strategos - volume ii issue i march 2011

8/7/2019 Strategos - Volume II Issue I March 2011

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Innovation Consulting

Advising the Gods

Consultant for Team

India

War StrategiesLearning from history

II Issue I March 2011



Innovation today is increasingly being seen as a key business

enabler. It helps solve some of the most fundamental

business problems from attracting customers through

product/service offerings to lowering manufacturing costs,

optimizing supply and distribution, etc. A key example in this

case is of course Apple which in the last 15 years has gone

from a near bankrupt corporation to becoming an industry

leader and one of the most innovative companies globally.

More and more companies are looking towards building this

competency and are looking at engaging with innovation

consultants. In this context, our feature article on Innovation

Unplugged is a must read as it takes you through the basics

of what innovation is all about and seeks to dispel many

misconceptions around innovation practices.

This edition also features an article on Advising the Gods—

Consultant for Team India which presents a detailed analysis

of the Indian Cricket Team as well as analysis of some of its

biggest threats in the World Cup. The article on War

Strategies takes you back to the third battle of Panipat and

does a analysis of the entire conflict with idea being to

critically analyze the strategic aspects of the event.

There is also a featured debate on the evolving role of the

consultant-client relationship with arguments in favour of

looking at the consultant as a stakeholder or a service

provider.

The edition also includes a roundup of all the happenings of

IIFT’s Green Conclave 2011 as well as a roundup of Socrates,

The Consulting Club’s year round activities. In case of any

feedback or contributions for the upcoming edition of the

magazine, please do write into us.

Wishing you a happy reading,

Oojwal Manglik

Chief Editor

Strategos, The Consulting Magazine

Indian Institute of Foreign Trade

From the Editor’s Desk Innovation Unplugged 3

Rahul Agarwal

Advising the Gods

Consultant for Team India 7

Vishnuram L.

War Strategies

Learning from History 12

Aniket R Khare

Green Conclave @ IIFT 18

Suneet Choudhury

Consultant as a Stakeholder or

Service Provider

A Debate 20

Aditi Nagpal

Oojwal Manglik

Strategic Branding:

All Cars Have Four Wheels 22Apoorv Dixit

Socrates Roundup 25

Funny Bone:

Dilbert’s Desk 28

Volume II Issue I

Socrates, The Consulting Club

Abhinav Varshney +91 9654438680

Sudeep Deb +91 7838810091

Umang Chittlangia +91 8800221243

Email

[email protected]

[email protected]

Visit Us At www.iiftians.blogspot.com

www.iift.edu



IN-novation is, very simply, IN. Every company talks about it, wants to do it. Policy

makers, governments and analysts alike all talk about innovation being the need of

the hour and the panacea to all ills.

Yet, as an Innovation practitioner I see that Innovation as a conceptual domain is

quite narrowly, may I say poorly, understood. In this short article, I will attempt to

put forth a holistic perspective on what innovation is and isn’t, busting some mythsand mis-perceptions along the way.

The biggest and most prevalent world-view about innovation is that it has to be

“that big-bang idea” that no one ever heard or figured out. This view is highly

misleading. The big insight about innovation is that it’s not about the idea, it’s

entirely about the value. If you can figure out a way to unleash big amounts of

‘new’ value, you have innovated. It doesn’t matter if you have leveraged something

that already existed. Some examples help clarify this. Was the iPod the first MP3

player in the market? No, Audio Highway of the US did it first, followed by Koreans,five years before the iPod. Was iTunes the first digital music platform in the market?

No, Napster in 1999 and many others came before it. Yet it was Apple who figured

out how to put the ‘product’ and the ‘service’ together in a way that unleashed

huge new value for the consumer, and in fact ended up redefining the whole music

industry. Take another example. Was IPL the first to auction players? No. Football

Innovation UnpluggedRahul Agarwal



Premier league has been buying and selling players for ages. Was IPL the first to

have cheerleaders? No, baseball has that all the time. But IPL brought these

elements together and did it the first time in ‘puritanical’, change-resistant cricket,

breaking many taboos indeed but in the process becoming the fastest growing

sports franchise ever in reaching $2 billion valuation within 2 years!

The second ‘problem’ with wannabe innovators is that they tend to jump to

finding the smart answer. The belief is “If we can crack the right answer, we are

home”. Not that this is surprising, given that our education system teaches,

measures and rewards the ability to get to the answer fast. The big insight here

is that innovation very often lies in asking the question one never asked before.

When S K Telecom of Korea asked the question “how can we monetize the hitherto

un-monetized parts of the network?”, it gave birth to the caller tune. When

Cavincare asked the question “why does a shampoo have to be sold in

minimum 250 ml bottle and cost a minimum Rs. 30?”, it gave birth to the sachet.When Sunil Mittal at Bharti Airtel asked the question “why do we need to run all

operations ourselves?”, it gave birth to the now-famous “minutes factory” model

that made India the lowest cost mobile telephony market in the world in just

ten years. So if you can ask a lot of questions, seemingly naïve, stupid, child-like

questions, you have a good chance you will come up with a truly innovative,

value-creating answer.

The third misconception about innovation is that it can be done by only a

few – those bright, ‘sparky’, gifted people who ‘just get it’. In my experience, this issimply not true. Humans are born creative, period. The problem is we let the

society put labels on us and over time we cement the same self-view by

reinforcing those labels. So we often say “I’m not good in creating, but I can

execute” or “I simply run out of ideas very quickly so it must mean I’m not very

creative”. As they say, perception is reality. You become your thoughts. To

innovate, first you must truly believe you are as gifted as the Steve Jobs out there.

