fair n lovely

spiderman thmbs up
monetize prejudices

fair n lovely
asci = truthful; decency
consumers intelligent = why filter at consumers shudnt the filter be at admakers
prasoon joshi = real beauty rejected
different things offend diff ppl .. one body
social advertising - polio; all brands becoming socialy awaree as ppl becoming
democracy all votes are equal; consumerism all wallets are not equal

5% of women depicting colour not showing what 90% of women
correlation between fairness n success
art imitating life or is art imitating life

Government regulation of social media

he argument for internet regulation or censorship in India has mostly been framed in the context of ensuring national security and secular harmony. Efforts at regulation increased in the aftermath of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks and subsequent tightening of national security. While some see these arguments as justified given India’s experience with terrorism and history of ethnic and religious tension, many civil society and internet activists feel that the government’s attempts at regulation go too far, infringing on peoples’ right to free speech and expression.

As India positions itself as a global leader in the 21st century, one of its greatest strengths is its loud, boisterous, and often frenzied democracy. The right to freedom of speech and expression is a fundamental pillar of this democracy, and efforts at curbing this right through arbitrary laws and rules will only serve to turn back the clock on the country’s social and economic progress. Mahatma Gandhi once advised a newly independent India to pursue a path of spiritual and inner purity embodied in the principles: “See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil.” Surely a state that censors and curbs the free flow of information isn’t what he had in mind.

Many people come to us and say that it’s great you played such a big role in the Arab spring [uprisings], but it's also kind of scary because you enable all this sharing and collect information on people. Civil society groups, activists, and social movements have innovatively used the internet and social media platforms to combat corruption and bribery, redress grievances, and demand improvements in service delivery and governance more broadly. Initiatives such as Ipaidabribe.com, for example, provide Indians with an opportunity to file online reports of bribe giving or taking. Similarly, Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption campaign last summer usedFacebook and Twitter to generate public support against corruption.

Governments cannot cherry pick which aspects of the web to control and which not to. But it's hard to have one without the other. You can't isolate some things you like about the internet and control other things that you don't. Technology will move faster than governments, so don't legislate before you understand the consequences

By controlling social media, the government is doing a quick fix and not solving the real issues.  Why government hasn’t used social media till day to benefit from it. Although the government has created a presence it is nothing more than blowing its own trumpet.

Cultural sensitivity is not a pre-given fact in India. The reality is that India today is undergoing rapid social and economic changes. More than 50 percent of India’s population is below the age of 25 and nearly 65 percent under the age of 35. There are an estimated 100 million internet users in the country, with the number estimated to triple by 2014. Mobile phone penetration, particularly in rural areas, is extensive with over 800 million subscribers in 2011. With the rapid expansion of well-paying jobs in sectors such as IT, software, and business-outsource processing, many young Indians have access to disposable incomes far greater than their parents and have aspirations to work and live abroad. Against this backdrop, the government’s efforts to censor the internet and other media is an anachronism and symptomatic of a pre-liberalization regime of state regulation and control that is long past. And let’s face it, in a country of 1.2 billion people monitoring or policing user content is simply not feasible.

It’s ridiculously expensive. The cost of complying with regulation in the United States is $1.8 trillion each year, according to a recent report from the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

Recommendation:

Freedom of expression is important, but there must be limits, like laws against defamation and remarks that can incite hatred of a race or religion. The Government should consider laws to combat cyberbullying and other forms of Internet harassment, and we are fully ready to support the government in such initiatives as always

Government agents in 74 countries demanded information on about 38,000 Facebook users in the first half of this year, with about half the orders coming from authorities in the United States for which we have always complied

