: ddcuds,
depreciation, and provisions or funds set aside
but not spent
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nancial institutions (FIs): debts and loans
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Financing SMEs in India
DY S//R DE
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COVER STORY Winter 0-10
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cxtc:ual uuaucug tl:ougl ua:lcts. cqut aud
debt raised from capital markets
altc:uatc sou:ccs o cxtc:ual uuaucug. cqut aud
debt raised from private sources including group
companies, promoters/founders, and friends and
family; trade credits, and other liabilities. Often,
though not exclusively, alternative nancing is
based on informal, non-contractual, relationships
between the supplier and user of capital. As a
result, this type of nancing is also called informal
nancing.
We nd that in recent years, large Indian rms
(the rms above the SME threshold by the ofcial
denition) obtained about 47 percent of their total
funding from internal sources, 19 percent from banks
and FIs, and 5 percent from capital markets. The
remaining 29 percent came from alternative sources.
For the SMEs, the nancing pattern was radically
different. On an average, they got only 15 percent
from internal sources, indicating that they are far less
protable, 25 percent from banks and FIs, and 10
percent from capital markets. As much as 50 percent
of their total annual funding came from alternative
sources. Friends and family equity accounted for a
huge proportion of their alternative nance, followed
by trade credit. In the same study, we
also nd that rm size is inversely related
to dependence on alternative nancing
sources; the smaller the rm, the higher
is the proportion of alternative nancing
in the total.
Our ndings are based on an
examination of the nances of a very
large sample of rms, over 12,000 in
total. The dataset was compiled from
the Prowess database of the Centre for
Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE),
the most reputed purveyor of Indian
corporate data. The ndings paint a
somber picture of the state of SME nancing. Poor
protability and lack of access to formal capital
markets and institutions result in heavy dependence on
alternative nancing channels. Typically, funding from
those channels is considerably costlier than funding
from formal sources. This creates a most unfortunate
vicious cycle in the pattern of funding. High cost of
funding results in poor protability. Poor internal cash
ow generation limits ability to service formal bank
debt, and makes the rm less creditworthy from a
banks point of view. This, in turn, leads to greater
dependence on alternative channels.
To supplement the information from secondary
nancial data, and to get rst-hand opinions and
viewpoints of SME owners and managers, CAF we
conducted two sample surveys of Indian SMEs in
2005, one in Hyderabad and the other in Delhi. By
design, the surveys included the smaller SMEs. The
evidence from the survey data is equally stark. For
the survey respondents in the start-up phase, the
two most important nancing sources were friends
and family and trade credit. In the growth phase,
for the rms that have been in business for ve years
or longer, the same two sources were again the most
important. In other words, even for the SMEs that
survived for ve years, formal capital markets and
institutions remained inaccessible.
In another study that we just completed
3
, we nd
evidence that is even more sobering. There is credit
rationing in alternative markets. Credit providers are
reluctant to offer credit beyond a point, regardless
of the credit terms. To prevent voluntary defaults,
the loan size is appropriately limited below what the
borrower desires and the interest rate is kept from
rising to an excessively high level. While there is
widely documented evidence that rms in emerging
economies, especially the smaller rms, face credit
constraints in formal credit markets
4
, ours is the
rst study that documents similar access problems
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COVER STORY ?I8S0T
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Winler O-1O
for informal credit. Our nding that credit rationing
exists in alternative credit markets has a major
implication. It suggests that small rms in India, and
possibly in other emerging economies, cannot rely on
informal sources to come to their rescue when access
to formal sources becomes difcult. They may be
excluded from all capital markets at the same time.
Is there a market-based remedy, not interest
subsidies or other types of handouts that are always
distortionary and usually ineffective, that can ease the
nancing situation for Indian SMEs? I proposed one
to the Rajan Committee on nancial sector reforms.
It was accepted by the committee and included in
its report
5
. As we have noted above, trade credit is
a critically important source of nance for Indian
SMEs. They could reduce their investment in working
capital, and thus their need for funds, signicantly if
the receivables owed to them by large rms could
be securitised. In principle, such receivables, if
accepted, are essentially commercial paper with the
high credit ratings of the large rms. Further, the
resulting balance sheet clean up would improve the
creditworthiness of the SMEs concerned.
Currently, a negotiable Bill of Exchange (BoE)
issued by a buyer against goods received on credit
provides a form of securitisation of trade credit. The
supplier can have the BoE discounted with a nancial
intermediary in a private transaction. The supplier
and the intermediary can also endorse the bill in favor
of any other party. Currently, it is mostly banks that
deal in BoEs. Typically, they keep the acceptance and
discounting levels under the credit limit set up for
the buyer. However, the nature of the transactions
and the physical format of BoEs rule out a sizable
secondary market in them. A more formal process of
securitisation involves special purpose vehicles (SPVs).
In this form, the individual loans or receivables are
assigned to an SPV (normally a trust) which in turn
issues tradable securities against the loans.
As yet, corporate trade credits are not securitised.
The existing RBI guidelines do not make it very
clear whether revolving assets such as trade credits,
working capital loans etc. can be securitised. Besides
absence of clear regulatory approval, stamp duty is a
major hindrance to the development of securitisation
in India. This duty is payable on any instrument
which seeks to transfer any rights or receivables at
an ad valorem rate, which ranges from 0.1 percent
to 8 percent across the states in India. The process
of transfer of the receivables from the originator
to the SPV involves a stamp duty, which can make
securitisation commercially unviable in several states.
