Forbes India 29 November 2013 (e-magazine full)

forbes india Volume 5 issue 25 n o v ember 29, 2013 T H E RISE OF MI C ROMA X RNI Reg. No. MAHENG/2009/28102

www.forbesindia.com

micromax

grows up

THE TRANSFORMATION OF NAVEEN JINDAL/Pg.56

Price Rs. 110. November 29, 2013

Once a scrappy

challenger,

the company

Rahul Sharma

co-founded is

now aiming to

dislodge Samsung

as India’s top

smartphone

maker

most

powerful

People

world’s

the

Pg.72

Business.

Minus the paperwork.

You live on the go, travelling light.

You want things now,

not when the courier gets there.

You’re connected, 24/7,

and you want your reading at your fingertips.

I ND IA

Tablet Edition

Welcome to the

In Association With

The Market

for Good Enough

The purpose of business is to create a customer

and keep him, said Peter Drucker. In India,

finding customers has been less of a problem than

keeping them. One reason is the sheer size of

the total market and its varied demographics, which makes

it easier for eagle-eyed entrepreneurs to spot untenanted

niches or even a motherlode of mass unmet demand.

From Karsanbhai Patel’s Nirma to Asian Paints’ mini-cans of

paint for rural India to the Re 1 Velvette shampoo sachet, Indian

entrepreneurs have found mass markets that were eminently

addressable with a little bit of price cunning and distributive

chutzpah. These and many other success stories were not the result

of great product or technological innovation, but an acute insight

into what loads of customers wanted: A good enough product at a

great or accessible price. The operative phrase is “good enough”.

This, in short, may be the story so far of Micromax, which

has emerged from nowhere to become No. 2 in the Indian

smartphones market. Its competitors dispute this, but their silence

on Micromax also suggests that they have begun taking this

upstart seriously. Seriously enough to not dignify it as an equal.

This is not to suggest Micromax is the cat’s whiskers in

smartphones. It is one thing to pump up volumes based on smart

pricing, and cheaper and commoditised components, quite another

to become a real contender for the top slot based on service

quality and innovative technology. It is easy to find a customer,

but tougher to keep her if you are not improving your game all the

time. The customer is not a fixed target, but a moving one with

constantly evolving tastes and rising sophistication. This is the

chasm between early success and long-term reality that Micromax

has to bridge. Read Rohin Dharmakumar’s fascinating story on

Micromax to find out how it is coping with this challenge.

Facing a different kind of perceptional challenge is politician￾businessman Naveen Jindal. An ambitious Congressman, Jindal’s

JSPL is embroiled in controversy and scandal, especially in the

wake of the Comptroller and Auditor General’s scathing report

on coal block allocations, of which Jindal was a major beneficiary.

But Jindal is a fighter, and he believes that this too shall pass. He

is sure he will play a bigger role in politics, even while running

a big business. In a nation where the nexus between politics

and business is only now beginning to be exposed, Jindal faces

twice the risk, as he is both businessman and politician. Prince

Mathews Thomas takes a close look at how Jindal is going

to let his two passions coexist without conflict. Read on.

The customer is

not a fixed target,

but a moving one

with constantly

evolving tastes

Best,

R Jagannathan

Editor-in-Chief, Forbes India

[email protected]

@TheJaggi

Letter from the Editor-in-Chief

november 29, 2013 | forbes india | 5

Contents Volume 5 | Issue 25 | November 29, 2013

From left: Amit Verma; Michael Prince for Forbes

6 | forbes india | november 29, 2013

Upfront

Column

18 Story Power: The Hero’s Journey

Business should adapt the eternally

appealing plotline to tell stories

Features

Cover Story

26 Pretender No More

Micromax succeeded by addressing

gaps in the market. What lies next

26

What lies beyond: Michael Bloomberg

62

72 The List

The 72 most powerful people

on the planet

80 A Tale of Two Countries

How India’s and China’s richest

stack up against each other

Enterprise

20 Zero Pesticide? You Must

Be Kidding!