Sometimes ‘unsocial’ media

The dark side of the media came alive once again amid an otherwise proud and celebratory moment. After 24-year-old Nina Davuluri of Indian origin was crowned Miss America, the first Indian American to hold the title, social media was abuzz with racist slurs, displaying not just abuse but hatred, and above all, ignorance. Celebrations for Davuluri were marred by comments that called her “Arab”, “terrorist” and linking the win with the 9/11 attacks in the US.   It appeared lost on those writing such comments that Davuluri’s father Koteshwara Choudhary, migrated to the US in 1981 and is a gynaecologist in Fayetteville, New York. Davuluri herself has a degree in Brain Behaviour and Cognitive Science from the University of Michigan, and aspires to be a cardiologist, a goal for which she pledged the $50,000 prize money she won with her crown. She remained poised and gracious and dismissed the comments saying, “I have to rise above that. I always viewed myself as first and foremost American.”   It is beyond doubt that racism and sexism are well alive in America, despite the country having come a long way from the civil rights struggle by the Blacks in 1960s and its first Black President serving his second-term in the office currently. Despite being a diverse country, post-9/11 the minorities in the United States have often come under attack and continue to be discriminated in social and political spheres. The rise of governors like Bobby Jindal has been an exception.   However, the present issue has two dimensions to itself, concerning not just the US but the world. The first is the continuation of association of dark skin with ugliness and white skin as being the paradigm of beauty. Today, fairness creams sell like hot cakes, along with products that vouch for white beauty. This is a trend world over. The ‘White Man’s Burden’ continues in terms of defining ‘beauty’ and this is accepted by non-white people in the millions perhaps because of a colonial mentality that accepts western colonialists as superior whom they wished to imitate. Its culture equates fair skin to beauty and high social status. America’s television star Oprah Winfrey also recently came face to face with racism that still exists in Europe. She was in a shop in Zurich and wanted to see a purse. The salesgirl, who didn’t recognize her, allegedly told her that “she won’t be able to afford it”. This case was not violent or hateful but shows how the salesgirl made a snap judgment about Oprah’s wealth based on the colour of her skin.   There is as much racism in India as in America perhaps. In India, matrimonial adverts openly mention the desired colour of the prospective bride which cannot be otherwise than fair. In 2010, India’s whitening cream market was worth 432 million dollars and had an annual growth of 18%. Cricket players and Bollywood stars regularly lend their face and voice to the advertisements for these products.   This acceptance of standardized beauty norms resulted in part from mind conditioning and racists. The Western colonial regimes left their mark on the cultures of the people they once ruled. And today, globalization and the aggressive marketing of western brands encourage people of other cultures to adopt “western standards of beauty”. It has been forgotten that beauty is in the spirit and personality of an individual, regardless of the colour of the skin. The second is the unmasking of the ugly face of the social media. The medium is popular with youth, more so because anonymity can be maintained while unleashing opinions and abuse.   Cyber-bullying is a worrying but growing trend. The social media does come with the freedom of speech but it is harming and discriminating others through words and pictures. However, this reflects minds unable to accept change that is coming in form of growing contribution of the minorities and recognition of it in some part in countries like the US.   Slow change can also been seen in pageants like Miss America. The competition started in 1921 as a gimmick to get people to hang out in Atlantic City after Labour Day — at the time it was charmingly called “The Most Beautiful Bathing Girl in America”. By the 1950s, it became conflated with everything that America stood for.   Ideas about what kind of woman could adequately represent America have evolved over time.  Originally, non-white women were not allowed to participate in the contest. It wasn’t until 1970 that a black woman competed. Since 1983, eight African-American women have worn the Miss America crown. In 2001 the title went to Hawaii-born Filipino Angela Perez Baraquio.   What was different about the Miss America pageant this year was that it celebrated diversity, with many South-Asian participants taking the lead. Davuluri herself thanked her fellow citizens for celebrating diversity. But racist comments about her win reflect the inability of the same people to accept change and let go of the patriarchal mindset that comes in way of their own development.   Davuluri’s win need to be celebrated for many reasons — it represents the inclusion of minorities among dominating Whites, giving a sense of hope to those who remain on the fringes of society that they can demand their rights, both constitutional and human. Above all, her win symbolizes that being dark-skinned is not about being ugly; it represents humanity as much as having white skin and a tiny waist does. - See more at: http://www.impactonnet.com/Sometimes-%E2%80%98unsocial%E2%80%99-media#sthash.SZGeKgGH.dpuf

UPA vs BJP

1.GDP growth: Average GDP growth in 1998-2004 (NDA) was 6% a year. Average annual GDP growth in 2004-13 (UPA), up to June 30, 2013, was 7.9%.

Caveat 1: The Vajpayee-led NDA battled US-led economic sanctions following the Pokhran-II nuclear test in May 1998. It faced a short but expensive Kargil war in 1999 and the dotcom bust in 2000. When it took office, it had the lag effect of the East Asian financial crisis of 1997-98 to contend with.

Caveat 2: The UPA government, in contrast, benefitted from the economic momentum of the high (8.1%) GDP growth rate of 2003-04 – the NDA government’s final year – and rode that wave. The global liquidity bubble in 2004-08 bouyed foreign inflows, helping UPA-I achieve a high GDP growth rate in its first term. The Lehman Brothers collapse in September 2008 did hurt the Indian economy but the ensuing US Federal Reserve asset buying programme attracted a steady flow of near-zero interest dollars into India from 2009.

Despite these caveats, the UPA government’s average annual GDP growth rate of 7.9% in 2004-13 clearly scores over the NDA government’s average annual growth rate of 6% (though high inflation boosted the former significantly). First strike to UPA.

2. Current Account Deficit:

2004:  (+) $7.36 billion (surplus).

2013: (-) $80 billion.