Besides, there is the risk that stamp duty could also
be levied on the issue of securitised instruments by
the SPV to investors. Patil Committee on Corporate
Bonds and Securitisation (2005) recommended that
the Central Government should institute a process
leading to a uniform and affordable stamp duty rate
across all states. The recommendation has not been
implemented yet.
1
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Mic:o, S:~ ~:o Meoiu: E:le::ise Seclo: i: :oi~
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Figure 1: Likelihood oI sharing under diIIerent incentive structures
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Winler O-1O
Women typically share less than men. This is
probably because historically, women in India
have been discriminated against in boardrooms,
which has forced them to be over-competitive, so
that they prefer to use knowledge as a weapon to
differentiate themselves from their counterparts.
Women may be wary of forging close ties and
sharing knowledge with other male colleagues in
the workplace. The graphs above (gures 4&5)
indicate the same.
This nding again illustrates the fact that more
and more female team members need to be
included in knowledge management initiatives.
In addition, when we tried to explore the
interaction between gender and different incentive
structures, we realised that in the presence of
monetary incentives, women are less likely to
share knowledge. This could possibly be because
75 percent of the women as per our survey were
high on empathy and they possibly associate
guilt with money. One key implication from this
nding is that organisations need to understand
intrinsic factors of motivation which drive men
and women to share knowledge.
Li:il~lio:s
Employees do not share knowledge either intentionally
or unintentionally. For the purposes of this study, we
have limited the research to intentional knowledge
retention in corporate organisations.
The study is also limited to two personality types
and in the future, can be replicated across
other personality types.
Co:cusio: ~:o \~y Fo:w~:o
This study has shown that organisations
may be mistaken in believing that
employees will share information if
knowledge management systems are made
available. Our research has highlighted
the importance of understanding the
motivations for knowledge sharing
amongst employees. Managers need
to understand the interaction between
different drivers such as personality,
gender, and incentives, amongst other
things, to foster a strong culture of
knowledge sharing in an organisation. Our
study further suggests that organisations
need not resort to costly monetary or
recognition-based incentives for sharing
to encourage free ow of knowledge.
This research is a continuation of ongoing
studies on designing effective knowledge
management systems. It may be read in
conjunction with other studies done in
the past, especially in the Indian context,
for a more holistic outlook.
The research can be extended further
by looking at the impact of other factors
such as the nature of the organisation,
employees association with teams
and organisations, family background,
religious beliefs etc, on sharing of
intellectual wealth in an organisation.
The authors wish to thank Dishan Kamdar,
Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour
and Associate Dean, Academic Programmes at
the Indian School of Business (ISB) for his
guidance and mentorship
FEATURES
Features
Figure 5: Average Likelihood oI 5haring by 0ender & ncentives
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Cover Story
COVER STORY Winter 0-10
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?I8S0T FACULTY CLOSE UP
Face to Face
)- lDlPTN0 T0 NFW PlRlD0MS
*' BRlNDS, N0T LlBFLS. THF FUTURF 0F lPPlRFL
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Winler O-1O FACE TO FACE
Face to Face
Deepak 0handra: Let us start with your experiences
as a business leader. You have seen 0ognizant grow
into a ma|or player in the T space. Did you see distinct
stages oI growth? What were some oI your leadership
challenges and lessons in each oI these stages?
Lakshmi Narayanan: At rst, Cognizant was captive to
one large customer; we did not have to focus on selling
because the business was right there. We needed to
focus on delivering, on making promises and making
sure that we delivered on the promises. So the focus
was on getting the best talent, and making sure that
the work was of the highest quality. It was a singular
focus. When you are in that kind of a position, the
leadership tends to focus on the details.
The next stage is instead of serving just one
customer, you go out and serve the market. This means
that you have to acquire two skills simultaneously.
First, you have to go out and sell and second, the
time for delivery is limited. So you have to let go, you
cannot continue to micro-manage. Behaviorally, this
is a very challenging stage because you have to start
believing that the people around you are better than
you, cleverer than you. Not that they are, but it is a
belief that you have to develop, so that you can let go
and empower.
In the third stage, you start looking at market
recognition. You need to dene what you want the
market to perceive you as. For a business leader, the
challenge is to live that, day-in and day-out. If you
want to project the image of a rapidly growing large
Adapting to New Paradigms
Lakshmi Narayanan, Vice 0hairman oI 0ognizant, the youngest nIormation Technology ITJ services company to
reach a billion dollar revenue milestone, talks to Deepak 0handra, Associate Dean, 0entre Ior Executive Education,
ndian 5chool oI Business I5BJ and Amit Mehra, Assistant ProIessor, nIormation 5ystems, 5B, about leadership,
challenges and opportunities in the T industry, education and the role oI philanthropy.
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Winter 0-10
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?I8S0T FACE TO FACE
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organisation, the leader has to immediately display a
mindset of size and scale, and act as if he or she is the
leader of a very, very large company.
The last stage is continuing the established
message, sustaining that growth and letting the
organisations leadership develop.
0handra: How did you go about these Iour stages?
