MIBytes May , 2012

Volume 1, Issue 11
MAY 2012
Mi`bytes
Masters of International Business
Centre for management Studies
BUSINESS LETTER
Jamia Millia Islamia University

Retail Reality : Top 5 Trends in Retail , 2012.
This year highlights as to how the past four years, from $14 tially a $199 device dressed up
very different retail is today million in 2007 to $34 million in a sleek design and seductive
from just a few years in 2010, and show little sign of logo. The 7-inch Fire received
ago. Amazon has turned bricks slowing down. In the past year, near-universal ac-claim as a fun
-and-mortar retail on its ear to Amazon introduced no fewer and versatile, easy-to-use tablet
the same extent that Apple than four potentially game- that links seamlessly with Ama-
gutted the retail music industry. changing products: i) Amazon zon‘s impressive collection of
Social media remains a huge Cloud, ii)Amazon Local, iii) digi-tal music, video, magazine,
influence, even as it remains a Kindle Fire , iv)The Price and book services. In Decem-
moving target that retailers are Check smartphone app. ber, Amazon once again got
trying desperately to figure out. Amazon Web Services set the under the skin of brick-and-
There is a new air of optimism pace for the year in March with mortar merchants by offering
in retail, and we can see an aggressive rollout of cloud discounts to us-ers who took its
hints in multichannel and m- products that included Elastic Price Check app into stores to
commerce initiatives, which Beanstalk, Cloud Forma- comparison shop. The deal was
have been talked about for t i on, Ama zon Cl oud that in-store shoppers could
years, are actually starting to Player and Amazon Cloud earn a 5-percent discount (up to
happen in meaningful numbers. Drive. Users can store music $5) by scan-ning the barcode of
There has been a lot of fear and and other digital content in the an in-store product and then
uncertainty in retail these past cloud and play cloud-hosted buying it from Amazon.
few years, and more than music tracks via players for the
enough "sky is falling" blog Web and on An-droid. Al- Apple – Despite Amazon‘s
posts about how everything is though AWS represents just a steady march of progress
changed and nothing will ever sliver of Amazon‘s total busi- throughout 2011, Apple, true to
be the same, retail is dead, the ness, UBS Investment Research form, managed to out-dazzle
kids these days only buy things analysts Brian Pitz and Brian the world‘s biggest online re-
online, yadda yadda yadda. Fitzgerald predict it could cap- tailer every step of the way.
Those kinds of articles cer- ture as much as $2.5 billion by The company continued to lure
tainly get a lot of page views – 2014. In June, Amazon Local consumers and business users
Inside this issue: which of course is the point – launched, and the daily deals away from desktop computers
but they don‘t really add any- service with region-specific to the more manageable envi-
thing meaningful to the conver- deals delivered by Living So- ronment of iOS devices such as
Corporate Speak 2 sation. Present hers is this cial quickly became the sixth the iPad, hastening the day
Top 5 trends that are shaping most-visited website in the when general-purpose com-
the retail industry. U.S., according to comScore. It puters are the province of soft-
racked up 97.1 million unique ware engineers and tech enthu-
Amazon - For those who re- U.S. - based visitors in July siasts. The year began with an
Cloud of Slowdown. 3
member Amazon as a really alone. In September, Amazon effort to broaden the iPhone
cool online bookstore, the view rolled out its new line of Kin- market beyond a single carrier
from 2012 shows just how far dle readers, and the Kindle Fire by terminating Apple‘s exclu-
the re-tailer and the world has tablet. The latter was pointedly sive partnership with AT&T
Quote for the Month. . 4 come. What once seemed a positioned as a direct rebuke to and announcing that the iPhone
promising fad is now an ac- the iPad 2 and its hefty price 4 would be available through
cepted way of life. Amazon‘s tag, as if to suggest that Steve Verizon.
revenues more than doubled in Jobs‘ parting gift was essen-
Cont…..on Page 4

Mi`bytes

CORPORATE SPEAK
Dola Mukherjee
Senior Manager (HR)
Syngene International (A Biocon Company)