The winner here is clearly NDA. It ran a current account surplus in 2002, 2003 and 2004. Under UPA this dipped into deficit from 2006 and has spun downwards since.

3. Trade deficit:

2004: (-) $13.16 billion.

2013: (-) $180 billion.

Again, advantage NDA.

4. Fiscal deficit:

2004: 4.7% of GDP.

2013: 4.8% of GDP.

Not much to choose between the two.

Caveat: This extract from the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI) report, published in 2010, explains why and when the UPA government’s fiscal defict began to spiral out of control.

“The central budget in 2008–2009, announced in February 2008, seemed to continue the progress towards FRBM targets by showing a low fiscal deficit of 2.5% of GDP. However, the 2008–2009 budget quite clearly made inadequate allowances for rural schemes like the farm loan waiver and the expansion of social security schemes under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), the Sixth Pay Commission award and subsidies for food, fertilizer, and petroleum.”

“These together pushed up the fiscal deficit sharply to higher levels. There were also off-budget items like the issue of oil and fertilizer bonds, which should be added to give a true picture of fiscal deficit in 2008–2009. The fiscal deficit shot up to 8.9% of GDP (10.7% including off-budget bonds) against 5.0% in 2007–2008 and the primary surplus turned into a deficit of 3.5% of GDP.

“The huge increase in public expenditure in 2008–2009 of 31.2% that followed a 27.4% increase in 2007–2008 was driven by the electoral cycle with parliamentary elections scheduled within a year of the announcement of the budget.”

The recent announcement of the Seventh Pay Commission comes again, not unexpectedly, at the end of an electoral cycle.

5. Inflation:

1998-2004: 5%.

2004-2013: 9% (Both figures are averaged out over their respective tenures).

Advantage again to NDA. Inflation under NDA was on average half that under UPA, leading to the RBI’s controversial tight money policy, high interest rates and rising EMIs.

6. External Debt:

March 2004: $111.6 billion.

March 2013: $390 billion.

The UPA suffers badly in this comparision, a result of lack of confidence in India’s economy and currency following retrospective tax legislation and other regressive policies, especially during UPA-2.

7. Jobs:

1999-2004:  60 million new jobs created.

2004-11: 14.6 million jobs created.

Clearly, the UPA’s big failure has been jobless growth – a bad electoral omen.

8. Rupee:

1998-2004: Variation: Rs. 39 to 49 per $.

2004-13: Variation: Rs. 39 to 68 per $.

The NDA government’s economic and fiscal policies, despite the various crises of 1998-2000 pointed out earlier, evoked more  global confidence, leading to a relatively stable rupee (Rs. 10 variation) compared to the Rs. 29 variation during UPA’s tenure.

(Rupee rose from 40-plus to 39 between October 2007 and April 2008.)

9. HDI:

2004: India was ranked 123^rd globally on the human development index (HDI) in 2004, with a score of 0.453.

2013: India has slipped 13 places to 136^th globally on the HDI in 2013 with a score of 0.554.

10. Subsidies:

2004: Rs. 44,327 crore.

2013: Rs. 2,31,584 crore.

Here again, profligate welfarism, as the ADBI report quoted earlier shows, has led to a rising subsidy bill. Worse, a significant amount is siphoned off by a corrupt nexus of politicians, officials and middlemen.

Conclusion: UPA scores above NDA on one of the 10 parameters (GDP growth), is level on one other parameter (fiscal deficit) while NDA does better than UPA on the remaining eight parameters.

The next time Finance Minister P. Chidambaram wishes to stage an encounter with facts, he would do well to be aware of those facts.

Big data

As Hal Varian (a terrific economist at Berkeley/Google) says, “Data are widely available; what is scarce is the ability to extract wisdom from them”.

Social Media Social Campaigns its my fault

What All India Bakchod Did Right With “It’s Your Fault” – MediaNama

Here’s what I think worked for them:

Choice of medium and the impact of social media: AIB’s decision to use YouTube over television or any other medium is notable: With YouTube, video can go viral, given the ability for people to share the video and spread the word, which isn’t possible with broadcast. Every share now means another supporter who is creating more awareness. The cost of running such a campaign on television would have been quite high considering TV ad rates. In fact, given the success of the video, it’s likely that news channels will see this as a validation, and perhaps showcase the video on television.

Satire: Koechlin and Pandey’s straight face and smile throughout the video has brought out the sarcastic tone of the video.  The choice of satire over drama seems to have driven home the message much better contributing to the success of the video.

The choice of content: This subject could have been dealt with in so many different ways but the decision to highlight some of these baseless claims seems to have found resonance with the online audience.

No ads: The video has not been monetized with ads, and given the subject, we doubt it will be monetized. The impact that the video has had would be completely ruined if they decide to monetize it.

