When business falls in love

The legend has it that a clergyman from ancient Rome, St. Valentine, was executed by the Emperor for marrying off runaway couples. To this day, February 14th is remembered with as much fervour and joy in memory of this kind-hearted Saint. And when it comes to business, Valentines day has much to offer. The following data could be useful to young entrepreneurs who have a lot of opportunities during the festival of love. The statistics are from the US. But I am showing this with the belief that Consumer behaviour should be the same everywhere.

Top Ways to Celebrate Valentine’s Day

Household participation rates

Greeting Cards	65%	Plush	21%
Date Night	44%	Other Gifts	17%
Candy	38%	Perfume/Cologne	12%
Flowers	32%	Jewelry	11%
Gift Cards	29%

Sources: Hallmark/Retail Industry Leaders Association/NRF

Valentine’s Cards
180 million
Number of Valentine’s Day cards exchanged annually, making Valentine’s Day the second-most popular greeting-card-giving occasion. (This total excludes packaged kids valentines for classroom exchanges.) (Source: Hallmark research)

Nearly 50 percent
Typically, the proportion of all Valentine’s Day cards purchased in the six days prior to the observance, making Valentine’s Day a procrastinator’s delight. (Source: Hallmark research)

About 40%
Proportion of all Valentine card purchases which parents account for. (Source: Hallmark research.)

Candy is Dandy

1,271
Number of locations producing chocolate and cocoa products in 2003. These establishments employed 43,379 people. California led the nation in the number of such establishments (with 146) followed by Pennsylvania (with 120). <http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/cbptotal.html>

519
Number of locations that produced nonchocolate confectionary products in 2003. These establishments employed 23,343 people. <http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/cbptotal.html>

$13.5 billion
Total value of shipments in 2003 for firms producing chocolate and cocoa products. Nonchocolate confectionery product manufacturing, meanwhile, was a $5.5 billion industry. <http://www.census.gov/prod/ec02/am0331gs1.pdf>

3,523
Number of confectionery and nut stores in the United States in 2003. Often referred to as candy stores, they are among the best sources of sweets for Valentine’s Day. <http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/cbptotal.html>

24.7 pounds
Per capita consumption of candy by Americans in 2004. Candy consumption has actually declined over the last few years; in 1997, each American gobbled or savored more than 27 pounds of candy a year. <http://www.census.gov/industry/1/ma311d04.pdf>

Flowers
$422 million
The combined wholesale value of domestically produced cut flowers in 2004 for all flower-producing businesses in 36 states with $100,000 or more in sales. Among states, California was the leading producer, alone accounting for nearly three-quarters of this amount ($304 million). <http://www.nass.usda.gov>

$43 million
The combined wholesale value of domestically produced cut roses in 2004 for all businesses in 36 states with $100,000 or more in sales. Among all types of cut flowers, roses were second in receipts to lilies ($78 million). <http://www.nass.usda.gov>

22,022
The number of florists nationwide in 2003. These businesses employed 113,270 people. <http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/cbptotal.html>

Jewelry
28,527
Number of jewelry stores in the United States in 2003. Jewelry stores offer engagement, wedding and other rings to lovers of all ages. In February 2005, these stores sold $2.4 billion worth of merchandise. (This figure has not been adjusted for seasonal variation, holiday or trading day differences or price changes.) <http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/cbptotal.html> <http://www.census.gov/mrts/www/mrts.html>

The merchandise at these locations could well have been produced at one of the nation’s 1,892 jewelry manufacturing establishments. The manufacture of jewelry was an $8.6 billion industry in 2003. <http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/cbptotal.html> <http://www.census.gov/prod/ec02/am0331gs1.pdf>

The Yield Curve

In one of the previous blogs, I had mentioned about the negative yield curve. Well....thats what the economy is going through now. A negative yield curve is one of the indicators that has always played prequel to economic slumps in the past. An example can be quoted from the 1998 US Stock market slumpdown, during which the US market saw a lot of IT based startup companies who had borrowed a lot of funds for keeping the business running but in the end many went down. (I recommend Startup.com, a real life documentary, which shows the nuances of not only starting a new company, but also keeping it running during a market downturn)

To get an idea of an inverted curve, try plotting a graph between the rate of return for Government bonds and the period to maturity. If the plotted curve is sloping upwards, the economy has lots in store for you. If the curve is sloping downwards, and you are a fresher who has just arrived in the market, you are in neck deep trouble!!

