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Development: Meaning, Measurement and Strategies - Part Six of ten

Bargain Books with Rich Contents

Wellwin Announces Strategic Partnership with Acer

Wellwin Enters Touch Screen Kiosk Systems Market

Book Bus Tickets Online

P&G Adds One More Detergent to its Basket

Thatcherism

In the 1970s, Britain appeared to be locked into descent and decay and looked as though it was falling apart.  Inflation was running at 24 percent.  The trade unions exerted undue influence and were responsible for a fall of the government.  Constant strikes gave unions a stranglehold on the economy and immobilized the country.  The incentive structure was distorted with a very high marginal rates of up to 98 percent.  People in Britain feared that their country was becoming East Germany of the Western world.  The mixed economy was severely malfunctioning.  The wisdom and knowledge implied in a high degree of government control were proving inadequate to the reality.  Along with the high inflation, unemployment was on the increase and the welfare state and loss-making nationalized industries were demonstrating a voracious appetite for tax payers' funds.  The balance of payments was in perpetual crisis and the Pound was under constant pressure.  The combination of inflation, slow growth, labor conflict, and social discontent made a basic change imminent.  Matters further worsened in 1973 and 1974.  The oil crisis in 1973 hit Britain very hard and on the top of it the strike by coal miners stoked the raging fire.  Coal and power supplies were so disrupted that British industry could work only three days a week.  By the end of 1978, the country was again in crisis when the public-sector employees struck.  Hospital workers went out, and medical care had to be severely rationed.  Garbage was piling up in the streets.

The Falkland War transformed British politics and helped set the scene for Thatcher Revolution.  Thatcherism, which came to represent Margaret Thatcher's policies of a constraining of a welfare state and government spending, a commitment to the reduction of direct government intervention in the economy, a sell-off of government-owned businesses, a contrived drive to reduce absurdity and punitively high tax rates, and a commitment to reduce the government's deficit has began to hold its sway.  The strike of coal miners in 1984, despite its intense pressure and disruption couldn't stop the Thatcher's revolution.  Privatization is an important element of Thatcherism. British Telecom was privatized first and was reoriented to focus on the needs and preferences of consumers rather than the producer.  By 1992, some two thirds of state-owned industries had moved into private sector.   Altogether, 46 major businesses, with 900,000 employees, had been privatized, and the government's 'revenue' was well over $30 billion.

The Thatcher years turned the Britain from being a producer-led into a consumer-led economy and it was made a competitive economy.   Thatcher's policies have fundamentally altered the basic institutional relationship that had defined Britain since 1945, and that had brought the country to a stand still in 1979.  In that year, 1274 working days were lost to strikes for every thousand people working.  By 1990, that figure was down to 108.  The political and economic culture in Britain had been permanently altered by shifting the emphasis from state responsibility to individual responsibility, and sought to give first priority to initiative, incentives, and wealth generation rather than redistribution and equality.  Another important contribution of Thatcherism was that it had shown to others particularly other Western European countries the path to redeem themselves from the excesses of the states.

In Italy, the ENI, which was a national champion and a paragon of mixed economy, was losing money by 1980s.  The company was under constant pressure from Italy's political parties, which regarded it both as a source of funds and as a prize in terms of patronage.  The company was not able to function as a coherent business.  In 1992, it nearly failed to meet its payroll necessitating urgent steps.  The restructure of the company started with selling off unproductive assets, changing the management, and focussing the company not on meeting the interests of politicians but on creating value for shareholders, although at the time the shareholder was the state.  In 1995, ENI shares were offered to the public on the Milan, New York, and London exchanges.

Japan: A New Super Economic Power

At the end of the World War II, Japan was a devastated nation, humiliated by absolute defeat.  Its industry was in ruins and a third of its urban housing was nothing more than ashes and rubble.  The country existed at a bare subsistence level.  It s people were demoralized and adrift, their lives torn apart.  By the end of 1940s, the US occupation made a reverse course and began to focus on promoting Japanese economic recovery due to both the cost burden and the emerging cold war.  As a first step, the high inflation was extinguished.  The Korean war, beginning in 1950, turned Japan into a supply base for the American forces on the Korean peninsula and stimulated an export boom.  The early 1950s were the beginning of the recovery.  It was only in mid-1950s that Japan rose from recovery into sustained economic growth, which became the central national objective.