What next?

AIB has now managed to create a viral video on a sensitive issue in India. But what next? What is to come off this virality, apart from the shares and awareness? One of the most common criticisms against social campaigns on social media has been that it doesn’t have a lasting impact, and creates shares and comments. What AIB can do now is that they can ask people to submit their versions of “It’s my fault”, and get them to highlight statements they feel strongly against, using YouTube’s video response features, in order to take the campaign forward.

The other thing, as IndiaToday reports, is that they’re dubbing the video in other Indian languages, to reach out to more people.

Tweet4Change by Tata Jaago Re was another interesting campaign that raised funds for organisations dealing with women’s safety. MARD (Men Against Rape & Discrimination) is also another initiative that was created  on social media, but appears to have died down after its initial stint during the IPL 2013.

mondelez twitter social media

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-09-25/news/42394361_1_mondelez-india-mondelez-international-twitter

16,000 retweets, 18,000 Facebook likes and 5,000 Facebook shares were registered within the first hour of the Oreo tweet during the Super Bowl XLVII blackout. 'You can still dunk in the dark' 

 Venkat Mallik, president at Tribal DDB and RAPP India, equates it with Amul's outdoor strategy of creating topical ads. Only that Mondelez will be playing it on Twitter which will have a faster turnaround and a global impact

 #ShubhAarambh during IPL and with #NotSoSweet for Bournville

technology mobiles in marketing

Project Columbus and Project telecalling HUL
Rural Marketing - missed call business

ACTIVE WHEEL’S MOBILE CAMPAIGN A HUGE SUCCESS IN U.P. AND BIHAR

What started as a test pilot for building a low cost mobile activation model for media-dark geographies has turned out to be one of  the biggest mobile activations ever done for HUL.

PILOT PHASE

In December 2011, our detergent brand Active Wheel advertised the number 1800-3000-1599 on All India Radio in U.P. & Bihar asking listeners to give a missed call. After giving a missed call consumers  got an auto generated call from a series of numbers and got to hear snippets of humourous conversations between a husband and wife. This pilot got positive feedback from consumers and was a huge success!

A total of eight Instant Voice Responses lines were used in the pilot phase of the campaign; so every time the customer gave a missed call - he heard a new IVR till he called the 9th time. The result was extremely positive. The brand got a total of 3.2 Lakh Missed Calls from 28,000 unique numbers in just four week

Veerchand Bothra, the chief stratteregy officer of Netcore Solutions, that executed a popular missed-call project for HUL, says that it can also be used as a mobile verification tool and can be a substitute for physical presence or signature.

He should know, for Netcore implemented the 'Missed Call Solution for Anna Hazare's Campaign'. In a first for the country, the India Against Corruption campaign used the 'missed call' route to garner the support of 250 lakh people within 180 days.

For, the Great Indian Missed Call — the weapon of choice for perpetually broke pre-paid users like students and migrant labourers — is turning out to be a Rs500-crore business opportunity for banks, FMCG majors, even political parties.

NOTA None of the above

Against:

First, elections are held to elect the representatives of the people. The process of NOTA goes contrary to the electoral process of the country. In the current climate, where people say all the candidates are tainted, if the suggestion of NOTA is accepted by all the voters all over the country, then the result will be that no one will get elected. This will make the electoral device dysfunctional. Hence, it defeats the purpose of holding elections. Also, it makes democracy impossible and we may face a situation of anarchy. However, fortunately, such a scenario is unlikely because it is inconceivable that a large number of voters will go for NOTA.

In reality, most often, a large majority of voters are actually taken to the polling booths. They are persuaded to vote on the basis of various kinds of temptations or under threat. It is unlikely that a voter will stand in a queue and then vote NOTA. They would rather stay at home. Also, even in the current system, a form can be filled with the returning officer if a voter wants to put on record that he wishes to vote for no one.

Studies have shown that voters are paid money before the election, the sale of liquor increases, etc. Then, in spite of the election laws, voters are ferried to the polling booth by political parties. Most often, voters end up voting for caste or community vote banks. Under such circumstances, it is naive to believe that voting is based on ideology, principles or merit of the candidate.

Modi

On Solid Ground
____________________
.  Modi is today seen as a clean, efficient and no-nonsense administrator, an image that has been cultivated by sending messages to the right kind of audience. Business tycoons see him as a political enforcer who can deliver business opportunity without expensive social unrest. His model is one of ‘decentralisation of planning and empowering people’.

.  Modi has built a reputation as an incorruptible and efficient technocrat who has electrified Gujarat's 18,000 villages - the state is the only one in India with a near 24/7 power supply - and slashed red tape to attract companies like Ford, Maruti Suzuki and Tata Motors.