Q1.What is the business of Syngene International?
A. Syngene is an internationally reputed contract research and manufacturing organization with multidisciplinary
skills in chemistry and biology services. From early stage discovery and process development through to cGMP
manufacturing, we provide customized services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology majors, on a strong platform
of confidentiality and intellectual property protection.
Q2.What is a CRO?
A.A contract research organization, also called a clinical research organization, (CRO) is a service organization
that provides support to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries in the form of outsourced pharmaceutical
research services (for both drugs and medical devices). The CRO industry emerged mostly in the late 1990s when
pharmaceutical R&D efforts became more complex and competition in rapidly-growing therapeutic areas in-
creased. In order to realize profit margins and be competitive, pharmaceutical companies began outsourcing activi-
ties to other organizations (CROs).
Q3.Can you explain significance of IP in this sector?
A. Intellectual property (IP) rights are extremely important for the pharmaceutical industry to maintain sanctity of
protecting information about clients we work with. CROs are given very secretive information by the clients,
which they need to protect because of aggressive competition in the market. The contracts with the clients are such
“Attracting and retaining of that even if the contract ends after a few years, the company is asked to keep the information with itself for very
human resource has become long period of time. The clients can go to the extent of even closing down the company if they are able to prove
that the information has been leaked out.
difficult as loyalty factor is Q4.What is cGMP?
losing its shine, today HR A. Current Good Manufacturing Practice regulations (GMPs) are used by pharmaceutical, medical device and food
manufacturers as they produce and test products that people use. Drug GMPs also apply to the veterinary drugs. It
personnel have to motivate and ensures that the products produced meet specific requirements for identity, strength, quality, and purity.
Q5.What are broadly the areas HR deals in?
design healthy career road map A. o Talent Acquisition & Recruitment
to make them stay in the o Learning and development
o Performance management system
company.” o Employee engagement and HR operations
o Compensation and rewards
o Organisation Effectiveness.
Q6.What have been the recent trends in HR practices?
A. Given the steep growth plans at Syngene and Clinigene, HR is
•Constantly focusing on attracting right talent for the organisation, Developing them on the basis of the desired
competencies, creating a high performance driven culture and rewarding talent for performance to ensure ongoing
business success. The policies of many companies have become people centric, traditionally the policies mainly
focus on the achievement of organizational goals showing negligence towards the human resource.
• Attracting and retaining of human resource has become difficult as loyalty factor is losing its shine, today HR
Pharma-o-fact. personnel have to motivate and design healthy career road map to make them stay in the company.
• Human Resource Outsourcing is the new name in the industry to replace the redundant traditional HR depart-
-The Pharmaceutical indus- ment. Many HR outsourcing companies in India are already established and some are coming up to support in-
try in India is the world's third- creasing demand of corporate India.
largest in terms of volume and • With the increase of global job mobility, recruiting competent people is also increasingly becoming difficult,
especially in India. Therefore organizations are also required to work out a retention strategy for the existing
stands 14th in terms of value. skilled manpower. HR managers today are focusing on policies (trust, openness & equality), Motivation, Relations.
-Indian Pharmaceutical Indus- Due to new trends in HR the manager should treat people as resources, reward them equitably and integrate their
goals with that of the organizational goals through suitable HR policies.
try is expected to grow at 9.5%
Q7.Can you explain about organizational effectiveness and its relevance in a firm?
till December 2011. A. Organizational effectiveness is about bringing organizational change strategies in human resource processes
-India tops the world in export- through high-impact people interventions aiming to enhance productivity and profitability for the organization, as
well as effectiveness of each employee within the organization. The way in which an organization is made to per-
ing generic medicines worth form better. All the functions of HR department aim at enhancing the potential of human resource for the com-
US$ 11 Billion. pany. The gaps in the organization are identified and steps are taken to make each function of the HR department
more effective. Organizational effectiveness is the way for a company to evolve.
-100% FDI is allowed under the Q8.You have worked across different industries. How are the HR practices different in different industries?
automatic route in the drugs & A. The function of HR department in different in different industries are vastly different from each other and this is
pharmaceutical sector. largely because of the complexity that each organisation deals with reference to the employment brand positioning,
talent pool availability, the focus and priorities of business leadership on performance metrics, focus on learning
and development of talent, putting reward and reward processes etc and of course external market competitiveness
including war for talent is different because of the variation in skill sets. The need for recruiting the right kind of
candidate is completely dependent on the need of a particular organization; this is true for the learning and devel-
opment process as well.

