Steve Jobs – the most brilliant practioner of perfect timing….

Thousands of obits have already been written for Steve Jobs. There can be no doubt in anyone’s minds that Steve Jobs was one of the most dynamic, most innovative and most impactful business leaders of our times. Much has already been written about all this. My post today is on a small but different point – how Steve Jobs understood the meaning of perfect timing; and how even the Gods were forced to reward him with the perfect timing for his departure….

There is this concept that everyone knows of – departing on time. A little too early and one feels that one could have done a little more with one’s time. A little too late and one feels that one stayed on for too long. The right timing is what makes the real heroes stand out. Take Gandhiji for example. His timing couldn’t have been more perfect. He found himself at the right time in South Africa – where circumstances pitchforked him into the middle of the anti-colonial struggle there. He came back to India to find a near-vacuum in the struggle against the British. Through more than thirty years of his struggle in India, he managed to get the timing right for the Khilafat movement, the non-cooperation movement and eventually the Quit India movement. Not before he got the full independence for India did Gandhiji rest. Not till the last of the British left the Indian soil could anyone stop Gandhiji. Gandhiji’s departure from this planet was perfectly timed – just after he had delivered his goal to his countrymen. Not minute too soon. Not a minute too late. The gods conspired to confer greatness on the father of the nation.

Steve Job’s case is something similar. There could not possibly have been a better time for him to depart from this life.

Just look at the financial performance of his company. In the 3^rd quarter of this fiscal (Apple fiscal ends September each year), Apple clocked revenues of $28.6 billion, a growth of 82% over the previous year. Mind you, these are not the results of an upstart, small company which would naturally record fast growth rates. Apple was already a monolith a year back – nearly the same size as other iconic companies like Pepsico and nearly double of Coca Cola Company Limited. Apple’s 3^rd quarter profits stoo at $.7.3 billion, a growth of 125% over the same period last year. Such results are simply unheard of in the corporate sector – especially in America where revenue growths of 10% are considered excellent. Even Indian companies – with their much smaller bases – are unable to record such high rates of growths. These results are a tribute to the genius of Steve Jobs.

All through his life, Steve Jobs understood the meaning of timing. While othere management gurus could only talk about it, Steve Jobs practiced perfect timing. His first award winning product was no doubt the humble ipod in 2001, even though the Mac had been launched earlier. This simple product was able to put “1000 songs” into a mini frame that could easily be carried in a small wallet or even a shirt pocket. From 2001 to 2004, Apple milked the success of the ipod. As sales of the original ipod started declining, Apple introduced a new model of ipod with incessant regularity – starting with the ipod mini in Jan 2004, the ipod music+photo model in Oct 2004, the ipod shuffle in Jan 2005, the ipod nano in Sept 2005 and ipod video player in Oct 2005. But even as these design innovations perked sales up, Jobs knew that the ipod was going to go into decline. Pronto, in June 2007, the iphone was launched and the company revenues soared again. Jobs followed the same relentless spirit of innovation and perfect timing with the iphone launching a new model every year with the iphone 3G coming out in June 2008, the iphone-3 in June 2009 and the iphone-4 in June 2010. Just a few weeks back, the company unveiled the latest iphone – the iphone 4S.

With the launch of the iphone, Steve Jobs took Apple into a different orbit altogether. Under normal circumstances, one would have expected Jobs to milk the iphone for a few years before introducing the next big innovation. But maybe Jobs knew of what the future held for him. His sense of timing had to be perfect. And so, while the iphone sales were still soaring, the ipad was launched in April 2010 and the follow-up model, the ipad-2, was launched a year later in March this year.

It’s not surprising then that Apple has been recording revenue growths of the kind not seen before. Revenue growths were 33% in FY04, 68% in FY05, 39% in FY06, 27% in FY07, 53% in FY08, 14% in FY09 and 52% in FY10. And then of course, the way FY11 is going, Apple will beat its own past records by growing perhaps at more than 80% this year. In just 8 years, Apple’s turnover would increase from just $ 8 billion to perhaps more than $100 billion this year. The sense of timing is apparent again here, as the FY11 revenue growth numbers – the last year of Jobs’ life – are the highest ever in the company’s history. If this is not an example of great timing, what is?

Most people say that the world lost Jobs too early. There is a sense of remorse and sadness that this great innovator died so early. But just think about it – isn’t this the way Jobs himself would have wanted it? To go at the peak of his career. To go when everyone is asking: why? Just like in the case of Gandhiji, looks like the Gods have conspired in the case of Steve Jobs also.

The real truth is that Steve Jobs was brilliant in many things. He was a brilliant innovator; he was a brilliant marketer. But what is not known well enough is that he was a brilliant timer of events. It’s almost like he scripted his own death – timed beautifully with the best period of his company’s life….that’s the true genius of this brilliant man…..

More common than different between BJP and Congress….

Any article I write on politics – especially one that ends up comparing the BJP with the Congress – elicits impassioned responses from the readers. This is not surprising given the deep impact politics makes on its followers. BJP supporters cannot stand Congress worshippers and vice-versa. I have myself been accused of being pro-Congress in my write-ups; something I deny vehemently. Yet, I cannot deny that I am no great fan of the BJP either. A break in breaking political news today (much has been written about Steve Jobs already) allows me to do an analysis of the commonalities and differences between these two national parties.