Second, it’s about learning techniques that help you think smart and out-of-box.

The fourth problem with the way most innovation is attempted is that it is“inside-out”. A company and its people tend often to get locked-in into their view

of the customer and the market. They believe they know everything about the

customer. They rely on part formulae that have clicked, while diligently avoiding

those that didn’t. In doing so, they miss out. Not only that, they end up doing

incremental stuff which they then label innovation. The trouble is that only they

can see their innovation, most times the customer can’t! You just need to walk

down the aisles of any retail mall and check out competing brands of toothpaste,

shampoo, refrigerator, TV or almost anything to see what I mean. Incremental

‘tweaks’ are not equal to innovation. Innovation’s power comes from the power of

breakthrough insight. Insight is that under-served or under-understood need that



no one has addressed before. The right way to attempt innovation is “Outside-in”,

that is, work back from market insight. When Ratan Tata goes on to produce the 1

lac Nano because India’s vast middle-class needs a safe, modern and affordable

means of transport, he is

being outside-in. When

Nintendo recognizes thatgaming is traditionally

patronized by the young,

single male and it’s

technically challenging for

most others, it came up

with the Wii console that

made gaming physically

closer to reality, fun and aseasy for a child or a

grandmother. It blew away

the competition and

expanded the size of the

market many-fold. That’s what insight-driven innovation is all about.

The fifth ‘graveyard’ of innovation is the notion that if we get a smart innovative

idea, the rest is easy. In my experience, the smart idea is a mere 20%, 80% is all

about the execution. And by the way, out-of-box ideas cannot be implemented

with a ‘business-as-usual’ execution mentality or process. It is a different recipe. It

needs people at the helm who are passionate, impatient, resourceful and don’t

easily “no” or “can’t do” for an answer – that’s not your typical corporate manager.

It needs side-stepping long bureaucratic mechanisms and tiring hierarchies and

political compulsions. It needs a razor-sharp focus on the end-goal and avoiding

dilution under the guise of ‘practicality’. Further, it needs a quick ‘rapid

prototyping’ approach instead of the oft-seen Excel-PPT fixation and

over-intellectualization. A great example here is the way Nandan Nilekani has gone

about executing the UID scheme. A bold, ambitious idea but fiendishly complex toget right. No global precedent to benchmark and learn from. No proven

technology to adopt. No ready pool of talent to tap. Yet a true innovator like

Nandan is managing to do it, with meticulous planning, keeping an open mind,

doing prototypes to try out different approaches, enrolling scores of stakeholders,

and leveraging the power of collaboration.

To sum up, first, innovation is not necessarily about that big bang never-before

idea, it’s a lot about ‘connecting the dots’ that already exist, in a unique way that

unleashes huge new value. Second, innovation is firstly about asking a lot of veryfundamental questions that people either didn’t think of or were afraid to ask. This

uncovers many assumptions which when challenged lead to great innovations. So,



innovation starts with asking questions, then only finding a unique answer. Third,

innovation is not rocket science that can be attempted only by the gifted few.

Backed with a can-do belief and done with the right techniques, it can be done on

everyday basis by everybody, be it an individual, a team, an organization or an

entire ecosystem. Fourth, innovation always ought to be done working-back-

from-insight, and not working-forward-from-my worldview. If a unique andpowerful insight is uncovered, a successful innovation is much more likely. Last but

perhaps most important, innovation is meaningless with just a great idea, it has to

get converted to a working business proposition. In an innovation journey,

although the ‘high’ comes from reaching the insight and the breakthrough idea,

it’s the ‘perspiration’ or the execution part which makes the difference between

what makes it and what doesn’t. Innovation must be executed with a business-as

unusual mindset and process, else it may not succeed. They say America was built

on the foundation of finance and entrepreneurship, Japan was built on afoundation of quality, China was built on a foundation of low cost manufacturing.

It is my firm conviction that if India is to become prosperous and a leading nation

of the world, it can only be built on a foundation of innovation.

The Author is Practice Head

Targeted Innovation in Operations

Erehwon Innovation Consulting He is alumnus of IIFT’s MPIB 1997 program



After 15 years, we get to see a world cup

where there are no favorites. Team India

has the right blend of youth and

experience, where a veteran of 22 years of

international cricket shares dressing roomswith people who were not born when he

first wore the colours of team India, and as

a bridge we have a set of 4-5 players, who

have played in excess of 200 international

matches.

Team Lineup—Analysis

We arguably have the best batting line up in the present tournament. Who can be

more destructive than the man who has scored two test trebles and almost scored

another one, who has scored against every opposition and in every condition, spin

pace, seam, bounce, you name it and he has hammered every bowler everywhere.

A casual statement expressing his intention to bat for fifty overs brought shivers

down the spine of every bowler worth his weight. Critics would point to his not so

great ODI record, especially in terms of his batting average (34+), but the strike

rate is an equally important measure in judging an ODI batsman. When we useStrike rate multiplied by batting average as a measure Virender Sehwag is among

the very best. Moreover his average during the last two years, wherein he has

played 32 one day internationals is a handsome 43.31 scored at a phenomenal

strike rate of 125.22. Also, during the said period there is huge increase in the time

he has spent in the middle, A very popular commentator once said: One definite

way to know the result of any match that India plays is to find out the number of

overs Veeru spent at the crease.

To add calm to the fire, we have the maestro, giving the firebrand company, what

Advising the GodsConsultant for Team India

Vishnuram L.

