The consulting business...Job or career

Having worked primarily in operational roles in my career, I shifted to consulting over two years ago. So how are the two different and what are the advantages/disadvantages of each of these two very different role profiles over the other.

Business decisions, and I mean all business decisions, are about developing a method to answer two basic questions

1. What business to do?
2. How to go about doing it?

To my mind, an operational role helps you answer the second question, while a consultant role should ideally help you develop a perspective to answer the first.

A consultant role however, usually keeps you miles away from any execution/implementation of strategy. And god is usually found in those details...

Life in London....

So having completed a whole six months in London today, I feel obliged to write a bit about life in London...A caveat for all those reading is that my views about London are relative. And relative to the quality of life in India.

First thoughts - Its completely unfair for such a tiny nation to possess so much beauty, both natural and man-made, across its landscape. Every building around town is an architectural marvel. For brits reading it, coming from an Indian, believe me when I say that. Every building across London is an architectural marvel. A clear proof of that is that in all snapshots of India which you see on TV, you are shown a few landmarks - the India gate, the Gateway of India, the Parliament, Victoria memorial, The Taj Mahal etc etc. A selection of colonial landmarks shown as India while the dirt is kept away from the cameras. Similar snapshots of London would show you the streets and roads of London along with the customary buildings. And that is the point. The streets and roads of London are as much a landmark of this country as Westminster abbey.

Public services are efficient. The tube staff are helpful, the London bobbies make you feel safe and the system generally makes you feel at ease. Private services in contrast are lousy, restaurant staff are unfriendly, bank staff are always irritable. This is the exact opposite of what you get to see in India. No private corporation looking at starting its Indian operation soon, should carry this English attitude over. The Indian consumer will annihilate you. Are you listening vodafone...

The countryside is really pretty. Its like a natural golf course all over the place. Self maintained and exotic looking. Temperate weather really does produce a lovely picture. Now that brings us to the weather. Its what I call indecisive nature. The weather just can't seem to make up its mind on how it wants the day to be!! Sunny and cloudless in the morning; cloudy, dark and damp in the afternoon and cold in the evening. For God's sake, make up your mind for atleast one whole day!! And during the summers, the sun literally does not set on the British empire - its usually bright and sunny till around 8 in the night

So how are the people here? Well friendly, nice, prim and proper. They are mostly willing to help you out provided helping you does not make things uncomfortable for them. My first experience of something I had heard a lot about but never experienced in person - The classic British stiff upper lip. Its all about being prim and proper...

More about them in the next couple of articles....

Describing India...

Came across a few punchlines which I feel, capture the essence of India -

1. Functional anarchy
2. Chaotic democracy
3. Lumbering elephant
4. 21st century mind, 19th century body

I found "functional anarchy" really interesting...

India, a more equitable growth...

For a start, look at the map. Now, try and look at India and China. The glow of bright lights registers across the whole nation in India's case. Not the same for China as you can see. Three reasons to explain this.

One, China has all of its population clustered within the well-lit region. Not likely. Two, India's growth is more evenly spread across the whole country. Three, I fudged the map. You decide.

Why mobiles are India's PCs

In a poor country, which claims to be the IT capital (or atleast brains) of the world, the PC penetration is an abysmal 5%. Primarily because owning a PC and associated infrastructure for internet etc costs a bomb. Besides a PC is an in-home device. Within telecom, fixed line telephony has been a complete disaster all along because it involved last mile wire connectivity infrastructure. That is something which the private sector will not do and the government cannot do. A mobile, however is a different take. First, its cheaper than owning a PC. Two, a young population which is bound to be out of the house a lot would definitely be better served by the mobile than a fixed line or a PC. Three, technically a mobile is always connected. And since all new technology (WIFI, Wimax) does not involve laying cable, it will continue to be effective. Now that is something worth thinking about. But how is mobile uptake among Indians? Exploring this reveals that India adds 6 million new mobile customers each month. Yes, each month. Yes 6 million. And the prime reason for that is the pre-paid card, which can be activated and renewed through a 16 digit number bought from any mom and pop store around town...

Why India's tourism traffic will plateau out....

Its holiday time in London (August is the school break month here). And an ideal time for the Incredible India campaign to be around. Surprisingly, I don't see much of it around. I believe it is money well saved.

Tourism is something that I am not really convinced about. Consider this, the largest markets for outbound tourism and travel, logically, should be the USA and the EU? Now only 20% of US citizens have a passport. (I am not kidding here). Two, US citizens do not need a visa to travel to the EU, unlike travel to India. Three, EU passport holders do not need a visa for travelling within the EU. Four, given the sheer width of locations available within the US and the EU, which citizen from these parts, who can afford a decent holiday will even think about acquiring a visa to travel to a country so far away when he can get all he wants within the confines of these regions with minimum hassles?? Only three types of people would still be interested in visiting India. One, the real budget traveller who cannot afford a holiday in these parts will think about India. Two, somebody who already knows about India and has some knowledge about the place (parents visited India, studied about India, fascinated about cultures) would risk the trouble to make the trip. Three, the poor little business traveller who cannot avoid coming over.

Historically, India has not been able to attract its potential of ones and twos. And once these two pots run out, I believe that tourism traffic will plateau out in the years to come...