First the common points. It’s a surprisingly large list really! Let’s look at the core issue of corruption. Both the Congress (2G, CWG….now maybe Goa) and the BJP (Karnataka, Uttarakhand) have enough skeletons in their respective cupboards. The Congress has been forced to sack one Chief Minister (Ashok Chavan) for alleged corruption; the BJP two (Yeddy and Pokhriyal) for the same. If it looks like the Congress is enmeshed in corruption at the center right now, so was the BJP in its days in power at the center (Coffin-gate being only one of them). In the crucial 2G scam, it was the BJP which first changed the policy of telecom license fees from “fixed license fees” to “revenue sharing license fees” – a move that grew the telecom sector dramatically by lowering the prices for consumers. Undoubtedly the government lost in terms of license fees – but the change revolutionized the telecom sector. It did the same thing again by giving away licenses in 2003 at 2001 prices. The same policy was followed by the Congress when they gave away licenses in 2005, 2007 and 2008 at 2001 prices. One can argue about whether giving away licenses in 2008 at 2001 prices is comparable with giving away licenses in 2003 at those same prices – but the indisputable fact is that on neither occasion did either party apply indexation to the 2001 rates; nor did anyone suggest an e-auction ever. The more one looks at the two parties, the less the differences between the two. The amounts of corruption may appear to be lower during the BJP’s rule – but that’s because ten years back, the country’s economic size was much smaller. In today’s times, the scam in Karnataka is supposed to run into many tens of thousands of crores – the highest for any state ever.

Both parties have similar kinds of leaders. For every savvy lawyer in the Congress (Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal, Salman Khursheed), there are enough in the BJP (Arun Jaitley, Ravi Shankar Prasad). For every acerbic spokesperson in the Congress (Manish Tewari), there are enough in the BJP (Prakash Javdekar; Jai Narayan Vyas). For every MP with criminal charges in the Congress (41 in the current Lok Sabha), there are an equal number in the BJP (42). For every MP with a serious criminal charge in the Congress (12), there are more in the BJP (17). For every crorepati in the Congress, there are enough in the BJP. For every septuagenarian in the Congress, there is one in the BJP and for every youthful young icon in the Congress, there is one in the BJP.

Here’s a complete shocker though. The BJP accuses the Congress of having a dual power structure. Sonia Gandhi runs the Congress party as President; while MMS is the PM. But what about the BJP? It’s the exact same structure that they follow. The leaders of opposition in the two houses are Sushma Swaraj (LS) and Arun Jaitley (RS) – both of whom are front-runners for the PM’s post if the BJP comes to power. But the BJP President is a different man, Nitin Gadkari! On dynastic politics, the BJP accuses the Congress of running a battery of dynasties. True indeed. The Gandhis, Pilots, Reddys, Chavans are all Congress dynasties. But the problem of dynasties is not unique to the Congress. In fact, Indian politics has always been driven by dynasties. Whether it is the SP (Akhilesh Yadav; father Mulayam Singh Yadav), RJD (Rabri Devi; husband Laloo), National Conference (Omar Abdullah; father Farokh and grand father Sheikh Abdullah), DMK (Alagiri, Stalin, Kanimozhi; father Karunanidhi), NCP (Supriya Sule; father Sharad Pawar), Shiromani Akali Dal (Sukhbir Singh Badal; father Prakash Singh Badal), Rashtriya Lok Dal (Ajit Singh; father Chaudhary Charan Singh), Janata Dal (S) (HD Kumaraswamy and HD Revanna; father HD Deve Gowda), Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray; father; Bal Thackeray), TDP (Chandrababu Naidu; father-in-law NTR) and the BJD (Naveen Patnaik; father Biju Patnaik), dynastic politics is common across all political parties. Why, the BJP itself has its own dynasties – the Scindias (Vijayraje Scindia; daughters Yashodhara Raje Scindia and Vasundhara Raje Scindia – grand-son Dushyant Singh etc with the other members belonging to the Congress), the Singhs (Pankaj Singh; father Rajnath Singh), the other Singhs (Manvendra Singh; father Jaswant Singh). In fact, Vajpayee’s foster son-in-law Ranjan Bhattacharya and his niece Karuna Shukla were also fielded for elections by the party. While it is true that there are no high-profile dynastic leaders in the BJP, its not as if the party has principally opposed the issue.

Even on terrorism, the two parties are similar in reality. For every act of indecisiveness shown by the Congress towards proven terrorists (Kasab; Afzal Guru), there are examples of the BJP’s own weak responses (Kandahar terrorist swap). For every allegation that the BJP makes against the Congress for not hanging those given the death penalty, there is a similar charge that the BJP did nothing during its time at the center. Even when it comes to mass genocides, there is little to choose between the two parties. While the BJP cannot answer for the Godhra riots, the Congress cannot for the anti-Sikh pogrom carried out in Delhi.

It’s amazing really how similar the parties are in so many ways! SO, if there are so many commonalities, what really separates the two parties and makes them such sworn opponents of each other?

I think the core difference between the two is on the plank of secularism v/s Hindutva. Congress supporters call the BJP a party of Hindu zealots; the BJP accusese the Congress of pseudo-secularism. At the core of the BJP’s support base are people who feel that Hindus in India have yielded too much ground to the minorities (Muslims in particular). Their beliefs are fuelled by stories such as the higher population growth rates in Muslims being a strategy to increase their shares. The biggest two defining moments of the BJP were the demolition of the Babri Masjid and the Godhra riots. Its biggest political icon at the moment is Narendra Modi – a politician accused by the Congress of being anti-muslim. For the Congress supporters, the fact that there are so many non-Hindus in power is indicative of its secularism. There is of course a charge that the Congress has always pampered the minorities to get their support during the elections. Who is the more divisive of the two – the BJP or the Congress? Take your pick, but clearly…..this is the core difference between the two parties.

There is also a relatively smaller difference between the two on economic policies. Both are pro-US; both are pro-capitalism; both are pro-business. However, the Congress has latched on to the politically successful bandwagon of the “aam aadmi” – giving it a socialistic hue. The aam aadmi is not the urban middle class; he is the rural poor. For the BJP, the core constituency remains the urban middle-class – more specifically the urban trader class. It was a surprise then that the BJP lost so many of the urban seats the last time around……I would expect them to regain them this time around. The Congress on the other hand tends to win in the rural areas most of the times.

If one were to choose between the two parties on grounds of corruption, terrorism, dynastic policies, economic policies, there is very little to choose from.

Apart from these two differences, I really cannot think of anything that separates the two. Apart from these two, there are the Left (totally opposite in economic policies) and the regional parties (focused on regional issues). In many ways, the commonalities of the BJP and the Congress have helped this country follow largely similar economic policies – a fact that has helped reassure the business fraternity of continuity of economic policies.