MBA(IB) 2010-12



more needs to said about the man who has scored a staggering 30,000

international runs, 17,000 of those in this format of the game at an unbelievable

average of 45 and astonishing strike rate of 86.69, and like old wine he seems to

only get better with age, in the last two years he has shown the kind of form which

can only be termed phenomenal, the zenith being the double he scored at Gwalioragainst Dale Steyn and company. He can contribute in every way, his cricketing

sense is part of folklore and a even the most underutilised of his skills- Bowling,

which can come handy. Who can forget his exploits with the ball, when as a 20

year old he was thrown the ball in the final over of the Hero cup at the mother of

all stadiums in India- The Eden Gardens, after the Great Kapil declined to bowl the

final over, with South Africa requiring just 6 runs with the reliable McMillan still at

the crease, and restricted the Marauding south Africans three runs short of their

target.

At number three we have Gautam Gambhir, who many experts have hailed as the

perfect mixture of Sachin and Sehwag, especially in terms of the approach of the

former and the aggression of the latter, he has been extremely consistent in both

forms of the game in the last three years and has also shown good leadership

qualities, evidence to the same being the calm manner in which he led the side

during the recently concluded bilateral series against New Zealand. With a no

clear weakness against any kind of bowling and an enviable record in the subcontinent, he is the ideal man at number 3.

At number four, we have the new kid on the block, the fearless rookie, who has

been India’s best batsman in the last year, Virat Kohli, who seems to revel under

pressure, testimony to his handling pressure is the brilliant century he scored

against the world champions, while chasing a difficult total. He mixes caution with

aggression and his strokes in the cover region, especially his cover drives are a

treat to the eye, sick of watching scoops and cross batted heaves.

Positions 5, 6 and 7 are not quite fixed and the order is determined purely by

situation rather than any prior strategy. The three warriors in question are the

Captain himself, the man hailed as the next Tendulkar- Yuvraj and the marauding

Yusuf Pathan. M.S. Dhoni possesses no great technique, but his cool head and his

accurate reading of the game compensates for the lack of technique, he has,

especially after assuming captaincy, radically changed his game, previously known

for its flamboyance and power hitting to a more sedate yet sensible approach.Being a great player of spin, he should have no problem in batting in any position



or situation in any of the pitches in the sub continent.

Yuvraj Singh, his recent form notwithstanding, can change any match in a matter

of 10 deliveries, A certain Broad will stand testimony to the above statement,

Yuvraj’s skills with the ball has given the team the luxury of playing 7 batsmen,

which will help in setting or overhauling huge totals, and given the fact that most

of the teams have found it difficult playing against spin, one would not be

surprised if he is able to win matches purely on account of his bowling.

Yousuf Boom Boom Pathan, excuse the fact the middle name is borrowed from

that of another Pathan, who seems to captain another team. He can destroy

bowling attacks, reputation, and coaching manuals singlehandedly and in a matter

of minutes, the Kiwis and the Proteas faced the marauders wroth and will swear

by any holy book of this man’s hitting power, especially the bullets over the mid

wicket – long on region. If the T20 world cup 2007 was the trailer and the IPL is

first movie, this could be the magnum opus, the Oscar winner that most actors

wait for.

Spots 8,9,10 and 11 go to the bowlers, which has been the team’s weakest link,

especially in the shorter version for the last few years. This fact notwithstanding,

our bowlers have come with some remarkable performances over the last few

years. Led by the wily Zaheer Khan, whose opening burst and late reverse swinghas been the cause of a few nightmares, you can ask a certain Mr. Smith, who

seems to have no clue while facing the Baroda Express, and supported ably by



Nehra, whose death bowling seems to improve with every match. The Spin

department seems to be in safe hands, with Harbhajan controlling the flow of runs

and Chawla- A leg spinner is a wicket taker, capable of providing the break-

throughs.

Threat Analysis

Threat one: The mercurial Pakistanis, if at

all a team has 11 match winners, it is this

team. On their day, they can defeat the

West Indies of the 70’s and the

Australians of the last decade put

together, and as a succour to other

teams, the one area where this team has

made no progress is consistency,

evidence to it is the fact that in the world

cup which they won, they were also

bundled out for 74 in a group encounter

against a team they beat in the finals.

India must exploit this inconsistency and care should be taken to negotiate Shoaib

Akhtar in the early overs and Umar gul, especially his reverse swing towards theend, another weak link is the dependence on Younis and Misbah and a relatively

inexperienced middle order, India must exploit this weakness in order to even

think of victory against a team capable of any miracle, which can be classified as

the rarest of rare.

Threat two: comes in the form of the world champions who are yet to lose a

match, in the quadrennial event since their 10 run loss to Pakistan 12 years back.

With a strong batting line up and a capable bowling attack, they surely are

contenders for the biggest prize in international cricket. Their only weakness

seems to be spin and the indifferent form of their skipper, the Talismanic

Tasmanian, exploiting his present lack of form and his weakness against Harbhajan

Singh, India must bowl Harbhajan Singh as long as the punter is at the crease.

Another threat is Watson, his attacking nature means a few chances will be

offered, India must be disciplined in the opening overs and maintain a tight line

and length, this might frustrate Watson and force him to go for his shots. The

team’s middle order seems to not have the big names, it once used to have,Michael Hussey’s absence should be exploited to the hilt, and the easy singles



batsmen the world over have been able to score against us, due to our famous

inefficiency in the field, has to be prevented. The sub continent’s pitches will not

offer the bounce the Aussie speedsters are used to, but, we have to be cautious

and not throw our wickets away, negotiating the initial overs without losing

wickets will help us set competitive totals and we should exploit the lack of experience in the Aussie middle order. With their exit from the world cup, Team

India has not only faced and overcome its biggest demon from the 2003 world cup

campaign, but also ensured that this year a new team will be crowned world

champions.