There were many factors in Japanese rise to economic super power.  It was already a relatively developed country before World War II.  The US occupation implemented the land reform and broke up the Zaibatsu, the great industrial and financial combinations.  In the postwar, the fundamentals were right as it had a large educated workforce, low inflation, and a very high savings rate.  American power had demonstrated the centrality of technology, and Japanese companies set out on a forced-pace campaign to obtain and absorb technology from America and Europe.  Firms sought continuing quality improvement as a competitive weapon and invested in ever-greater scale in mass production in order to win market share.  All this was sustained on values that included an incredible work ethic, an extraordinarily intense identification with the firm, a shared sense of national identity, a desire to live better.

Japan had a market system that was characterized by a particular government-corporate collaboration.  It achieved growth and standard of living objectives that, despite the often intense competition among Japanese firms, added up to a system that came to be known as Japan Inc.  It was one in which government bureaucrats often played a dominating role through regulation and something more ineffable but nevertheless potent: administrative guidance. In the Japanese system, the tight coordination between government and business was accepted as the natural order and was reinforced by the precariousness of Japan's position.  The Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) played the role of a single, potent agency and coordinated both external and domestic industrial strategy.  It aimed not only to help firms adapt to world export markets but also to help them take the greatest advantage of them.  It channeled information and knowledge and facilitated the flow of new technologies.  It utilized an array of tools such as price setting, quotas for imports and market share, licenses, quality standards, industry associations, networks, and administrative guidance to achieve its objectives.   It worked closely with industrial-sector associations, took their advice, and sought to promote the overall sector.

For the most part, the Japanese system performed as intended. By 1964, Japan's national income was approaching the Western European level.  This could be measured in the standard of living.  In the 1960s, consumers were acquiring the three sacred treasures - television, washing machine and refrigerator.  In the 1970s they moved to the three Cs - a car, color television, and air conditioner.  When the energy disruptions of the 1970s hit, the Japanese feared that the game was over.  However, by the early 1980s, its economy was already rebounding strongly, on the basis of rapid technological adjustments - moving from energy-intensive economy to knowledge-intensive economy - with a new emphasis on efficiency.  Japan was now an economic super power.

However, the economy was taken over by a huge and intoxicating speculative boom, which started to burst in 1990.  In 1992, it went into a deep slump, the most severe economic crisis since the era of high growth had begun.  The stock market fell 60 percent, real estate values plunged, and banks loaded up with bad real estate loans teetered on the edge of bankruptcy.  The weakness of the financial system proved a persistent drag on recovery.  Japan was losing its competitiveness.  Confidence among consumers and business eroded.  These troubles led to turbulent debate as to whether Japan Inc. was finished.  The relationship between government and marketplace needed radical revision with the government to be constrained and economy to be deregulated.  The outcome of the debate will determine Japan's economic future.

[To be continued]

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Recently  I  had  an opportunity  to  visit  the  Sales Emphoria of the Government of India, at Chennai. It  is run by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.  There are  eight  such Sales Emphoria in  India:  New  Delhi, Mumbai,  Calcutta, Chennai, Patna, Thiruvananthapuram, Lucknow and Hyderabad.

This  Publications Division of Government of India  has more  than  7000  titles on  various subjects  -  from children's books to technology. They also publish books in regional languages other than English. All  the  books  are  competitively  priced  and   thus affordable. This is due to Government subsidy. Further, many books have been published in collaboration with overseas authors. The quality of contents are of international standards and they provide rich data base and information on various topics.

For  the viewers of yeahindia we provide below   some  useful addresses:

The Director
Publications Division
Ministry of Information and Broadcasting
Government of India
Patiala House
New Delhi 110 001
 

Sales Emphoria Addresses:

Super Bazaar
Connaught Circus
New Delhi 110 001

Rajaji Bhavan
'A' Wing
F & G Block
Besant Nagar
Chennai 600 090

Commerce House
Currimbhoy Road
Ballard Pier
Mumbai 400038

8 Esplanade East
Calcutta 700069

Bihar State Co-operative Bank building
Ashoka Rajpath
Patna 800004

State Archaeological Museum Building
Public Gardens
Hyderabad 500004

Press Road
Thiruvananthapuram 695001

27/6 Ram Mohan Rai Marg
Lucknow 226001

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Wellwin Industry Limited, a Chennai-based instrumentation company has its presence in IT, and auto electricals. Wellwin’s IT division is engaged in the peripheral distribution, system integration and networking and it has achieved a growth rate of 150 per cent for the last financial year ended.

Wellwin has maintained a growth rate of 50 per cent per annum, since its incorporation in 1995. The company has achieved a net sales of Rs 34.84 crore for the year ended September 1999 and registered a net profit of Rs 4.97 crore for the same period.

