At Forbes India, we believe in telling the stories behind the newsbreaks—stories that lie at the intersection of business, policy, economy and entertainment. Here's a selection of our best
The Final Tutorial
IIM Ahmedabad (iim-a) and its professors know that winds of change are blowing all round it. Global business schools want to eat its lunch. Newly opened IIMs and other B-Schools want to snag its prized faculty. The world of business itself is changing rapidly. India Inc needs new answers to survive and grow in a globalised world. And India needs IIM-A to showcase its thought leadership in public debate, in doing ground-breaking work on its inchoate but very promising economy. IIM-A needs to do more than what it does so well—teach students or be on policymaking bodies. It needs to change.
First published in the September 14, 2012 edition.
Year 5 (2013-2014)
In a Tailspin
Naresh Goyal’s Jet Airways has been struggling. Its alliance with Etihad has done little good. And the promoter seems to no longer hold sway over its navigation. Financial year 2014 was the lowest point for what was once India’s most powerful service brand. Loss for the year is expected to be around Rs 2,000 crore. Add the woes of subsidiary company Jet Lite, and the problem gets compounded. Jet Lite has negative net worth, and continues to make losses despite loans from its stressed parent. These numbers are chilling, but it isn’t yet time to pen an epitaph. However, there is certainly a cautionary tale to be told, deconstructing the tailspin that the 21-year-old airline finds itself in.
First published in the May 2, 2014 edition.
Nissan’s Indian gamble with Datsun
To make it big in fast-growing markets such as India, Russia, Indonesia and South Africa, Nissan decided that it has to gamble big. It decided to revive the Datsun brand, which it had killed deliberately in the mid-1980s, and create a car specifically for these markets, since the main Nissan repertoire hasn’t scored. Not since it created the Infiniti as a luxury car brand in the 1980s has Nissan done anything as big. To bring the Datsun brand back to life, Nissan has okayed a manufacturing contract for the vehicle to be rolled out in Russia. This contract is a risk that runs above $400 million. Not a small bet even for a $100 billion corporation.
First published in the July 12, 2013 edition.
Gobble, Gobble, Google
Whether it’s a web search, watching a video, using a browser, or email, Google is everywhere—and free. But someone is obviously paying for it all. And among them, an increasing number think of Google as an adversary. Google is now often competing with its former customers. Search for a travel route and Google will offer you results from its own ‘Flight Search’ service first. Search for a smartphone and Google will show you multiple sellers listing the same in its ‘Product Search’ service instead of a price comparison site. Websites that were once close partners with Google may wake up one day to realise they’ve been “disrupted”, as their search traffic is diverted to one of Google’s own services.
First published in the July 26, 2013 edition.
How the Apollo, Cooper Deal Was Botched
Neeraj Kanwar, the md of apollo Tyres, was convinced that the Apollo-Cooper merger would result in the perfect global tyre company. Apollo was already big in India, Europe and Africa. Cooper was established in North America and China. Compared to their individual market position (Cooper at No. 11 and Apollo at No. 17), after the merger, the combined entity would become the seventh largest tyre company in the world. But the $2.5 billion Apollo-Cooper marriage was called off before they could say ‘I do’. Both parties are aggrieved, and everyone, it seems, is to blame. But, as this reconstruction of events indicates, they let the roadblocks puncture their ambition.
First published in the February 7, 2014 edition.
Can Micromax Become India’s Leading Smartphone Maker?
Micromax has come a distance since 2008. According to IDC and CyberMedia Research, the company is the third largest seller of mobile phones in India behind Samsung and Nokia. With its coffers filling up with revenues from the sale of over 2.5 million handsets each month, Micromax is setting its sights even higher. It believes it can vault itself up the global pecking order of smartphones where the downslide of Nokia and RIM has left a vacuum. Micromax claws at their market share by offering ‘good enough’ options for a fraction of the price. How long can this continue?
First published in the November 29, 2013 edition.
(This story appears in the 30 May, 2014 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)