For the last two stages, we needed a fresh perspective
from outside the context of the IT industry, to
get a sense of what it means to lead a large, global
organisation. Such a requirement can be fullled by
an external mentor who has that perspective. In our
case, it was Ram Charan.
In the earlier two stages, the transition was helped
largely by the customers that we worked with. The way
to do it is to identify about four or ve customers with
whom you have been extremely successful and have
built a relationship. You take their advice on why they
work with you; what they nd different about you that
they dont get elsewhere. This can help you focus and
strengthen your advantages. Internally, there is often a
reluctance to share your problems with customers but
that is the best source to get the most innovative ideas.
0handra: With the global market becoming multi-
polar, will we see diIIerent market characteristics and
leadership capability requirements?
Over the last few years, emerging markets have
really been growing in size but innovation still
happens predominantly in the developed world. The
application of innovation happens in both worlds,
but perhaps far more rapidly in the developing.
So strategically, we look at both markets. But for
developing the corporations capabilities, you need to
have one foot rmly in the markets where innovations
take place.
Amit Mehra: You talk about little innovation happening
in emerging markets. But one can think oI the telecom
industry, Ior example, which is actually bigger and
more developed in 0hina and ndia than in the U5. 5o
can one expect more innovative activity in this sector
Irom emerging markets?
In terms of the market size, yes, India and China
etc are big. This is not to say that it is uninteresting
to look at the telecom market here, but from a new
applications perspective, it is a good idea to look at
developed markets. I have to be in the developed
markets to understand Android and Google phone.
This will then set the stage to apply them here.
Second, the type of innovation provides the
opportunity. For example, GE has developed a new
ECG machine and they say it costs Rs 19,000-20,000
per ECG and Rs 25,000 for the machine. The key
opportunity for companies like us is if we can develop
software where ECG-generated images can be shared
on a global basis.
Mehra: The T industry in ndia is seeing increasing
competition Irom 0hina and Latin America. They have
better inIrastructure than ndia, and English-speaking
educated people are available. t has also become more
costly to operate out oI ndia. 5o how do you actually
maintain the growth oI the business in the Iace oI this
competition?
In the face of competition, the one advantage that
India has in the model of outsourcing is innovation
itself. If you look at the evolution of the outsourcing
industry in India, particularly the IT sector in the
late 1970s and early 1980s, it was staff-linked. The
demand was for the talent to be physically present at
the client site.
The next stage of evolution was offshore
development, where things would be kind of thrown
over the wall. Texas Instruments setting up in Bangalore
is a great example of that. Then it became onsite and
offshore, with teams there and teams here going
back and forth. Next it became a very collaborative
onsite offshore, thanks to the availability of improved
communication systems.
Now the next stage people are talking about is
even more collaborative. The customer works with
four or ve partners and wonders why the partners
cant collaborate and provide solutions based on a
common knowledge platform? The customer doesnt
want to be worried about who is doing what.
All this is predominantly driven by the Indian
offshore industry, not by the developed world or China
0ve: le ~sl ew ye~:s, e:e:qi:q :~:els ~:e
:e~y q:owi:q i: si.e Lul innovation sli ~e:s
predominantly i: le oeveoeo wo:o
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Winler O-1O FACE TO FACE
Face to Face
etc., because we have the history and the experience
of this evolution. So as long as we continue to innovate
on the model, we will have a signicant advantage that
will outweigh any cost, location or other parameters.
Mehra: The current state oI evolution oI the T
industry, with vendors collaborating Ior clients, is very
interesting. can think oI multi-sourcing deals in the
recent past where multiple vendors signed up to work
together, Ior example, ABN Amro`s multi-sourcing deal.
What would be the operational challenges in executing
such relationships?
Multi-sourcing happened earlier but in a more
hierarchical manner. There would be a prime
contractor who would sub-contract. Now clients pick
up different vendors, and divide up the work based on
their specialisations.
However, models and tools are still emerging for
effective operational collaboration between multiple
vendors. Once this happens, multi-sourcing will be
far more efcient. It is only a question of time. The
key thing you need is a common knowledge base on
which vendors can work with a set of common tools.
Right now, each vendor has their own toolset to
sculpt the project, as it were. Once they have to use
this common toolset, this common knowledge base,
the differences will go away and they will collaborate
much more.
Mehra: Do you Ioresee vendors collaborating at a
strategic level, too, Ior example, alliances oI vendors
bidding Ior contracts in order to maintain the competitive
edge?
At a strategic level, it is possible if the companies are
very differentiated. For example, if company A is
fantastic in dening the requirements and consulting,
company B is terric in development, company
C is a great testing company and so on, then it is
possible for them to strategically collaborate with one
common programm. But generally, this can happen
only if the customer involves strategic consultants like
McKinseys, BCG, Bose Allen, or Bain, and says, not
only will I buy your consulting report but I want you
to be responsible for the implementation. Strategic
collaboration can happen only if it is driven by the
market.
Mehra: You alluded to innovation being driven by social
collaboration. The homepage oI 0ognizant showcases a
collaboration platIorm. 0an you talk a little bit about that
and about Web 2.0? What opportunities is this technology
creating? How can ndian industry tap into it?