Threat three: The Consistent South Africans, they have always been contenders in

every event this game has offered. They have also consistently failed when under

the slightest of pressure, earning them the nickname the chokers. Led by a Giantof man, in both the batting and in the field this team can challenge any team in the

world. India, particularly Zaheer has been successful against Smith and this must

be used in our favour, in the event of an encounter against the Proteas. Another

threat is the man hailed as the greatest cricketer ever, the ever reliable Jaques

kallis, the only strategy against him seems to be disciplined bowling and fielding,

with no perceived our real weakness against any kind of bowling, there seems to

be no other way to corner this warrior. Amla and De Villiers are serious threats too

and have demonstrated the ability to singlehandedly steer their team to victory,here too disciplined bowling seems to be the key. South Africa’s defeat in the

quarter finals has only improved India’s chances of becoming world champions

this year.



INTRODUCTION

One battlefield in India where victory has unfortunately always belonged to the

invader has been Panipat.

This article analyzes the third battle of Panipat. Often termed as one of the most

fiercely fought and decisive battles of the 18th

century in India, it dealt a huge blow

to the strength of the Maratha empire under the Peshwas. The Peshwas never

really recovered from this blow. In a long term perspective it paved the way for the

British to gain control over the rest of India as till 1765 the British area of influence

was largely restricted to the states Bengal and Awadh.

Events leading to the Battle

The Maratha empire was at its peak around 1760. The reign of Peshwas extended

from Punjab in the North to Hyderabad in the south.

The part of the map shaded orange shows Maratha

empire around 1760. Raghunath Rao expanded the

Maratha empire till Attock in Afghanisthan in 1755.

Historical records show that Raghunath Rao

defeated Ahmed Shah Abdali’s son Timur Shah

during this period. The Nawab Najib-ud-Daulah of

Rohilla Khand, found these a convenient set of circumstances to plan for two things:

War StrategiesLearning from history

Aniket R Khare

MBA(IB) 2010-12

The Battles of Panipat

No Date Invader Home side Result

I 21st April 1526 Babur Ibrahim Khan Lodi Babur won

II 5th Nov 1556 Jalaluddin Akbar Hemraj Vikramaditya (Hemu) Akbar won

III 14th Jan 1761 Ahmed Shah Abdali Peshwas - Sadashiv Rao Bhau Abdali won



1. Diminish the influence of Marathas in India, especially control over the

Mughal ruler in Delhi and

2. Give himself a controlling role in Delhi

He invited Ahmed Shah Abdali in 1759 on the pretext of religious commonality and

so that Abdali could avenge the defeat of his son. He also promised Abdali huge

gains both territorial as well as financial.

As Abdali entered the country in late 1759 Najib Ud Daulah also threatened and

convinced Shuja-Ud-Daulah, the Nawab of Avadh to support the Afghan forces.

Going against the advice of his mother, he joined the forces of Abdali and was one

of the biggest contributors to the expense account during the whole time.

In 1760, Abdali drew first blood by attacking a small Maratha army led by Dattaji

Scindhia at Murari Ghat. Dattaji fought with characteristic Maratha valour but was

soon defeated and killed by Abdali’s troops.

Alarmed by Dattaji’s death the Maratha supremacy in Pune vowed to take

revenge. Owing to differences between Raghunath Rao and the Peshwa ruler Balaji

Baji Rao the Peshwa decided to send Sadashiv Rao Bhau and his son Vishwas Rao

to lead the Marathas against the Afghans.

The Marathas army had 80,000 forces including 35,000 cavalry and 130 pieces of

French artillery. Since army ensured protection, a large number of civilians

exceeding 300,000 accompanied the army on a pilgrimage to the holy places in the

north. This was a huge liability for the Marathas as they were permanently bound

to provide safety, food and other arrangements for these people. Abdali had no

such constraints.

The Afghans army had over 100,000 warriors including 40,000 cavalry. It also had

80 pieces of artillery which was light, could be mounted upon camels and

transported easily.

Raja Surajmal Jat, the ruler of Bharatpur refused to involve himself in the battle

owing to differences with the Marathas over control over Delhi. The Marathas also

never got support from the other rulers in the North like the Sikhs of Punjab. They

were thus isolated.

Sometime in September 1760, the Maratha forces attacked Kunjpura fort routingthe Afghan garrison and looting the wealth that Abdali had kept in reserve at the



fort. Stuck on the other bank of the Yamuna, Abdali was extremely frustrated and

at a considerable cost and risk crossed the Yamuna on 17th

October 1760 at

Baghpat. A weakened Abdali even considered truce with the Marathas. But Najib

Ud Daulah successfully steered him away from the path of peace in pursuit of his

own ambition.

Abdali’s Yamuna crossing was a decisive turn of events as it left the Marathas

stranded in the north isolated from their supply lines and Abdali to the south

isolated from his own supply lines. However Abdali could generate alternate

means of supplies because of his proximity to Rohilla Khand and availability of

Shuja Ud Daulah’s finances. An additional army led by Atai Khan also joined Abdali

in late December 1760 to compensate for the losses incurred while crossing the

Yamuna.