.  During Modi's 10 years as Chief Minister, Gujarat has grown an average of 10% a year. The state ranked fifth out of 15 big states in 2010-2011 in terms of per capita income. The CM boasts it is the "engine of India's economic growth."

. Modi has nonetheless one achievement which should persuade the voters to treat him with a measure of respect. He is the only chief minister in the country who has not allowed the mischief-making Naxalites to create a niche for themselves within his state, and this despite Gujarat having a substantially large tribal population.

.  Gujarat’s success, even Modi's detractors acknowledge, is a result of good planning -- exactly what so much of India lacks. The BJP has no real choice but to bite the Modi bullet. The saffron party’s natural supporters are enthused by Modi in the same way as they were by the Ayodhya issue in 1991 and by Atal Bihari Vajpayee's leadership in 1998 and 1999.

On a Sticky Wicket

____________________

. The stigma that clung to him in the aftermath of the riots has not faded. Despite his achievements as an administrator, he is still viewed through the prism of the 2002 riots. Though he came close to losing his job over his role in the riots, he expressed no regrets and admitted to no misjudgements. He remains a deeply divisive figure. However, all investigations have cleared him of any personal responsibility but one of his former ministers, Maya Kodnani, was given 28 years in jail last year for her part in the killing of 97 people in Naroda Patiya.

. Opinion polls predict a close election with regional parties likely to be king-makers. Even if the BJP secures the most votes it could struggle to find partners to form a viable coalition government, especially with Modi at its head.

 . Political observers are of the view that Modi could be rejected by Muslims and moderate Hindus. Modi’s campaigning outside Gujarat in 2009 brought out crowds but gathered few votes.

 . Remember what Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had said: if you want to do politics in the country, you cannot stay away from skullcap and tilak. Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan knows this. 

In a multi-ethnic/religious country like India, no leader can perhaps command the support of all communities but he must not attract the implacable hostility of India’s largest minority. For instance, former Prime Minister Vajpayee may not have enjoyed widespread support among Muslims but was not treated as an enemy either.

. It will be tough going for him though in large parts of the country, particularly in the east and the south, where members of the main minority community constitute a sizeable part of the electorate. In the southern States, where the BJP has virtually no presence, the Congress’s loss cannot be the BJP’s gain. The Congress’s loss can be the BJP’s gain only in States like Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Gujarat and Delhi where the two national parties have a direct contest.


state benefited immensely from the White Revolution started by Verghese Kurien. Earnings from agriculture and dairy flowed to the capital markets and savings. The state was blessed with leaders like Jivraj Mehta who laid the foundations of public sector industry; Madhav Sinh Solanki who wanted industrial parks in each of the 184 tehsils and even Keshubhai Patel who began massive watershed development with check dams in Saurashtra. 

Narendra Modi has inherited a relatively well-functioning state and improved on it with his own brand of governance that works without consultation and debate. Running a relatively homogenous Gujarat like a personal fiefdom is one thing and managing a volatile, diverse country is quite another. That calls for cooperation, compromise, persuasion and deliberation—not exactly qualities associated with Modi.

Moreover, Gujarat Government has implemented ‘Single Window Clearance Act’ with first of its initiative in the country. This reduces ‘Red Tapism’ and help in delayed permission procedures.

Read more: http://forbesindia.com/article/boardroom/narendra-modi-role-model-of-governance/33783/0#ixzz2gGi8bJQ3

Read more: http://forbesindia.com/article/boardroom/narendra-modi-role-model-of-governance/33783/0#ixzz2gGhwCZFC

Sales vs Marketing

Selling starts only when you have a product. Marketing starts before a product exists. Marketing is the homework your company does to figure out what people need and what your company should offer. Marketing determines how to launch, price, distribute, and promote your product/service offerings to the marketplace. Marketing then monitors the results and improves the offering over time. Marketing also decides if and when to end an offering. Peter Drucker held that “the aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous.”

“If you leave us our money, our buildings and our brands but take away our people, the company will fail. But if you take away our money, our buildings and our brands but leave us our people, we can rebuild the whole thing in less than a decade.” Procter & Gamble CEO Richard R Dupree 1947

raone cost 125 crores .. marketing 50 crores

Stephen
Leacock, humorist and educator, took a cynical view of advertising: “Advertising may be described as the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it.” Companies should ask this question before using advertising:
Would advertising create more satisfied clients than if our company spent the same money on making a better product, improving company service, or creating stronger brand experiences? I wish that companies would spend more money and time on designing an exceptional product, and less on trying to psychologically manipulate perceptions through expensive advertising campaigns. The better the product, the less that has to be spent advertising it. The best advertising is done by your satisfied customers. The stronger your customer loyalty, the less you have to spend on advertising.