The Partner

Acer Peripherals India Private Limited is Acer Peripheral Inc of Taiwan’s 100 per cent subsidiary in India and the Indian company caters to the business needs in the SAARC region. The company operations include manufacturing, marketing, customer support and logistics.

Acer Peripherals, part of the Acer Group is a leading manufacturer of computer peripheral, communication and consumer electronic products. Acer products are used across the globe and they have been acknowledged for its high quality, user-friendliness, sophisticated technology and cost-effectiveness.

Acer Peripherals today operates with 12000 people and revenues of US $ 1.4 bilion. The revenue is expected to grow to US $ 3 billion in the year 2000.

The Winning Tie-up

Acer Peripherals have appointed Wellwin as their nationwide distributor for the entire peripheral product range of Acer in India. Acer will also distribute i-enabled products in future through this partnership. Wellwin shall also evolve Acer authorised service points across India, apart from distribution of Acer products. Wellwin will will function as a catalyst in helping Acer aim at being “close-to-market” and deliver products and services to satisfy consumer needs.

“This strategic partnership will add Wellwin’s product portfolio and yield a superior quality choice of products such as CD-ROMs, CD-RW, CD Media, DVD-ROMs, Scanners, CRT Monitors, LCD Monitors, Keyboards, etc. to the Indian IT consumers.”, says Mr R Rajagopal, Managing Director of Wellwin.

Wellwin Advantage

The B & C grade Indian cities have a higher growth rate than the average nation growth rate for computer peripherals, and Western and Southern pockets will witness the highest of hardware spending, as per the Map-IT study conducted by Data Quest and IDC in 1999-00.

Mr Satish, Marketing Director comments, “Wellwin with its strong presence extended to the B & C Grade cities is preparing to cash on this growth. We are also well established in the South and West where the business is exploding.”

Wellwin projects a huge potential for the scanners in the SOHO segment which is shaping up in the upcountry market. The growing use of internet and e-mail will find the necessity of entry level scanners.

The CD Media currently caters to a relatively nascent market which has a huge growth potential. Wellwin is planning to explore new markets rather than reaching the conventional channels. With respect to Acer monitors, Wellwin is planning for an extensive distribution into markets that are considered primitive. Acer has plans to promote the monitors with unique schemes at a later stage, once the manufacturing plant at Pondichery goes operational.

Wellwin projects about Rs 25 crore of business from this venture in the current year and Rs 75 crore in the next year. Wellwin’s association with Acer’s adds more futuristic products to the company’s portfolio.
 

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Wellwin Industry Limited, a Chennai-based instrumentation company has its presence in hardware, and auto electricals. Wellwin’s instrumentation professionals have over 120 man years of design experience. The company, which has in-house design and development capability has proved itself in the past.

Wellwin has maintained a growth rate of 50 per cent per annum, since its incorporation in 1995. The company has achieved a net sales of Rs 34.84 crore for the year ended September 1999 and registered a net profit of Rs 4.97 crore for the same period.

The Latest Initiative

Wellwin’s embedded software division is all set to launch touch screen consumer interactive kiosk systems  for multiple business applications. The company has tied up with a touch screen solutions specialist Traverse Infotech Solutions. The touch screen kiosks are branded as ‘Traverse Sisto’.

“In today’s competitive market, specially at the retail front, time and effective communication are the key factors that determine success. Identifying this, at Wellwin, we have evolved a system that will save time for the consumers with higher consumer satisfaction; and higher turnover for the retailers with less manpower.”, says Mr R Rajagopal, Managing Director.

Touch ‘n’ Order

“Order Yourself”, a restaurant kiosk is the first product to be launched. The
kiosk is ready to be installed in a prominent restaurant in Chennai. This multi purpose kiosk will yield several benefits to the customers of the restaurant as well as the management of the restaurant.

Customers can easily place their food request on a touch interact. While they wait for the food, the system would play the latest music as a MP3 juke box is in-built to the kiosk. Latest recipes and even employment opportunities can be accessed through the kiosk. This system will generate data base that will throw up host of information on hotel management solutions and enterprise management for the administration of the hotel.

The Multi-gain Touch

Traverse Sisto Kiosks will be useful for a cross-section of industries, such as, travel and tourism, edutainment, information arts, HRD, healthcare, corporate, retail chains, industrial, banking and finance, automobile, city mapping, and a number of other service industries.

Through this state of the art - “public access interactive multimedia terminals”, enterprises get their strategic marketing and selling solutions as package. These kiosks would increase the point of sales with reduced manpower costs.  They can also be used for e-commerce transactions.