On the way they cut off Maratha

supplies by capturing and killing

Govind Pant Bundela, responsible for

Maratha supplies in a skirmish.

Because the Maratha army had a large

civilian population accompanying

them they delayed their attack on the

Afghans hoping for the restoration of supplies and fearing their exposure to

the Afghans in a situation of battle.

The supplies were never restored. The ensuing period of starvation frustrated the

army and weakened the cavalry.

On 14th January 1761, the Maratha forces attacked. They positioned themselves

near the village of Kala Amb, with a clear battle plan to decimate Abdali’s right

flank by the afternoon so that the women and support staff could be transported

across the Yamuna to safety.

Hence Bhau placed Ibrahim Khan

on the left flank so that the

artillery could build pressure on

Abdali’s right flank. This strategy

proved effective to a limited

extent. The Maratha forces under

Bhau led a frontal attack whichnearly split the Afghan army in



two.

However the enthused Maratha army soon grew exhausted due to starvation in

the days preceding battle. This helped Afghan forces to regroup. Meanwhile Najib

successfully built pressure on Jankoji Scindhia’s flank. Vishwas Rao entered the

battle seeing the weakened position of the frontal forces. At this crucial juncture

Abdali introduced his camel mounted artillery who could fire over the Afghan

forces directly aiming at the Maratha cavalry at a short range. The Maratha cavalry

found it impossible to face up to this. Also since the Shaturnals were very mobile

in nature, the Maratha artillery could do little to counter them. This proved to be

another decisive turning point of the battle and the tide turned irreparably in

favour of the Afghans.

Towards the evening, Bhau himself finally entered battle. Not seeing him on his

elephant created confusion amongst Maratha soldiers and rumours of defeat

began to spread. Although majority of the forces were still fighting this proved tobe a big blow to the Maratha morale. Eventually Vishwas Rao fell to a bullet in the

head while Bhau faught on with his bodyguards till the end despite having three

horses shot out from under him. Malharrao Holkar retreated from the field to

escort the women and support staff to safety and proceeded to Gwalior.

Major Maratha generals like Jankoji Scindhia and Ibrahim Gardi were captured and

executed by the Afghans. Tukoji Scindhia, Damaji Gaekwad and Vittal Vinchurkar

apart from Vishwas Rao and Bhau too lost their lives. In all around 70,000 Marathasoldiers lost their lives while Abdali himself lost around 35,000 of his soldiers and



two generals. Najib lost 15,000 Rohillas.

The aftermath of battle

A. The Maratha empire suffered an irreparable blow. Though they still controlled

a major part of North India in subsequent years, they were never as spiritedor as united as before Panipat.

B. The British started interfering in Maratha politics towards the 1770s. This

finally led to the Anglo-Maratha wars, the last of which was decisively won by

the British in 1818 bringing an end to the Maratha empire. Panipat was that

decisive result which gave the British a foot-in-the-door entry into the politics

of central India. It was thence that they became a major force.

C. Nawab Shuja Ud Daulah, repentant of his Afghan support at Panipateventually lost to the British in the Battle of Buxar in 1764.

D. Najib gained from the battle, but still never got as much control as he

wanted. Abdali refused to give him controlling powers at Delhi fearing a

Maratha revenge attack. After Najib’s death in 1770, the Rohillas were routed

by the British.

Lessons to be learnt

Strategic

A. Sadashiv Rao Bhau was much less aware of the political and military situa-

tions in North India than Malhar Rao Holkar or Raghunath Rao. Choice of

leadership had to be extremely judicious. As a leader, taking Malhar Rao

Holkar’s advice keenly should have been Bhau’s priority knowing his

experience in North India.

B. The shift of battle preference from guerrilla warfare to open battle wentdirectly against the Maratha core strength. The Afghan cavalry could never

have handled small skirmishes over a long duration of time because Abdali

never had the patience to stay on infinitely in India. His forces too were very

eager to return to Afghanistan.

C. The Marathas, owing to politics of superiority, never focused on any alliances

with critical people like Surajmal Jat and Nawab of Avadh. On the contrary,

because of their continuous demand for payment of tributes from theseterritories they incurred their combined hostility which became too much to



handle.

Tactical

A. The Maratha artillery was heavy and static. The Afghan artillery was light and

mobile. They had no plan to counter this advantage enjoyed by the Afghans.B. The Maratha chiefs themselves were constantly at odds with each other with

many of them opposing the idea of an open battle against guerrilla warfare.

This diminished their confidence in battle.

C. The burden of pilgrims almost always drove the Maratha battle plan. This was

fatal. Normally pilgrims should have had zero stake in driving battle decisions.

The decision to delay the attack on Afghans resulted in severe starvation of

the Maratha forces eventually leading to the loss.

Operational

A. The Marathas fought with empty stomachs, terribly weak. Their mobility was

greatly restricted due to accompanying pilgrims.

B. The timing of introduction of Shaturnals by Abdali was very crucial. He

introduced them when a large chunk of the Maratha horses were exhausted

thus becoming easy targets for the Shaturnals.

C. Better intelligence of enemy forces helped Abdali mobilize his forces better.

D. Bhau, unlike Abdali maintained no reserve force with him. Once he found that

Vishwas Rao had disappeared into battle, he had only himself to rely upon. For

an army’s morale, this proced imprudent.



In focus of promoting the Indian Carbon Consulting Industry, IIFT, India’s premier B

-school, took the initiative in focus with PAT: Perform Achieve and Trade by

organizing “GREEN CONCLAVE 2011”. The baton of this strategy lies with the

Carbon Consultant who would help the industries modify their processes to make

them energy efficient.

