If you look at the market from a products perspective, it is maturing like many other emerging economies. As those markets mature, customer demands mature and diversify, which may include SUVs, MPVs or luxury cars. It is no longer purely a mini market.

This auto expo we have seen a lot of launches in the SUV and MPV category. While India is traditionally a very fuel economy conscious market, why are fuel guzzlers being launched at such a rate?

I think this is a question which goes to consumer taste and this is not unique to India. The same has been the case in China, North America, where customers make tradeoffs. Fuel efficiency has been traded off for attributes that they like in an SUV or MPV. Whether it is interior flexibility, the ability to go off road or just the high seating position, customers make those tradeoffs and we as manufacturers make our product as efficient and competitive to meet such demands.

Customers are maturing very rapidly in emerging markets. They are well connected globally, well informed, earnings have gone up and they want to enjoy the type of products customers in every other market enjoy. I think no one wants to be viewed as an emerging economy.

You already have the Tavera and now unveiled the MPV concept which will make its way to the market by the end of the year. What would your key markets be? Is it primarily urban or would you increasingly look at rural India?

If you look at our history we have been able to cater to both the markets. The Tavera is a real work horse in the Tier II and III markets. What was important for us was to maintain our presence with the Tavera but also be able to expand in the bigger metros by having the Bharat IV norm products. Now we are able to both kinds of markets and going forward we would like continue to have a product portfolio which appeals to our customers both rural and urban. The new MPV that we will launch fits in both these markets. If you look in China, where the vehicle is running today, it appeals to both sets of customers.

The Chevy brand is already well established in India. What would your priorities be?

I want to perpetuate the momentum on the Chevrolet brand, which is globally one of the fastest growing brands. I think we have been able to find a message which resonates with people in terms of design, efficiency, family and the positioning of Chevrolet as a reliable partner is something which I want to perpetuate. My predecessor Karl has focused on establishing the brand, but I am reminded that brands only work when supported by good products. I would like to continue bringing good products and a start has been made with the launch of the Sail hatchback and the MPV Concept.

What would your sales target be over 2012?

It is very hard to predict and over sometime it has been in everyone’s mind. To make a call at this time is very difficult. We have the budget coming up, issues going on with the economy in Western Europe, fuel prices issues in the country, which make it very hard to determine which way the market is going to go. But that has not stopped us from investing here. We are investing in both our Talegaon and Halol, where we are adding a new press shop and additional capacity and if the market dictates we have the option to go beyond the 140,000 at Talegaon if necessary.

In terms of R&D what is the role your center in Bangalore is playing at the moment and where do you want that to go?

I think the technical center in Bangalore is a highly sophisticated one and total integrated with our global research and development capabilities. What is great about our center in Bangalore is the ability to move data and information on a 24×7 basis. For example there are projects being developed in North America but because there is total integration we can farm out that work to colleagues in Bangalore. This center serves both global GM in terms of supporting it around the world but also depend heavily on Bangalore on adaptation of vehicles meant for India.

The dual pricing of fuel in the country has meant there is a huge disparity between Diesel and Petrol prices in the country. Even cars like Chevy Beat petrol is finding it difficult to find buyers. What does it mean for a manufacturer like GM to operate in such a scenario?

GM has a unique advantage in this area and this being that the Talegaon plant has the ability to flexible manufacturer gasoline and diesel engine. It is the only plant in the world that GM operates to have such flexibility. We have the capability to respond if the market moves towards diesel very quickly and we want to continue having that flexibility. I think from a fuels perspective India is one of the most complex market in the world. I cannot think of any other market which has petrol, CNG, LPG and diesel all together in the same place. I think there is still consumer demand for LPG and we can easily adapt to it because of vehicles like Spark in our portfolio.

You have to go where the market goes and at the moment customers are mad about diesel cars and in our future portfolio we need to ensure that we have the capability in our core products to offer very competitive diesel power trains.

There are certain products which have not seen any changes in more than two years. Cruze is one such example. Can we expect a new Cruze to hit the market soon?

The Cruze is a very important model for GM and infact one of the most successful cars in the world. It is a big hit in China, North America, including here. We would be refreshing that model on a global basis and India would be part of that refresh when it takes place. If you look at the timeline of these vehicles it gets predictable as to when it will get refreshed. We have established a real hit with the Cruze and a product that I am very proud of and this is one product that we will refresh on a very consistent basis.

Aptly named FRIENDS OF AMBITION, the advisory will work closely with ambitious enterprises and guide them to achieve their growth goals over a three to five year period. Out of a total estimated 35 million MSMEs in India as defined by the Ministry of MSME, the company reckons an addressable market of 51,000 firms in sixty-two identified towns.