This is a platform that we developed purely for the
purposes of collaboration on the model of 2.0. We
call it Cognizant 2.0. The primary idea was to build a
knowledge management system. The philosophy was
that it was okay to make a mistake, but not okay to
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Winter 0-10
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Face to Face
FACE TO FACE
repeat that mistake. This means that any lesson learnt
has to go some place where it is available for every
other employee in the collaboration. That was the
idea on which this whole platform was built.
The customers came along and saw our developers
working on this Cognizant 2.0 platform. They wanted
their teams to use the knowledge base and collaborate.
Then, that also expanded. The customer has captives
in Philippines and in India. They want those people
also working on Cognizant 2.0. So this is almost like a
social network, in a development context.
There is still a barrier in adoption. It is OK for
customers to use it, but the fear is the customer might
be working with other vendors. What if one companys
intellectual property goes into the other? I would like
to break that barrier. If you dont allow others to use
the technology, they will develop it anyway. Then you
can get stuck ghting in this area. Instead of that,
why dont we focus on the next Cognizant 3.0, which
gives us some unique advantage, and open 2.0 for
everybody, including competitors.
0handra: Moving on, what can an T services company
do in ndia to gain access to better quality human
resources?
One way is to focus on students after they graduate
and enter the company, and then train and develop
them. But we have not focused on the training and
development of teachers. A majority of the IT teachers
in engineering colleges dont know what this industry
is about; they dont know what is happening in IT
companies. And yet we are asking them to develop
people who are company-ready or employment-ready.
I believe that if you get the teachers to visit good
campuses, and good companies, get them to look at
good projects, and equip them with better skills, then
they will be far more condent and will develop better
students, than if you bypass them.
0handra: There is a lot oI discussion about creating a
world-class education inIrastructure in this country and
the regulation to support this vision. What are some oI
the things that such regulation needs to look into?
The lesser the regulation in the area of education,
the better. No regulation would be ideal. It is like a
market. There are students who are willing to pay to
get skills, and acquire some talent. And as long as the
student has some ability, the institution can provide
that talent at the right price and so on, there is no
need for regulation, for somebody to come in and
talk about exploitation. I would say the government
should get away from the business of education and
allow much greater freedom.
0handra: Let us talk about the role oI philanthropy in
education. ndian levels are certainly not comparable
to what you see in the U5 or internationally. How
can such philanthropy be Iacilitated? What should
philanthropists expect? What can education institutions
do to position themselves?
If you want to do new research, or set up a centre to
research a new area, no student is going to pay for
it. The government may not be willing to pay for it
either. The people who will benet from it and may
fund it is industry. So philanthropy can work in areas
where the highest level research and new innovation
in unchartered waters happens. And the next level
higher education will have to be in a neutral area. It
will have to be paid for by the recipients, with perhaps
some government funding.
Leieve l~l i you qel le le~ce:s lo visil qooo
c~:uses, ~:o qooo companies, qel le: lo oo ~l qooo
:o|ecls, ~:o equi le: wil Lelle: sis, le: ley wi
Le ~: :o:e condent ~:o wi oeveo Lelle: sluoe:ls,
l~: i you Ly~ss le:
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5Bnsight: You have been in this eld a long time.
Please share with us a Iew lessons Irom your |ourney.
Vikram Rao: Philip Van Heusen (PVH) of the US,
one of the largest shirt makers in the world, had
just bought over the Calvin Klein (CK) brand and
company. I went to meet up with the CEO of PVH
to solicit the franchise for CK in India. I took him
through Maduras credentials, including the brands
we had built in India. At that time, he retorted
that what we had in India were labels and not
brands.
However, when PVH later saw how we developed
Louis Philippe, Van Heusen and Allen Solly in India,
they agreed that these were truly strong brands. India
denitely has the talent and capability for brand
building.
On another occasion, I happened to meet the
President of International Licensing for Polo Ralph
Lauren (PRL), again with a view to solicit their
franchise. We took along a business plan presentation.
After the presentation, he said, what you have shown
me are mere numbers. In no way did you tell me
how you will create an experience in the store to truly
romance the customer.
Romancing the customer is the most important
focus of PRL, from the minute the customer walks into
the store, through lifestyle display of merchandise,
store layout, ambience, the consistency of store
experience, the touch and feel, store personnel, and
all outdoor communications and events that relate to
the brand.
This was indeed an eye-opener. When I got back
to India, I asked the President of Madura to develop
the concept for three romance the customer (RTC)
stores, one each for Louis Philippe, Van Heusen and
Allen Solly. The whole exercise was to conceptualize
and then execute. This was indeed the beginning of
the journey of moving from product brands to retail-
represented lifestyle brands.
The President of Liz Claiborne, who I met in
the early 1990s, made a very valuable comment. He
said, Vikram, nobody needs one more shirt. But you
need to make them believe they do, and sell them
many. So think through carefully how you are going
to go about it.
The answer lies in superior brand building, with
merchandise and retail management at its core.
All these brands were developed Ior urban markets,
yet even people in rural areas are now wearing them.
Brands, Not Labels: The
Future of Apparel
n a Iree-wheeling discussion with the students oI the ndian 5chool oI Business I5BJ, Vikram Rao, Director, Aditya
Birla Management 0orporation Private Limited talks about rural markets, e-retailing, the entry oI Ioreign players
and other issues aIIecting the textile industry. Rao heads the Acrylic Fibre and 0verseas 5pinning businesses oI
the 0roup, with global operations in Thailand, ndonesia, Egypt and the Philippines.