Volume 1, Issue 11 Page 3

CLOUD OF SLOWDOWN .
Great Indian success story is under grim situation. An economy which was a role model for developing
countries now is in deep trouble , a steadily down GDP growth , roller costar ride of stock market, the tum-
bling of rupee to a record low,core sectors conditions like non performing asset and continuous decline of
margin of profit. Assurance from finance minister is not working and beside that a hammer of S&P rating.
Every step government is taking to improve the economic situation is not working, though they are denying
the POLICY PARALYSIS. Soaring fiscal and current account deficit are other factors of concern and
subsidies cutting their pocket. All of sudden investors are lost their interest in INDIAN market.

The negative outlook is on account of the rising fiscal deficit, diminishing growth prospects and slow pro-
gress on fiscal reforms. While the rating agency has maintained its ‗BBB-‘ long term and ‗A-3‘ short-term
sovereign credit ratings on India, it also cut the outlook on several Indian companies and financial institu-
tions, including SBI and ICICI, to ―negative‖. There was fresh evidence of a slowdown in the manufactur-
ing sector, which accounts for nearly 15 per cent of the economy, on as India's top automaker Maruti Su-
zuki said its car sales in May fell 5.9 per cent, dragged down by high fuel costs and an excise tax hike. The
government has been criticised for its piecemeal approach to the economic crisis so far. Economists were
sceptical about the impact of austerity measures announce by government that included some curbs on
government spending. In the three years before the global financial crisis, India was roaring with growth
above 9 per cent and ambitions to challenge China as the world's top emerging economy. But main aspects
when we compare these two economies are their different approach and political condition. Standard &
Poor's cut India's credit rating outlook in April to negative from stable, worried by its fiscal and current
account deficits. The decision jeopardises India's long-term rating of BBB minus, the lowest investment
grade rating. ASSOCHAM president Rajkumar
Slip sliding away, the sum of all the fears is equal to 5.3 per cent GDP growth for the quarter ended March Dhoot says: "The investment
31, 2012. This confirms the worst suspicion and something that the policy mavens have refused to confront environment should be improved
- India's economy is rapidly decelerating. The full-year GDP for 2011-12 has dropped to 6.5 per cent, down and this may even call for some
from a healthy 8.4 per cent in the previous year, with manufacturing contracting acutely to minus 0.3 per
review of tax proposals and
cent in the fourth quarter. The nine-year low number in GDP is a result of high interest rates choking con-
sumer demand and dampening investor sentiment, while the paralysis in the government has held back big further relaxation of FDI norms."
projects in the infrastructure sector. More than that the absence of a pragmatic policy, a response to
the Indian economy's structural inadequacies remains absent leaving the soft underbelly woefully exposed.
A combination of internal ineptitude and extraneous factors has eroded the steel frame, leaving a wasteland
in its wake. The rupee has tumbled to record depths, markets have tanked and investors are pulling out
capital. Industry and manufacturing are also hurting owing to the tight monetary conditions as well as bur-
geoning fiscal and trade deficits.

All the danger signs are on the radar. But beleaguered and embattled, the economy now looks to its manag-
ers and skywards towards the rain gods (praying for a normal monsoon) for resuscitation and deliver. The
delay in the government's decision-making is holding up large projects in the mining sector, which has
clocked a negative growth rate for three consecutive quarters and ended the year with a 0.9 per cent con-
traction. This has had a cascading effect and grounded investments in big power projects since fuel supplies
are not coming through. A spate of corruption scandals has weakened the government and it has been un-
able to push through vital economic reforms that could have brought in much-needed FDI and technology
to rev up the economy and prevent the slide in the rupee which has touched an all time low of 56.50 to a
dollar.

ASSOCHAM president Rajkumar Dhoot says: "The investment environment should be improved and this
may even call for some review of tax proposals and further relaxation of FDI norms." CII Director General
Chandrajit Banerjee goes a step ahead, observing: "A comprehensive economic revival package has to be
announced at the earliest." Demanding bold action from the government and the RBI exclusively aimed at
salvaging the economy, the business chamber expresses hope that the political leadership - across party
lines - would converge and their actions would be swift and decisive. Apex business chamber FICCI feels
the global situation remains fragile and there is an urgent need to take steps on the domestic front..