FirstAgro, near Bangalore, promises

produce without pesticides

36 The Shetty School of Thought

Mahesh Tutorials standardised

teaching methods, and is now

looking to expand digitally

Corporate Account

50 What’s Cooking in the Prestige

Kitchen? Ideas

TTK Group fought competition

with innovation and customer

relationships

The smart phone

maker: Rahul Sharma

for the homegrown handset￾maker?

World’s Most Powerful

People

62 Michael Bloomberg: The Exit

Interview

Will his power and influence grow

once his term as NYC mayor ends?

66 Mexican Revolutionary

President Peña Nieto is set to

overturn the country’s notoriously

closed policy on oil

84

90

56 Naveen and the New Normal

Before becoming a full-time

public servant, Jindal has to

fix his company

Cross Border

25 Insider Trading For Talent

LinkedIn uses its own database

to hire smart. Here are some tips

42 How General Motors Was

Really Saved

The plan to rescue GM was hatched

within it, not by the Obama

administration

Regulars

10 Letters

11 Check-in

We value your feedback.

Write to us at:

[email protected]

Letters may be edited for brevity.

Read us online at www.forbesindia.com

Cover Photograph by

Amit Verma

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Building steam: TT Jagannathan

Dual mode: Naveen Jindal

More than just designs: Joan Behnke

17 World Watch

94 Thoughts

Life

Recliner

84 The Billionaires’ Curator

Joan Behnke educates her super

wealthy clients, before redesigning

their homes

87 Marketing to Your Nose

Scents and fragrances are being

used to build brand experiences

Appraisal

89 Phone: The LG G2 is Impressive

LG gets the premium feel right, and

takes on competitors spec for spec

Nuggets

90 Home Décor

A golden tea cabinet, a centre table

and a made-to-measure refrigerator

50

56

Cheat Sheet

92 Alternative Currencies

The ones that preceded the Bitcoin

93 Tip-Off & F-Index

Jagannathan: Mallikarjun Katakol for Forbes India; Jindal: Dileep Prakash for Forbes India; Behnke: Ethan Pines for Forbes

November 29, 2013 | forbes india | 7

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The Gamification

of Education

The very concept of schooling

is like playing a game.

Here’s how we learn from

the games we play

Is It Diwali Time For

India’s Beleaguered

Telcos?

A merged entity could now

be permitted to hold up to 50

percent share of subscribers

in any telecom circle. That’s

far higher than what national

competition authorities

normally allow in any market

How Many Poultry

Farmers Do 1.2 Bln

People Need? — Part I

Urbanisation and

industrialisation continue

to reshape the world’s

economic order, creating a

global consuming class

The Economist: Thriving in

the Age of Digital Media

With the advent of digital media,

traditional print media publishers

have struggled to survive. The

Economist, however, has bucked this

trend and evolved to thrive on both

print and digital media platforms. In

this interview with Andrew Rashbass,

former CEO of The Economist, we

learn how the publication has come

out stronger despite the disruption

in print media

Innovation Requires More Than

Systems and Tools

Broad-based engagement in innovation has to

be carefully nurtured and actively monitored

Status: When And Why It Matters

Status plays a key role in everything from the

things we buy to the partnerships we make.

Professor Daniel Malter of Harvard Business

School explores when status matters most

Tune in to youtube.com/forbesindia

to watch the full video of Forbes India

Leadership Awards 2013.

Mohandas Pai vs

Harsh Mariwala

on where to invest

Debate

MICROMAX

GROWS UP

The 100

richest

indians

By Rohin

Dharmakumar By Prince

Mathews Thomas

A Call to Action on Water!

The recent flooding of Bangalore lakes is due to the lack of

understanding and abuse of the water cycle

Bellandur Lake

Click Here Click Here

April 22, 2012 | forbes india 9

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november 29, 2013 | forbes india | 9