The ad’s mission can be one of four: to inform, persuade, remind, or reinforce a purchase decision.

ecommerce death of retail ?

http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21581755-retailers-rich-world-are-suffering-people-buy-more-things-online-they-are-finding

Many brands still think shops are the best way to attract customers. Inditex of Spain, owner of the ubiquitous Zara fashion brand, opened 482 stores in 2012, bringing its total to 6,009 in 86 countries. Primark, a fast-growing vendor of nearly disposable clothing, sells nothing on its website, relying on its 242 shops for almost all its sales. The same can hold at the luxury end, too—few will buy a $10,000 necklace online, or entrust it to the post. Space on the snazziest streets in London, Paris and New York is in such demand that luxury retailers pay millions in “key money” to secure it, says Mark Burlton of Cushman & Wakefield, a property company.

Rural Mktg

HUL shaktiamma changing with the times - equipped with smartphones
Shakti initiatives driving 20% of Unilever sales in rural

Vodafone mini stores in rural india - laal dukaan

Bajaj electricals - mera gaon mera desh economy brand

cavincare - chik sachets

Why rural community is different:
1. CUG
2. Scarcity of media bandwidth
3. slow to adapt brands, slow to give up brands
4. expenses year long, income seasonal
5. entertainment starved, edutainment
6. experience advertising

HUL project Telecalling in Urban India ; Columbus in Rural India

HUL khushiyon ki doli

CSR companies Bill

 See more at: http://indiacp.blogspot.in/2013/01/CSR-Companies-Bill-2012.html#sthash.ePqbmDHv.dpuf
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/columns/aarati-krishnan/why-csr-isnt-enough/article5012683.ece

The Companies Bill, 2012 intends to inculcate the philosophy of CSR among Indian companies.

STIPULATIONS OF THE COMPANIES BILL, 2012

Every company with net worth of Rs 500 crore or more, or turnover of Rs 1,000 crore or more or a net profit of Rs 5 crore or more during any financial year to constitute a CSR Committee of the Board consisting of three or more directors, of which at least one director shall be an independent director. 
The Board’s report to disclose the composition of the CSR Committee. 
The main functions of the CSR Committee are to:
Formulate and recommend to the board, a CSR policy indicating the activity or activities to be undertaken by the company as specified in Schedule VII of the Act; 
Recommend the amount to be spent on these activities; and 
Monitor the company's CSR policy periodically. 

If a company fails to provide or spend such amount, Board to specify reasons in its report for that failure.  Companies required to comply with CSR shall give additional Information by way of notes to the Statement of Profit and Loss about the aggregate expenditure on CSR activities. 


Schedule VII of the Companies Bill 2012 prescribes activities that may be included by companies in their CSR policies:
Eradicating extreme hunger and poverty; 
Promotion of education; 
Promoting gender equality and empowering women 
Reducing child mortality and improving maternal health; 
Combating human immunodeficiency virus, acquired immune deficiency syndrome, malaria and other diseases; 
Ensuring environmental sustainability; 
Employment enhancing vocational skills; 
Social business projects; 
Contribution to the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund or any other fund set up by the Central Government or the State Governments for socioeconomic development and relief and funds for the welfare of the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, other backward classes, minorities and women;

Significantly, there is no penalty for defaulting on CSR norms. Only an explanation is to be given by the board in its report for such non-compliance. So, it seems there is no real coercive factor. 


HUL 23000 Rs Crore
PAT 2600 RS crore

SIMPLE ECONOMICS

But my objection to the CSR provision is more basic. It is that it takes a blinkered view of the social responsibilities of an enterprise.

Any company is bound to have constant dealings with multiple sections of society as it goes about conducting its everyday business. It interacts with the local area where it operates its facility, the lenders who fund it, the employees who work for it and the exchequer which collects taxes.

If a company is fair in its dealings with all these entities, there is scarcely any need for it to make a song and dance about CSR. But if it short-changes these entities through questionable practices, this can’t be remedied by paying lip-service to CSR.

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

This argument is based on simple economics. A typical listed company in India spends 30-40 per cent of its revenues on buying materials from suppliers and 11-12 per cent on employee benefits. It also pays out about 20 per cent of its profits as interest and over 30 per cent as taxes to the government.

In contrast, the amount to be earmarked for CSR is a mere 2 per cent of profits.

So if policymakers are really keen to imbue corporate India with a sense of social responsibility, the effort needs to go beyond the 2 per cent clause.

The following checklist can help gauge if a firm is indeed socially responsible in the holistic sense of the term.

Does the core business carry a social cost?

Scanning the annual reports of listed companies, it is clear that those with a questionable core business devote the most space to extolling their CSR efforts.

