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A few weeks ago when IPL czar Lalit Modi first announced the IPL-2009 schedule at Mumbai, the atmosphere was electric. Everyone thought that the cricket gala in India would wipe away the gloomy economic sentiment. But after many twists in the tale, the cricket extravaganza landed in South Africa. A truly domestic tournament of India, in an untruly international arena!

Before the Election Commission of India announced the five-phased General Election schedule, IPL-2009 looked like a perfect dream. On the basis of the success of IPL-2008, this time, the anticipations were high. Lalit Modi confidently declared: “IPL is completely recession-proof.” Aware of the drawbacks of the Indian cricket administration, he thought that copying the European Football League model will change the entire scenario of Indian cricket administration. Modi felt that IPL would become a completely “political-proof sports model.” To an extent, after the first successful season of IPL, everyone thought that the model is fool-proof. But it was not to be!

No sooner than Modi & Co. announced the dates for IPL’s second season, the Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram dropped a bombshell. He said, “We can’t give security to both General Elections and IPL together. So, it’s better to postpone the event.” That bombshell shattered the perfect IPL dream, converting it into 177 hours of uninterrupted television package of ‘family entertainment’. Statements and counter statements flew across 24-hour TV news stations, reflecting the true colour of Indian politics. During the negotiation period NCP chief (and former BCCI President) Sharad Pawar, BJP’s Arun Jaitley, Congress’ Rajeev Shukla... every politician warmed his hands in the cricket cum political bickering. At the end it became General Elections versus the IPL.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a former captain of the Indian cricket team told 4Ps B&M that the nation could have easily hosted both, the elections and IPL together. “But in our country, politics always rules and everything else becomes secondary. I know the elections are of utmost important. Even though I strongly feel that we could have held both together with little bit of adjustment in the IPL schedule. In doing that, we could have told the world that India is not Pakistan or Afghanistan. India is a safe country. But now it looks like we are almost at par with Pakistan as far as internal security is concerned,” he bemoans.

A final consolation for Indian cricket lovers arrived in the form of IPL-2009 in South Africa. According to BCCI’s Honorary Secretary N. Srinivasan, IPL’s commitment to loyal fans will remain the same, courtesy live telecasts of all matches. On 24th March, at 8:53pm, much before the official press conference at South Africa, an official e-mail from BCCI landed in the mailboxes of India’s top cricket writers, confirming that South Africa will host the tournament from April 18th to May 24th. A few minutes later, another email arrived with the joint statement of BCCI and ECB. In that Srinivasan clarified that “the climatic conditions in England during mid April and the absence of permanent floodlights at many of the venues made South Africa the better option for a tournament at this time of the year.”

On the other hand, in an exclusive interview with 4P B&M, ICC Chief Executive Officer Haroon Lorgat said, “Safety and security is paramount and the IPL is a domestic tournament run by the BCCI. If the organisers and the Indian government are unable to reach a compromise to allow the tournament to take place with what are deemed to be the necessary levels of security, then those organisers will do what is in their best interests.”

But he categorically said, “From the IPL’s perspective, it is not an ideal scenario to shift the tournament overseas.” The ultimate truth from the horse’s mouth itself! IPL in India is a truth. People of India would have directly felt the heat and dust of the lively tournament by supporting their teams on their home ground. Whereas IPL in South Africa is a glorified myth. All thanks to the shameless politicians and politics in India. By the way, did you know that ironically South Africa itself is going in for a general election? It is scheduled to start sometime in April end, a few days before or after the planned start of the IPL in that country! Where next?!?

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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For fools dare where angels fear to tread... uh, until a slowdown that is

Savreen Gadhoke does an expose on how the erstwhile knight templars of core competencies and niche positioning are quietly sneaking through the strategy alley trying out previously untouched strategies!

February 2008: Tiffany & Co., the jewellery and specialty retail store operator, was going through a rough patch. Mirroring the past few months trends, even January ‘08 sales did not come up to expectations and Tiffany was facing the heat of fall in consumer spending. It seems honchos at Tiffany, touted as a premium luxury brand, had already had a premonition that the figures for the upcoming quarter won’t be anything to write home about, unless they thought of a strategy to improve their customer base and explore alternative retail formats. That’s when Tiffany, for the first time in history, moved away from its premium positioning and announced the opening of its first small-concept store in California that sold none of its $1,48,000 priced diamond necklaces; but instead focused on less expensive products like its $200 and lower priced silver jewellery. Their prediction was right; net income for the quarter ending March 2008 had slipped 45.5% (as compared to the previous quarter) and stood at $64.4 million dollars. Not surprisingly, the year saw Tiffany opening up more ‘lower-priced’ stores across the world. The global economic meltdown has been tough not only for specific retailers but also for sectors across the board. Tight liquidity, rise in input costs, and most importantly the fall in consumer spending, have forced multinationals like Tiffany to adopt strategies that they had earlier sacrilegiously abstained from!

If Tiffany was a move down the price slope, Coach (the leading American designer & maker of luxury lifestyle handbags & accessories) did the reverse. After experiencing regular significant declines in its sales figures, Coach decided to move away from its mid-segment positioning and decided to go the premium way by converting 40 of its 300 stores into a more upscale format that offered high-end luxury designer bags and premium concierge services. Again, a first-time strategy in times of a slowdown. Chucking its 20-year-old ‘invincible’ slogan of ‘Always low prices’, Walmart not only unveiled a new slogan of ‘Save money, live better’, it also jumped into heavy advertising (which has never been the case with Walmart) and, starting from the year 2007, pumped in a smashing $835 million into advertisements – its highest ever.

If at an international level, companies are not hesitating to explore new avenues and adopting tactics to enhance their revenue streams, then in India too – despite the slowdown hitting domestic markets much lesser – multinationals are going all out, either attempting innovative techniques or even dramatically shifting away from their core competencies, to attract untapped customers to improve their top and bottomlines. In fact, various companies have already altered their positioning in the market place.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
The Most Revolutionary Concept In Education PLANMAN CHE CENTRE FOR HIGHER EDUCATION, Supported by IIPM India’s Leading B-School
Detail of all IIPM branches
IIPM Admission Detail
IIPM INTERNATIONAL - NEW DELHI, GURGAON & NOIDA
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