IIFT was witness to one of the

most contemporary debates inInternational Business involving

the scope of carbon trading and

consulting from an international

as well as Indian Perspective.

Conducted by Socrates

(Consulting Club at IIFT DELHI) ,

this discussion had a healthy mix

of industry stalwarts , delegates

interested in carbon consulting , as well as the students who were curious to gaininsights about a field which is still in its budding years.

The discussion was between three different industry experts from a different

domain but with a common interest in PAT. It was moderated by a highly

experienced professional who has been involved in projects involving carbon

credits for several years now. Mr Tapan Chowdhury, Head, Fundraising, Care India

was the moderator for the event. The panellists included Mr Nitin Zamre MD India

ICF International (Climate Change Consultant), Mr Ajay Ahuja, General Manager

Sun Microsystems (IT Professional) and Mr Birjendra Sangwaiya, Principal

Consultant Emergent Ventures (Climate change Consultant).

The discussion started with the agenda from the moderator that the “Industry

needs to play a major role in developing a sustainable model for carbon credits in

India”.

Nitin Zamre focused on the fact there is no current climate related target as of yet

which has been stipulated by the government. He gave us a brief overview of the

PAT scheme and stressed on the fact that it is not a one size fits all model. Some of his notable quote which came out were “If everybody overachieves in gaining

Green Conclave @ IIFT

Suneet Choudhury

MBA(IB) 2010-12



carbon credits, then there won’t be a market for carbon trading” which indicated

that it was theoretical possibility that everyone achieves equivalent emission cuts

Ajay Ahuja brought about the IT industry’s perspective into focus. He stressed on

the role that it industry had to play in reducing carbon emissions and make its

technologies more efficient. With in-creased usage of it infrastructure

across industries it was imperative

that IT technologies should in corpo-

rate greater power savings, in order to

make it a green technology. His most

impact full quote was “The cost of op-

erating power of servers is more than

the cost to buy them” indicating the

need of the hour was to find energy

efficient solutions in order to make

business a sustainable and green

model.

Birjendra Sangwariya an IIFT alumnus principally discussed on the world carbon

trading market, whether they are linked to each other, and the existing standards

and registries. He discussed on the regulatory changes which might come into

factor in order to bring a unified model and a consultant’s role in the entirescenario.

This discussion ended with questions on a few major issues like the scope of

unification of carbon credit schemes across the world, life cycle of these schemes

and costs of implementation, export –import of these credits in the international

market, role of cloud computing in reducing carbon emissions.

It was an eye opener in terms of how much crucial role controlling of carbon

emissions will play in the future of industrial sectors , and the role of theconsultant involved in climate change solutions.



Consultant as a Service Provider

Looking at the history of consulting which started in 1920s with the first marks that of Booze

and Company in 1914 and of McKinsey in 1923, one sees in retrospect that consulting emerged

as a domain for individuals having specialization in certain fields which were their forte. It

wasn’t much of an industry per se.

But with organizations getting bigger and their internal challenges aggravating it was perceived

extremely beneficial to have a third party perspective. This perspective was brought to the fore

through a consultant and that’s how a consultant got incorporated in the industry andconsultancy flourished as an industry. This saw the emergence of BCG in 1963 and Bain and

Company ten years later.

As this industry progressed all consultants fell into the trap of categorizing industry wide

problems. As a result they lost out on customization which led to implementation issues. Since

the consultant was a third party provider, for the independence of consultants to be maintained

they took the view that they should not be forced to have an implementation liability in their

contract as this would hamper the effectiveness of their independent view. This is where

consulting as a profession preferred to remain a service provider and not become a stakeholder

in its implementation.

This was often misconstrued as an escape clause by a client who did not derive sufficient benefit

from a consultant’s advice.

However, looking at the way the operational consulting is done which mostly includes

accounting and IT consulting firms the implementation liability in the contract is imposed by

default due to the nature of the work. It will not be long before these firms will actually be seen

entering the strategy consulting space. Examples like PWC, Deliotte and KPMG galore.

In a few cases companies like Accenture have been known to peg their revenues from a clientbased on the increase in stock price of the client’s stock after they have begin engaging

Accenture for their services. One such deal was signed between Accenture and Best Buy a few

quarters ago. When such firms start competing in the strategy consulting space it then leads

clients to wonder whether an implementation liability makes sense or not in the contract.

To sum it up purely from a perspective of strategy in the best interest of a consultant a stake in

implementation is not advisable.

Aditi Nagpal

MBA (IB) 2010—12

Consulting Debate

Consultant as a service provider or stake holder



Consultant as a Stake Holder

A company’s stakeholder is defined by the business dictionary as a person, group or

organization that has a direct or indirect stake in an organization because it is (or can) be

affected by the organizations actions, objectives and policies. This definition traditionally

consisted of owners, customers, employees, etc. However, today the scope of this term is nowbeing broadened to include external consultants as well. The scope of a consultant’s role is

changing from being a billable resource that provides solutions to business problems to one that

is a stakeholder in the company and can make recommendations and also implement the

solutions.

The reason behind this is pretty straightforward. Every consulting assignment is a challenge and

investment for both the consultancy and the client. In addition to the financial investment, a

client opens up its internal operations and working to an external agency for analysis which puts

it at business risk. Despite the presence of well formulated non disclosure agreements, any

disputes and subsequent litigation is an expensive proposition for both parties. On the other

side, the consultancy invests by bringing not just highly skilled and trained (and paid)

consultants to the business problem, but also his professional reputation to the assignment. The

success of the assignment is the critical to both the client and the consultancy. Consulting is a

high stakes game after all. This is all the more the case since each consulting solution is

tailor-made to suit the values and business model of a client.

