Tag Archive for 'India'

The US$2500,- People’s Car

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by
ron
on January 10, 2008
in Emerging Markets, Global Strategy and International Business
. 0 Comments

Tata Nano - World’s Cheapest Car - People’s CarThe moment has finally come. Today Tata has unveiled the world’s cheapest motor car. Tata’s stripped-down motor car will cost you around US$2,500 (100,000 Rupees), and it’s aimed at the company’s home market of India. But its popularity need not stop there.

This is not only a breakthrough from a price point perspective. It basically puts a car into the reach of people that previously only could dream of owning a scooter or moped. Nevertheless there are still billions of people who cannot afford an investment of $2500,-. In essence this is a car aimed at the world’s middle class. There are hundreds of millions of people who will be able to afford the People’s Car - in China, in Vietnam, in Pakistan, in coastal Africa…. They’ll buy, as long as the quality is reasonable and the car doesn’t become a laughingstock, like the old Yugo.

Furthermore, in affect, the People’s car will also change the competitive dynamics of the entire auto landscape. Everyone except the luxury car makers might want to think about entering this uncontested market segment. If Tata can sell a good product for US$2,500, then it will be able to keep moving its consumers up the economic motor car ladder, to a US$5,000 car, and then a US$10,000 car. When you consider a growing market of hundreds of millions worldwide, a little brand loyalty could go a long way.

Updated @ Jan 11th.: Interested in the applied cost-cutting tricks please follow this link.

Source BBC News & IHT.

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Emerging economies

Published
by
admin
on November 23, 2007
in Emerging Markets
. 0 Comments

Stockmarkets Performance

The world is experiencing one of the biggest revolutions in history, as economic power shifts from the developed world to emerging giants, like the BRIC countries and others. Thanks to market reforms, emerging economies are growing much faster than developed ones.

The increasing strength of emerging economies has been reflected in their stockmarkets, which have climbed steeply in recent years. According Morgan Stanley Capital International’s emerging-market index, stockmarkets in emerging economies are expected to grow nearly four times compared with an increase of only 70% in the S&P 500.

High p/e ratios indicate there is a bubble in the making. However when looking beyond the p/e ratio and compare a country’s p/e ratio with its own track record it looks lik some countries have a strong “buy”.

Interested in reading up on this issue this can be a good starter “Dizzy in Boomtown” and “Can Emerging Markets Save Europe“.

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Current challenges in emerging markets

Published
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admin
on November 13, 2007
in Emerging Markets
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Emerging Markets

According to the 2007 annual study on Innovation in Emerging Markets by Deloitte’s Global Manufacturing Group, more than half of the companies surveyed fell short of their revenue or operational goals in emerging markets. The report points out challenges that companies are facing while operating in emerging markets. Identified challenges are in the areas of talent management, risk management and operating models.

However, conventional thinking about emerging markets has changed. No longer do manufacturers see operations in China or India simply as a means to lower global operating costs. Now places like Hungary, Vietnam and others are being added to the list of competitive markets as an avenue to achieve top line growth. Companies are able to leverage even more sophisticated capabilities in emerging markets to handle high-value activities. This is quickly changing the global competitive landscape.

I highly recommend following this link to read this report, because it evaluates some of the strategic areas that companies need to address to succeed and realise the enormous market potential of the developing economies in China, India, Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America. It also highlights some of the innovative strategies that successful companies are deploying to win the war for talent, manage risk and structure their operations to achieve their revenue and operating goals in emerging markets.

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New Tech Giants?

Published
by
admin
on September 17, 2007
in Emerging Markets
. 0 Comments

New Tech GiantsIndian and Chinese Tech companies are in the running to see the limelight at the centre stage of the worlds most powerful tech giants! BusinessWeek has listed the up and coming ten new Tech Giants!

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Global India

Published
by
admin
on September 10, 2007
in International Business
. 1 Comment

Global IndiaInterested in India and it’s prosperous economy at large? Bored about superficial information, lacking depth and insights? The Times Online has devoted a special section entirely on India at large!

India’s economy is the second fastest-growing in the world, reporting GDP growth of more than 9 per cent a year, not far behind China, with more than 11 per cent growth. The United Nations predicts that by 2050 India will surpass China as the world’s most populous nation, partly because of China’s one-child policy and an improvement in India’s infant mortality rate. In this special section we explore the stories behind the facts. [Source]

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India’s Flagships & BRICs

Published
by
admin
on February 13, 2007
in Emerging Markets
. 1 Comment

India Flagships

Tata Motor, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bharat Forge, Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, Rediff, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Infosys Technologies, Wipro, Bharti Airtel.