India's sunrise sectors

Ok, this article did originate with a very selfish motive. This month, I have some spare cash to invest in the stock market. The fact that its just taken a beating also helps. So trying to figure out which sector/area I should invest in set me thinking. Now I am a long-term & completely risk-averse player who would like to invest and sit back for 5 years before I am reminded that I own some shares. This means that I need to incorporate future potential into the stocks I buy as well. Logically, stocks are about businesses who need funding from the market for their business plans. Business plans involve providing a service/product/piece of information required by consumers today and in the future. Therefore, a logical conclusion from this hypothesis is that if you correctly identify potentially large and profitable future needs, you identify the companies ramping up to meet those needs and therefore those are the ones to invest in.

So I asked around for what could be the right companies/sectors to invest in and I was duly informed that I should identify India's "sunrise" sectors - e.g. pharma, IT, tourism.

Now pharma and IT are the ones which are most likely to face the wrath of the rising rupee. Besides, pharma gestation periods are long and risky. And IT has competition sprouting all over the world. I have just been informed, that India's biggest threat in the IT sector is not China but a country called Estonia. Refer to http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20053078/ for more. But the real reason for my diffidence about these two sectors is that I find them too pricey for me at the moment...Having looked at my traditional "sunrise" sectors, I decided to start with the basics. Right, so what do the 1 billion Indian consumers really need? And what are the basics in the modern world - Food, Shelter, Clothing, Communications, Energy. This domestic market would certainly need food (and lots of it). That effectively means food companies would be a good bet any day. They would need shelter. That indicates the real estate sector. And we also know that where you have a shelter, you are bound to have a mortgage provider. So the banking sector is the third choice. Finally, clothing indicates retail for me. That is something worth looking at. And finally we come to communications. An absolute must for a service economy I would say. So need to examine it further. There are essentially two available routes to communications today. The telecom sector and the internet. And finally we come to power. Why are people not too excited about it? Because it involved last mile wire connectivity. Because people consume and do not pay their bills and because there is fixed line infrastructure, it leads to power theft. Also people cannot afford to pay the full rates. So its a no no at the moment.But how will the economy continue to grow without one of its five basic needs unfulfilled...Now fixed-line infrastructure is something we really cannot do much about until they invent wireless electricity. But how about attempting the sachet and pre-paid strategy to power? You buy a connection, they install a meter with an alphanumeric pad. They charge you in advance and give you a 16 digit alpha numeric code which you feed into the meter. Voila!! There is power. The moment your tab runs out, the connection is automatically disconnected until you renew. Technology could help ensure that it is impossible to renew connections without the 16 digit codes. If you have renewed regularly, you move to a monthly payment system. It can be done. Will need to give it some more thought, because it doesnt solve the problem of electricity as a birth right or theft.....

Mind the gap...

Just came across a fantastic website - http://www.gapminder.org/. Captures a global comparison of countries on various social & economic parameters. Definitely worth a look. An example attached. For India, it is indeed "mind the gap..."

Rupert Murdoch & New Media

Have recently heard a lot of really bad stuff about a man called Rupert Murdoch. An old man in his 70's who once owned a small newspaper in Australia in the early 1950s and how he set about creating a huge, large media empire.

He is lambasted for his lack of respect for journalistic commandments like informed, unbiased and factual reporting. He is demonised for his manipulation of people through media and providing an inaccurate, opinionated view across all that he controls. He is despised also because it is unfair for one man to achieve so much in such a short time.

This media empire (still largely in control of this one man) owns a plethora of newspapers in Australia, South east Asia, the US and the UK. Its television ownerships include the Fox network in the US, the Sky & ITV networks in the UK and Star TV in Asia. Thats not all, this corporation also owns myspace & photobucket, two very popular networking websites. Thats not all, it also owns publishing giants like harper collins. It also owns a large number of magazines.

In India, News corp has stakes in radiocity, via star tv; indya.com and tata sky. Not content with just the channels, it also owns the distributor - a 26% stake Hathway Cable & Datacom (26%), India's 2nd largest cable network through 7 cities including Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai & Pune.

Suffice to say that the aim here is to own both the channel (or content aggregator in media parlance) and the distribution of those channels.

But hang on, not only do they control the "content aggregators" & "content distributors", they also own the content. News Corp owns 20th Century Fox and a 50% stake in the National Rugby League. They also own "content creators"!!!

Now thinking more about content, which are the two most universally popular content platforms in the world? Films, music & sport. News Corp has ownership (but not domination) in each of these two pots.

The bottomline? One company, owned and run largely by one man owns content creators, content aggregators and content distributors. A classic case of vertical integration. So what is wrong about that? Well, this is the media business we are talking about. And media directs public opinion and thinking. In short, because News Corp has substantial stakes in content creation, aggregation & distribution it can direct, influence & manipulate content consumption. In simpler words, it can also OWN content consumption i.e. you and me and what we think.

And that is why the company and the man is in the news these days because of his recent acquisition of the Wall street journal. The bigger question here is not whether Mr Murdoch respects journalistic skills or not. The key question is whether one man should be allowed to control all the aces of such an influential pack of cards as media. And thats the bottomline...