India Venture Capital and Private Equity Report 2010

On 2nd November 2010, we at DoMS IIT Madras, witnessed the release of the India Venture Capital and Private Equity (VCPE) report of 2010 by Prof. A. Tillai Rajan in the presence of distinguished guests, such as Mr. Arun Jain, chairman and CEO of Polaris software labs, Dr. M. S. Ananth, Director of IIT Madras, Prof. C. Rajendran, Head of DoMS and Prof. L. S. Ganesh.

The author of the Indian VCPE report, Prof. A. Thillai Rajan gave us a brief summary on the key findings published in the report. The report captures data of the past six years i.e 2004 to 2009 and  highlights certain features which are both motivating and astonishing. The investments happening in Indian through VCPE investors stands to be third largest in the world. A study of  338 VCPE investors revealed that even though these investors have poured in large amount of money, only 0.17% of the companies have been able to utilize this capital. Bulk of the investment, about 69% by numbers and about 85% by amount, is of foreign origin and too much volatile. Even though the amount is impressive, the nature of the investment breeds fear since most investors have single investment and little commitment. Most investments, about 78% in all are focused at urban enterprises and mostly the deals take place in metropolitan cities. In other words, they are not inclusive. Furthermore, the investors are “consistently inconsistent” as Prof. Thillai Rajan put it. Only ten investors are consistent, of which 40% are Indian. This belies the proportion of total investments we saw above. Also, the steady decline in the number of new investors invites concern. The report has a healthy contribution from students and is accepted in various journals.

The studies carried out and compiled in the report make it obvious that we as a country cannot afford to be complacent just because the conditions are favourable now. It is necessary that we look into the matter and prevent the pretty picture from turning ugly.

By,

DoMS Interface Team 

MBA Batch of 2012

28th Endowment Lecture of IIT-M & EFSI

On the 11th of November, the Twenty Eighth Endowment Lecture of IIT, Madras & Employers’ Federation of Southern India was held at DoMS, IIT-M. President of EFSI Mr.A. Venkatramani provided the welcome address by briefing on the Origin of EFSI, its interaction with the government on matters of labour legislation. Professor K. Ramamurthy, Dean (Academic Courses) gave the presidential address and introduced to us the Chief Guest of the evening Mr. Raju Venkatraman, Founder & CEO, Medall Healthcare Services Pvt Ltd.

Mr. Raju enlightened us with a lecture on 'The Future of Services Industry in India'. He started it off on a humorous note that he was no astrologer to predict without facts! He set his agenda for the evening to throwing the paradigms in the future service industry& presenting us with collected benchmark data. His initial focus was on the contribution of the service Industry towards the GDP of the nation. He focused on GDP at Purchase Power Parity (where India stays 4th in the list)as he regarded that to be a more relevant number than just the GDP. He came up with stats stating that among BRIC nations, India is more agrarian than others and yet 52% of its GDP came through the services sector. He also mentioned about the productivity delta stating that only 24% of India’s workforce contribute to this 52% contribution to GDP.
He remarked that Export oriented services would soon give way to services for and within the country. As he talked about the service sector boom, he gave the Telecom sector flourish as an elucidation to the case in point. With respect to people’s perception of the industry he said that if a service is simple, accessible and can make people perceive its value, they will definitely embrace the service.

Much of his speech centred on the fact that India is poised for growth in the service sector and it needs a clear technological, demographic & regulatory framework to handle it efficiently. He provided the inspiring air by mentioning that the Service industry growth would be directly proportional to the ambitions of the younger generation. He stressed upon the fact that Technology breakthrough & Innovations are a must for service sector’s future growth.

Coming from an IT/IT-ES industry background, he vouched for the role that  IT/IT-ES could play as a model for other service sector industries. He also asked us to be cautious and not to use Services & IT-ITES interchangeably as IT contributes to only a meagre amount in the services sector! He presented to us some slides indicating the paradigm shifts that services sector industries have undergone over the past century. He ended the presentation with a thought-provoking & engaging video that showed how the definition of ‘WORK’ could see a sea change in the near future! The video suggested that the future of work would be transparent, flat & extremely competitive. In that sense, the session was definitely an eye-opener!

Posted by
DoMS Interface Team

An Intriguing Case Study : Coca-Cola.

Corporate wisdom session of 12^th October, 2010 was one of best sessions of the year so far.   Conducted by Mr. Davinder Singh, Business Head (Beverages), Cavin Kare Pvt. Ltd, the session was attended by both the MBA batches of the department. It featured a case study on consumer behaviour based on his real life experience while working with Coca-Cola.

The situation in case study was: Coca Cola was losing out substantial market share to B-brands in Kazakhstan. The bottler of the soft drink maker wanted the company to work out a suitable plan so as to thwart this situation, as they were in no condition to withstand any further losses. Now the question was what should Coca-Cola do? Case study was given to students few days in advance and all of them came well prepared for the session.

The session commenced with a brief introduction to the case and then the students proposing their worked out solutions.  After patiently listening to the views, Mr. Davinder Singh described the real situation to the students and told how Coca-Cola responded to it. The key insight was: Never assume anything about your customers and always make consistent efforts to know them better.

The students found the session highly interactive and insightful, and were impressed by the intellect and humility of Mr. Davinder Singh. We thank him for sparing his precious time for us and look forward to more of such interactions with him in future.

By,

Corporate Wisdom Team,

MBA class of 2012