Thus, we have tobacco majors spending millions on establishing a rural supply chain, companies manufacturing dated chemical compounds taking pride in their verdant campus and fizzy drink makers announcing that they are ‘water positive’.

Within these businesses, no doubt, firms that take such initiatives are better than their peers which don’t.

But wouldn’t it be far more desirable to discourage, at the very outset, businesses that carry a high social cost?

This would call for a system of CSR credits, akin to the one prevailing for carbon credits, that awards negative marks to businesses that manufacture ‘de-merit’ goods. Does the firm care about employee rights?

It isn’t enough if the business chosen by an entrepreneur is squeaky clean. How it is run is equally important.

The last couple of years have seen quite a few episodes of industrial unrest erupt at manufacturing facilities managed by leading companies. These have brought to light several murky practices employed by some manufacturing companies to keep their production lines chugging, even as they cut corners on costs.

Using temporary arrangements to keep legitimate workers off the payroll, paying them salaries that blatantly violate minimum wage rules and using loopholes that deny them of basic legal rights — quite a few members of India Inc seem to adopt these practices to sidestep the country’s labour laws.

If a company acquits itself badly on the above counts, does it really help the social cause if it then goes on to build schools or sanitary facilities in the rural hinterland?

Does it pay its dues?

Talk to the CEO of any small or medium enterprise in India and she will usually have a litany of woes to relate about how the large firm that she supplies to makes life difficult for her. Inordinate delays in payments of dues for supply of goods or services, wafer-thin margins and one-sided contracts that barely allow survival, are all par for course for SMEs dealing with their more powerful corporate buyers.

This is indeed why listed companies were earlier mandated to make explicit disclosures, in their annual reports, of large outstanding dues to SMEs. These disclosures have now been waived. But why not count delayed payments to SME suppliers as a black mark against social responsibility?

Does it evade lenders or the taxman?

Firms often forget this. But the bank borrowings which keep the wheels of a business turning and the taxes collected by the exchequer involve large amounts of public money.

However, it has become quite commonplace in recent years to see large firms lead their lenders on a merry dance to recover their dues. Taking recourse to innovative ‘structures’ that help escape one’s legitimate share of taxes, is practically a matter of pride for the Indian businessman.

So what’s the point in actively cheating the exchequer out of a 30 per cent share of profits by evading taxes and then shelling out a paltry 2 per cent as CSR? All the above instances suggest that as policymakers sit down to frame the rules for operationalising the CSR clause in the new Companies Bill, they should actively consider a system of ‘CSR credits’ that evaluates a company’s social responsibility, in its entirety. While awarding ‘credits’ to companies that do deploy 2 per cent of their profits on CSR, it should also incorporate negative marks for being in an undesirable business or sharp practices in dealings with suppliers, employees and the exchequer.

Establishing a disclosure framework for all this may not be too difficult, as the top listed companies are already required to address many of these issues in the new Business Responsibility Report.

A report card on these lines may prompt the leading lights of corporate India to take their social responsibilities more seriously. And it may also help silence the cynics who ask if a profit-oriented enterprise can really do well, if it expends its profits on doing good.

Street smartness

http://www.realworlddegree.com/street-smart-vs-book-smart/

What is street smart?

Well, when I think of street smarts I think of someone who has good common sense and is intelligent, but isn’t necessarily doing well academically. This person gets his or her knowledge from try and error, from talking to people and exchanging thoughts and opinions. He/she is more of a doer than a crammer.

The Oxford dictionary describes “street smarts” as:

the skills and knowledge necessary for dealing with modern urban life

The term street smart is often used to compare and contrast another term called “book smart”.

And what is book smart?

The stereotype of a book smart person is someone who is very well educated, who is a gobbler of books and tries to understand complicated theoretical principles. But this person might have troubles interacting with people or putting his academic knowledge into real world practice.

College graduates have advantages

In general it is true, college graduates who I would consider as book smart have better chances of well paid jobs. Their starting salary is mostly higher.

In a world where you get valued by “little numbers and letters”, where you primarily get a job through handing in a sheet of paper called resume, it is tough without academic qualifications.

There are many professions that actually require extended education – lawyers, doctors or university professors. You wouldn’t want a school dropout to perform your life saving surgery, would you?

But graduating from college doesn’t give you a free pass to a successful career.

The irony of college

Isn’t college supposed to prepare you for a successful career?

You were taught by your parents and teachers that if you study hard enough you will get a successful well paid job as a reward. That’s not necessarily true.

There are people who totally succeed in school and at college but fail in their professional careers. And those who fail in academic institutions might be the ones joining tomorrow’s most influential entrepreneurs.

What makes the difference?