The real truth is that its Hindutva v/s secularism is the only platform that decides which party you support; which party you vote for. That’s the one single point that separates BJP supporters from Congress supporters…..

Modi’s development story panned again….and Modi now a pariah even in the BJP

I had written a series of three stories on Modi when he went on his 3-day sadbhavna fast in mid-September. These stories raised the hackles of the Modi supporters, but the truth in those stories could never be disputed. The first of those stories – titled Modi’s growth story is a sham…..dated 17^th September showed conclusively that Gujarat’s growth story had little to do with Modi. Gujarat was already prosperous – even before Modi – and there were many other states that were bigger, more prosperous than Gujarat as well as those who were growing faster than Gujarat. I have also written in the past about the fractious and divided nature of BJP’s leadership pyramid. This fact is now emerging as another major headache forModi in his quest for the PM’s job….

But let’s first come back to the growth story. Today’s story in the TOI by Dipankar Gupta “Telling the Whole story” is an amazingly well written piece on how the Congress has led Narendra Modi get away with claiming all the credit for Gujarat’s progress. The article brings out several stats to prove what I have also written earlier. Some nuggets: 1) In 1991, a full 10 years before Modi arrived, as many as 17,940 out of 18,028 villages were already electrified 2) 87.5% of Gujarat’s road were already asphalted before Modi. 3) By 2000-01, Gujarat’s share in India’s manufacturing had already risen to 28.7%. 4) Since 1980, Gujarat has been India’s poster state. Modi has nothing to do with the world’s largest ship-breaking yard coming up in Bhavnagar, nor with the setting up of the Ambani refinery in Jamnagar. 5) Well before Modi, Gujarat accounted for 45% of India’s petroleum products 6) Since the 1990s, Gujarat produces as much as 26% of the country’s pharmaceuticals 7) Because of the CM Chimanbhai Patel’s intervention in 1993, port traffic in the state jumped from a mere 3.18 million tonnes tonnes in1981 to 86.1 million tonnes in 2001. 8) During the 1990s, Gujarat successfully augmented 35% of its power generation capacity. 9) If Gujarat’s agriculture is prospering today, it is because the state has begun to receive Sardar Sarovar waters from 2002. Modi had little to do with the inauguration of this project, but he was at the right place at the right time to take the credit for it. If there was ever a person who reaped what somebody else had sown, then that is Modi. What Dipankar Gupta has not written is that Gujarat’s agricultural output is so small that even a high growth rate in agriculture means little. Even today, after the tripling of production, overall foodgrains production in Gujarat is just 7.8 million tonnes. Compare this with UP (47 million tonnes), Punjab (27 million), Rajasthan (19 million), Haryana (16 million), Andhra (16 million), Maharashtra (15 million), Madhya Pradesh (15 million), West Bengal (14 million), Karnataka (13 million) and even lowly Bihar (10 million), and Gujarat’s growth number starts looking pale. Gujarat’s foodgrains production is just about comparable with Orissa’s and Chhatisgarh – a number that must surely irk Modi supporters. 10) It is not as if Gujarat is the richest state either; Haryana, Punjab, Maharashtra and Kerala are all much better off…..

As if being attacked on his development plank was not enough, Modi has been under attack from his own party for his lofty political ambitions. Frankly, there is nothing wrong for Modi to have ambitions of being the PM one day. He has a strong following in Gujarat; and there are others outside of Gujarat who see him as a strong administrator. His obvious Hindutva bias (Aakar Patel wrote recently in Mint Lounge that he hasn’t given a single ticket to Muslims in the last three assembly and Parliament elections) holds appeal to some of the more extreme Hindus around the country. The problem however is that there are too many contenders for the PM’s post within the BJP. There are Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley – both leaders of opposition in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha respectively. Nitin Gadkari must surely fancy his chances – being the President of the party (If BJP’s attack on the dual power structure of the Congress, where Sonia is the party President and MMS the PM, is anything to go by, then only Nitin Gadkari should become PM when the BJP’s turn comes). And then there are the likes of Advani, Rajnath Singh and others who must also be hoping for a good hand of cards to be dealt to them. Then there are strong NDA aspirants like Nitesh Kumar. I have argued in the past that Modi will find the going tough – because his Hindutva image will isolate many sections of the population – including Hindus, most of whom do not have extreme views on religion. The only time the BJP came to power – it was the moderate Vajpayee who became the PM – not the aggressive Advani.

The problem for Modi also is that the RSS appears to be going against him too. What Modi seems to be forgetting is that the ultimate boss in the BJP set-up is the RSS. It is the RSS that decides who stands for the PM’s position and who doesn’t (It is also a much-believed fact that the RSS influences policies of all BJP governments, but the BJP is coy about this). By re-inducting Sanjay Joshi – a man that Modi apparently conspired to have removed from the party a few years back – and by giving him charge of UP, the RSS has obviously cocked a snook at Modi. And then there is the bait that Nitish Kumar threw at him by agreeing to flag off Advani’s meaningless rath yatra from Bihar. Except for Jaitley, no one seems to be protecting Modi. After making the usual noises, the BJP central leadership refused to press for the removal of the Gujarat Governor, in spite of her provocative action of appointing a Lok Ayukta against Modi’s wishes. The central leadership of the BJP is defending Modi on the Sanjiv Bhatt arrest, but it’s clear that it is getting panned nationally. I’ve written about this earlier – on the one hand, Modi is a strong asset for the BJP winning Gujarat three times in a row; but on the other very important hand, Modi is also a huge liability for the party. The more Modi rises, the less the BJP’s chances of winning at the center. Modi realizes this. Hence the hamhanded and insincere attempt at wooing the Muslims through the sadbhavana yatra. But a tiger cannot change its stripes. By arresting Sanjiv Bhatt, Modi’s again stands accused by many of running his state in a dictatorial style. As a result of the party’s disingenuous supporting of Modi, he is sulking. This is why he didn’t attend the party’s national executive recently. That must have really hurt the BJP – for the party, there is trouble in Karnataka (corruption leading to sacking of CM), Gujarat (defiant regional satrap), Uttarakhand (corruption leading to sacking of CM) and Bihar (Nitish Kumar doesn’t agree with BJP’s Hindutva strategy)…..When BJP leaders say they have many worthwhile leaders who can become PM, I am sure they did not mean it this way!