Image Courtesy: www.Wikipedia.org

Industrial opportunities in North-East India

If I were to be rich,
If I were to be sucessful,
If I were to be grateful,
I would return to this wonderful land,
and give back whatever it had given me
to make me what I am today

It has been a long while since I gave this presentation. Hope that my readers get to know about the industrial scenario of the North-East from this presentation. The document can be downloaded from the following link- http://www.scribd.com/doc/2462921/Industrial-Opportunities-in-the-Northeast

Good Morning North-East

It seems good days are back at the doorsteps of this once forgotten land of ours. Companies seem to have taken a new step in selecting MBA students from far fledged IIM-Shillong, located in Meghalaya, North-East India.

A delighted Director of the new IIM, Prof Ashoke K Dutta said, "When we approached the companies, initially they were hesitant. The challenge was to convince them as to how the products would be of help to them."

It seems being from IIM itself is not an advantage after all. The students as well as the administration have to also position themselves to grab the attention of the Corporates. Proper positioning must also be done to convince the biggies that the students have the basic skills in them to hold back major repercussions during the inverted curve period.

What the North-East needs is to make itself open for more opportunities pour in. Conditions like extremism are still prevalent and fresh in the minds of investors. Companies must convey their message to the people of the North-East that instead of feeling insecure, more opportunities would be coming at their doorsteps.

Let us hope this year ushers in a new spirit of hope to the region.

The New Curriculum

MBA aspirants joining this year & in the future may get to read a lot about the Satyam Scam & the fallen IT Czar Ramalinga Raju.

The question now being debated is whether fresh MBA grads ought to have their attention focussed on such a topic. There are some who feel that MBA's should know a thing or two about business ethics, and keeping that in mind is much more important than earning profits. Others say that such cases should be left to students doing CA courses and law firms as they are more involved directly in such cases.

According to me, a businessman needs to be aware of all his surroundings. People would think twice before they do something foolish or the other.

An MBA grad should know what has to be followed. There are many ways a company can earn its profits. Proper management happens when you take the right path of earning this profit. India is already dependent on FDI's & FII's on maintaining its stock market movement. Any similar mishap can make such investors loose their confidence in the Indian business environment, ultimately leading to more disaster.

Let us hope that there wont be another 'Enron' or 'Satyam' for us to study.

Why be excluded??

One of the topics being discussed in the banking world is 'Financial inclusion'. Financial inclusion aims at providing banking services to all in the most fair, transparent, & equitable manner at an affordable cost.

Much of the society today has been divided into 3 distinct parts- First come the elite who are provided with the best of financial instruments. In the extreme ridge come people who are denied all the services. In the middle come people who mostly use banking services for withdrawing and depositing money.

According to Shri. V. Leeladhar, Deputy Governor, RBI, Financial exclusion could lead to severe economic problems starting from higher incidences of crime to increase in unemployment levels.

Just having an ordinary "no frills" current/savings account is not what financial inclusion is all about. Financial inclusion should aim at providing the essential services to the needy with the necessary information so that a person can decide what is the right choice for him/her. For example, villages could have electronic ATM's which could give instructions in local dialect and which would also offer facilities for depositing money as well.

Banks when opening business in rural areas should forget their competitive restrictions and allow people to withdraw from any bank whichever is closer. Bank drawing limits at such areas should be revised.

Courtesy- Aathira G. Krishna, MBA 1st year, Pondicherry University

New Satyam CEO A S Murty says 'Yes! We Can'

TOI: Employees of Satyam, on Thursday welcomed the appointment of global delivery head AS Murty as the new CEO by the government appointed board of the crisis-hit company.

The move went down well with Satyam employees, who see him as a neutral executive and one who is not part of disgraced Satyam founder, Ramalinga Raju's coterie.

These employees earlier expressed dissent when Ram Mynampati took charge as interim CEO of Satyam, following Raju's confession of perpetrating a Rs 7,000 crore fraud.

Following his appointment as CEO, Mr Murty addressed tens of thousands of Satyam employees at different locations through a web cast that lasted over half an hour. The speech was aimed at motivating and reassuring employees, who have had to cope with social stigma and insecurity after news of the Satyam fraud came out last month.

"If an internal person, has to head Satyam, Murty is the best. He has good knowledge of delivery, HR and associates(employees). I would say that of the over 50,000 Satyam employees, Murty would be familiar with at least 10,000. I am sure he would know the top 500 leaders by name," said a long-time employee of Satyam, who did not wish to be named.

About Murty's association with Raju, the same employee said, "Raju did not accord him any special place or promotion. He is like the Pranab Mukherjee of Satyam, an effective troubleshooter, who can keep the employees together."