A Hair-Raising Secret! Indians Beat MNCs in Dark Continent

With African Buyouts, Godrej, Marico & Dabur make their mark in frizzy hair-care market

Indian consumer product companies cheer when US First Lady Michelle Obama tours the world with her uber-cool hairdos or when Oprah Winfrey sways consumer purchasing habits with her ironed hair. These are the new strands of globalisation. In the past four years, Marico, Dabur and Godrej Consumer have spent about 2,000 crore in acquiring over half-a-dozen global companies selling hair care products to African and Afro-American consumers. And the Indian firms are getting the better of multinationals in the $1.4-billion niche, yet fast-growing, market for grooming frizzy African hair.
“Try catching a well-heeled ethnic woman in frizzy hair. They straighten their hair before they do anything. That’s how they go,” says Anand Burman, chairman of Dabur India. Last November, Dabur acquired Namaste Laboratories, a USbased haircare company that caters to women of African descent. Most of its sales are in the US and Africa.
On Wednesday, Godrej Consumer acquired a 51% stake in African haircare firm Darling Group Holdings. Its brands include Darling and Amigos, which sell in over 14 countries across sub-Saharan Africa. Godrej had earlier acquired the South African hair colour business of UK’s Rapidol in 2006 and another brand Kinky in 2008. The latter sold hair braids, hair pieces and wigs in Africa. “When we acquired Kinky, we realised how huge the potential is, in the ethnic hair care market,” says Vivek Gambhir, chief strategy officer at Godrej Industries. “It is largely unorganised.”
Godrej put together a strategy called ‘One Africa’ last year, indicating the growing importance of the continent.
Indian firms kicked off their African safari with a sweeping wave of buyouts since 2006. But now, they are guided by a few crucial considerations. One is the niche factor, primarily to avoid competition. And this seems to be helping. For instance, the market share of Godrej-owned Rapidol’s Inecto has grown from 85% at the time of its acquisition to 92% after Godrej took over the business. And this is despite competition from MNC brands like L’Oreal and P&G, and other regional brands. ‘Market Waiting to Explode’
So, how are Indian firms turning MNC beaters in Africa? To begin with, most MNCs, including L’Oreal, Unilever and P&G are focused on conventional products such as hair colour, shampoos and conditioners. On the other hand, the ethnic hair care market with categories such as hair accessories, relaxers and colours has caught the Indian companies’ fancy. “MNCs are generally not present in these categories and even if they are, they have premium offerings as compared to our products that straddle across consumer price points,” says Vijay Subramaniam, CEO (international business group) at Marico. It has so far made three acquisitions in Africa — Caivil, Fiancee and Hair-Code — all market leaders.
Africa’s women population of 180 million consume such products worth only $1.6 each every year. The market is waiting to explode, say experts. “Africa is the most potent market for the future,” says Pinakiranjan Mishra, partner (consumer & retail) at consultancy firm Ernst & Young. With GDP expected to grow 6% every year for the next decade, the continent represents the next frontier of consumption growth outside BRIC.

Ref: Economics Times(02/06/2011)

Don't Quit

There is a saying that sometimes pictures speak more than words.Every reader or an observer when comes across something that stimulates his or her thinking,he is able to get the most out of it when things are presented in a coherent manner.Here we present before you the ages long but still holding the same fire in it ,the poem by an unknown author "Don't Quit".Well most of us would have read it as a child,but now let us go through it once again(we would say go twice).Each and every word will somehow make you think about your state of mind and everything that you have ever strived for.To bring in a better effect we are presenting before you a small presentation of the same poem with an amalgamation of the lines from he same poem,inspirational music and a similar pictorial representation ( http://www.thedontquitpoem.com/ ).We hope you wold like this post and we as a team would see to it that we help each other in moving ahead and learn more from one another by sharing.To conclude,

And you never can tell how close you are,

It may be near when it seems so far;

So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit,

It's when things seem worst that you must not quit!!!!!!

Note-the link to the presentation is @ http://www.thedontquitpoem.com/ . Please click on the image for clarity.thanks for your time.Hope to hear from you.Have a nice day!!!!!!!

Mind Mapping!!!!

Well,let us study this image very carefully.This image can be assumed as the nerves of the neuron.When we talk of neurons,the first thing that we can picture is the human brain and how it manages to think,take decisions,give reflex actions.Some may think that why do we at all need to talk about this!!!!! Hmm, nice thought.Now let us understnad in this way.We as management students are expected to have a sound thinking capacity,which helps us in better analysis and thus helps us in taking the appropriate decisions.We need to sharpen our brain with knowledge and need to nourish it with this Mind Mapping techinique.This is just a simple explanation of what we can see above and what should be our attitude while dealing with even an image that may appear to be confusing .But follow the map and you will definitely find some good food for your brain.Have a nice day and thanks for reading.
Note-kindly click on the image for a better clarity.

Teaching a 'Lean Startup' Strategy

Ref: HBS Working Knowledge

Published: April 11, 2011 Author: Carmen Nobel

A dozen years ago, it seemed like all it took to launch a successful technology company was a vague idea, a PowerPoint presentation, a trade-show booth with a sexy spokesmodel, and a URL. Then the dot-com bubble burst and investors got wiser and warier. Gone are the days when entrepreneurs could spend years burning through venture capital while they figured out their strategy. These are the days of the lean startup.

"Most startups fail not because they can't build the product they set out to build, but because they build the wrong product, take too long to do that, waste a lot of money doing that, and waste a lot of money on sales and marketing trying to sell that wrong product," says Tom Eisenmann, a professor in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business School. "It takes a lot of time, time equals money, the money runs out, and the startup fails painfully."

"Lean startups don't try to scale up the business until they have product market fit, a magical event-more easily recognized in retrospect than in the moment-when they finally have a solution that matches the problem."

7th APRIL , 2011

" I THINK KNOWING WHAT YOU CANNOT DO IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN KNOWING WHAT YOU CAN DO..." - LUCILLE BALL. After the daily business news headlines... Today we had an interesting quiz and current affairs session where lot of know how questions were being delt by the abhiyan members which exclaimed the students .... hope to have many more such sessions which would stress more on the students brain modification not only in the business scenario but also on all related issues in the current business dealings.