The real truth is that Modi is cornered. People outside Gujarat will not let him claim credit for Gujarat’s development record or forgive him for what he is accused of in Godhra. And people within his party won’t allow him to achieve his ambitions outside the state. Will Modi quit the BJP and set up his own party…..that must surely be an option he must be considering. The results in the past have been mixed for people who have thought similarly. Remember Sharad Pawar and his NCP – unfortunately, he’s further away from the PM’s job than he was before he split…..What will Modi do…..this is going to be an interesting one to watch!

So Anna will support Mayawati in UP and Modi in Gujarat????

Yesterday’s announcement of Anna to defeat the Congress reflects a political bias that Team Anna has been accused of from the beginning. What prompted the declaration of war against the Congress yesterday?

As per the understanding reached between the government and Anna, the Lokpal Bill was to be re-introduced in Parliament in the winter session. That starts only in November or so. Why then the restlessness about the Bill? Why the need to threaten the Congress at this point in time? Is this about keeping the Congress on tenterhooks? Is this not an unwarranted threat? Or is it to preempt any decision by the Standing Committee and Parliament to pass a law that Team Anna may not like in its entirety?

A look at recent political developments may hold some kind of insight into the reasons for this threat. Reports in the press on Standing Committee meetings indicate that there is very little consensus on the Jan Lokpal Bill. In the secret meetings of the Standing Committee (outside the glare of media cameras), it appears that almost all political parties are opening up and pointing out to the many flaws in the Jan Lokpal Bill. In fact, the discussion in the Standing Committee appears to have been more around Aruna Roy’s version of the Lokpal Bill than Anna’s. On crucial matters like the merging of CBI and CVC with the Lokpal, both those bodies have protested against their dissolution; preferring instead to work alongside the Lokpal.

The BJP has also been speaking from both sides of its mouth. On the one hand, it makes loud claims of supporting the Lokpal in the media. But when one reads the subtext of its support, one realizes that there are many preconditions in the support. For eg., the BJP does not want the PM included under the Lokpal unconditionally. The BJP also doesn’t want the judiciary to be covered under the Lokpal. Likewise on the subject of the Lokpal Bill also giving birth to Lok Ayuktas in the states, the BJP has suggested a clever scheme – make it an enabling provision – meaning that if the state government wants to adopt the same bill, it can. But there is nothing that compels it to! Even on phone tapping powers of the Lokpal, the BJP has opposed Team Anna’s provisions.

So why does Anna want to oppose only the Congress? Is Congress the only corrupt party in the country? Are we to understand that Anna will support the corrupt BJP regime in Uttarakhand which also goes to the polls in 2012? Remember the CAG report against the state government on the Maha Kumbh Mela matter? Of course, one shouldn’t jump to conclusions basis only a CAG report, but Anna seemed to be more than willing to accept the CAG’s observations on the 2G scam. Will Anna ignore the state of affairs in the state which led to the sacking of the CM recently? By opposing the Congress in Uttarakhand, will Anna not indirectly be asking the people to vote for the corruption-tainted BJP government there? What about UP? Is Anna going to support the divisive regime of Mayawati led BSP? What about the Mulayam led SP and the badly fractured BJP against the Congress – which is a small party in the state anyways? Or will Anna ask people to vote against the SP and BSP also – both of which seem to be opposed to Anna’s Jan Lokpal Bill? What about Gujarat – where the Modi government has wielded dictatorial powers to curb any form of dissent against it? Is Anna going to ask people to vote for the BJP simply because it wants to oppose the Congress?

I am happy that Anna is playing a more active political role. But is his entire political strategy only about corruption? Does nothing else matters in politics at all? Even if that is the case, how is he willing to oppose even “clean” Congress candidates simply because they belong to the Congress? A corollary to this is that he would be willing to support a BJP candidate even if he/she is corrupt? What about a BJP candidate who is virulently communal? Guess Anna will support him/her. What about a candidate accused of murder or other heinous crimes, but against whom corruption charges haven’t been framed? Guess Anna will support him/her also. What about those who we know are corrupt but against whom no charges have been framed yet? Guess Anna will go with the public mood – in the belief that the people know it all. What about Goa where the PAC report appears to be casting aspersions against Digambar Kamat’s government. But Digambar Kamat was also the Mining Minister in the BJP government a few years back. And the PAC report (based on the CAG report) covers the BJP period also. So will Anna ignore the performance of Digambar Kamat in the BJP regime and oppose him for his performance in the Congress regime?

If Anna wants to enter politics, he should enter it as a political party. Let him set up a party whose core philosophy is to fight corruption. The problem is that when you set up a political party, you need to take a stand on several other issues as well. Maybe Anna doesn’t want to do that. Because the more you take a particular stand on these issues, the more you alienate some or the other section of the society. In the end, all political parties alienate large sections of the public – which is why most candidates don’t get more than 50% of the votes in any election…..maybe Anna doesn’t want to risk all that.

The real truth is that Anna’s opposition to the Congress by name seems to reflect a larger political orientation that he has. For every 100 words he speaks against the Congress, he speaks less than one against the BJP. Instead of playing surrogate politics, it would be good if he entered politics directly and made his stand on multiple issues clear…..

A salute to the founders of Mirchi - the original Mirchiites!

Date October 4^th, 2011

It’s a very proud day for all of us (who are either currently working or have worked earlier) in Mirchi today! On this day, ten years back, brand Mirchi was born with the first transmission taking place at Indore on 4^th October, 2001. The first song played was Ma Tujhe Salaam by AR Rehman. It was a moment that has been permanently etched in my mind as also the minds of the many founding members of Mirchi. Founders, who either continue to work in Mirchi till this day or are part of a larger entertainment industry outside!