Te ~:swe: ies i: superior L:~:o Luioi:q, wil
merchandise ~:o :el~i :~:~qe:e:l ~l ils co:e
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Face to Face
The second and third-tier markets are growing Iaster
than established urban markets. 5o what do you think
is the scope Ior rural brands? And do we need diIIerent
brands Ior rural markets or can we expand on existing
ones?
First of all, many of the regional brands already cater
to interior areas. National brands have evolved a
regional brand strategy, which goes out into second
and third tier towns. Peter England has 2700 stores
and sells in over a 100 towns.
That means that under the Madura umbrella, Peter
England has the highest awareness and acceptability.
But it is still considered part oI the elite group. t is
selling in second tier cities, but what about the lower halI
oI the pyramid? Every brand is interested in initiatives
that rural people can relate to and recognise as our
brand. Do you think Madura will also go that way?
No. I think the kind of distribution, culture, attitude
and the focus that you require are quite different.
It is an unorganised market, so you need an FMCG
kind of approach which would be led and driven by
a product and its associated image, rather than
through a lifestyle retail approach.
Apart from the distribution, the necessary
marketing and branding would also be totally different.
In rural India, they primarily relate to movie star
icons. They dont relate to Armani or those kinds of
brands.
In fact, many of the fabric companies, whether
they are Grasim, Siyaram, and so on, are all into this
game. Branded fabrics have rural acceptability and
have started to sell.
The apparel brands are not there yet. We have
to critically consider what our business model is and
what our positioning is before embarking on this
initiative.
What should be the pricing Ior a shirt in the rural
market?
We can make a customized shirt for Rs 199. But
then we need to look at net margins after costs of
distribution, brand building and more importantly,
discounts on leftovers. So to understand what will sell,
we need to study demographics and psychographics.
In India, in the same season, there are four
different seasons in each of the four regions. The
colours that sell in Kerala dont sell in Bangalore. It is
not easy to manage this.
s Madura on its way to becoming a retail company?
You have been promoting Planet Fashion as a separate
entity and you have started another store called The
0ollective Ior top-end clothes?
Except for The Collective, which is a retail brand, all
these other concerns are distribution channels. Retail
is a vehicle to sell, to make our brands stronger. Planet
Fashion is a retail arm which offers all of Maduras
brands under one umbrella in the suburbs of A and
B cities.
0ustomers are getting more and more used to discount
sales. Most brands have increased their overall product
price because they are making more sales in the sale
period.
Therefore, the brands have to be stronger. There has
to be a certain set of loyal customers who will wait to
buy fresh merchandise, and go and buy whats new.
The number of young Indians who want to wear
brands has increased and these are consumers who
can buy both at discount and also at full price. When
Te :u:Le: o you:q
:oi~:s wo w~:l lo we~:
L:~:os ~s i:c:e~seo ~:o
lese ~:e consumers wo
c~: Luy Lol ~l oiscou:l
~:o ~so ~l u :ice \e:
ley ie so:eli:q, ley
~:e :ol ~ qoi:q lo w~il o:
discount s~es lo ~e:
\i:~: R~o
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they like something, they are not all going to wait for
discount sales to happen.
What do you think is the scope Ior e-retailing in ndia?
In India, e-retailing is a little bit complicated.
Shopping is an outing here. It is not necessarily a
chore. It is also a pleasurable pastime. So, in that
context, e-retailing will take some time, more so
in apparel which is a touch-and-feel game for the
consumer.
Now a question about corporate branding. 0nly some
oI your brands are very well-known as coming Irom
your corporate stable. Many don`t even know that Allen
5olly is one oI your brands, Ior instance. Does corporate
branding play any role in this sector?
We should not confuse the customer. The purest
relationship is between the mono brand (be it in
product or retail) and the consumer. Multiple
messages will take away the strength of the brand-
consumer relationship in many ways.
Moving on, what is your take on Ioreign direct investment
IFDJ in the apparel sector? A lot oI people are lobbying
against it. What is your opinion?
I am on the consumers side. I am all for consumerism.
Not as a retailer, as an individual.
As a retailer?
As a retailer, I want to protect myself. I will say no.
You talk about building brands. What kinds oI tools do
you use? You don`t see a lot oI the brands on television.
5o how do you go about building these brands?
Its a combination of print and events. Retail itself is a
tool. What happens at the store is the key. The impact
is made there.
: :oi~, e-retailing is
~ ille Lil complicated.
Soi:q is ~: ouli:q e:e
l is :ol :ecess~:iy ~ co:e
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?I8S0T FACULTY CLOSE UP
Faculty Close Up
Shrimali joined the ISB in 2007, following a PhD in
Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. Prior
to that, he earned an MS in Electrical Engineering
from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and
a BTech in Electrical Engineering from the Indian
Institute of Technology, Delhi.
Shrimali has over eight years of chip designing
experience. He spent ve of those years at Intel.
Analysis and design of high capacity networks, grid
computing and internet service provider peering are
some of the other topics he has researched.