The advisory has been established by Ravi Kiran, former CEO-South East & South Asia for Starcom MediaVest Group, Suhail Kazmi, former President – Retail Banking and Wealth Management, Yes Bank, Sanjay Barkataki, former India CFO – Publicis Groupe Media, and Subodh Srivastav, former COO – Idea Cellular and MTS. All four opted out of their respective corporate leadership positions between February and December 2010 and founded the venture in July 2011.

Said Ravi Kiran, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, “It is our belief that businesses in Middle India have a real opportunity to drive the next few decades of dramatic growth in economic value and societal impact. We are strongly inspired by their aspirations, which have risen manifold over the years. At the same time, we have observed a palpable feeling of helplessness and growing frustration.”

Added Suhail Kazmi, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, “The frustration arises mostly out of a real access gap that exists today between Middle India and Metro India, which forces most business owners to scale down their ambitions. They feel an acute deficit in access to talent, managerial & functional expertise and private capital, which is available more easily to enterprises in the big cities.”

It is this ACCESS GAP, the company will attempt to bridge, in its endeavor to nurture and fuel the dreams of ambitious enterprises. Besides providing a very active, hands-on advisory service and helping implement decisions and strategy, the company will also provide its clients with a growth ecosystem, built on a powerful network of partners under the umbrella of ALLIES OF AMBITIONSM. The ALLIES OF AMBITION network will consist of several top notch firms across nine chosen functional domains – from legal, technology, human resource, tax consulting &audit and talent recruitment to marketing research, digital marketing, advertising and financial capital.

Said Subodh Srivastav, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, “Our allies are an integral part of our value delivery model. We believe their expertise, combined with our guidance, and real world experience in scaling businesses, will work powerfully for our clients.This is classic gestalt effect – the whole being bigger than the sum of parts.”

FRIENDS OF AMBITION believes that the traditional tag of SME that is put on an ambitious business is inappropriate and probably anachronistic.

Said Sanjay Barkataki, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, “We reject the tag of SME. That phrase, no matter how popular and easy-on-tongue, insults ambition, rather than respecting it. We describe our client segment as REMI – Rising Enterprises of Middle India, a phrase we find significantly more aspirational and dignified.”

FRIENDS OF AMBITION is currently engaged with three clients and eleven alliance partners.

For more information contact:
Preeti Hoon (Edelman India) +91- 99870 37821
Vaishnavi Ramakrishnan (Edelman India) +91- 77380 15770

In his welcome note Mr. K.V. Srinivasan of Reliance Commercial Finance highlighted how small and medium enterprises have changed over the years in their outlook towards credit and debt instruments for raising capital for their business. He advised companies to “never direct working capital towards acquiring long-term assets.”

In two sessions, leaders from the SME sector such as Mr. Jay Gupta, MD & CEO, The Loot Store; Mr. Dheeraj Gupta, Founder and MD, Jumbo King Foods; Dr. Apoorva Shah, Founder, Richfeel Health and Beauty Pvt. Ltd. and Mr. Lakshman Gugulothu, CEO, BSE SME Exchange discussed business and financial challenges for SMEs. Other experts to discuss financial challenges were Mr. Srinivasan of Reliance Commercial Finance and Mr. Hariharan Iyer, Chief Financial Officer, APM Terminals, Maersk Group.

The prospects of raising capital via equity were also discussed and the concern over when a company should get listed was debated amongst the panelists.

As in its previous editions, EAD 2011, to be conducted throughout the month of October will leave its footprints in 15 cities, comprising both Tier-I and Tier-II cities across India. The speakers will include the likes of Dr. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Founder, Biocon, Padma Bhushan recipient and featured in the Forbes list of 100 most powerful women, in Bangalore; Mr Pradip Shah, founder of PATNI computer systems in Mumbai; Mr Kaushal Mehta and Mr Vishal Mehta, entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), respectively, in IIM Ahmedabad.

EAD 2011 will commence on October 4 from New Delhi. Subsequent EACs (entrepreneurship Awareness Camps) will be held at Mumbai, Chennai, Pune, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad(IIM A), Hyderbad, Pune, Jaipur, Vidaywada, Patna, Ranchi, Nagpur, Chandigarh, Bhubaneswar, Jalandhar, Lucknow, Kolkata and Kharagpur, witnessing culmination on October 23.