Today, we celebrate the success of this founding team that strived hard to launch the first Mirchi station ten years back, on this date, at Indore. The original team comprised the first Station Head of Mirchi, Alok Purohit – who provided exemplary leadership to a nascent radio business. Then there was Viplove Gupte, the first programming head of Mirchi who made sure the brand became so powerful in Indore that a visitor arriving at Indore airport merely had to say “Take me to the Mirchi studios” and he would be taken there! And then there was Preeti Phalke – the first copywriter of Mirchi who scripted so much of the popularity that Mirchi has enjoyed since its launch. The first set of jocks – super stars as all jocks in Mirchi are – including Polly (Mantra), Paragi, Priyanka, Sameer, Kunal (Shardul), Shweta, Sudipta, Abhijeet – were the ones who got the city hooked to this forgotten but sexy medium called radio and the brand called Mirchi. How can one forget the first promo producers – Rakshit Kapoor and Ravi Harry (Rob) who made the sound of the station truly world class? No station can run on pure listener response – at the end of the day, we need to monetize the listenership. The first sales head of Mirchi – Vandana Jain – and her wonderful team comprising Nitin Patodi, Nitul Sharma, Lokesh Kataria and Apoorva Sharma gave Mirchi the very first gush of revenues. We started small – with a cheque of only Rs 14,625 dated 29^th September, 2001 – 5 days before the launch of the station! That cheque is still framed and mounted on the walls of Mirchi Indore!

This launch team at Indore was helped in no small measure by the many experts (!) from Delhi, Bombay, Kolkata…..everywhere! How can one forget Sunil Sahjwani and Tapas Sen who designed the structure and contours of every single program? They chose the show names, designed the content, chose the music, trained the jocks, took the first listener calls, ran the first contests on air…..and in short gave flesh and blood to the product. In the first few days, every single RJ link was analyzed and discussed; every single song debated; every single guest interview recorded, edited and re-edited; every single client ad made in our own edit studios; every single sales deal celebrated with samosas and the yummy Indori chaats; in short, every single second of the day was a celebration! There were Gaurav Sharma and Sameep Nanda; Ajay Munjal and Aditya Summanwar, Rahat and Jeeturaaj, Rakesh and Pragya, Erica and AR Singh…..how many of us sweated it out then so that no one else in Mirchi ever had to sweat it out again!

And what a launch in was! There was Akshay Khanna who came down from Bombay for the first launch. He may not have realized this but he set up a trend followed in every subsequent station launch – Sonali Bendre in Ahmedabad (Dec 2001), Aishwarya Rai in Mumbai (April 2002), Amisha Patel in Pune (May 2002), Kareena Kapoor in Delhi (April 2003), Bipasha Basu in Kolkata (May 2003) and Jyotika in Chennai (May 2003). These were the first seven stations where the Mirchi flag was unfurled in the first flush of roll-outs. By the end of this round, Mirchi had the biggest number of stations; it was the only one to be present in all four metros; and it had the strongest presence in developed West India. When the second phase of reforms happened in Jan 2006, and when Mirchi acquired 25 more stations, the Mirchi republic – some call in Mirchistan – was complete. John Abraham, Tabu, Manoj Bajpai…..all of them have blessed Mirchi and have been blessed in turn by Mirchi. Right from its start, brand Mirchi was destined to be a big brand…..make that a huge brand!

From the first cheque of Rs 14,625, Mirchi ended revenues last year (year ending March 2011) at Rs 280 crores. Cumulatively, in the last ten years, we have generated more than Rs 1500 crores in revenues! From losses in the first five years, we have turned the corner and reported an EBITDA profit of Rs 91 crores last year. The market capitalization of the company has risen to more than Rs 1200 crores today. From zero listenership before the launch, today the brand is heard by more than 41 million people (source: IRS). In the major metros of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bangalore, where the listenership is measured by RAM, Mirchi is heard by nearly 20 million people every single week. Mirchi’s listenership today is comparable to the readership of the biggest newspaper in the country. And in most major markets, Mirchi’s listenership is more than the readership of the leading newspaper. In fact, in most major markets, Mirchi’s listenership is more than the viewership of some of the biggest TV channels also!

But the Mirchi story is so much about the people that have made the brand what it is today. Today, there are nearly 775 team members who work in Mirchi and add value to the brand every single day. It’s their dedication and commitment to the brand and the listeners that keeps driving Mirchi forward. In the last ten years, hundreds others have graced the offices of Mirchi – each one of them adding their own special bit to the sheen of the brand. Each one of them making Mirchi a distinct and distinguished brand. One that was destined to become powerful – a brand that would make its listeners powerful too!

Over the years, Mirchi has been awarded many many times. But some of the awards are more special than others. For eg., in 2008, IMRB and Pitch magazine rated Mirchi to be the number 1 media brand in India – ahead of even its legendary parent The Times of India and the number one TV brand, Star TV. More recently, for the last two years in a row, FICCI has rated Mirchi as the most successful radio business in the country. There have been numerous RAPA awards, numerous IRF (India Radio Forum) awards and numerous Ad Club awards which the superbly creative programming team of Mirchi has won for its work. One award that is very special to me is the Reader’s Digest instituted Pegasus award for our work in the CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) area – a silver in the first year of the launch of our program. One other very special award is the one given to Mirchi at the New York Festivals – our Delhi jocks Anant and Saurabh were proud recipients of this award.