Shrimali, who teaches courses on Mobile
Policy and M-Commerce and Green Technology
and Sustainable Enterprise at the ISB, says the
common thread connecting his areas of research is
his interest in policy implications. After investigating
the economics of telecommunications networks over
the last few years, he is currently transitioning into
energy research.
Talking about this transition, Shrimali explains
that he became interested in climate change and
sustainable development, because it is
the idea going forward. He notes that
we in India are going to be the hardest
hit by climate change.
His primary interest lies in
policy mechanisms for promoting
renewable energy. It is all about using
economic analysis to derive policy
drivers for promoting renewable energy
development, he explains.
While working in India can be a disadvantage,
given that the most cutting-edge research in his eld
is happening in the US, Shrimali nds that the ISB
offers a colourful and diverse environment. I get to
spend two to three months doing research in the US
every year, he says. The ISB does everything it can
to provide support within the limitations.
Shrimali is currently working with the Prime
Ministers ofce to disseminate cooking stoves that
emit less carbon dioxide, and benet both health and
environment. This project also serves as the basis for
collaborative research he is conducting with Stanford.
Citing this project among the advantages of working
in India, Shrimali says it helps him see problems that
are relevant to emerging markets.
Going forward, Shrimali plans to combine his
research interests in computer networks and the
environment, and focus on the emerging eld of
Green IT.
Green Systems
0ireesh 5hrimali, Assistant ProIessor oI nIormation 5ystems at the ndian 5chool oI Business I5BJ, researches
the economics oI inIrastructure, particularly the telecom and energy sectors and plans to Iocus on the emerging
eld oI 0reen T.
l is ~ ~Loul usi:q
eco:o:ic analysis lo
oe:ive oicy o:ive:s o:
:o:oli:q renewable
e:e:qy oeveo:e:l
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Knowledge Sessions
Strategies for Scale
Introducing the panel topic, Ajit Rangnekar, Dean,
Indian School of Business, argued that three things
mattered when looking at business models for social
enterprises speed, scale and size of the impact.
I do not believe that the over six billion people
on this earth are going to wait forever to get their
share of the worlds growth, he said. He added that
while it was great to work on one project affecting
10,000 people, it was important to gure out how
to do it for a billion people, and how quickly. The
size of the impact was important, Rangnekar said,
because we should not be in the job of making a
marginal change to the lives of people. We should
be in the job of transforming the lives of people.
Dr Pawan G Patil, Chief Economist and
Chief Economic Development Ofcer, Silatech,
said more thought was needed about the 1.3 billion
young people entering the labour market within
the next 10-15 years, with only 300 million jobs
available for them. Considering the decit, what
would happen to the rest? It is only through
entrepreneurship and the stimulation of new jobs
and new opportunities that this decit can be turned
into an opportunity, he averred, because then
these young people themselves become an asset and
are a dividend, not a decit anymore.
Nandita Sengupta, Senior Assistant Editor, The
Times of India, said that the stories that had made
it to the news over the past few years had a lot to
do with low cost schools, low cost maternity clinics,
low cost housing, insurance for the poor and so on.
These were all individual small enterprises scattered
around the country and they brought choice to the
poor. In all these stories, the question was always,
why stop here? Why not take it bigger? Why didnt
it work on a national scale?
According to Manish Sabharwal, CEO,
TeamLease, it was essential to understand if an
enterprise was a baby or a dwarf. Both babies
and dwarfs are small but a baby can grow, while a
dwarf will always stay the same size. The difference
between the two is not just money but DNA,
template, components, standardisation, technology
and human capital. The six elements that helped
in differentiating a baby from a dwarf were
opportunity, team, organisational design, strategy,
risk and resources, with opportunity being the most
important.
A Iourth oI ndia`s population, around 300 million people, still lives in poverty. 5ocial entrepreneurship seems to be
the way Iorward to promote inclusive growth. A panel oI industry leaders met to discuss the challenges, strategies
and roadblocks involved in scaling up businesses in this context.This report is based on ideas presented during
the panel discussion held as part oI the Khemka Forum on 5ocial Entrepreneurship, hosted at the ndian 5chool
oI Business I5BJ.
\e souo :ol Le i: le
|oL o :~i:q ~ marginal
c~:qe lo le ives o
eoe \e souo Le i:
le |oL o transIorming le
ives o eoe
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Don Mohanlal, President and CEO, The Nand
and Jeet Khemka Foundation, cited statistics to
explain what scaling meant in the Indian context.
In India, every time a new moon came around, he
noted, there were another million people added.
He pointed out that the state of Uttar Pradesh
was bigger than Russia, Maharashtra was bigger
than Germany, Andhra Pradesh was bigger than
France and Tamil Nadu was bigger than the United
Kingdom. Seven hundred million people lived in
rural areas and yet India was home to 41 cities with
at least a million people, which had witnessed an
increase of 50 percent in just the last two decades.
Some 200 million of those people still lived in
slum settlements. This had enormous implications
for their access to healthcare, basic education and
services.
The other aspect of the sheer size of India was
the so-called demographic dividend. More than half
of the population would be under 25 by the year
2015. Nearly two-thirds of the current population
was under 35. This was the worlds largest school
of young people. Only 11 percent received higher
education in the 17-23 age groups. And in the last
parliamentary elections, 100 million eligible voters
were between the ages of 18 and 24. By 2012,
more than a billion people in south Asia would have
mobile phones. So it was not just scale in India, but
size and scale that mattered.