What have all these names in common? They are all multinationals from India and ready to shakeup the global business dominance of the West and Japan in order to become the next global brand. Most of them have a stock listing in both India and the US and starting to compete head on with the established players in the global marketplace. Here is a list of the ten most dynamic companies India has to offer.

My favourite Podcast on Emerging Giants from all BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) can be found here.

The term BRIC was first prominently used in the research paper “Dreaming With BRICs: The Path to 2050″ (2001)(PDF file) published by the world’s largest investment bank, Goldman Sachs. GS has also published a web presentation on BRICs, it higlights GDP growth, income per capita and currency movements in the BRICs economies until 2050.

In 2005 after publishing the paper on the emerging BRIC economies, Goldman Sachs published another report “How Solid are the BRICs?” (PDF file). Herein Goldman Sachs names another eleven economies that may emerge as important players by 2050. They are (in alphabetic order): Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Korea, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Turkey, Vietnam. Goldman Sachs names them N11 (i.e., the Next Eleven).

Amongst them, Korea and Mexico are particularly important. According to their prognosis, by 2050 Mexico will become the sixth-largest economy and Korea will become richer (in income per capita) than any of the current G7s (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK, USA) except the USA.

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Next generation outsourcing

Published
by
admin
on December 11, 2006
in International Business
. 0 Comments

Next generation outsourcingToday, BusinessWeek reports on a new wave of IT outsourcing which goes far beyond Bangalore, India. It touches upon 10 new cities that are emerging as new outsourcing centres. Not only because Bangalore becomes more unattractive as offshore location. But companies also want to tap into the entire pool of global talent, maintain risk management (IP and data protection, security issues), and utilise special skill sets not available in India. Find here the CEO guide to outsourcing!

Update: An overview on all major outsourcing players can be found here.

Update: The Future Of Outsourcing is discussed in this special report.

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The New Multinationals & Innovation Champions

Published
by
admin
on July 25, 2006
in Emerging Markets and International Business
. 1 Comment


Multinationals from China, India, Brazil, Mexico, Russia, and even Egypt are coming on strong. They’re hungry — and want your customers. They’re changing the global game.

Innovation Champions and Emerging Markets

Today I listened to the podcast of this week’s BusinessWeek cover story on emerging giants, the future multinationals not coming from the Western world but from emerging markets. Each with their own suprising business model. When emerging markets are in your field of interest, I highly recommend listening to this podcast and read up on the article. By clicking on this link you can download the audio file of this particular article.

Another very interesting podcast that I recommend is on Innovation Champions.

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Cisco is betting on India

Published
by
admin
on November 28, 2005
in Emerging Markets and Global Strategy
. 0 Comments

Cisco India


On Nov. 9, in a conference call, Chambers (Cisco’s CEO) made a striking prediction: “It would not surprise me to see India actually challenge China, in terms of our business revenue, [in] three to four years.”

Chambers’ statement certainly goes against conventional wisdom. After all, China boasts a $1.6 trillion economy that’s growing at a 9% annual clip, and it’s the world’s largest market for many products. India, with the same 1 billion-plus population, has a $700 billion economy that’s growing at 7%.

What drives Cisco’s thoughts for playing its cards on India?

Deregulated telecom market
India’s growth rate is going to pick up, partly because of deregulation of its telecom industry which is leading to vast invetments in new Internet infrastructure. In contrast with China’s centrally controlled economy.

Entrepreneurship
Upcoming wave in Indian entrepreneurship together with tougher laws on intellectual property rights. This will make the nation an attractive place to set up R&D and venture operations.

Market dominance
In China, Cisco faces strong competition from Huawei Technologies and Harbour Networks Co., in India, you’ve got nobody that can be considered as a serieus competitor. Furthermore, tough competition in China forces Cisco to cut their known high gross margins, resulting not only in lower profit margins but also declining market share.

Immature infrastructure
Much of India still lack phone lines, carriers are installing higher-capacity Ethernet cables all the way to homes, the same cables found on Cisco office and consumer gear. This will ke it easier to interconnect with them trough Cisco networks.

India’s favourable preference
Longstanding suspicions between India and China are hurting Cisco’s rival Huawei. Recent concerns of India’s goverment adressing that Huawei might leak militarily sensitive information about India’s infrastructure to Chinese officials

As Cisco shifts focus to India, someone is going to learn a tough lesson: Cisco if it leaves too much business on the table in China, or its rivals, if Cisco has guessed right about what it believes is the best growth market of them all.

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Insight on Asia’s Emerging Giants

Published
by
admin
on May 14, 2005
in Emerging Markets
. 0 Comments

For anyone who is interested, the Financial Times Asia Insight series of reports identifying and analysing the forces and trends behind the region’s dynamic growth.