A retail customer would save lot of his time visiting a outlet which has this touch screen kiosk. Thus, the brand equity of the retailers using these systems will positively rise in the mind of their customers.

The Winning Touch

Traverse Sisto Kiosks from Wellwin is a total package consisting of hardware, software and an ergonomically designed enclosure, which is finalised and custom designed according to individual clients need. The hardware infrastructure is Pentium based. The standard software platform is MS Windows. The system can accommodate smart card, credit card readers,
barcode and labelers, specific printers and even communication equipment, apart from standard configurations.

The executions of the kiosks can be standalone as well as on line wall designs. The system can be interfaced to the WWW if dedicated lines are provided. Traverse Sistos are specifically designed for easy servicing and transportability.

These customer interactive kiosks designed by Wellwin will include the current and scope for future technology advancements in IT communication and multimedia electronics. Wellwin has a technology to evolve fiberglass as well as wooden kiosks, apart from the standard seamless metal kiosks. The systems are of international standards as Traverse Infotech Solutions’ versions comply UL and ADA norms.
 

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Travel is a pleasure. But often in India it not true, thanks to the ticket booking difficulties.

Travelers will soon be able to book their upward as well as downward travel tickets by a mouse click and thereby save lot of time through www.getbusticket.com, a web site dedicated towards online ticket bookings.

Mr R M Thiruchelvam, Promoter of getbusticket.com comments, “We want to make booking travel ticket a pleasant experience to the passengers, by exploiting the web technology and make e-commerce possible through a semi-automated business model.”

The site has already tied-up with several private bus operators in the city and negotiating with remaining operators, of which most of them are at advanced stages of negotiations. The site is also planning to approach Tamil Nadu Government in order to bring State Government Transport Corporations to its net. Thus, once operational, this ticket model will throw an array of choice to the travelers, by which they will have lot of travel operators, both private and government to chose from.

The site is currently undergoing vigorous logistic testing and expected to be operational from early June 2000 for the benefit of travelers. At the first stage the company is planning to launch its ticket booking services in the city of Chennai and take it to other parts of Tamil Nadu by the end of June 2000. The same will be extended to other Indian states at a later stage. Initially the site will be restricted to road transport and the promoters have plans to extend the services to rail and air transport.

Apart from online ticket booking services, the site will also offer travel information. Travelers can check timings of road, rail and air transports. The entire data base has been designed on an ASP platform and the same is updated regularly to yield accurate travel timings to the netizen travelers. Further, www.getbusticket.com will be a program driven dynamic web site.

The promoters of getbusticket.com plans to bring a host of transport services, including road, rail and air, to the PCs of the travelers under the umbrella of www.forjourney.com  

Click here to go to www.getbusticket.com

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Procter & Gamble Home Products has launched Tide, the world’s pioneering and most trusted detergent in India. Tide delivers superior cleaning which is evident through the whiteness of the clothes after washing. Tide also brightens colors on cloths. This is possible due to the ‘anti-redeposition’ global technology that tide employs which prevents dirt from re-setting on the fabric during the wash itself. Tide keeps clothes looking bright white and prevents them turning yellow.

Tide was first introduced in 1946 and triggered the detergent revolution in the world. Soap had been used to clean clothes for nearly 2000 years, but it had many disadvantages including poor performance in hard water. Keeping in mind that new need, P&G discovered that the answer involved a unique combination of synthetic surfactants and special chemical compounds called ‘Builders’. Builders helped surfactants penetrate soap fibres more deeply making them considerably more effective than soap flakes.

Tide improved its performance with new technology that broke down protein and carbohydrate pollutants in clothes. The brand has set the gold standard for detergents in doing things that no one dreamed possible before. although detergents may not seem as radical to consumers today, Tide has remained a leader by constantly innovating to meet changing consumer needs.

“With the launch of Tide, the Indian consumer can now avail of yet another quality detergent from the house of P&G to fulfill their cleaning requirements. Tide changes dull white to bright white. It enables the homemaker to spend more time with her family and keeps her family looking their best through clean and ‘bright white’ clothes.”, comments Shailesh Jejurikar, Marketing Director of P&G.

Tide also improves the washing experience through its pleasant “lemon” perfume that lingers on the clothes hours after the washing. Attractively presented in a vibrant orange colour pack, the product will be available at outlets across India, priced at Rs 30, Rs 68 and Rs 120 for packs of 200 gms., 500 gms., and 1kg., respectively.

One wonders why a transnational company like P&G should take over 50 years to launch its superior revolutionary product in India which was invented in 1946.

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