Dr Nachiket Mor, President, ICICI Foundation
for Inclusive Growth and Chairman, IFMR Trust,
said it was also important to take into account
Indias diversity when thinking about scaling. I
think its a mistake that we often make in regarding
this as a single countr y. We think that Bihar and
Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu are one countr y,
he argued. But the reality is what works in Bihar
may not actually work somewhere else. Politically,
until the 1950s, India was not one countr y, he
said. The British, the Mughals, Ashoka all ruled
other rulers, and never the people directly. It was
only in the 1950s that a single political entity was
created.
Mor further distinguished between replicating
and scaling. He said that solutions from what
worked in a given state could then be used to
replicate the journey in another state. He also said
that sometimes the competitive advantage of a small
business lay in the fact that it was small. If you tried
to scale it, you actually lost that opportunity.
li: ils ~ :isl~e l~l we ole: :~e i: :eq~:oi:q lis
~s ~ single country Dul le :e~ily is w~l wo:s i: Di~:
:~y :ol ~clu~y wo: so:ewe:e ese
/ ~:e ~l le e:~ Fo:u: o: Soci~ E:l:e:e:eu:si
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Knowledge Sessions
World of Leaders
Kravis started his career in the 1960s, buying up
small companies for Bear Stearns. They were called
bootstrap acquisitions in those days, he recalled. No
one was doing what is now called private equity. In
1976, Kravis, along with colleagues George Roberts
and Jerome Kohlberg, decided to focus 100 percent
of his time on these acquisitions. The senior partners
at Bear Stearns rejected their offer of half of the unit
the group wanted to call KKR. This pushed the three
into starting off on their own.
After trying to raise a $25 million for a fund,
Kravis, Kohlberg and Roberts decided to talk to a few
insurance companies that they had worked with while
at Bear Stearns. And they said, look we love you,
absolutely we are going to support you but we want
to be the investment committee, Kravis recounted.
The three entrepreneurs decided against the offer.
After guring out the overhead for their venture,
Kravis, Kohlberg and Roberts worked out a plan
to get $ 50,000 each from any eight entities, for a
total of $ 400, 000. In return the trio would make
a commitment to work on the project for ve years,
during which period, the investors would have the
right to see every transaction and decide if they wanted
to expand their investments. And if they did decide to
invest, KKR would get 20 percent of all future prots
from the project.
The three soon found the magic eight. Among
them was the First National Bank of Chicago. After
At the inaugural 5B World oI Leaders speaker series event hosted by the ndian 5chool oI Business I5BJ, Henry
R Kravis, 0o-Founder, 0o-0hairman and 0o-0E0, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & 0ompany IKKRJ, New York, interacted
with a select group oI ndian business leaders about how he started his enterprise, the |ourney so Iar and his views
on the private equity industry.
Dul we loo ~ o ou:
o:iqi:~ investors l~l eve:
louq you oo:l ~ve lo
ul u ~:y :o:e :o:ey, /s
o:q ~s you ~:e ~ive, you
c~: co:e i: ~l :o ees ~:o
:o c~::y Lec~use you we:e
le:e lo e us get started e::y R :~vis
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buying three companies in 1977, their rst full year,
Kravis, Kohlberg and Roberts decided to raise their
rst fund for $25 million. They managed to raise
$10 million more than that. But we told all of our
original investors that even though you dont have to
put up any more money, Kravis said, As long as you
are alive, you can come in at no fees and no carry
because you were there to help us get started. KKR
now trains their people to not forget those who helped
the group along the way.
Fast forward to the present. KKR has bought
170 different companies across a range of industries,
worth around $425 billion. Kravis described what
KKR did as nancial engineering. (We would) buy
a company and we would leverage the investments
tremendously. Among the high and low points of his
career, he included the RJR Nabisco deal, the dotcom
era, losing money on Spalding Sporting Goods and
investing in the Safeway chain of supermarkets.
Private equity really has to be value-added,
Kravis said. It has to (have) operational improvements
and it has to be about being a true partner with (the)
management and helping them grow, whether you are
in a minority position or whether you own 100 percent
of the company. In every case, the management will
be the future owner in one form or another. The
alignment of interests is important.
KKR is today an integrated global rm. We want
to make money, and we want to have good returns,
Kravis said. But the culture and the values are the
most important. (They) keep the rm going; (they)
keep it growing.
If I were to write a blueprint for a companys
nancial system, the most important things that I
would include are regulation and transparency,
Kravis further advised. He said that people wondered
why there was an economic crisis and the reason
was that a lot of people were at fault. This was not
something that happened over time but was being
built over the years. So what Im worried about is that
we need some regulations. Kravis said that we need
much more transparency than there is today. But we
are going to have so much government interference in
Europe and the US that this could stie innovation,
and innovation is what makes any country, capital
markets and corporation very great, he concluded.