One of the classic examples of this is when McKinsey worked with GM in the 1980s. In the

mid-1980s, General Motors Corp. called in McKinsey for reorganization help. McKinsey's plan

called for the company to be divided into two divisions, instead of the five divisions into which itwas then divided. However, the move resulted in great inefficiency, according to critics, and the

company failed to realize any savings in costs or increase in productivity. For McKinsey, it meant

the departure Ron Daniel in 1988 as the company’s managing director. This example illustrates

how a mismatch between project recommendation and project implementation can have

disastrous consequences for both the client and the consultancy.

Learning from events such as these, the consultant client relationship has evolved in many cases

into a even higher involvement business and has led to an increase in expectations between the

two. In these cases clients today expect consultants to be more involved in their work and not just provide solutions, but also oversee implementation and show results. Consultants expect

greater transparency and greater liberty as far as their work is concerned.

In the consultant as a stakeholder model, most of these concerns and expectations are

addressed. As stakeholders, consultants play a greater role in seeing the assignment through

the implementation stage which benefits the customer. The relationship not only provides the

consultancy with a stable source of future work and revenue. All this has led to a gradual

transition in the role of a consultant towards being a stakeholder, as many of these concerns

and expectations can now be addressed.

Oojwal Manglik

MBA (IB) 2010—12



All cars have four wheels. Yet they manage to differentiate themselves by the way

they BRAND themselves. Powerful word these days isn’t it, yet the word brand

began simply as a way to tell one person's cattle from another by means of a hot

iron stamp. But today it is the personality with which the customer identifies a

product, service or company and it can be anything right from a name (Colgate) to

a symbol(McDonald’s) to a tagline (Nike, ‘Just do it’).

For a brand to be strong it should generate a strong identity in the minds of the

consumer, for instance, the brand ‘Volvo’ generates a sense of safety, ‘Mercedes’ a

sense of prestige while if we look at the Indian markets ‘Colgate’ means

toothpaste, ‘Maggi’ means noodles or ‘Parle-G’ biscuits. Building a brand is no

doubt a very big challenge and it can take years even if you have all the world’s

resources at your disposal (read ‘Nirma’ vs. HUL’s ‘Surf’ in the 80s) but maintaining

that image is an even bigger task (read Coca-Cola’s ‘New Coke’ fiasco or Cadbury’s

worm controversy) and considering the ever changing global landscape, the task of a brand consultant is getting complex day by day.

Branding is a very hot topic in boardroom meetings these days as most CEOs have

realized the value attached to these intangible assets called ‘brand’ . And why

shouldn’t it be as shown by a McKinsey analysis which suggests that about half of

the market value of the Fortune 250 is tied to intangible assets; who knows this

figure for some of the world’s best known companies can be even higher. So let us

take a look at some of the complex issues a brand consultant faces today:

Brand leverage—why, when and how?

Branding is a very powerful tool for each and every one

involved in the process right from the companies (increased

revenue) to the shareholders (strong brands generate, on

average, TRS that are 1.9 percent above the industry

average, while weaker brands lag behind the average by 3.1

percent)1 to the customers from simplifying everyday

choices (when she buys Colgate she does not have to fret

All Cars Have Four Wheels

Strategic Branding

Apoorv Dixit

MBA(IB) 2010-12



daily over a simple toothpaste) to reducing the risk of complex buying decisions

(Maruti or Hero Honda). So if we look at it closely, a strong brand can be of two

types: a focused one (Dell, Maruti) or a diversified (Kingfisher, Tata) one. A strong

company can do both as research2

suggests that focused brands earn 0.9% higher

than average while diversified brands earn no less than 5% more.

Leveraging a brand means using the initial brand platform to move into other

opportunities. But, then what are the key factors required for a successful brand

leverage and when should the brand do it? Firstly, the brand must see itself from

the customer’s perspective i.e. it’s ‘personality’ and then leverage the core brand’s

characteristics, for instance, ‘Maggi’ noodles to ‘Maggi’ sauces or ‘Kingfisher’

beverages to ‘Kingfisher’ airlines. Obviously, some brands do it more quickly than

others to cash in on their wide recognition like ‘Google’ from search engine toemail in less than a decade while some take a tad longer than others like ‘Gillette’ ,

the razor makerwhich waited for almost 30-40 years before launching its shaving

cream. Hence, the key for the brand here is to realize that the consumers have to

understand the brand’s personality and the core offerings and that they are ready

for a much diversified offering.

Making brand portfolio strategies work

Marketing strategists say that brands should be run as a portfolio as this makesthem easier to manage and have a more efficient use of resources. But due to an

ever increasing competition, we are increasingly seeing brand extensions, line

extensions, sub brands and much more. So what then is the most effective

strategy for a brand? Firstly, one should adopt a flexible strategy for both

consumers and current brands alike, also with the ever increasing number of

mergers & acquisitions happening managing a portfolio can be quite a complex

task, for ex, when PepsiCo acquired Quaker Oats for ‘Gatorade’ , it also got quite a

few popular brands like ‘Cap'nCrunch’ (breakfast cereal) to dinner favorites like

‘Rice- A-Roni’ which complicated the brand portfolio further.

