NSWORLD

Brand and Branding has got into our nerves. In today’s world of hectic and cut throat competition, you can`t live without Brand and Branding.

There is a Brand for everything we wear from socks to Hair gel, we use. Sometimes the environment we live and the peer pressure forces us to go for everything branded. What is the one particular aspect that forces us to go for a particular brand? Quality, Reliability, or any other thing more than that?

If we analyse the whole phenomenon of `Brand`, key aspect we can observe is that, everything is played around a small thing called ` Human Ego`. `I want to be different`, `I want to be recognised, appreciated`are the simple and most common `Human Egos`, which Brand Builders exploit.

Another simple question is, When a particular product/service can be called as a superior Brand?  Answer is, when a product/service is superior in quality, reliable, costly and not easily reachable to each and every person desirous of having it. Then only it can satisfy the `ego` of select privileged people , who flaunt it before `have nots`. And this is also the simple `funda` of building a Brand.

Another hard reality of life is also that, we need to create a brand for ourselves so that our objective/goal in life is achieved. How do we do it? Just follow the strategy adopted for product/service brand building? i.e. `cashing on ego`? or it should be a different one?

Definitely we should not follow the strategy of `cash on ego` when we are in the process of building brand for ourselves. Instead it should be based on the broad principles such as strength, courage, self-reliance, simplicity, harmony and our aim should be to create such a brand for ourselves which is perfectly in sync with our noble Upanishadic concept of `Vasudaiva Kutumbakam`.(The whole world is mine and everybody living here belong to one big family) Then only it can be a successful brand such as ,Vivekananda, Ramakrishna paramahansa, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, to mention a few.

  It was 12.05 in the dusty afternoon of a hot summer. The Compartment of ,12.00 noon, Mysore-Bangalore Express, in which i was seated, was sparcely populated and resembling a microwave oven. Though the scheduled departure was 12.00 noon, the Train somehow was reluctant to leave calm and serene station of Mysore.

At 12.10 it started slowly moving. Suddenly two girls ,seemingly, in their early 20s came running and entered the compartment and sat infront my seat with a sigh of relief. As soon as the Train started moving cool breeze started reducing the inside compartment temperature.

I was immersed in a well researched article on SEZs in Business World.Few minutes later when I moved my head out of magazine I found them conversing. Yes they were talking to each other! “Whats great deal in that?” you may ask.

Yes there is, they were communicating using `Sign` language. I was taken aback for moment.Then I could observe, both of them wearing small and sophisticated `Hearing aids`.

They went on talking, talking, using sign language. They were laughing, at times disagreeing with each others` point of view. I could sense their feelings but not their language. It seemed to me that they didn`t have any barriers of communication.They were so immersed in their conversation that they had conveniently forgotten the presence of a stranger sitting just infront.

Suddenly one of the beautiful girls took out a Stardust magazine from her bag and started showing a photograph of Shahruk Khan to her friend. Then they went on exchanging their thoughts on each and every article and photo in that magazine. They seemed enjoying each and every bit of information  in that magazine.

“What they would have felt, if they were able to hear the melodious songs and dialogues of the movies they liked?” suddenly this question flashed in my mind. But they seemed least bothered about that. Both of them had Mobile phones and messaging was their easiest mode of communication.They were exchanging their messages and showing each other those special and funny messages they received from their near and dear ones.

With everything at our disposal, still every day and night we think and worry about the things and facilities we don`t have and keep on postponing our happiness. Suddenly these two happy and fiercely independent beautiful girls looked like Swans floating over the calm waves of Ganga, least bothered of the things and facilities they don`t have in their life and making most out of the gifts bestowed upon them.

Back Home I still feel that , I was not able to strike a conversation with them, and in their world of Happiness and Joy and I was the one Handicaped Person!!

Aftermath of the Percy Mistry (former world bank economist) committee report, `Mumbai as an IFC `debate has started again. It was Finance minister P Chidambaram who first mooted this idea in his 2005 budget, but since then this idea has taken new dimensions and come a long way.

What is an IFC? `International Financial Centre` means , includes and provides a `one stop shop` for all the Financial Services needs of big corporates. When I say Financial Services for large corporates it includes , services ranging from Due delligence, Accounting, Legal, Private placements, Investment Banking,Leveraged Buy Out assistance,Fund rising, sorts of services required by corporates when they go for Mergers and Acquisitions overseas.

What is the Status Quo? Due to various regulatory bottlenecks such as ,No scope for full capital account convertibility, (100% Capital account convertibility allows any one to freely move from local currency to foreign currency and back) Absence of regulatory `go ahead` for forex futures market, Large stakes of government in big Financial corporations, and excess intervention of Central banks in Money and Forex markets, etc are few of the reasons that are discouraging Globally big Financial Service providers from opening their shops in India in general and Mumbai in specific and they prefer places like Singapore, London, Newyork.

What is the Loss? A booming Indian Economy is encouraging more and more number of domestic corporates to take the route of international mergers and acquisitions, this is creating more and more demand for `International Financial services` such as Fund rising in the form of debt or equity, private placements. And also services such as Legal , due delligence and accounting . In 2005 Indian companies paid a whopping $13 billion in the form of commissions to these financial intermediaries for their services and it went to intermediaries situated in Singapore, London and Newyork. Recently Tata steel completed its LBO (Leveraged Buy Out ) of Corus for $12.9 billion and imagine the service charge paid by the company for intermediaries.(just take 1.5%of the total value)Like this when our economy is growing at 9% what will be our demand for `International Financial Services` in the years to come and how much we end up paying?

What is the solution? If the regulatory environment is condusive many of the leading `International Financial Service` providers set up their shops in India itself and we can ensure that the amount spent by the corporates for these services remain in India and it inturn creates employment  , and has some trickle down effect also.