Each city will feature an Entrepreneurship Awareness Camp (EAC) held at a prominent college in the city featuring guest lectures by eminent entrepreneurs, participation of the best startups of the country, hands-on workshops and start-up mentoring sessions. Besides, networking sessions are also conducted with speakers for the sole benefit of students. EAD features not only guest lectures by the likes of top entrepreneurs but also substantial workshops by “Nurture Talent Academy”, India’s first Entrepreneurship Education Organisation, and Eminent Guests from CIIE, IIM Ahmedabad, which would mentor new business ideas emerging from this massive initiative.

To know more about Entrepreneurship Awareness Drive, log on to www.ead.cell-iitkgp.org. To know more about Entrepreneurship Cell, IIT Kharagpur log on to www.ecell-iitkgp.org/presario.

Addressing a gathering of small and medium enterprises (SME) organized by Network18 on Tuesday, Uday Kumar Varma, Secretary, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Ministry said that the government was planning to provide substantial subsidy to SMEs for using modern information technology tools, such as cloud computing, to improve industry performance. ”The ministry has almost finalized the scheme. We are ready to provide liberal subsidy to industry associations in cloud computing,” he said.

Varma, however, added, “I don’t think the sector requires a lot of financial subsidy now; competence is an areas where there is a need to focus for substantial future growth. Overall, the SME sector is poised for a significant role in the future economic growth of the country.”

In an initiative that would change the slow process of registration, the ministry has proposed to create a common platform for electronic registration of the MSME entrepreneurs. Naming it another game changers that will impact the growth of the sector immensely in future, the MSME secretary also talked about significance of the SME Exchange.

Markets regulator Sebi in September this year gave permission to BSE to launch its much-touted SME Exchange that will offer a platform to small and medium companies to raise funds from the primary and debt markets. The BSE is expected to start the functioning of an exchange for SMEs later this month.

Applauding the sector, he also said that MSME was the only industry that was not shaken by the economic crisis and helped India grow even when the globe was suffering from meltdown.

On technology, Varma said keeping the sector abreast with the upcoming technology was the only way ahead for the SME sector. On marketing front Varma suggested better use of IT-enabled service in the sector.

On the shortage of skilled labor in the SME industry, the secretary said that the country was gradually making progress there and by 2022, the country would have 15 million skilled workforce in the MSME segment. He emphasized on the need of training programmes for the sector to battle the problem of talent shortage.

Varma also said, “ The SME sector at present faces problems at many fronts—finance, technology, marketing and talent shortage. When it comes to finance, the sector is still treated as a suspect. The sector has to emerge from there first.”

Also present at the event who spoke at length about the sector were Lakshman Gugulothu, CMD, BSE SME Exchange, HP Kumar, CME, National Small Industries Corporation, KV Srinivasan, CEO, Reliance Commercial Finance & Reliance Home Finance and Yogesh Dixit, head, SME ratings, CRISIL. Major players in the sector apart from the upcoming entrepreneurs also attended the SME Leaders Conclave.

Entrepreneurship is not a destination but a journey
Kiran Majumdar Shaw, Chairman and Managing Director, Biocon, took the stage first and recalled how in 1978 she had set out to become a brew master but ended up being an entrepreneur. “I never planned to become an entrepreneur. I wanted to be a brew master. However, I failed to become one. I think my gender was one of the reasons for not being able to achieve my aim.”

According to her, entrepreneurship is all about succeeding without giving up. In 1978, she started from a garage with a shoestring budget of Rs.10,000. Today, she runs India’s first and Asia’s largest biotech company. “Innovation teaches you to take risks. One should not be an imitator but a differentiator. Today, the 6,000 employees at Biocon are driven by the spirit of innovation,” said Shaw.

When it comes to evaluating business, there is a gender bias but it needs to be understood that one has to tackle it better and take risks, she added. “Innovation is about a new concept. But the biggest problem that entrepreneurs face is getting funded. Indian investors fear taking risk but I am different because I haven’t shied away from taking risks,” she said.

Dream is to fly
One of the newest airlines in the country, it is the only one which is profitable. Hence, it is not surprising that when Indigo Airlines President Aditya Ghosh took the stage, everyone was eager to know the success formula. “Nearly six years ago when we thought of a low-fare, good-quality airline, it was a difficult thing to achieve. We wanted to offer something different and change the view that low cost is equal to low quality. When buying a ticket, a customer never thinks of the food he’ll get on the flight, the color of the seats and carpets or the hem lines of the air hostess’s uniform. It’s the low fare but good-quality service that attracts customers. We provided that,” said Ghosh. At Indigo, we focus on timings of flights, hassle-free journey and low price, he added.