Behind all aspects related to the declining of INDIAN economy every expert view is pointing towards
slowdown and policy paralysis. The main factor which is important for revival is the reconstruction of busi-
ness environment of the country and achieving political stability. This is the right time to take some bold
and aggressive step that can refuel the economy and give a positive response to investors.
By-Mohammad Furquan, 1st Year MIB, JMI

CMS, MIB Quote For the Month
“Chase the vision, not the money, the
money will end up following you.”
E-mail: 2006.samik@gmail.com,
mohammadfurquan1985@gmail.com
-Tony Hsieh
Phone: 8860223083, 9716926240
Co-founder, Zappos.

Retail Reality : Top 5 Trends in Retail , 2012.
Cont...from page 1 will need to use a combination launched a uniquely inter-
of channels to attract and con- active print ad campaign that
January also saw the launch of
vert consumers going forward, invited consumers to dress
the Mac App Store, Apple‘s
says e-commerce and mul- naked models using QR
effort to remake its Mac OS
tichannel. Customers no longer codes. The ads depicted na-
ecosystem in the image of iOS,
interact with companies from a ked models (mostly women)
and thus collect a 30 percent
channel perspective. Customers doing outdoor activities, such
cut of Mac app revenue in the
now interact through touch- as jogging or riding a scooter
process. In February Apple
points that in-clude not only through Manhattan locations,
became the first computer
channels such as ―stores, with strategically placed
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: maker to introduce Intel‘s Light
branches, call centers and web- censor bars emblazoned with
Peak data transfer technology
Prof. SAYED WAJID ALI sites, but also emerging interac- the campaign‘s tagline. The
under the name Thunderbolt.
tions, including apps, social QR codes lead the user to a
The iPad 2 came out in March
media, mobile sites, SMS mes- website where a video shows
even as competitors were strug-
sages and interactive advertis- how the sce-nario depicted in
gling to deliver an answer to
ing across smartphones, tablets, the ad plays out. Consumers
the original. In October Apple
cars and even appliances.―It is can then choose an outfit for
announced a breakthrough set
STUDENT EDITORS: time for organizations to leave the model and go to Zappos
of free cloud services that keep
their channel-oriented ways to buy it. Nathalie Binda,
stored data up to date across all
MOHAMMAD FURQUAN. behind and enter the era of marketing vice president for
devices, including PCs. The
NAMITA DHAMANI. agile commerce‖. women‘s active wear manu-
company sold 72 million
SAMIK SARKAR. facturer of Lolë,, called the
iPhones (nearly double the total
Mobile Coupons – An increase campaign ―gutsy‖ and ―very
for 2010), 32 million iPads, 17
in mobile payment systems, Zapposesque‖.
million Macs and 42.6 million
INTERVIEW BY: better targeting technologies,
iPods, generating $108 billion Today's Consumer rely on
and budget-friendly marketing
RUCHIKA PARMAR. in revenue in 2011 — up 66 Smartphone, tablets and
techniques, Juniper Research
percent from fiscal 2010. other Wi-Fi enabled devices
analysts believe mobile cou-
pons will be key to driving in- for wide array or personal
Multichannel Integration - It and commercial applications.
store purchasing with potential
no longer matters, really, The whole experience with
for exponential growth that
whether the customer is always which consumer interacts
could result in a market worth
right. The customer is in with a Retailer is undergoing
$46 billion by 2016. According
charge. He decides ―when, a Paradigm Shift. Today's
to a survey commissioned by
where, and how he will interact retailer needs to be proactive
AT&T, 66 percent of respon-
with the retail landscape instead of being reactive for
dents agree that mobile bar-
through whatever channel, it to be ahead of the Con-
codes will drive new mobile
device, or touchpoint he sumer expectation curve.
marketing campaign concepts
wants‖. Such an environment Technology has empowered
in the next year. The majority
has made multichannel, by the consumer with informa-
of executives surveyed believe
default, the new standard oper- tion and they would call the
mobile barcodes represent the
ating model for retail. While it shots henceforth. Innovate or
greatest area of potential for
can be argued that mobile de- Perish!!!!! That's the call to
innovation in 2012.
vices and multichannel com- retailers, Hope they are lis-
merce have made it easier than Zappos - Seeking to drive tening.
ever for retailers to reach cus- home the point that Zappos By– Ruchika Parmar
tomers, they have also made it offers ―more than shoes‖ the
easier to lose them. Retailers online retailer last summer 1st Year MIB , JMI.

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MIBytes May , 2012

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