Mirchi has always been a pioneer. Right at the beginning – we started the Mirchi Kaan Awards in an attempt to spur creativity in radio advertising amongst agencies and clients. Today, after completing 8 fruitful years, the Mirchi Kaan Awards is one of the ad industry’s most coveted awards – one in which almost all ad agencies participate – one in which the biggest National Creative Directors are the jury members. For years now, the Mirchi Kaan Awards have encouraged and rewarded the best in radio advertising – even sending two young creative geniuses from the Agency of the Year to the Cannes Ad Festival in France. Mirchi has also been responsible for starting off what is today a standard business model in most radio companies – the Activations business (popularly called MA or Mirchi Activations). In addition, Mirchi pioneered the per-second billing concept where clients can buy spots of any length – not necessarily in units of 10 seconds. This aside, Mirchi has been associated with some of the most outstanding Direct Mailing activities – I still remember the mailer which showed Mirchi’s listenership being more than Star TV’s viewership in Mumbai – we sent a big TV carton to agencies but with a small sized TV set inside – driving home the message that suddenly TV had become so small! Mirchi’s merchandize has become the industry’s standards now – the Mirchi diaries are a story in creativity by themselves; the Mirchi umbrellas that one sees everywhere including in movies are visible in every city….Mirchi’s marketing has been world class – with its TV commercials creating a “sunshine” brand imagery for it. Today, Mirchi = Radio and Radio = Mirchi. Today, research shows that It’s Hot, or Idhu Semma Hot Machi (Tamil), or Sakkath Hot Magaa (Kannada) or Idhi Chala Hot Guru (Telugu) or Sangathi hot aane (Malayalam)…..or now the latest Ee garam ba (Bhojpuri) have become part of the youth lingo!

Today, brand Mirchi is available on the digital platform in addition to FM. Mirchi Mobile is unsurprisingly the leader in the space – available on all major telcos. Today, we have a special Bhojpuri feed available on the mobile platform. Very soon hopefully, the brand will be available online in various avatars. Very soon hopefully, the brand will extend internationally!

And then the Mirchi Music Awards (MMA). Our tribute to the absolutely fantastic music fraternity – our true friends – in the country. For us, the MMA is an emotional event. Every year, we stop in our tracks…..so that we can appreciate and applaud the contributions of the talented industry during the year. The jury of the MMA reads like the who’s who of the entire music and film fraternity. The MMA is now 3 years old but for us its as big and precious as the Filmfare Awards!

But in the end analysis, it always about the people. This is where Mirchi has always stood out. When hundreds of aspirants for the Bombay RJ role had to be turned down in 2001, we threw a special party for them at J49, Juhu! When a Mirchi team member quit and joined a new company, we sent him or her a bouquet on the first day of the new job! When any station head stopped team members from using Facebook or Twitter in office, we stopped the station head rather than stopping the team members! And as we complete ten years today, we celebrated the Mirchi Reunion at Indore last night by inviting all the founders of Mirchi…..from all over the country. What a fun, sentimental, nostalgic and passionate gathering of founders it was! At the end of the day, Mirchi is nothing but its people. Those who work outside Mirchi today are its permanent brand ambassadors. Those who work in the company today are making sure the brand remains perched at the top!

This first decade of Mirchi is a tribute to the founders of Mirchi. The original Mirchiites. Those who gathered at Indore last night for the bash of the decade. Those who work all over the entertainment industry, but consider Mirchi to be their father and mother. The very blood that flows through our veins. It’s a tribute to those who continue to make the brand sizzle every single day even today. To those who have taken it upon themselves to keep Mirchi the strongest media brand in the country. This is the time to salute all those who make Mirchi, Mirchi! The proud Mirchiites!

Common sense finally prevails in the Congress….

At last, the Law Minster Salman Khursheed dropped his party’s coyness with regard to the decision to give 2G spectrum free. He finally accepted that this was a cabinet decision. So far, the entire party had been distancing itself from the decision and blaming Raja for it. Even when the 2G Finance Ministry note rocked the nation last week, the Congress didn’t know how to respond. Its focus was to protect Chidambaram against opposition attacks that he had irresponsibly agreed with Raja in giving spectrum free. No one had the guts to take joint responsibility for the decision…..

That had prompted me to write my piece titled “Of course Chidambaram is guilty. But of what????” on the 22^nd of September, the thrust of which was that Chidambaram was guilty of having sided with the cabinet decision to give spectrum free even though he had himself favored auctions. I had pointed out that such a serious decision could not have been taken by a single minister (Raja) alone; While the NDA cabinet had authorized the Finance Minister and the Communications & IT Minister to take a call on “an appropriate mechanism for the allocation of spectrum and price fixation”, that decision was taken by the entire cabinet in the UPA government. The entire cabinet had found FCFS to be the appropriate mechanism for allocation of spectrum. The entire cabinet had agreed that free spectrum was the appropriate way to price it. Obviously, there were ministers like Chidambaram who disagreed with this decision. But’s what so remarkable about that? In every cabinet meeting, there would be dissenting voices and there should be. Eventualy, a final call is taken which everyone sticks to. It’s the same in this case – which Salman Khursheed has now accepted – that Chidambaram favored auctions, but the cabinet overruled him. Finally, the Congress is willing to accept this.

Our society and media’s ability to understand dissent is also very limited. A view of Chidambaram’s that was different from the final call taken is considered to be a proof of the dissensions within the cabinet. If all ministers had to agree by consensus on every proposal, then what’s the point in having a cabinet meeting at all? In fact, what’s the point in having any meeting at all? But the maturity required to understand what difference of opinion means is sadly missing in all three – our people, our opposition and our media. As a result, every dissenting voice is considered evidence of a discord in the ruling party. This is unfortunate.

Take the entire fiasco about who appointed Kalmadi as the IOA chief. While there were accusations being made that the PM himself had chosen him, the Congress’s interest was only in protecting the PM. Apparently, the PM had no role to play in Kalmadi’s appointment. Frankly, this is a crappy position – how could the PM of a country not be involved in the decision to finalize the organizing body? After all, its not every year that India organizes world-scale sporting events? But if the Congress’s stand was indefensible, so was the stand of our opposition and the media. They were more interested in pointing out that Sunil Dutt – the first Sports Minister in UPA-1 – was not in favor of letting Kalmadi handle the CWG. The fact that Sunil Dutt had disagreed was seized upon by the opposition and media to show that by overruling him, the PM had shown a certain connivance in the scam that followed. The fact is that Kalmadi was the best man to organize the CWG games at that time. The man had been a sports administrator for decades. He had organized several large scale events. He had the support of all political parties including the party that has bayed for his blood ever since the crisis broke – the BJP. He was an MP and a senior Congress leader – so he had the ability to call the shots within the government when required. He had the requisite professional skills and experience to call for international help when required. There was nothing wrong in Kalmadi’s candidature. Had it been the BJP government then, it also would have chosen Kalmadi. The PM should have accepted as much – that yes he chose Kalmadi and overruled Sunil Dutt – but how was he to be blamed for what Kalmadi did later? Kalmadi didn’t show his true colors until much later…..