Perfect high
Rajeev Samant had a good job at Oracle in the US when he decided to shift back home. “I wanted to live a part of my life in a big city and the rest on a country side. When I shifted back to Mumbai I could see myself staying at the countryside. We had some land in Nashik and I thought of putting it to use by growing something on it,” said Samant.
Contrary to the popular belief that he always loved wine, Samant says his knowledge of wines was very limited until his Californian girlfriend introduced him to wine. “I fought with bureaucrats for three years and sold wine illegally during those days. My big break came when the Taj Group of Hotels decided to list my wine in their menu,” said Samant. Today, Sula is India’s premier wine producer and sells 5.5 billion bottles annually.

Living dreams
Wanting to be an IT professional, he landed up in the world of advertisement at the age of 23. “The reason why I am here is because I find life boring. When I was young, people told me to try this and that but I found everything boring except for cricket and movies,” said R Balki as he talked about living his dreams via films and adverts. “Everything that I could not do in real life, I did in my films and advertisements,” said Balki. Cinema allows you to live life the way you want to and put your imagination to practice, he added.

Selling dreams
He’s must be the only one to say this to you—make mistakes and achieve success. For the king of retail, Kishore Biyani, success has not come easy. While he tried his hand at every sector in the retail space, the downturn has left him wiser. As he tries to streamline and consolidate his business, Biyani says he is not sure that he will not commit another mistake. “Mistakes are a part of life. My retail story has been talked about, how I followed a dream. But I did everything—food, fashion, etc., made a lot of mistakes, and learned from those.” His new dream, he said, was to build new brands and mentor businesses.

Perspectives from sports and politics
For Ajay Jadeja, former Vice Captain of the Indian cricket team, sports and business are similar. “The elimination method was how I chose cricket. There was absolutely nothing else that I wanted to do or could do well. For me, passion always comes first and that is what makes one successful, be it sports or business,” said Jadeja.

Meanwhile, talking about the credibility crisis in Indian polity, Haryana’s commerce and industries minister RS Surjewala talked of the ways to overcome this and the challenges ahead. “India’s demographics also pose a big challenge. There is a credibility crisis in India’s polity and I think people need less of Government in their lives,” said Surjewala.

Calling the weak pace fallout of the global crisis, deputy chairman, Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, said the growth rate would be low in the next quarter, too.

Speaking on the sidelines of an Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) event, Ahluwalia said the GDP growth in the full financial year was likely to moderate to around 8 percent. He added that Plan panel’s 9 percent overall growth target for the 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-17) would not be easy to achieve.

Citing inflation as an area of major concern Ahluwalia said that the last two rate hikes by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), done mainly to tame price rise, did not have the desired effect. “Typically, the impact of a rate hike is felt within six to nine months. But this time, I feel it is taking longer,” Ahluwalia said. Since March 2010, the RBI has hiked key policy rates 11 times and another hike is expected in the September 16 monetary policy review.

Hinting high food inflation was primarily a supply-side issue, Ahluwalia said, “There is price pressure. The only answer to tame inflation seems to be doubling the production.” He added that reforms in the Agriculture Marketing Act were required for better distribution of farm products in the country.

Regarding computation of the rate of inflation, Ahluwalia emphasized that comparing it on a year-on-year basis was not the right approach as the price situation could not be justly gauged due to difference in bases and monetary and fiscal situations the previous year. The comparison should rather be on weekly basis, considering the present market situation, to estimate how effective the control measures have been.

“I feel, the global inflation will come down in the coming months,” the deputy chairman said, adding that price increase in minerals and metals should ease in the next few months because of unwinding of speculative positions in the market. On inflation hindering the government in meeting the fiscal deficit target, Ahluwalia said it would be wrong to blame inflation for increase in fiscal deficit. He said he was confident that finance ministry’s target of 4.6 percent fiscal deficit in 2011-12 would be met.

Backing finance minister Pranab Mukherjee’s earlier indication that there should now be a thaw in RBI’s monetary tightening, he said, “As far as tightening monetary policy is concerned, if these policies need to be extended, it would have some impact on the overall growth scenario. But, I am optimistic that there will not be a need to extend it.”

©Entrepreneur September 2011

“Dabur has been reporting a strong and consistent performance despite inflation playing truant and competitive pressures intensifying in some key categories. In order to minimize the impact of high input costs, the company has put in place calibrated price hikes. This, combined with our cost management initiatives, helped Dabur record a 27.8% growth in EBITDA during the first quarter,” said Sunil Duggal, CEO, Dabur India Ltd.

