Religion: Off the Shelf

IIPM, GURGAON

And you thought that religion is fading in cities and among the educated? Check this. A survey by Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) has already established that the stress of urban living is pushing people to search for anchors in their lives, which they recreate through religion. The survey found that 93% Indians – irrespective of education – believe in God; 64% visit a temple, mosque or gurudwara regularly and 53% offer prayers daily. It’s almost as if the till recently subdued religious fabric of a nation is now seeking manifestation in the conspicuous consumption that defines modern times. And as the daily grind becomes more hectic & competitive, “quick connects” with god are fast gaining momentum. On the one hand are Gayatri Mantra or Hanuman Chalisa ringtones, while on the other are guys providing services like online prayers and mobile donations.

Even deity statue makers are carving their own special niche in this godly industry. And while most statue purchases are still made through the unorganised market, some organised players are stepping in to take advantage, with Lladro being a key player among the latter. Indian mythological and religion inspired arts and sculptures in fact contribute over 20% of Lladro’s entire turnover. Says Sachin Jain, Senior Brand Manager at Lladro: “We are not a religious commodity brand; instead we are a brand that sells emotions, art and lifestyle.” Lladro began its Indian religious tryst with Ganesha idols in the year 2001. And when the 2,000 piece limited edition was a super success worldwide, Lladro successfully created and began selling Radha Krishna idols. “Then we created Lakshmi, which has been our best selling product in the world,” adds Jain. When they began crafting Lakshmi wares, they priced them starting Rs.1.64 lakh a piece. The same art is being sold at Rs.7.5 lakh a piece today. As per Jain, with the Lladro Lakhsmi their customers possess a unique statement of art. “And so we call it a lifestyle statement,” he says. Jain and others of his ilk are now awaiting the peak sales and marketing season of Diwali. Having already sunk huge moolah into tracking and maintain close relationship with customer, Jain particularly is confident about customer loyalty in the upcoming Diwali season.

Even travel companies are cashing in by organising religious yatras for the young and old alike. Talking to the magazine, Arup Sen, Executive Director, Cox & Kings reveals, “Of the estimated 400 million journeys undertaken by Indians every year domestically, close to 100 million journeys (nearly a fourth) are to pilgrimage centres like Tirupati, Shirdi, Golden Temple or even the Char Dham Yatra.” And the numbers are swelling. As per the estimates of Cox & Kings, the growth in this segment ranges between 25-30% across age groups and socio-economic profiles. No surprise that they’ve priced their services straddling the lowest and highest rungs (starting from Rs.5,869 to Rs.1,67,000 per person) of the market. Industry estimates peg the annual pilgrimage to the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine alone at about Rs.474 crore every year.

This brings us to where the big monies really lie viz. the temples, mosques and churches, which are fast modernising their marketing and services to keep pace with the times and growing demand. And, leading the race are the gurus that claim to take you a step closer to spirituality and well being.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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Indian banks are mean competitors in global markets, putting their advantage – lower technology and labour costs – to good use.

So, what stops Indian banks to truly develop their global muscle, asks Deepak Patra

25th December or Christmas day in 2006 was special for Christalyn Sangary, President of a property management firm in Toronto, Canada. She was celebrating the day with her husband and five year old son Joshua at Film City, Mumbai and keeping them company was Bollywood heartthrob Shah Rukh Khan. “SRK definitely won the affection of our five year old son within minutes,” says Christalyn, adding that she was thankful to God and ICICI Bank Canada for making the beautiful experience possible. Yeah! Christalyn was actually the Grand Prize Winner of Meet and Greet Shah Rukh Khan, a contest hosted by ICICI Canada for all those who opened a chequing account with the bank during the contest months. In fact, the slate grey, thirteen storeyed skyscraper, jutting onto the Toronto skyline, which serves as headquarters for ICICI Canada, is really the hub of many such slick marketing ideas ever since its launch in December 2003. At first a niche bank, servicing just the Indo-Canadian community to a direct banking operation today and customers in every Canadian province, the bank boasts an asset base of C$6.4 billion (as of March 31, 2009).

ICICI is not the only Indian bank with global ambitions. Public sector bank, State Bank of India has also been an early starter in the direction. In fact, on and off, other big bosses of Indian banking industry – Punjab National Bank, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank or for that matter even banks like Andhra Bank, Bank of Baroda and Indian Overseas Bank – have shown some interest in making their presence felt in the global arena. But all those efforts have hardly been backed by consistent efforts; for the critic, they’ve only looked like well managed PR; while for the supporter, the ‘expansion’ moves have simply been attempts to make the shareholders back home happy. Excepting very few like SBI and ICICI, none of the other banks’ bottomlines gets a contribution even worth mentioning from their international operations. To that effect, and to their credit, in the case of SBI, this figure is about 8.6% (still less, but better).

And if one were to talk about going into foreign markets using the inorganic route, then apart from SBI and ICICI Bank – which have attempted a few acquisitions in Indonesia and Russia – none of the other banks have hit the news. A research report published by Accenture (India Goes Global) suggests that in all cross-boarder M&A activities involving Indian corporations between 1995 and 2006, the banking sector had a 2% share. Why this is very meagre can be seen by the fact that in other developed nations, the banking sector makes up a significant share of takeover deals. Definitely, one can argue that markets were on an upswing between 1995-2006 and therefore, with the global banks being valued sky high, it was not practical to invest in them.

But the situation has changed drastically since then. Today, many of the global banks (even after the revival that the market has witnessed in past few months) are valued at just 25-50% of their value in 2006-07. At this point, Indian banks have a huge opportunity. More so because they are loaded with huge reserves and cash balances, the traditional Indian tools to fund M&As. Moreover, capital adequacy ratio of most of the Indian banks is far better than that of global standards, which means they can actually afford to raise debt capital, if necessary, to fund any deal they take up.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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IIPM, GURGAON

Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri's Inteview with Mild-day

Noted economist & management guru Professor Arindam Chaudhuri during an interview with Mid-day, in New delhi. Arindam Chaudhuri is an eminent author, an authoritative speaker & a transformational leader.