Let us take a look at how viewing brands from the point of view of consumers can

be successful as shown by PepsiCo when it recognized that consumers choose not

just carbonated drinks to quench their thirst but other drinks like just plain



water!!! Hence it developed new products like Aquafina or made acquisitions like

Gatorade, Tropicana. Also, the above methodology can be quite useful when the

portfolio has to be restructured to meet the harsh economic realities as can be

seen from Procter & Gamble’s recent strategy to prune those brands that are not

top two performersin their category which is very easy if the company has a clearunderstanding of the consumer’s needs.

Brand building in emerging markets

Due to stagnant demand at home, US & European firms are increasingly looking at

developing markets like SE Asia, Africa to fuel their growth. But understanding

these emerging markets may not be their cup of tea as we have numerous times

of brands successful in developed markets failing in emerging markets like India,

China, for ex, Oral-B, one of the most successful brands in the US failed to reach

the same heights in India due to the unique price sensitive nature of its market.

So, then, how can a foreign brand emulate its success in emerging markets like

India? Firstly they need to match their low cost competitors especially in the low

cost segment by matching to the local quality and price standards as was

successfully done by Hindustan Unilever in the 70s-80s, when its premium

product, Surf, could not even stand a chance against market leader ‘Nirma’ , by

launching its own very low cost, similar looking product ‘Wheel’ which turned outto be a very popular product (it had a market share of 38% at that time).

Also, companies can tweak their product offerings to garner to local needs as has

been done previously by McDonald’s or KFC when they introduced vegetarian food

in their menu or Nokia when it introduced unconventional features like torchlight

in its mobile phones.

Alternatively, there have been examples in Indian markets when foreign firms

having failed to compete against a local product have taken over them as was seen

by the capture of ‘Thums-up’ (which had a near monopoly at that time) by

American giant Coca Cola from Parle Agro in the early 90s. Also, foreign firms

unable to successfully market their products can outsource some of the functions

to local manufactures through JVs like that of Renault & Mahindra or through

other agreements like the one between Tata (distribution channel) and Fiat (petrol

engine technology). At the end, howsoever successful a brand may be in its home

market, the companies need to learn a harsh lesson, i.e. to flourish in theemerging markets they have to adapt to local needs and tastes.



Consulting Symposium 2010

Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT)

hosted a day long National Consulting

symposium on 28th

of October 2010. The

symposium focused on the changing

roles of consultants over the years. The

symposium was attended by various

professionals in the field of consultancy,

CIOs, CTOs, Business Heads and

entrepreneurs along with students and faculty. The theme of the sympo-

sium was 'Changing role of consultants: From Service to a stakeholder.'

Speaking on the occasion, KT Chako, Director, IIFT said, 'Consulting today

is not only about advising and sharing insights, but about being a stake-

holder in the overall interests.' He further added, 'Consultants cannot be

third party advisers but equally accountable partners in knowledge shar-

ing and future growth.'

The symposium focused on three main

issues: Managing Innovation in

Consultation, Risk Sharing between the

company and consulting firm and Modern

Consulting. The symposium was attended

by MDs and directors of various

companies such as HP, Honeywell, Ernst &Young, IBM, Tata etc. Guest of Honor,

Arijit Ghosh, Country Head, Honeywell said, 'The most important thing

in Consulting today is the alignment of client's interest with that of the

consultant's to achieve optimal results.' Speaking about consulting in

e- governance, Jaijit Bhattacharya, Director, HP said, 'Consulting is about

asking the right questions first, having a clear vision and then

implementing that vision.'

Socrates Roundup



Events @ Quo Vadis

Ranniti

The business simulation on the

application of management an

opportunity to use all those arcane

finance, marketing, operations and

strategy theorems that they have

been taught, along with those

supreme ingredients of common

sense and wit that separate the

best from the rest, in a simulation

of real time business

Round 1 : Startegy CaseletRound 2 : Simulation Game

Tomorrows Consulting group Challenge

This event focused on playing the role of a consultant to solve real problems and

leverage on real business opportunities.

“India’s unmet energy demand: Business model to increase oil supply by 10 %”

Assume you have been hired by the Government of India to provide a series of

recommendations on developing a business model to increase India’s oil

production potential by 10 %

Industry Interactions

Deloitte

Deloitte Enterprise Risk Services(ERS) India Head Mr.

S Parthasarthy came down to IIFT Delhi to deliver a

guest session on "Risk management for Financial

Institutions after the Crisis". The session was highly

informative in nature and dealt with various frameworks and paradigms in-

volved in estimating and mitigating the enterprise risks.

QAI

A lecture on 'Innovation Management - Trends and

Practices was taken by Mr. Aditya Bhalla, of QAI

Global . Mr Bhalla discusses real life case studiesinvolving the use of innovation in problem solving.



Ernst & Young

Mr. Amit Misra (2001-03 batch), AVP, Transaction

Advisory Services, Ernst&Young, came to down to the

IIFT campus for an guest session. The session covered

a whole lot of issues right from what is consulting andwhat exactly is a consultants role to more specific

areas like governmental consulting.

Accenture

A guest lecture was conducted by Mr Amit Bhatia and

Mr Saurabh Agrawal , IIFT alumni currently working in

Accenture Business Consulting as a consultant. Thesession was based on the format of a boot camp for

future consultants and revolved around clearing their

doubts about consulting industry.

Dexter Consulting

Live Project floated by Dexter Consulting : To map the

perceptions of the influencers(Architects/Interior

Designers/Facade Consultants) and the channelpartners (Retailers) about Glass Mosaic



Dilbert’s Desk

strategos - volume ii issue i march 2011

Documents