Infosys Technologies in Crisis ?

India Inc by large includes big family conglomerates run heirs and heiress who have inherited the property and Businesses established by their ancestors. The names of Tata’s, Ambani’s and Birla’s figure almost in every major company in the Indian stock market. However one exception to this rule was Infosys, a company founded in 1981 by 1^st time entrepreneurs with a paltry sum of $200.

However 33 years since its inception the company has hit rock bottom. While stagnant revenues quarter on quarter have been posing a problem for the company, the series of exits at the higher management level has only added salt to the injury. The company is set to appoint a new CEO next year post Mr SD Shibulal’s term. The race to the top post has led to discontent and competition among the senior management which is reason for as series of exits past one year.

The fact is Infosys is yet to find a direction post 2008 crisis. A new external personal CEO is definetly the need of the hour as it would enable the company to think out of the box and come up with a new strategy. For past 4 years company has already taken a hit as its peers like cognizant has been successful in dislodging it from the number two spot of the largest IT exporter of India and TCS has only managed to increase the lead by almost 10,000 crore . Though promoting internal candidate as CEO might have motivated the employees but it would have only led to continuity in it’s decade old strategy which seems to have lost its sheen post the financial crisis and Euro zone crisis. A new CEO from outside is likely to carry less baggage with him and would infuse the company with fresh ideas which is the need of the hour.

B2B E-Commerce platform in India

While there  is lot of talk in India about the different models of e- commerce companies like marketplace model, online brand model etc. there is one model which is consciously missing from the Indian market – The B2B platform. Surprisingly the biggest e-Commerce company in the world Alibabba.com started itself as a B2B platform which thrived by helping buyers and sellers overcome lack of information and high search costs. The context is somewhat similar in India too. With too many SME’s scattered across the length and breadth of the country there is certainly lack of information which necessitates the need for a common platform to do Business.

One of the reasons for Alibaba’s success was the fact that it understands Chinese customers to the core. Most Chinese are tight fisted and hence Alibaba made its basic services free. It earns money by means by online advertisements and extra services like website design which it offers to its clients. With about 6 m sellers present on the platform many sellers are willing to pay for fancy storefronts and advertisements. Another quality which is common among Chinese is that they are reluctant to trust strangers. In order to cater to this need Alibaba came up with tools like independent verification service and Alipay payment system. Unlike PayPal, Alipay takes money upfront and deposits it into an escrow account.

The fact that some of the qualities like being tight fisted and not trusting strangers easily is a common quality among the Indian manufacturer’s as well.  And just like their Chinese counterparts they too face the issue of lack of information. Hence the possibility of a B2B platform in the Indian context cannot be completely ruled out.

Lessons for Modern Retailers in India: The Argos Way

 

With the advent of E-commerce boom in India modern Retailers in India like Bigbazaar are increasingly finding it difficult to make a niche for themselves into the booming online retail market. Even though most of these retailers have web presence they still have not been able to use the online presence to their advantage. The primary reason being lack of integration between their online and offline channels. Argos in UK faced a similar challenge in 1990’s. However with their innovative thinking and use of technology to integrate their different channels it was able to win over customer in United Kingdom.

Argos was founded in 1973 and is UK’s largest online general merchandizer. It owns and operates 580 stores across UK and republic of Ireland and employees around 23,000 people. Even though the likes of Amazon and Wal-Mart have been in present in UK since late 90’s Argos has been successful in creating a niche for itself and enjoys a loyal customer base over its competitors.

One of the hallmarks of Argos success has been its multi-channel approach for sales wherein customers are offered different avenues for shopping. As such when the E-commerce companies started coming into UK Argos integrated multiple channels to its already existing brick and mortar model.   Argos maintained a broad network of stores and distributes its catalogue to more than two-thirds of all UK households. There is an Argos store within 10 miles for 98% of the UK population.

 

This ensures speedy delivery which is by far the most important reasons for customers to shop at Argos. Also the fact that it distributes its catalogue to buyers enables buyers to look through a catalogue at their leisure and choose from an extremely broad product range.  The catalogue distributions enables Argos keep its product display costs low and thereby provide value to the customers. Even the online website is closely integrated to in-store channel and customers have the liberty to reserve goods online and collect them directly from the store.  Likewise Telephone channel is another important medium through which Argos receives a significant proportion of its sales. Through telephone customers are able to check the availability of stock in their nearest store and make reservations and also order home delivery.

 

Can Electronic Voting Machines solve Caste based voting In India ?

                   

It was around 8:00 PM on 16th May when Arnav Goswami from Times Now ecstatically stated that Modi wave had made people in Uttar Pradesh look beyond their caste and instead vote for Development. He along with all the panellists sounded in unison in declaring an end to caste based politics in India. But before drawing such a big conclusion what these poll pundits were ignoring were the 5 seats of Bijnor, Kannauj, Etawah, Manipuri and Badayun which went to Samajwadi Party (SP). A predominantly Yadav belt inspite of several failures of the State Government led by Akhilesh Yadav  continued to  vote for their dear Yadav leaders.

The fact is caste based politics is something which is pretty much ingrained in the mind set of Indians. We simply have to accept that people vote for their castes and as long as this is true political parties will continue fielding candidates of particular castes as it ensures a certain degree of win-ability for them. So how do we tackle this mess and ensure that ultimately the best people win and represent us in the parliament?

The answer is weighted voting. Let’s say in some ABC constituency there are 10 candidates who are contesting the election. Candidate A is a Brahmin, B is a Yadav and C belong Scheduled Caste and 7 other candidates belong to OBC. Under this system each voter would be allowed to caste 5 votes. However each vote will have a unique weight assigned to it. For instance the first vote will carry a weight equivalent to 5 points, 2nd vote will have 4 points and likewise 5th vote will carry a weight of 1 points. So under this system total votes for a particular candidate will be equal to

Total votes for a Candidate = No of Votes on 1st instance *5+No of Votes on 2nd instance *4+Nof of votes on 3rd instance *3+No of Votes on 4th instance *2+No of Votes on 5th instance *1

So how does this ensure that good candidates gets selected ? Well, if I am Brahmin voter and I vote for my caste then it is likely that the 1st vote I caste would be for candidate A who is a Brahmin. However there is every likelihood that my subsequent four votes would be based more on merit and profile of candidates and less on the basis of their caste.

Though this system is not fool proof but it can certainly act as a big deterrent against the menace of caste based politics especially in states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.