In fact, we are demonstrating that as a nation, we have very little appetite for failures. If a decision goes right, we celebrate and hugely reward the person who took the decision. But god forbid – if any decision goes wrong – the person who took the call is dumped with the burden of defending it. In our country, the first inference drawn is that the person must be corrupt and his faulty decision had to be because he made money. There is no place in India for genuine mistakes. Maybe our politicians are thought of as being extremely capable and intelligent – they always know what is right or wrong and they never make mistakes – they only fail because they are corrupt. Just wait and see what happens with Dhoni. Till very recently, he was celebrated as the best captain India had had (at least after Ganguly). Everything he touched turned to gold. Now that there is a challenge that the team is facing, he will be shredded to pieces – unless he can recover quickly. Someone will blame him for agreeing to too many games being played – as if that decision was his to make. Some will say that he should have dropped Bhajji long back – as if he knew it then. Some will even say that he is responsible for player injuries – as if the other players are babies and don’t know how to handle themselves. But such is our country. Failures are unacceptable. A leader has to always be perfect. Maybe, we’ve learnt this from our religious scriptures – the gods were always perfect!

Coming back to the 2G matter, the government should be proud of the decision it took to give spectrum free even in 2008. It’s the cheap spectrum which has brought about the telecom revolution. Even in January 2008, the number of mobile phones in the country was just 250-275 million. The teledensity was under 25%. Today, that number has crossed 750-800 million and teledensity has crossed 65%. The poorest people wait the longest to join the revolution – in this case also, they joined in only when telecom rates fell to half paise per minute…..when Rs 10 was all that was required to have a mobile phone. Every single corporate in India knows this truth about it. That’s why Coke tried the Rs 5 bottle so many years back. That’s why we have invented the shampoo and toothpaste-in-a-sachet concept. That is why our cabs and buses are not airconditioned. That’s why our newspaper and TV outlets cannot charge more for subscription than they do. India is a price sensitive country and any decision that helped keep pricing low was a decision that helped spread the revolution. The government had the TRAI’s backing in 2008 against auctions. The government had the blessings of the two telecom policies of 1994 and 1999 as well as the five year plans to support its emphasis on teledensity rather than revenues. And yet, the government had developed cold feet.

The real problem caused by Raja was that he gave spectrum to upstarts who have been unable to grow their networks. As a result, precious spectrum is lying unutilized with these new players, while the older players have no spectrum left for growth. A lot of spectrum has been wasted this way. Giving new licenses to new players, especially when there were so many players already, was bad policy – but giving spectrum free was good policy. Today, in hindsight, we know that our markets simply cannot support 10-12 telcos. This kind of hypercompetition has led to suicidal price drops – good for the public of course – but devastating for the telcos. In reality, the new telcos never had any chance. They were bound to lose money. Both Unitech and DB – which are accused of making huge profits – will infact end up making huge losses (but people don’t understand this). They will waste precious spectrum, thus hurting the country’s cause. And then of course, the very large charge of Raja playing favorites. That’s why he should be nailed. For playing favorites – not for giving spectrum free. Not for even proposing (as the Minister of Communications and IT) that spectrum be given free. Nail him….but for the right reasons.

The real truth is that the one thing that stinks worse than the rampant corruption in our country is the rampant politics. Irresponsible, self-serving, all-encompassing politics. Politics sans truth; politics sans logic. Politics that is unforgiving. Politics not to ensure the ruling party stays on course, but to pull it down before its turn ends. Politics of opportunism. It is this stench that is unbearable……

Rs 32 a day too low a definition of poverty?

A lot of hulla balloo has been raised over the Planning Commission’s affidavit that states that only those who earn less than Rs 32 per day are considered poor in India. This number is for the urban areas; the same for the rural areas being Rs 26. The subject has become a political matter since the BJP likes to take digs at the Congress saying it wants not poverty, but the aam aadmi removed. Equally, the definition has rankled civil society activists like Aruna Roy and others. Even Rahul Gandhi has asked the Planning Commission for a re-think. What’s the real truth about this matter?

The first thing to note is that poverty is a relative concept. No matter how developed a country is, there are always going to be poor people. In fact, poverty is defined in terms that are relative to the “average income” of the country or the “median income” of the country or some such measure. By this definition, poverty in the US is set at $22,350 per year for a family of four. This comes to some $15 per head per day. At this level, there are around 20% Americans who are poor. Now many of us may find American poverty a bit of a stretch given that America is one of the richest countries in the world. But look at which sections of that country are poor. Poverty amongst blacks is about 25% of their population and we know this is true. A visit to any black neighborhood in the US is a telling story of poverty in that community. Crime follows poverty and a lot of US crime emanates from the black community. Likewise, poverty is similarly high at some 22-25% or so in the Hispanic community. In contrast, poverty amongst the Whites is just 8-9% and amongst Asian Americans around 9-10%.

In the UK, poverty is set at the level of 60% of the median income level of the country. Median income is the income at which exactly half the number of people earn more and the other half less. 60% of median income pulls the definition of poverty significantly below the mid-point. By this definition, the cut-off point for defining poverty in the UK is £ 9.5 per person per day. Using this definition of poverty, the poverty in the UK is 21.8% of its population. Using a similar definition for other European countries, the poverty level is the lowest in Sweden at 12.3% and it rises to 13.1% in Germany and 14.1% in France. These are all rich, developed countries; so clearly, poverty is a relative concept.