 Key success skills

Whether or not you’re book or street smart to become successful you should first of all define what success means to you. Defining your personal level of success will give you enormous power.

• What kind of job are you looking for? Do you want to be employed, a freelancer, entrepreneur or CEO?
• Do you want to earn big money, follow your passion or combine both?
• Are you willing to work hard for your goals or do you aim for a work life balance?

And to climb the ladder of success you need certain skills and traits regardless of you’ve graduated or not.

Very important are marketing and sales skills. Even if you never intend to become a sales person you will always always end up selling something. Even if you want to become a hairdresser and earn money with it you need to sell your services. And to attract customers you need to market your brand. Period.

Soft skills are essential as well. In your career you always need to interact with people. People as your customers, business partners, clients. You rely on great communication skills - both oral and written.

To become successful you need to network. Networking opens many doors. Sometimes it is more important who you know than what you know.

A fundamental understanding of finances is important too. As soon as money comes in you should be able to make smart decisions with it.

And of course with a right mindset, self-belief, motivation, enormous work ethic, a positive attitude and driving goals you can get anywhere you like.

You don’t learn it at university

Most commonly you don’t learn these skills in college. Tertiary education is, like school, rather based on memorising facts to pass the next exam than practising soft skills or learning how to network efficiently.

That’s why it’s so important to engage oneself in learning more about these skillseven after college. Read books of your choice, listen to audiobooks (my favourite while being on the road), watch tutorials on Youtube, browse through the web, attend seminars…there are so many options.

Learning is a life long journey! And can be super exciting!

So, which smart is the smarter one?

Bottom line is it is great to be well educated alias book smart. But only to a certain level namely as much as you really need on a regular basis. To gain knowledge beyond that is a waste of your resources.

You need merely a little of what you learned in four years of college yet you “spend almost [your] entire youth – potentially some of the most creative, enthusiastic, energetic, and fun years of [your life] – in pursuit of little numbers and letters certifying [your] academic intelligence” (“The Education of Millionaires” by Michael Ellsberg).

In order to really succeed you’ll need skills like mentioned above. However you don’t learn these skills in college.

What makes then more sense for many jobs is to get the theory by self-education and thus will save money and time and instead focus more on key success skills which are a necessity for most successful careers.

The leaders and entrepreneurs of today’s world

Some of the most successful leaders and entrepreneurs of today’s world prove that you can skip that part of attending college. They are school and college dropouts, who may be less book smart, but who certainly are street smart!

Just think of Steve Jobs, Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg, who are part of a revolutionary technology era. Lady Gaga and Alicia Keys dropped out of college to pursue their passion to music. Jay-Z never attended college and put it this way: “I’m a thinker. I figure things out. I don’t have a high level of education, but I’m practical–and I have great instincts.”

And the list goes on…

How much is innovation related to brand relevance in established brands.

If you ask enough people what a brand is some will say it's a logo or a product, some will say a mark of quality, or a promise of an experience. Eventually, if you dig deep enough, people start to talk about a set of values, or even a belief system. A logo and a product are only the tip of the iceberg—what lies beneath all brands is a vision and a degree of faith in that vision.

Jean Noel Kapferer puts it in his book Strategic Brand Management: "Brands are rejuvenated by new products matching new needs, not by advertising."

Häagen-Dazs and Ben & Jerry's grew the luxury, adult ice-cream category by investing heavily ahead of the curve. Kellogg's launched Nutrigrain to bring us breakfast in a bar. Red Bull and Gatorade brought us energy drinks. So the question is, if brands can claim category ownership through innovation, why don't we see established brands innovating more successfully?'

Well the short answer is that innovation is easy when all you have is faith. Once you have a successful business with real profits, developing new competencies is risky and expensive. It takes a long time, drains resources away from the core business, and risks the brand's reputation.

incremental changes. steve jobs rejected all 1000 ideas and got only 3 ideas working on

Leap before u look

http://37signals.com/svn/posts/1498-leap-before-you-look

Makes you wonder: How many others have succeeded because they didn’t know the rules? Because they didn’t realize that they were doing things they weren’t supposed to be doing?

We’re always taught to look before we leap, but it’s interesting to hear about the Segals of the world — those who succeed by rushing forward without thinking.

But doesn’t wisdom lead to success? Sure, it often does. But sometimes the winners are those who don’t have a lot of wisdom. 

Narendra modi sanand

Don’t lose out on opportunities

An opportunity often comes your way and by waiting for too long, it will pass you by. This could mean missing out on for example a lucrative business opportunity or a potential date.

So learn to weigh up what’s in front of you and then go for it.

At the same time, this doesn’t mean you throw all caution to the wind. Do some quick risk analysis as appropriate, but do not let that become a reason to hold back either