Mittal, Amit - Business

Jaagore vs. Rajasthan Royals - Tata' CSR vs. Business

nospam@example.com (Amit Mittal) — Fri, 08 May 2009 22:40:44 +0530

Jaagore.com campaign is running from last 6 months or so and I guess it had done pretty good job by spreading awareness. This program is backed by Tata, of-course it must had been part of its CSR. Recently, I noticed that Rajasthan Royals team in IPL T20 is also sponsored by TCS (a TATA company).

During election time when TATA is trying to make Indian voters walk for voting, the same company is sponsoring a group of voters who are not there to vote and not to forget, luring many people to travel.

I remember talking to one guy who was working with one of the TATA company. He mentioned that the CSR activities in any TATA company is governed by the top management and companies individually don't have any control over that. But at least, all the following companies should be aligned with the CSR activities, the corporation believes in.

If as a corporation, it doesn't follow the values for which it is lecturing people in the society then how can it expect others to believe in that and follow those?

I see a clear conflict between the two.

Dove vs. Soap

nospam@example.com (Amit Mittal) — Fri, 08 May 2009 00:37:14 +0530

The new advertisement of Dove soap on television is an effort towards making it a brand like Xerox, Walkman, Surf etc. If you didn't watch the short flick properly, do it next time.

In this, the comparison is in between "Dove" and "Soap", not in between "Dove" and "other soap". This is a beautiful strategy to make it a brand and one of the most effective way of marketing. For example, most of the times if someone goes out for photocopy, s/he asks for xeroxing it rather than photocopying. Same is the case with pocket transistor where we use the brand "Walkman" by Sony.

As anyone said, the word of mouth appreciation is the best way and pushing the culture like Dove is truly impressive. Though, I couldn't find much catchy in the Ad that can encourage me to use it as a brand. May be it is for women to figure out

My view on Satyam story :)

nospam@example.com (Amit Mittal) — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 21:00:44 +0530

I just thought of giving my two cents on Satyam story Why would we buy Satyam shares from now onwards?

1. When we are not sure how our money is getting used for the company (or for the management ).
2. Management is not disclosing the reason of reaching a particular decision to the public which should be done ethically as it is a public listed company?

Recently, board of directors of one MNC requested its CEO to step down because he tried for 2 big deals but failed miserably in both. As a result, stake holders lost the confidence and hence board of directors need to ask him to step down.

I read article and here are some lines from there which are so true for Satyam story:

Capitalism of the 21st century is not the same as the capitalism of the 19th century. In the 19th century, the model we had is that of the firms that were owned by a single individual. We had no problems of corporate governance. If he made a bad mistake, he bore the consequences.

In the 21st century, we have large enterprises, separation of ownership and control. The chief executives don’t own it.

So there’s always the problem of their trying to steal the money from the rest of the system for their own benefit.