While the hair oils category reported 16.1% growth during the first quarter, Dabur’s toothpaste brands continued their run to end the period with a 14.1% growth and 80 bps market share gain. Dabur’s home care business reported another quarter of strong growth with a 24.9% jump, while the foods business posted a robust 31.5% growth during the quarter. The skin care portfolio—on sustained demand for the Fem range and expansion of the Dabur Uveda range of Ayurvedic skin care products— ended the period with a 16.3% growth.

“We’ve significantly enhanced our domestic presence especially in Tier-2 and Tier-3 towns, and are now putting in place measures to further expand Dabur’s rural footprint. This has been accompanied by focused and innovative marketing and promotion strategies,” Duggal said. The quarter also saw Dabur introduce a host of new products like Hajmola Mint Masti (which marked its foray into the mint candy market) and Fem Safe Handz hand sanitiser, besides Hajmola Saunf variant, Glucose Litchi variant and Réal Apricot variant.

Dabur’s international business recorded a strong 98.9% surge during the quarter, led by robust performance in Nigeria, Egypt and GCC and income from the newly acquired overseas companies. “Nigeria reported a strong performance, growing by 33% during the quarter, while the Egypt and GCC businesses grew by 30%. Shampoos, hair creams and toothpastes were the key growth drivers in the international markets,” said P D Narang, Group Director, Dabur India Ltd.

Commenting on the investment, IAN member Krishna Jha, who will also serve on the board of the company, said, “In GrOffr, Indian Angel Network found a differentiated business idea in the real estate asset category with large potential for savings for end customers.”

Talking about the use of fresh funding from Indian Angel Network, GrOffr co-foundeer Vikhyat Srivastava said, “The IAN funding would be used to grow GrOffr’s presence from Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kochi and Nagpur to Delhi NCR, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Indore, in doubling the current team size to nearly 50 in the next year and in brand building.”

GrOffr helps customers in getting attractive price off on their planned purchases of real estate, cars and other high-value assets. By leveraging the power of group buying, GrOffr helps customers get lucrative deals from builders in the primary real estate market. Its core competence lies in forming groups of buyers in any city so as to be able to get a better deal. The free membership of groups at GrOffr is open to individual buyers as well as corporate buyers. Till date, GrOffr has helped over 100 customers buy gross assets valued at over Rs. 120 crore since inception under a year ago with savings of over Rs. 20 crore.

Talking about family managed businesses, Dr. Shrinivas Gondhalekar, who is an expert in quality and productivity management and a PhD in Kaizen, said that the strength of India lies in family businesses. Approximately 85 percent of SME businesses are family businesses which provide 75 percent of the employment and contribute 22 percent to the GDP. With a family business in cradle, youngsters are full of enthusiasm. However, cautioning against enthusiasm Dr. Godhalekar quoted the great guru Dr. W.E. who said, “Enthusiasm is dangerous. You need knowledge. Knowledge is not enough; you need profound knowledge.”

Dr. Gondhalekar said combination is the real language that a potential business man speaks. Focusing on the four Ms of business (man, machine, material and method) Dr. Gondhalekar demonstrated how a small change in method can bring about a large change in results without putting any extra investment. He laid emphasis on the importance of customer-oriented products and doing quality check at the beginning of the process. He also advised entrepreneurs to shift to flow method of working from batch method of working.

Seen to show keen interest in learning more, the business owners hailed the session and discussed how feasible the implementations were. Running a business of aroma oils, Swetha Shetty said, “I shall share whatever I learnt here with my team members. I hope to see substantial improvement in operations.” Having a very different reason to join the program Chetan Sood, who is into a business of roofing systems, said, “My CEO is from IIM so I definitely need to have a better understanding than him of things to be called the business owner. This will help me understand where I can outsource and where I need to pay personal attention. It gives you a better hold over your business.”

Dr. Gondhalekar and Dr. Mita hailed the interest of businessmen to learn more, irrespective of age, and to bring about a change in order to touch new heights in business. Dr. Kanu Doshi, Dean, Finance, We School, was also present during the discussion.

Meanwhile, to help businessmen address all issues, We School has come up with a Post Graduate Diploma in Management in Family Managed Business (PGDM-FMB). The AICTE-approved program is designed to make significant improvement in the existing business operations with little or no investment and gain an in depth knowledge about business. The program shall also help develop an understanding to figure expansion and diversification with intelligent investment.

Differing from a standard MBA in training students to be entrepreneurs rather than employees, the 22-month program shall see students attending classes for seven days a month, leaving time to attend business for the balance three weeks. A candidate is required to be a graduate from a recognised university with minimum 50 percent marks and have two years of work experience. A batch shall comprise 30 students. A fee of Rs.3.7 5 lakh shall be paid in three equal instalments within the first year of the program.