An international benchmark for calibrating poverty has been set by the World Bank - $1.25 per person per day measured in PPP terms. PPP stands for Purchasing Power Parity – in other words, all financial numbers are adjusted for pricing differences between two countries. Using PPP, the dollars are converted to local currency not using the official currency exchange rate but by using the PPP rates. The exchange rate between the $ and the Rupee is some Rs 48 but in PPP terms, it is about 2.6 times lesser – or Rs 18.5 or so. By this token, $1.5 converts to Rs 23…..a number much lower than the one that the Planning Commission (PC) has used for defining poverty. Look at it differently. Rs 32 converts to $1.7 using PPP rates. Besides, the basket of good being what it is for the poor – and the subsidies that the government provides to them – the PPP factor for the poor is much more than 2.6. If it is taken at 4, then the definition of poverty adopted by the PC comes to $2.7 per day per person. Now that’s not so bad at all….Clearly then, there doesn’t appear to be any hanky panky.

Let’s look at the PC definition of poverty more closely. Rs 32 per person per day for urban areas looks really low. However, let’s look at the number more realistically for a family on a monthly basis. If the poor family has 5 members (average size in urban areas may be 5 or more), then that translates to about Rs 4,800 per month. Now while this is by no means a huge sum of money, it is surely at least a reasonable figure to define a poor family. Let’s not forget that much of the spends that a poor family incurs in India are on items that are significantly subsidized by the government. Whether it’s the LPG or kerosene for cooking; the school for the children; the food grains from the PDS system; the health facilities; all are hugely subsidized. Rice is sold at some Rs 11 per kg, wheat at some Rs 8.5 per kg, Palmolein oil at Rs 26 a litre and daal at some Rs 26 a kg. Kerosene is sold at some Rs 9.5 per litre. School education is totally free as is medical treatment at a government health center. The quality of these goods and services may be suspect, and it is the poor quality that makes these poor people lead such a dreadful life…..

Look at the same monthly income figure for the rural poor. The cut-off for calling someone poor is Rs 26 per family member per month. Assuming the rural family size is a little bigger than the urban poor’s (say 5.5 members), the monthly income works out to Rs 4,300 per month. By no yardstick is this a low income for a poor family. In fact, this is a princely sum of money in the rural areas, where the cost of housing is next to nil (compared to the urban folks for whom this is a big cost item). Since most of the poor in the country come from the rural areas, the definition doesn’t appear to be unfair.

If we look at the PC’s number on an annualized basis, we get some more information about whether the Planning Commission is obfuscating the issue for political reasons or not. Taking the average spend levels at Rs 4600 per month (for rural and urban poor together), this translates to Rs 55,200 per annum. Firstly, this doesn’t look like such a bad number at all. Besides, this is the near the same number as the Per Capita Income of India (around Rs 55,000 per annum). If the definition of poor has been set at the per capita income level of the country, it’s a fairly liberal cut-off for poverty. If the poverty definition had been set much lower, one may have complained that the poverty definition was being set artificially low. Again, the intention of the PC doesn’t appear to be to fudge numbers.

Most Americans or Europeans balk at the low numbers that we use in India to define poverty. At Rs 55,200 per annum, this translates to $1200 per annum (regular exchange rate). Now that’s really pathetic, isn’t it? All of us are shocked….Less than $1 a day? But again, what people forget is that $1 in India buys you a lot more than it does in the US. In the US, $1 may buy you one measly can of Diet Coke; in India, it can buy you two square meals. Most lay people don’t immediately relate to the differences in prices between two countries and wrongly use the exchange rates for conversion purposes….

So what are we saying here? That India is not poor? No, not at all. We are extremely poor as a people; even though we are getting richer as a country. The real problem in India is the distribution of wealth. We all like to blame the government for its policies for increasing the income disparities in the country. This is true, since capitalism does lead to more income disparity. Since India now very largely follows the capitalistic model for the economy, the income disparity is bound to increase. Even though criticism of the government is valid, there is enough criticism that we the middle class needs to take as well. In our own personal lives, how often do we show willingness to share our wealth? The gains of economic prosperity of the last 20 years have accrued mostly to us urban middle class folks. Yet, when it comes to raising our domestic help’s salary, or paying higher monthly society bills so that society employees could be paid higher, we become petty and stingy. We demand that salaries of domestic help be determined by “market forces” – which given the huge migration to the cities in the past have helped push the salaries down. Now when NREGA and economic growth in states like Bihar and UP is leading to less migration and domestic help and salaries are rising, we complain that everything is becoming costlier. This hypocricy of us middle class folks is as much to blame for the income disparity as the model of economic growth followed by the country.

One last point. What is the purpose for defining poverty at all? Since poverty is a relative concept, the line dividing the poor from the “not-poor” can be set anywhere. Suppose we set it much higher. Then we will have a much higher % of people defined as poor. So what do we do with this number? Mope and cry? Change the government? Make it into another political issue and use it to attack or defend one political party v/s another? In my view, the poverty line should keep rising in line with inflation on a yearly basis, so that we know how we are faring on a year on year basis. If by this definition, poverty is declining, then that means we are making progress. Even after we make progress, it may not mean that we have become better off. At some time, we will need to recalibrate the definition of poverty and raise the level to a higher one. When we do that, the % of poverty may rise again…..but it will be based on a higher definition of poverty. This is an ongoing process. It never stops. That’s why even the US and European countries still have poverty.

The real truth is that there is nothing wrong in the PC’s definition of the poverty line. Most people who express shock at this seemingly low number have failed to understand what the number actually means. While it is a low number, we must remember that there are many subsidies that make that number more respectable. In the end analysis, we are a poor country but the number of poor is decreasing. And if we continue on the fast economic growth that we have seen in the last decade or so, we will be able to eliminate the worst forms of poverty in the next 10 years or so. That’s the only thing we must focus on…..not arguing whether Rs 32 is right or wrong.