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Journalism of Courage
N.K. Patni recently relocated his US headquarters from three separate offices to one classy integrated one at Cambridge. The new office which serves as Patni Computers8217; North American headquarters will see all of the tycoon8217;s business units, as well as his sales, marketing and operations staff operating under one roof. Even Patni8217;s chief right hand men will share the same workplace.
While this takes place overseas, the tycoon has been busy at home overseeing the restructuring of his company. Where previous distributions based on services was brought to an end.
Now Patni Computers has been organised around vertical business domains. These are financial services, insurance, product engineering, manufacturing, telecom, and the ISV Independent Software Vendors. Each vertical will have their very own delivery and marketing functions.
The tycoon has been mulling over this restructuring plan for quite some time, because he felt that the benefits to his customers would be far greater this way. Patni8217;s vertical structure also allows for easier organisation of acquisitions made, as each one can be set up as a new vertical. Which is exactly what the tycoon did with Cymbal Corporation, which he recently acquired and set up as a telecom vertical. The tycoon seems to believe that a change always helps to lure your customers back. Let8217;s wait and watch if he8217;s right.
Fresher Tetley
Finally Tata Tea management seems to have realised their folly, though rather late in the day, of persisting with the Tetley brand in its old avatar. The company has relaunched the brand giving it a fresh look. It also has added new flavours in its bid to take the brand to the mainstream consumers.
Having acquired the brand in 2000, the Tatas had launched Tetley in the Indian market in February 2002. A market share of less than 1 per cent in value terms after close to three years of struggle in the Indian market seems to have made the Tata Tea Management reevaluate their options on this famous international brand. The product mix was clearly not working and hence required to be worked on in earnest. The company has relaunched the brand as 8216;8216;Tetley- the new 8212; expression of tea.8217;8217; Now, it remains to be seen as to how much of an impact the change over has on volumes.
Tata Tea Managing Director Percy Siganporia certainly has his task cut out in a market where tea bags account for a minuscule portion in the 700 million kg tea market in India. The challenge lies in taking the brand to the mainstream consumer. Not an easy task by any means.
Brewer in the air
Another brewer appears to have been hit by the airline bug. After Mallya8217;s much talked about Kingfisher Air, its time for Mohan Meakins supremo Kapil Mohan to contemplate a foray into this happening sector, which of late has been seeing large scale changes both in terms of market dynamics and the regulatory scenario. This new operator in the Indian skyline, Indus Airways has received all the government approvals and insist they will be all ready to fly from April.
Mohan aims to go a step further than 8216;low-cost no frills8217; offerings that have been making news today by offering a 8216;low-cost all frills8217; option to his countrymen. Joining hands with him in the venture would be three other entrepreneurs 8212; Krishna Gopal Beri of Beri 038; Beri Cold Storage and General Mills, P. Lakhanpall, a London-based Indian and Baldev Seth, a garment exporter. They will all be definitely banking heavily on the management team consisting mostly of former pilots of a public sector carrier.
Indus Airways is most likely to focus on the north Indian cities to start with before graduating to the trunk routes later. To start with Delhi and Chandigarh are expected to be the main centres of its operation. Its going to be worth watching whether these dreams whip up some real froth.
dilipcherianhotmail.com