Dusi:ess e~oe:s ~l le l~
P:iv~le equily :e~y ~s lo Le v~ue~ooeo, l ~s lo ~vel
oe:~lio:~ improvements ~:o il ~s lo Le ~Loul Lei:q
~ l:ue ~:l:e: wil lel :~:~qe:e:l ~:o ei:q le:
q:ow, wele: you ~:e i: ~ minority osilio: o: wele:
you ow: 1OO e:ce:l o le co:~:y
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Talking about the global nancial crisis at the ISB,
Gurcharan Das, author of the recently released
book The Difculty of Being Good: On the Subtle
Art of Dharma, said that it was not capitalism that
had failed, but people. Das added that the tendency
to paint people in black and white is wrong. Not to
judge people on the surface is what the Mahabharata
teaches us. He added that while the Ramayana is
about characters that are perfect, the Mahabharata
shows us the awed nature of human beings.
Analysing the issue of dharma in India today,
he said that every generation should go back to the
Mahabharata to nd new meaning. Ambition is good
but there is a line between healthy ambition and
unhealthy selshness. And that is one of the meanings
of dharma, which means moral balance. It means
doing the right thing, he said.
Parallels from the Mahabharata
In Brief
GDP versus GDH
Emphasising the importance of focusing on Gross
Domestic Happiness (GDH) as opposed to Gross
Domestic Product (GDP), His Excellency Korn
Dabbaransi, Former Deputy Prime Minister, Thailand
said, It is important to stop and reect what the word
GDP growth, oil prices and stock market reports
reect. Dabbaransi was the keynote speaker for the
ISB Leadership Summit and spoke on Leading in
Todays Economy: The Multi-cultural Advantage.
He said that in Thailand the radio announces the
GDP and the stock market gures every morning. I
was once asked if the country is in a good condition
because the GDP growth is high. And I was also
told that we shouldnt be giving information that
is not relevant to the happiness of the people. He
concluded by saying, Policy should be generated from
the well-being of our own people, not of outsiders. It
is important to focus on GDH and not GDP.
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What makes a VC successful?
Westernising Indian Retail
How does a venture capitalist gure out if the
opportunity is good enough? John W Mullins,
Associate Professor of Management Practice and
Chair of the Entrepreneurship group at the London
Business School was at the ISB to guide a group of
budding VCs. The ability to execute under critical
factors is what makes a VC successful, said Professor
Mullins. A successful VC has the ability to look at
the future, connecting up and down the value chain
with suppliers and retailers. If you do these well, you
will make money, even if you get some things wrong.
If you dont, you struggle.
The key to succeeding in retail in India is to
understand how the Indian retail market is different
from other countries, said Dippankar Haldar,
Business Head Supermarket, Bharti Retail Limited,
during a talk at the ISB. He said that 95 percent of
the food in the US is processed food; while in India
fresh food gets purchased at least thrice a week. It
is not about giving India a western way of retail but
about westernising Indian way of retail, he said. He
concluded by saying that there are always two parts to
the Retail business what you sell and how you sell
it. The rich love discounts, the poor need it anyway.
So it is not an option any more to have a right price
value.
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?I8S0T BOOK REVIEW
Book Review
After the success of the Marshall Plan in reviving
the economies of Western Europe after the Second
World War, large-scale aid programmes have been
expected to kick-start economic development in
poor countries. For 40 years, aid was an important
weapon of the Cold War. Allegiances were bought and
sold on the basis of aid packages. After the collapse
of the Berlin Wall, the aid industry changed track,
employing morality to market itself. Books like The
End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs, and the bully pulpits
of rock stars hammered the message home.
However, critics have challenged the preaching in
recent times. The Aid Trap by Glenn Hubbard and
William Duggan of Columbia University asks the
question - does development aid ever
work? The road to hell, they argue, is
paved with the best intentions. Most
poor countries remain poor despite
the aid dollars that have poured in over
50 years. According to them, the only
thing that has ever worked effectively
to reduce poverty is the growth of
business.
The authors start with a historical
framework for capitalism, tracing back
commercial activity to the ancient
civilizations of Mesopotamia, India,
Egypt and China. Modern capitalism
originated around the Mediterranean,
and spread across Western Europe.
But if commerce demonstrably created widespread
prosperity in Europe, America and Japan, why should
it be any different in developing countries?
Any developing country that has more non-
business actors (like NGOs) than businesses will not
get very far in creating wealth. And yet this is exactly
the sort of approach that nds wide currency among
western governments, and multilateral institutions.
What can be done to change the status quo and make
aid more effective?
The authors suggest that we revisit the Marshall
Plan, which was not merely a conventional aid
programme, but also a mechanism to revive
commercial activity in Western Europe. The
surpluses generated were used by governments to
fund infrastructure. So, why not create a similar
mechanism for aid to developing countries today?
The taxes levied on increased business activity can
pay for public services and social safety nets for the
vulnerable.
The devil obviously lies in the details. Unlike
the original version, a new Marshall Plan will need
an unprecedented level of international cooperation
and coordination. The Second World War primarily
destroyed physical infrastructure, so pouring money
into promoting business worked because the required
policy reforms were macroeconomic. In developing
countries, the lack of human infrastructure is a hard
problem to tackle, especially in the short term. The
other problem with many developing countries is
that they are led by kleptocrats, ironically kept in
power by economic aid. Not even this version of the
Marshall Plan can work in such conditions. So we
need strong incentives for governments to sign on
and implement basic policy changes.
Despite these objections, my hope is that The
Aid Trap will, at least, provide additional points of
reference for future aid policies.
The Aid Trap: Hard truths about
ending poverty
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